Not everyone reacts to things the same way, I guess.
Google has gone from “two guys in a garage” to “two guys hellbent on world domination.” Sort of like, well, MSFT, HP, and many others before it.
Apparently, in that quest for domination, comes the acquisition and integration of smaller companies. Google’s list of acquisitions has gone from tiny startups to major corporations, as manifested by this weekend’s $3.1B juggernaut buyout of Doubleclick, dMarc’s quasi $2B deal, and last year’s mammoth $1.6B deal to buy YouTube.
Of course, before these were smaller buys, and Dodgeball fit that category. It turns out now, that size does not matter. Much the same way that dMarc’s founders left after getting impatient of Google’s integration modus operandi after the $2B deal turned out to be much smaller, the Dodgeball founders announced that Google left as well. Naturally, everyone will have their opinion… all I can say is “get it out of your system, take a step back, and move on…”
Mojo Supreme is the first company I start, but it’s my third startup. My first experience started at the top of the dot com boom, and I left afterwards the bubble burst onto greener pastures. My second experience benefited from the bust, we rose off the radar and went on to take on and defeat much larger competitors ranging from Hearst, to Conde Nast, Dennis Publishing etc., ultimately though, even though we were able to continue as an independent entity, the founders/shareholders decided to cash out. It was their decision to make.
During the courting stage, I found myself in their boardroom, in SF. I sat there, as an “important VP” when the CEO of the buying firm looked into my eyes and said he had big plans for me in his company. “I was a big thinker, and I would now move to bigger deals.” Sounded great. Too bad it was a big fat lie. He wanted the asset, and like many dealmakers, he would say what he needed to say to get everyone to agree with him.
The ink wasn’t dry yet when he and my partners sold me out and pushed me out. Then, came the unspeakable.
The point is, at no time was I all that surprised, nor was I kidding myself. This is business, and it made more sense to the firm to have me be a footnote in the firm’s history than anything else. More importantly, it could also be argued that the buying company did not (or is not) put enough resources in the company. The flip side is that it’s making more than enough money with the asset as is, so why bother do more?
No one should kid themselves when it comes to M&A.
- In dMarc’s case, they had a successful stand-alone business capable of remaining independent, but they sold out and struck a bad deal structure. It sucks, sure, but I’m not sure operating in radio as a stand-alone business is all that more rewarding.
- In Dodgeball’s case, the suggestion has been made that it was a Web 2.0 feature that would have been hard to maintain independently. That’s probably true.
In both cases, the owners sold their company, they were hoping for the best, but in the end, it did not pan out.
Life’s too short to give a flying you-know-what, there are so many opportunities out there, pick up the pieces and good luck at your new venture, and enjoy life some more.
More importantly, at one point or another, as human beings, the Dodgeball, dMarc guys probably had a gut feeling about something going awry… did they listen? Probably not. That’s the key. Never do deals with bad people, no matter what, people have bad reputations for a reason.
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April 18th, 2007 at 5:54 pm
[…] Dodgeball Founder Departure - April, 2007 post […]