Jason Lemkin warns that acquirer interest doesn't stick around. A startup might get an offer, assume better ones will come, then watch the buyer solve the problem another way and move on. If you turn down an offer, the next one may not arrive for years, if ever.
Jason Lemkin is probably the person I've seen write about this the most. I do think startups have this idea that like, oh, well, acquirers are interested in us today. If we just keep going, we can revisit this conversation in a year. But maybe you can't. Maybe they, maybe the company that's talking to you will have solved the problem either through acquiring somebody else or through their own capabilities. Or more importantly, maybe the problem you solve will go from being the number one problem they have to the number 5 problem. And they're just like, well, we don't need to buy or we don't need to buy a solution to our number 5 problem. It can just remain the number 5 problem and we'll just deal with it. So I've seen a lot of companies where You get one M&A offer or you get a series of interest and the company's like, well, we're gonna keep going. We'll, we'll revisit it. And the next wave of offers doesn't come for several years, if it ever comes again. And so I always tell people, the most dangerous thing you can assume is that because people are interested now, they will remain interested. And that again, that you dictate the timeline. And that if you decide, hey, this isn't something I wanna pursue right now, if you continue to grow and remain relevant, sure, you'll continue to get other bites at the apple. But for many companies, that's not what happens. They have a moment, and if they don't seize it, it's really tough.
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