Don't Talk to Corp Dev
Пол Грэм объясняет, почему основателям стартапов обычно не стоит общаться с корпоративным развитием (corp dev) — подразделением компаний, которое скупает другие компании. Разговор с corp dev оправдан только в двух случаях: когда вы действительно хотите продать компанию прямо сейчас и достаточно вероятно получите предложение по приемлемой цене. На практике это значит, что говорить с corp dev безопасно, только когда дела идут либо очень хорошо, либо очень плохо. Опаснее всего «средним» компаниям — особенно молодым и быстрорастущим, которым ещё нет года. Грэм советует перед встречей спросить себя «Хотим ли мы продать компанию прямо сейчас?» и, если ответ «нет», вежливо отказаться, сославшись на фокус на росте — основатели Big Company не обидятся, а скорее зауважают вас.
January 2015
Corporate Development, aka corp dev, is the group within companies
that buys other companies. If you're talking to someone from corp
dev, that's why, whether you realize it yet or not.
It's usually a mistake to talk to corp dev unless (a) you want to
sell your company right now and (b) you're sufficiently likely to
get an offer at an acceptable price. In practice that means startups
should only talk to corp dev when they're either doing really well
or really badly. If you're doing really badly, meaning the company
is about to die, you may as well talk to them, because you have
nothing to lose. And if you're doing really well, you can safely
talk to them, because you both know the price will have to be high,
and if they show the slightest sign of wasting your time, you'll
be confident enough to tell them to get lost.
The danger is to companies in the middle. Particularly to young
companies that are growing fast, but haven't been doing it for long
enough to have grown big yet. It's usually a mistake for a promising
company less than a year old even to talk to corp dev.
But it's a mistake founders constantly make. When someone from
corp dev wants to meet, the founders tell themselves they should
at least find out what they want. Besides, they don't want to
offend Big Company by refusing to meet.
Well, I'll tell you what they want. They want to talk about buying
you. That's what the title "corp dev" means. So before agreeing
to meet with someone from corp dev, ask yourselves, "Do we want to
sell the company right now?" And if the answer is no, tell them
"Sorry, but we're focusing on growing the company." They won't be
offended. And certainly the founders of Big Company won't be
offended. If anything they'll think more highly of you. You'll
remind them of themselves. They didn't sell either; that's why
they're in a position now to buy other companies.
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