How to sell a successful startup to IT giants (Yandex, Google, etc.)?

Question

Google

It so happened that now I am working on two startups at once, which are planned to be sold to IT giants if successful. In both projects, I am the technical director. And the question of the legal registration of the sale process seems to be none of my business. However, I can’t understand a number of points in any way, and this misunderstanding has a bad effect on my enthusiasm for the matter.
First moment- When does an IT giant become interested in a startup? My naive companion believes that IT giants have their own department for monitoring innovations and innovations, and as soon as some interesting prototype appears on the Internet, the company immediately reacts and makes startups an advantageous offer that cannot be refused. I do not believe in this. In addition, I believe that even if a startup starts to grow by leaps and bounds, and the dynamics of the audience breaks all records, then even in this case there is no guarantee that IT giants will be interested in us.
second moment- why do IT giants buy startups from startups at all, if you can just steal it, and scare the startups with the security service so that they don’t dare to continue working in this direction anymore. My life experience of running a small business has proven that if they can cheat, they will definitely cheat. Except for the case when throwing is unprofitable. What is the benefit of IT giants not to throw successful startups, but to conclude some kind of agreements with them?
The third point - is it really not just to sell a startup to an IT giant, but to create a separate company with it for a successful project, or a department, so as not to lose control over the project and continue doing what you love? Or is it all fiction? Does anyone know a real example of such a fate of a successful startup?

Answer 1

In the West they like to say: "Try to build a company you would never sell."
You need to change your approach. If you have a sales mindset, then automatically there is an emphasis on "cutting down the loot", and this is felt in everything, and your project does not get better from this. You have to do the project from the heart. Otherwise, no one will make any offers to you :)

Answer 2

The second question is https://medium.com/@p_cherkashin/4-4306715c04d5

Answer 3

Throwing in the west, let's say, is not accepted. It may not be possible to repeat, well, somehow a fashion will go to a specific product and that's it, you can only buy it.
In order to sell a startup to a giant, it must be in a certain narrow niche, the giants are now buying mainly communication and communication services. Well, we don’t take Yandex, it goes into content for a different reason.

Answer 4

It seems to me that the reasons for buying can be different.
Sometimes employees of the second one both worked and work, and the purchase is just saving time on development. The first one does not have enough of its own forces for this direction, but here both specialists and a working project are at once.
Surely, there are cases of buying just for the sake of owning patents.
Or a purchase for the sake of entering the regional market, where the second company is already present.
Or just absorb a competitor so as not to bother.
But, in any case, throwing is not very profitable - they can recognize the deal as insignificant and goodbye Napoleonic plans, since the case will not be considered at all in the Basmanny Court.

Answer 5

They buy "people" who use the service, "accounts of people on the servers of companies." If you write a simple iPhone app and it has 1k active users, why not buy it.

Answer 6

You are thinking right. For example, Yandex did not buy 2GIS, but made its own maps and navigator. Although the audience of 2GIS is larger and more accurate maps.
1. All options are possible and each option can be with its own gray gradation.
2. It’s easier to buy a ready-made team and audience, adopt technologies, gradually replace them with your own, than build an entire infrastructure from scratch. Saving time, money and effort.
3. Real. There were and are examples. Look.
Everywhere and everything they copy, steal, take away and decently lead. People are working everywhere. Let's hope that luck smiles at you and decent people meet.

Answer 7

Yandex is already buying quite ready-made projects for full integration into itself, in the case of, say, a webvisor, it bought the team more than the project itself; Yandex is not a media company.
Google doesn’t buy much at all, something Russian, that is, a startup should be oriented to the global market.
it’s stupid to hope for a purchase with Yandex or Google, if everything is growing, isn’t it easier to rake in millions yourself?
stealing a team is very difficult, assembling a new one for a project is usually more expensive than just buying + you can buy an audience right away.
it makes no sense for a giant to do some kind of joint company

Answer 8

In the case of Taxi, Yandex bought leaky software for a bunch of dough for the sake of a customer base. ))))
In the case of Webvisor, Yandex bought the team
. In the case of Kinopoisk, Yandex bought the project, kicked the team out, and redid the project from scratch (not entirely successful, but that's a separate issue).
There is only one thing in common - the scale of the project.
Your companion is wrong - Yandex does not monitor small beginners, even very innovative projects, and does not offer to buy such projects at an early stage.
Read the story of the sale of Habr in Mail.ru and the buyback by its founders.

Answer 9

The second point is why do IT giants buy startups from startups at all, if you can just steal it, and scare the startups with the security service so that they don’t dare to continue working in this direction. My life experience of running a small business has proven that if they can cheat, they will definitely cheat. Except for the case when throwing is unprofitable. What is the benefit of IT giants not to throw successful startups, but to conclude some kind of agreements with them?

If what you have done is easily stolen and copied, then you have not done anything particularly valuable.
Example:
Yandex bought a taxi service for a billion just because Yandex needed customers.
And all the technologies of this service are so full of holes that they are urgently rewritten.
The third point - is it really not just to sell a startup to an IT giant, but to create a separate company with it for a successful project, or a department, so as not to lose control over the project and continue doing what you love? Or is it all fiction? Does anyone know a real example of such a fate of a successful startup?
Habr.
Mail.RU was bought.
Then bought out.

Answer 10

Scale.
All-Russian or global (or at least the general USA).
Small-town projects are not needed by either Yandex or Google. No matter how brilliant they look in the eyes of their own creators.

Answer 11

I think that until a successful IT giant pays attention to your startup, there are very few chances to sell it anything...))

Answer 12

Read the case of Foodfox, which was bought by Yandex. After the rebranding, Yandex Food was launched.
There is a lot of information on the Internet. This is probably one of the most successful cases in Russia for growing a startup for sale.