Although that brings up the question of "which game?" SarBox was the last nail in the coffin of the conventional IPO exit; with very rare "struck by lightening" exceptions that's just not in the cards anymore, and if it is it's something that will only come into play late in the game.
Nowadays a "flip" is most often (only???) a sale to another high tech company, which if they have a clue will want the people as much or more than the technology (which if they have a clue they know is nearly worthless without the people).
So, maybe this is mostly an obsolete thing for us to be worrying about. Sure, if you find yourself in a red hot company like Google or Facebook it'll come up, but it's sufficiently unlikely you probably don't have to wonder about it at all by default.
(This is a rather jarring thing for me, I started working in 1980 in the Boston area and therefor witnessed up close last two decades of the old VC/IPO game plus heard all about the go-go 70s minicomputer days. The fact that's all gone is hard to adjust to.)
Also, to get to this point the original founders may retain enough power and influence that it's less relevant.
I have an idea for a fun business model: raise a ton of cash, hire all the most talented engineers, hide them in a remote cave for 8 months while your company is in "stealth mode", and then ransom yourself off to Google for a tidy profit.
I read something back in the 1980s about an idea to come up with something really revolutionary. Hire a bunch of really good researchers, give them great facilities, then leave them alone. They argued that they would eventually come up with something remarkable and totally unpredictable.
Comments
"[Y]ou're willing to play the game."
Although that brings up the question of "which game?" SarBox was the last nail in the coffin of the conventional IPO exit; with very rare "struck by lightening" exceptions that's just not in the cards anymore, and if it is it's something that will only come into play late in the game.
Nowadays a "flip" is most often (only???) a sale to another high tech company, which if they have a clue will want the people as much or more than the technology (which if they have a clue they know is nearly worthless without the people).
So, maybe this is mostly an obsolete thing for us to be worrying about. Sure, if you find yourself in a red hot company like Google or Facebook it'll come up, but it's sufficiently unlikely you probably don't have to wonder about it at all by default.
(This is a rather jarring thing for me, I started working in 1980 in the Boston area and therefor witnessed up close last two decades of the old VC/IPO game plus heard all about the go-go 70s minicomputer days. The fact that's all gone is hard to adjust to.)
Also, to get to this point the original founders may retain enough power and influence that it's less relevant.
"Just for the people..."
I have an idea for a fun business model: raise a ton of cash, hire all the most talented engineers, hide them in a remote cave for 8 months while your company is in "stealth mode", and then ransom yourself off to Google for a tidy profit.
I read something back in the 1980s about an idea to come up with something really revolutionary. Hire a bunch of really good researchers, give them great facilities, then leave them alone. They argued that they would eventually come up with something remarkable and totally unpredictable.
The underpants gnomes were way ahead of you.
That sounds like Agnilux. What were they working on? Nobody knows; maybe nothing.