Convo w/a founder today about the terms of their recent exit...
"It was a cash, equity and royalty deal. 7 figures cash, close to a million in stock in their company (which is publicly traded), and 5% royalty for 5 years. Not bad for a side project grown over a couple years lol."

We want to create a new narrative, and have more founders focused on being able to tell this story. This founder didn't raise one dollar of VC, and didn't build the biggest business in the world. It was a focused, niche product for the education space. A couple years later...
They now have 7 figures in the bank, a meaningful amount of stock in a fast growing publicly traded company, whose valuation the acquisition of their company helps to grow, plus a royalties check that will hit their bank account monthly for the next 5 years...
It doesn't take raising 7 figures in venture capital, giving away majority ownership in your company, building a billion dollar business, or even building a $10MM business to create a life changing financial outcome for yourself and your family WHEN YOU OWN IT...
We want more founders to stop blindly accepting the narratives everyone in Silicon Valley operates inside of, and simply run the numbers on what size business they actually need to build, and what kinds of margins and revenues it actually needs to generate, for them yo live...
The life of their dreams. Mostly, they'll find that with a solid product with a smart business model and strong margins, at the BASELINE, just building a $2M or $3M business more than gives them everything they need financially for the lifestyle they want, and a strong...
Financial base to grow from, to pursue even bigger ideas. We need a new narrative, and it comes by telling real stories about a focus on building a strong, revenue generating business, not a business built and designed to raise capital in perpetuity, as the goal. WE DECLINE...
Join 1000+ founders in Chicago in 2019, focusing on the fundamentals of connecting w/mentors and resources, and learning the specific strategies and tactics to start, grow and scale REVENUE GENERATING BUSINESSES, leveraging technology.
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Learn more 👉 https://t.co/pmF9sbUU5r
We should also mention that during the couple years they were building the business, it was throwing off SIGNIFICANT cash flow, not this whole "let's starve to death now and hope to ONE DAY make money" nonsense that Silicon Valley tells us is ok. Ridiculous. There IS another way.

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1/“What would need to be true for you to….X”

Why is this the most powerful question you can ask when attempting to reach an agreement with another human being or organization?

A thread, co-written by @deanmbrody:


2/ First, “X” could be lots of things. Examples: What would need to be true for you to

- “Feel it's in our best interest for me to be CMO"
- “Feel that we’re in a good place as a company”
- “Feel that we’re on the same page”
- “Feel that we both got what we wanted from this deal

3/ Normally, we aren’t that direct. Example from startup/VC land:

Founders leave VC meetings thinking that every VC will invest, but they rarely do.

Worse over, the founders don’t know what they need to do in order to be fundable.

4/ So why should you ask the magic Q?

To get clarity.

You want to know where you stand, and what it takes to get what you want in a way that also gets them what they want.

It also holds them (mentally) accountable once the thing they need becomes true.

5/ Staying in the context of soliciting investors, the question is “what would need to be true for you to want to invest (or partner with us on this journey, etc)?”

Multiple responses to this question are likely to deliver a positive result.