<story><title>Why I Sold My Startup to Google</title><url>http://www.danshapiro.com/blog/2011/07/why-i-sold-my-startup-sparkbuy-to-google/</url></story><parent_chain></parent_chain><comment><author>staunch</author><text>Some people might take away from this the idea that you can just build a cool little prototype and Google will come along and snatch you up.&lt;p&gt;I&apos;d bet this acquisition happened almost entirely due to relationships and salesmanship. Most hackers who don&apos;t already know the right people (e.g. former Googlers) would have no chance of pulling this kind of thing off.&lt;p&gt;Do not try this at home folks. The only real chance of an exit for most startups is one based on actual success in the marketplace.</text></comment>
<story><title>Why I Sold My Startup to Google</title><url>http://www.danshapiro.com/blog/2011/07/why-i-sold-my-startup-sparkbuy-to-google/</url></story><parent_chain></parent_chain><comment><author>dennisgorelik</author><text>Google essentially killed &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sparkby.com&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http://www.sparkby.com&lt;/a&gt;
(Like it killed Gizmo5 in the past: &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.google.com/gizmo5/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http://www.google.com/gizmo5/&lt;/a&gt; - initially it was &quot;temporary&quot;, but then became permanent).&lt;p&gt;Why does Google do that?
Why not allow it to grow and gradually integrate refined pieces of technology into larger project [Google Product Search]?</text></comment>