Seth Levine of Mobius has had an interesting post up on his blog for the past week. It's about when is the best time to sell your company. This reminds me of a post by Ed Sim of Dawntreader - "Companies are bought and not sold." I would argue that in this day and age, the entrepreneur is too focused on the exit and not on building truly lasting enterprises with significant value and effect on society.
As a VC, I am certainly interested in the exit, but wouldn't it be nice if companies were built to last, rather than "built to last through the IPO and lock-up period"?
It seems to me that the time to sell is when the entrepreneur is satisfied with his effort and ready to move on. This might be at the beginning of the J curve of value creation or at the peak of the next wave of irrational exuberance. Either way, it really shouldn't matter. After all, part of being an entrepreneur is the love of the game, which means building a great business with useful products or services. If you enjoy the ride and work your tail off, you will make money and you will get returns.
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