<story><title>Talent Acquisitions</title><url>http://www.marco.org/2012/07/20/talent-acquisitions</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>jazzychad</author><text>Well, congrats to Marco for having a successful and sustainable business where he has the option and leverage to decide what he wants to do when these offers come knocking.&lt;p&gt;&lt;i&gt;Most&lt;/i&gt; startup/bootstrapped companies are not in that position. Most end up failing and winding up with nothing, but there are some that will end up with these talent acquisition situations.&lt;p&gt;Remember, both sides (the acquirers and the acquirees) have to agree to the deal. Google doesn&apos;t just come along and say &quot;we want to acquire you for your talent&quot; and the other side has no say in the matter.&lt;p&gt;In this situation you are faced with a choice. Talent acqs happen because a) the acquire target is not really doing that well, and b) they have a group of people that work well together that the acquiring company wants to keep together to do great things under their umbrella.&lt;p&gt;Given the choice between: keep working on your low-to-modest traction product which isn&apos;t producing a lot of revenue and wonder how you might pay rent next month OR a multi-million dollar check/stock offer at a large, successful company... which would you choose? I would take the check in that situation. Sometimes you can&apos;t achieve your world-changing vision before your investor and personal money are gone.&lt;p&gt;The goal of a company should be to succeed and be self-sustaining, of course. But sometimes that doesn&apos;t happen, and these talent acqs happen for a reason.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>tptacek</author><text>I didn&apos;t get that from Marco&apos;s post &lt;i&gt;at all&lt;/i&gt;. I heard a developer saying &quot;stop blaming indie developers for accepting generous offers from companies and start supporting their products instead&quot;.</text></comment>
<story><title>Talent Acquisitions</title><url>http://www.marco.org/2012/07/20/talent-acquisitions</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>jazzychad</author><text>Well, congrats to Marco for having a successful and sustainable business where he has the option and leverage to decide what he wants to do when these offers come knocking.&lt;p&gt;&lt;i&gt;Most&lt;/i&gt; startup/bootstrapped companies are not in that position. Most end up failing and winding up with nothing, but there are some that will end up with these talent acquisition situations.&lt;p&gt;Remember, both sides (the acquirers and the acquirees) have to agree to the deal. Google doesn&apos;t just come along and say &quot;we want to acquire you for your talent&quot; and the other side has no say in the matter.&lt;p&gt;In this situation you are faced with a choice. Talent acqs happen because a) the acquire target is not really doing that well, and b) they have a group of people that work well together that the acquiring company wants to keep together to do great things under their umbrella.&lt;p&gt;Given the choice between: keep working on your low-to-modest traction product which isn&apos;t producing a lot of revenue and wonder how you might pay rent next month OR a multi-million dollar check/stock offer at a large, successful company... which would you choose? I would take the check in that situation. Sometimes you can&apos;t achieve your world-changing vision before your investor and personal money are gone.&lt;p&gt;The goal of a company should be to succeed and be self-sustaining, of course. But sometimes that doesn&apos;t happen, and these talent acqs happen for a reason.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>Tyrannosaurs</author><text>I read this slightly differently.&lt;p&gt;I don&apos;t think this was a plea to developers to not sell up, I think it was a plea to people to support small companies to make not selling up a more appealing option.</text></comment>