To Flagpole and others who are interested, Jesse has written annual CEO letters the last few years, plus a recent post about the sale of the company, that provide a ton of insight into this. I'm a fan of the couple's and of the company, and bought product occasionally. And I always think it's cool to see entrepreneurs boot-strap a company and get a solid exit. Facts, insights and guesses, in no particular order: 1. As announced, deal was $10m cash and $2m in Laird stock, the latter is subject to vesting presumably tied for a few years to Jesse's and Lauren's (and I suppose Steph's) continued service to the company. 2. Deal was 1.2x revenue, so about a $10m top-line company. We know from Jesse that the company is barely profitable the last few years but wasn't for the first 7-8 years. 3. Company took on its first outside investor (or at least closed its first "investment round" per Jesse) in 2020 to a small and young PE firm based in Portland. Terms aren't disclosed, but based on everything I've read and my own sense of this market I'd guess that they sold a minority interest of no more than 25% to the PE guys. 4. My sense is that Jesse and Lauren own a much bigger share than Steph. Don't know that for a fact, but Steph left the Bend area years and years ago and Jesse in particular spends by far the most time at the company (as CEO). Note that he was unpaid for most of that time, though apparently was able to pay himself a small salary starting a couple of years ago. Another hint of this is that Jesse has referred to the company being bailed out and supported financially by him and Lauren, and my sense is that Steph wasn't part of that. There were references to them pouring all their money into the company on at least one occasion to keep it going. 5. They're pretty open about the reason for the sale: it's stressful and scary to be on the hook financially for a young company. This gives them a solid financial exit and continued employment. No, this isn't Lukezic and AirBnB, but it looks like a several million dollar pay-out, which is a game-changer from the perspective of stress, risk and financial security. 6. Jesse, if you happen to read this, you need to work on your grammar. Come on, man, you're a Stanford grad! You have repeated references in your various annual reports to "this and that was stressful/difficult/fun for Lauren and I." Dude, it's "Lauren and me" when it's the object of a preposition. Do better! :-) On the other hand, Rojo is a Princeton grad and is barely literate, so score one for the Cardinal.
Flagpole wrote:
Not subscribed wrote:
I'm sure you know their distribution network, operating expenses and last year's revenue. What do you think the brand was worth?
Right...unless you know all of that, you don't know if that was a good deal or not.
Even IF you knew that, you can never know what's in someone's head. For all you know, she hated running that business and was super glad to take several million dollars and get out from it.