John Fazzolari

When everything is possible, deciding what to ignore becomes the real work.

It's a mistake for startups to treat fundraises as a series of milestones. There's something even more impressive than raising a series whatever: to be making so much that you don't need to. Eventually all companies have to reach this point. The sooner you do, the better.

Headcount was always a bullshit metric.

If you’re looking for a “job” don’t join an early-stage startup. If you’re looking for a smorgasbord of growth, heartbreak, meaning, best friends, and some money, definitely join an early-stage startup.

Last week, I was talking with an entrepreneur about ensuring a business is set up for an exit. After a few minutes of discussing the pros and cons of thinking about an exit early in the startup journey, I pushed back and emphasized that the real goal is to build a great, enduring company. When you do that, plenty of exit opportunities will naturally present themselves. It’s not that you can’t make strategic choices to make a business more attractive to acquirers, like cutting certain short-term costs to boost profitability or delaying investments that might help near-term numbers. You can definitely make a company look more desirable. The problem is that the best and most sophisticated acquirers will see right through it. They’ll know shortcuts were taken and that certain decisions were made to make the business appear stronger than it really is. Instead of optimizing for an exit, the better approach is to optimize for building a great, enduring company. A great company has a strong culture, raving-fan customers, a healthy and growing market, and a defensible position that’s hard to unseat. By focusing on those elements and achieving them, your business will naturally become desirable to potential acquirers who are willing to pay top dollar for something truly exceptional. Back in the day at Pardot, we focused on building the best company we could. We won awards for being the fastest-growing tech company in the region, for being one of the best places to work, and, most importantly, we built a culture where customers loved being customers. When we did sell the business, it wasn’t because we were seeking an exit. We sold because a great potential acquirer came along and recognized that we were the perfect B2B complement to their B2C offering. After several months of courtship, it was clear that our cultures and leadership aligned, and that the chance of success was high. We chose to exit because it was a great opportunity, not because it was our strategy. For entrepreneurs thinking about an exit strategy, remember this: the best exits happen when you first build a great business and the market comes knocking. Once you’ve built something truly great, potential acquirers will notice and opportunities will emerge. Focus on greatness, not on the exit.