Stay ConnectedStartup exits are the most sought after events in Silicon Valley, but very few people get to experience them. On the Startup Exits Podcast we chat with founders that started, ran and sold a tech company to learn about how it all went down.
This podcast is hosted by Andrew Vasylyk and produced by StartupSoft – visit www.startupsoft.com for more info and other great content.
Tim Gill founded Quark in 1981, which built the world's most popular enterprise publishing software and held 90% of the market share at its peak. After selling all his shares in Quark for $500 million in 2000, Tim became one of the wealthiest 400 people in America and the single largest individual donor to the LGBT rights movement in US history.
On this episode of the Startup Exits Podcast, we chat with Tim about:
• Early days of word processors.
• Cost of shipping updates in the 80s & 90s.
• Bringing in an external CEO.
• Founders leaving the company.
• How Tim negotiated to be bought out for $500 million.
• Startups in the 80s vs now.
• How to spend capital and control burn rate.
• Current state of home automation.
• Future of smart homes.
Tim now runs Josh.ai, a voice-controlled home automation startup. He’s also the founder of the Gill Foundation, a philanthropic organization supporting the LGBT community in the US.
Startup Exits is brought to you by StartupSoft. New episodes every month, subscribe for more.
Sean Byrnes is the founder and ex-CEO of Flurry – a mobile analytics company that lives inside apps on billions of devices and as a result has the best understanding of mobile consumer behaviour. Having held 90% of the market share, Flurry represented “mobile strategy in a box” for Yahoo during its acquisition in 2014.
On this episode of the Startup Exits Podcast, we chat with Sean about:
• Preparing for a paradigm shift.
• Pivoting into a smartphone era.
• Finding a real, painful problem to solve.
• Going against Steve Jobs.
• Signs of a product-market-fit.
• Diversifying your customer acquisition strategy.
• Competing in an early market that’s exploding.
• Data privacy in 2019.
• Interpreting data for startups.
• Pros and cons of being a first-time founder.
• Is fear of failure a motivator or paranoia?
• Factors that influence acquisitions.
Sean now runs Outlier.ai – an automated business analysis platform that helps companies interpret their data to find hidden opportunities and problems.
Startup Exits is brought to you by StartupSoft. New episodes every month, subscribe for more.
Sonny Vu is a serial entrepreneur turned investor and advisor. Along with cofounders John Sculley (former Apple CEO), Sridhar Iyengar and Christy Trang Le, Sonny started, ran and sold Misfit – one of the most iconic wearable brands on the planet.
On this episode of the Startup Exits Podcast, we chat with Sonny about:
• How to come up with the right ideas and analyze the market and competition.
• Sonny's experience with Noam Chomsky, John Sculley, Vinod Khosla and Bill Gates.
• How Apple influenced Misfit.
• What makes the right founding team?
• Learning how to sell is the key to success.
• How to partner with large brands as a small startup.
• Remote teams for startups.
• How Fossil acquired Misfit.
• Reasons why companies may want to buy your startup.
• Transitioning from a startup to a large corporation.
• Future of wearables, AR/VR and battery tech.
Sonny now invests in startups with planet-level impact via Alabaster.
Startup Exits is brought to you by StartupSoft. New episodes every month, subscribe for more.
Tim Jenkins is a founder and ex-CTO of SendGrid, world's largest email delivery platform that sends as many emails per day as Twitter generates Tweets. SendGrid IPO'd in 2017 and was acquired by Twilio for $3 billion dollars in 2019.
On this episode of the Startup Exits Podcast, we chat with Tim about:
• SendGrid's experience with TechStars.
• Product-market-fit. What makes a great CTO?
• Startup culture.
• Remote operations for startups.
• How startups go public.
• SendGrid's relationship with Twilio.
• Timing of startup exits.
• Exit strategy for startups.
Full episode with transcription can be found here.
Startup Exits is brought to you by StartupSoft. New episodes every month, subscribe for more.
Chris Barton is a founder and ex-CEO of Shazam, one of the most iconic and loved apps that has ever been built. Shazam amassed over a billion downloads and was acquired by Apple in 2017 for $400 million.
On this episode of the Startup Exits Podcast, we chat with Chris about:
• Is it bad to start a business with friends?
• Should founders be secretive about their idea?
• Fundraising strategies for startups.
• Running a startup in a financial crisis.
• Entrepreneurial perseverance.
• Tech predictions for the next decade.
• How Apple acquired Shazam. Startup exit strategy.
Full episode with transcription can be found here.
Startup Exits is brought to you by StartupSoft. New episodes every month, subscribe for more.
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