Читать книгу Selling Your Startup - Alejandro Cremades - Страница 11

Kudos if you've already read the prequel to this book, The Art of Startup Fundraising, and have subsequently raised a round of funding, or a few.

Whether you raised equity, used debt financing, or just bootstrapped your venture all the way up to this point, you've already gone through a significant learning curve. You've evolved as an entrepreneur, and you have probably learned much more than you thought you would. You've also learned how to get to market, find product market fit, hire and manage people, and much more.

Acquisitions can be fantastic. In many cases, they can be the best outcome for everyone involved. They can be good for you and your family, your cofounders, your team, your investors, and even your customers. They can be game-changing for so many people. In fact, some hyper-successful serial entrepreneurs will continue launching startups to create ongoing positive outcomes.

But even if you like challenges and learning new things, mergers and acquisitions are not easy.

In many ways, they are like fundraising. There are several crossovers in terms and terminology, tasks, and the materials you'll need. But there are also new concepts, factors—and paperwork—to master.

Mergers and acquisitions will be harder in terms of these factors:

 Time invested throughout every stage of the process

 The crazy hours and schedule needed to get the deal closed

 The mental anxiety and stress level

 How much scrutiny your company is under during due diligence

 Juggling keeping your business on track and managing the deal

The good news is that you don't have to do it again if you don't like it. But like fundraising and working through all of the other quirks of launching a startup, some people end up loving the art of the deal so much that they want to start, scale, and sell businesses over and over again. Just prepare yourself, because it will be challenging.