Opinion certainty 3/5 debate potential 3/5

Founder secondary liquidity enables greater long-term risk-taking

Gabriel Weinberg · 20VC: How Founders Should Think Through Distribution and Customer Acquisition Today, The Challenges of the Digital Advertising Duopoly Currently & How To Structure Company Post Mortems Effectively with Gabriel Weinberg, Founder & CEO @ DuckDuckGo · Feb 14, 2020 · at 8:08

Gabriel Weinberg, founder and CEO of DuckDuckGo, responds to host Harry Stebbings about whether massive venture rounds and secondary liquidity sales by founders are justified.

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“From my perspective, I think it definitely makes sense because some of these founders, and, you know, myself included, have a lot of their net worth tied up into the company, and people are going after big visions, like, I'm already 12 years into DuckDuckCo, right, and we're just, it feels like we're getting started, and it makes sense from a diversification point of view to take some money off the table, and it's a good deal for the other side, because they can get in and see the rest of the growth, and so I think if you have that opportunity, I really personally think that, but maybe that is just me, again, coming from a more risk-averse Attitude. A more kind of financially prudent attitude, but I think if you come from that attitude and you do that, then it kind of opens up your ability to take more risks because you've kind of put aside everything that you wanted to put aside.”

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