They Got Acquired - The downside of big expectations

January 9, 2024
​Read on web​

We often celebrate persistence, but you know who I really admire?

The founders who know when it’s time to call it quits, even if they didn’t quite reach their goals.

We’ve covered a number of these stories. Founders who sold because they couldn’t raise more money or didn’t see a path to profitability, giving up a business they’d poured their sweat and heart into.

Today we have another example. The co-founders of Spoonshot, a food data platform, raised $1.8 million in VC funding, and provided a valuable service for food and beverage professionals.

But they couldn’t find a way to bring in the type of returns they needed to satisfy investors.

So they ended up selling the company to one of their partners. Here’s how it panned out:

​Why big expectations pushed this food intelligence platform toward a sale​

Transparency goes viral

We're all so starved for real stories and real numbers, that when someone shares them — and shares them authentically — it goes viral.

​Check out this video from Sharon Gillenwater, who sold BoardRoom Insiders, a data platform about executives, in 2022.

She sold for $25 million, after running the business for 14 years and raising $200,000 early on.

In the video, she shares exactly where that money went:

💰 She got $13 million, but she paid $3.8 million in taxes (about 30%), so she took home $9 million.

💰 $9.5 million went to investors

💰 $1 million to her M&A advisor

💰 $200,000 to lawyers

💰 $50,000 to her accountant

💰 $800,000 was distributed to 13 employees via phantom equity

Kudos to Sharon for putting herself out there so we can all learn from her experience.

See you next time,

Lexi Grant
Founder & CEO
​They Got Acquired​

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P.S. This was cool to see: Flippa just launched a newsletter category for seller​s.
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