Extra Crunch Friday: Selling a startup can come with an emotional cost

Welcome to Extra Crunch Friday

The process of building a company that’s valuable enough to be acquired is full of emotional peaks and valleys.

It can be exhilarating to work closely with teammates at a breakneck pace on a personal project, but what’s it like to walk away after pouring your heart and soul into building something?

Ron Miller interviewed three founders about when they determined it was time to sell, how they felt once the acquisition wheels were in motion — and the unexpected emotional fallout that comes with letting go.

“It felt like not only had I lost my identity, but it also felt like I lost my friends because day in and day out, they were interacting in meetings or whatever and I was on the outside,” said Rami Essaid, founder of Distil Networks.

“So there was a good three to four months of grieving.”

Alex Wilhelm is on vacation, so The Exchange will resume on Monday, October 5. Have a great weekend and thank you for reading Extra Crunch!

Walter Thompson
Senior Editor, TechCrunch
@yourprotagonist

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As tech stocks dip, is insurtech startup Root targeting an IPO?

Root Insurance Co. has hired Goldman Sachs to lead an initial public offering that will value the startup at around $6 billion.

In light of Lemonade’s July debut and Hippo’s plans to go public in 2021, Alex Wilhelm studied Root’s valuation yesterday in an effort to clarify what’s driving growth in the sector.

Assuming Root can stick the landing, “such a debut would probably drive another round of megadeals into the remaining private, large neo-insurance players,” says Alex.

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Extra Crunch Live: Join Index Ventures VCs Nina Achadjian and Sarah Cannon Sept 29 at 2pm EDT/11am PDT on the future of startup investing

Sponsored by TechCrunch

Join a Q&A with two investors who are actively seeking new opportunities in AI/ML, SaaS and the future of work.

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Drive predictable B2B revenue growth with insights from big data and CDPs

Growth is wonderful, but for B2B marketers, predictable growth is so much better.

Using customer data platforms (CDPs), sellers can create a single source of clean data, but AI tools can pull out actionable information for segmentation, which is where the rubber meets the road.

To capitalize on data-based insights, B2B marketers have four essential models to choose from for predictable revenue growth:

• ICP insights/account fit
• Contact fit
• Contact engagement
• Identifying in-market accounts

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Scaling to $100 million ARR: 3 founders share their insights

In a TechCrunch Disrupt panel titled “Getting to $100 million ARR,” Alex Wilhelm talked to three founders about the path they took to building their companies, “all of which could go public in the next year or two.”

• Vineet Jain, CEO and co-founder, Egnyte
• Michal Tsur, president and co-founder, Kaltura
• Sid Sijbrandij, CEO, GitLab

Enterprise reporter Ron Miller worked with Alex to recap the discussion and extract their five favorite takeaways.

First and foremost: “everyone faces hard times, but you can work through them.”

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Fundraising lessons from David Rogier of MasterClass

MasterClass co-founder David Rogier took an unusual path to starting up: he raised seed funding before he launched.

“Your metrics out of the gate are never going to be great,” Rogier says. “You need enough funds to have the time to actually improve them.”

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Big tech has 2 elephants in the room: privacy and competition

Distribution platforms offered by Apple and Google are drawing attention from regulators concerned with privacy and competition, but it’s not a popular topic among tech entrepreneurs, says reporter Natasha Lomas.

“Given how much their profits rely on frictionless access to users of some of the gatekeepers in question,” their reluctance is understandable.

Tugging on threads from different discussions at TechCrunch Disrupt, Natasha includes perspectives from Dropbox founder and CEO Drew Houston, Democratic Rep. Zoe Lofgren, whose district includes much of Silicon Valley and other stakeholders.

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Despite a rough year for digital media, Blavity and The Shade Room are thriving

Many digital media companies are shedding staff, but two entities that focus on the Black perspective have seen growth in both reach and advertising revenue.

Media and advertising reporter Anthony Ha spoke with The Shade Room CEO Angelica Nwandu and Blavity CEO Morgan DeBaun at TechCrunch Disrupt to learn more about how they’ve adapted to the new media landscape.

“At least some media companies are going to make it through 2020 whole,” writes Alex Wilhelm.

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Dear Sophie: Possible to still get through I-751 & citizenship after divorce?

Dear Sophie:

I work at a tech company, married a U.S. citizen two years ago and got a two-year green card. The relationship went south and I needed to leave to protect my daughter and me. I want to get divorced, but can we keep our green cards?

Will we be able to apply for U.S. citizenship?

— Hopeful in Hayward

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3 founders discuss why they pursued alternative startup ownership structures

When it comes to creating a foundation for their startup, entrepreneurs tend to copy each other.

This isn’t to say they aren’t creative — people emulate behavior they perceive as successful, especially where money is involved.

Megan Rose Dickey spoke to three founders about alternative approaches to creating corporate structures that benefit employees, investors, and in some cases, end users.

• Hays Witt, CEO, Driver’s Seat
• Aniyia Williams, co-creator, Zebras Unite
• Seth Besmertnik, CEO, Conductor

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Coinbase UX teardown: 5 fails and how to fix them

In the newest user-experience teardown by reporter Steve O’Hear and UX consultant Peter Ramsey, the pair identify five ways digital currency exchange Coinbase can make life easier for its customers.

Anyone who’s ever helped devise an onboarding process will recognize the pain points they describe:

• The ‘Get Started’ trap
• Creating feedback architecture
• Familiarity often wins, especially for startups
• The inherent risk of using third-party data
• Never give unspecific values

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