McGurk: Strategic corporate buyers do not acquire startups they have never met
Jamie McGurk · a16z Podcast | Dealing with Corporate Dealmakers -- When to Talk to Corp Dev · Jan 2, 2019 · at 21:31
Jamie McGurk, corporate development partner at Andreessen Horowitz, explains why startup founders should build relationships with corporate development teams early to generate strategic acquisition optionality.
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“Strategics don't buy companies they've never met. So, you know, it's all about creating options for the company. So whether that's staying independent, that's one option. But you also have to, you know, as John O'Farrell said, you know, you have to know where the exits are. So it's understanding what those options are, creating some of those options, getting on the radar and giving a larger op strategics, an opportunity to preemptively come in and with an acquisition offer, not to say that you have to take that, not to say that that's the route the only route that you're building towards, but it's creating an option for you.”
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