AlwaysOn Venture Summit: Pride causes many entrepreneurs to fail

Many failed tech startups could’ve enjoyed a happier fate by acknowledging their troubles early on and courting corporate buyers while there is still money in the bank, longtime angel investor Ron Conway said at the AlwaysOn Venture Summit http://alwayson.goingon.com/permalink/post/17491 on Friday. "Many of these companies do not go out for M&A soon enough," Conway said during a discussion about the challenges of building a successful startup.

While most entrepreneurs make no secret of their preference for a lucrative IPO over an acquisition, which may net less profit and dilute the startup’s brand, they usually at least pay lip service to the importance of being open to a range of exits. Indeed, the AlwaysOn summit featured a wide assortment of corporate development types from serial acquirers such as Cisco Systems Inc. [CSCO] and IBM Corp. [IBM], along with bankers loaded with statistics on how a rising level of VC investments in high-tech coupled with a tight IPO market was bound to equal more corporate acquisitions.
Andrea Orr

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