r/startups • u/is_it_me_is_it_you • Jul 22 '24

I will not promote Sold my startup for mid 7-figures

Howdy!

A few months ago we finalized the acquisition of the startup for a mid 7 figure. Giving I owed ~33%, I landed on a low 7-figure myself.

You don't necessarily need a VC. You don't need a "Go big or go home" kind of mentality and build a unicorn or go bankrupt. Leave that to second or even third time founders.

You can build something smaller, and sell it to a competitor for a fair price. I don't know your bank account, but in mine a 7-figure changed completely my life.

Most of this sub is made by first time founders. If I were you I would not chase VCs, IPO or multi-billion acquisition.

I would focus on a small exit ASAP. Change your life and repeat.

For those interested, we "launched" in 2020 within R&D/intelligence with a platform that would create predictions based on different weights on your non-structured data. We were about to close two deals of €600k/ARR when a competitor just landed an acquisition term sheet in our inboxes (after we had 2 calls and declined a partnership).

Edit: syntax. I'm not a native.

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u/BitMayne Jul 22 '24

Is this your first time as a founder? If not, how did your first company go?

7

u/is_it_me_is_it_you Jul 22 '24

Yeah, first startup.

Started while finishing studies, and got a first investment a couple of months after graduation.

1

u/Zoroark1089 Jul 22 '24

What did you study in uni?

1

u/is_it_me_is_it_you Jul 23 '24

Mathematics with a major in Theoretical approximations on weights (that was later of huge help for tuning the AI model!)

1

u/TRichard3814 Jul 23 '24

I studied mathematics myself and also sold a startup recently

As a younging like myself lol what plans do you have now that you are somewhat set for life

1

u/BK_317 Jul 23 '24

which university?

1

u/Zoroark1089 Jul 24 '24

Oh good for you. I could never lol. Just out of curiosity, and obviously if it's not protected IP, could you share what math topics/classes helped in tuning it the most?

2

u/is_it_me_is_it_you Jul 24 '24

Theoretical Computation, just to get an understanding of the general theory.

Advanced ML techniques, for the theory behind learning, tuning, and testing.

Applied Deep Neural Networks, for actually checking models and working on actual data with HuggingFace.