The Ledger
Every statement that passed quotation and attribution checks. Mix any filter with any other: certainty 1/5, debate potential 5/5, or both at once.
why aren't all 9 resolved? a statement only gets an assessment when the public record can support or contradict it. opinions and what-ifs never can, and 0 checkable ones are still open, waiting for their date. predictions held up or didn't; assertions are supported or contradicted. on every card: ▮▮▮▮▮ certainty · ▮▮▮▮▮ debate potential. speakers are clickable
Loftus: Unsolicited inbound acquisition offers for startups are extremely rare
“And so I just think that it gives this view that's like, oh, just keep your head down, build a great product. And like someday an acquirer will come knocking at your door. And I think that's a really, really rare occurrence. I just don't think things happen th…”
Loftus: Startups should ignore Paul Graham and talk to corp dev early
“And so I would say first, I disagree with the premise that the title of the blog post gives, which is that you should never talk to corporate development. I think the second premise, which is you shouldn't do that because you should be focused on building your…”
Loftus: Startups must build relationships beyond the five big tech acquirers
“Complicates the landscape if you're a founder or a VC because you're not just relying on talking to five heads of corp dev at the five big tech companies to generate a lot of your M&A interest.”
Loftus: Tech M&A Valuations Cannot Rely on Standard Profit Models
“Pricing tech companies in particular is incredibly difficult, especially I've spent most of my career in consumer internet. You're buying a lot of companies where you're looking at talent and technology are the main drivers, and so you can't sort of build a mo…”
Loftus: Acquirers usually do not realize they are crushing startups during diligence
“Nine times out of 10, the acquirer doesn't know that they're sort of crushing you unless you raise your hand.”
Loftus: Informing employees of M&A talks causes startup work to stop
“If you tell them that you're in acquisition talks and that they're serious, Work will stop.”
Loftus: Active acquirers should review M&A outcomes two to four times yearly
“I think the important thing is to have a systematic check back, especially if you're doing a significant amount of M&A to say, you know, somewhere between two and four times a year, we're all sitting down and we're going over the metrics on outcome for each de…”
Loftus: Tech M&A is driven by founder emotion unlike corporate M&A
“The M&A process in big corporate America is not an emotional exercise. Any emotion is really sort of manufactured as part of negotiation. People storm out of conference rooms and things all the time, but it's not the deal. Whereas like that's, Fundamentally di…”
Loftus: The best VCs serve as steadying forces during M&A
“I think that the best VCs, especially in the M&A process, can act both as a balancing and a calming factor for founders. It's an incredibly difficult and challenging task for a founder to sell their company, whether it's big or small. There's just a lot going …”