Steve Papa, founder and former CEO of Endeca (acquired by Oracle in 2011), discusses early acquisition interest Endeca received from major technology incumbents.
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“There were two other moments we could have exited the business. One was around 2005 where Amazon was very attracted to what we were doing.”
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Opinion
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AssertionNot checkable as stated
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Insight
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Disclosure
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AssertionSupported
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Steve PapaApr 4, 2022▶ 34:29Steve Papa – Entrepreneur's Perspective on Venture, Venture is Eating the Investment World 13 (Capital Allocators, EP.244)
Insight
Papa: Early-stage venture will always be regional because trust requires prior relationships
“One of the reasons you're always going to have some regional nature in the earlier stages of these is if you're backing great people, it tends to be someone you already know. You're going to have more confidence. You're going to stretch more. You're going to s…”
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