There are four big decisions that can happen in a startup, says T.A. McCann: When to start the company, when to fund it, when to kill it, and when to sell it.
The serial entrepreneur has been faced with each of these decisions at various moments in his startup life. Speaking the recent GeekWire Startup Day, McCann shared lessons and anecdotes from these experiences — including the right moment to leave your day job, the best way to find and get comfortable with your co-founders, tips for approaching potential investors, how to know when to pull the plug, and strategies for talking with potential acquirers about price.
McCann shares insights gleaned from experiences including selling Gist to BlackBerry, and the initial process he went through with his co-founders at the current startup Rival IQ.
Watch the video of McCann’s talk above, and check out more videos from Startup Day here. (Note: I had a brief problem with the camera on this one, and a short portion of the talk toward the end didn’t make it into the final video. Apologies for the glitch but you’ll get the gist, so to speak.)
Thanks to everyone who attended and supported GeekWire Startup Day. We’ll have more highlights from the talks in the days ahead.
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Editor’s note: Join us for our next big GeekWire event — the GeekWire Gala — on Dec. 4th at the Museum of History and Industry. Details and tickets here.
