amp0193
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When a company has an IPO, the consumers are not the only customers anymore. The shareholders are too.
This doesn't just happen at an IPO, it's anytime you take outside money. Every dollar you take a little bit less control that you have for yourself.
When I took my first dollar of outside money, my company goals effectively changed to "provide a return for the investors"... which for now looks like: operate the business as I see fit, as long as I meet expected timelines on objectives and an exit. I do not plan on taking institutional money, however, and want to maintain majority voting rights for myself on major decisions.
But long-term, I'm going to be selling the company, and I will be optimizing for profit (or growth) for the 12 months leading into that sale, and I will not be able to control 100% what happens to the company after that.
I'm open to staying on as CEO for a while post-acquisition, depending on how the deal is structured. But if it came down to a choice between maintaining ownership for myself, or taking my chips off the table and selling to XYZ Megacorp, who's values may not be 100% aligned with mine... I'm picking door #2.
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