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Alexis Grant wants a start-up to be okay.
In our imaginations and in pop culture, it can feel like there are only two avenues for young tech companies: spectacular success with Ferraris and Ferragamo for all, or massive wipeouts. The start-ups that change the world or die trying are the ones that people write books about and make movies about.
The Silicon Valley myth pretty much ignores the huge middle ground between the incredible and the unforgivable. Grant tries to fill the void.
Last month, Grant launched They Got Acquired, a website and database to describe the founders of online start-ups who sell their businesses for between $100,000 and $50 million.
For most of us, that magnitude of a business sale would be glorious. When I was relatively new to writing about technology companies, a startup founder confused me by apologizing for selling his previous company for “just” tens of millions of dollars. I soon learned that in the age of TikTok and Theranos, $1 million — and even $1 billion today — is as disappointing as a single potato chip in a bag.
Grant, a former journalist and founder of a start-up in Harpers Ferry, W.Va., said that when our culture glorifies the companies that become billions or trillions of dollars and the founders who work non-stop, people who slowly and steadily become more humble build young businesses can feel left out, especially if they are parents like her.
“For many people, it can lead to a sense of failure – is that the only way to succeed?” said Grant. “But the reality is that there are many ways to build a start-up.”
They Got Acquired is, in part, an entrepreneurial tactical guide that Grant says she wished she had when she started her two previous start-ups. And it’s partly cheerleading for the people building their start-ups that don’t have billions of users, yet bring satisfaction to founders and employees.
“There are many people who build” [start-ups] in this way, but they often go unrecognized,” Grant told me. “This is more desirable for me and a more desirable route for many people.”
During the pandemic, there was a wave of Americans starting their own businesses. Grant tries to highlight models for entrepreneurs outside of Elon Musk or Mark Zuckerberg.
Usually Grant started They Got Acquired because she felt that something was missing for people like her.
About ten years ago, she started and sold two online businesses and helped build another, the financial website The Penny Hoarder. When it came time to sell, Grant felt lost. “I didn’t know where to start or where to find the right professionals to help me,” Grant said.
They Got Acquired collects information about start-ups, such as their turnover and estimated acquisition price. Grant imagines the data will help other business owners get a better idea of what their business might be selling for.
Interviews with startup founders will be published on the website, and in an upcoming podcast series, entrepreneurs will share practical tactics and strategies. Jodie Cook, who started a social media agency, described for They Got Acquired how she made sure the company could run without her.
Grant said she loved the business story of a mother and daughter team, Marianne Edwards and Anna Maste, who started an online community for recreational vehicle travelers. They sold their company last year for at least $1 million, Grant said, adding that she was encouraged that Maste initially worked on her business for only a few hours a week.
A friend of mine who knows Grant sent me a link to They Got Acquired, and it was an “aha” moment. I’ve written before about the start-up system that broaches and rewards the biggest ideas possible.
That could lead to life-changing innovations like Tesla’s electric cars and Google’s search engine. But it can also force founders to overhype their technology and grind themselves, their families and their employees to exhausted dust. It is encouraging to see more confetti and support for another path.
Before we go…
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Tech companies have become powerful levers in war: During the Russian invasion of Ukraine, officials in Russia, Ukraine, the US and Europe have sometimes made conflicting demands on the global communications and information services of Google, Facebook, Telegram and others, my colleagues Adam Satariano and Sheera Frenkel report. (I’ll have more on this in Wednesday’s newsletter.)
Related: Microsoft coordinated an effort to stop malicious software designed to wipe critical computer networks in Ukraine.
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Show me the money: Employees of some tech companies want more of their pay in cash than in stock, The Wall Street Journal reported. One way to interpret this: Employees at big companies like Amazon and Google don’t believe their company’s stock prices will zoom up from here. (A subscription may be required.)
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Cameras and sensors track you in Amazon’s new high-tech Whole Foods store, but you’re not allowed to take photos or videos of yourself while shopping. My colleague Cecilia Kang tried out the Washington supermarket that skips checkout lines, and spoke to local residents about the tradeoffs between convenience and creepiness.
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This is an unexpected story about the musical legend Johnny Cash and the actress Elizabeth Taylor†
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