I just sold my startup to a billion dollar company

My name is Evis and three years ago I started a startup. We went through Y Combinator, raised over $2 million from venture capitalists. And today we're announcing that we officially got acquired by Unicorn Healthtech Company backed by Sequoia. So let's talk about it. I can't believe I just said that. To be honest, I don't really know what to say because for the last three years I've known is work and put one foot in front of the other and never really think about the end game. To see it come to an end is a very strange feeling. It's a strange feeling because it's bittersweet. In some ways I feel like a failure because we didn't accomplish the goals that we set out for. When you take venture capital funding, you're signing up to go for a home run and to become a multi billion dollar company. And we didn't achieve that. But it feels like there's some sort of success, right? Because we got an exit for the company and for our investors. We found somebody who really values our team and the technology that we built and financially we're going to be doing pretty well. So it doesn't feel all like a failure, but still a pretty bittersweet feeling. And there's this misconception that all tech founders are like wealthy before they start a startup and that was not the case. I was $150,000 in student loan debt before I started my startup. I was making $90,000 a year. It was not easy. Like for three years I worked 70 hour weeks. I went on one vacation, which was my honeymoon. But the most important thing I learned is that you have to bet on yourself because nobody else is going to bet on you like you will. I knew that starting a startup was going to be risky. I just turned down a $750,000 a year job offer to go and make $90,000 a year. The only reason I had the confidence to do that was because I believed in myself and I was going to bet on me to figure it out. So how did this all happen? Well, back in February of this year, we announced to investors to see what a new round would look like. And we got a pretty good idea of what the market was looking for. And we decided for the next four months to really just focus on building the business and just go heads down. And then in May of this year, as we started to pick our heads up and start thinking about fundraising for the new round, we got introduced to a couple of companies who were thinking about acquiring small technical teams. There were a couple of B2B companies, normal B2B data security vendors. And then there was one B2C company. I've spent the last 13 years in B2B and I was really feeling this pull towards a B2C company. I really wanted to deliver value and impact to consumers directly, instead of to businesses. And as we started to take that a little bit more seriously, it became super obvious that they were the best fit for us. The founders were incredible, they had built an amazing business, they're backed by tier one investors, Sequoia, Goldman Sachs, and others. And it was also a space that I was just personally really passionate about. I had been in therapy for years and I knew the value that it could deliver if done right. And the business I had built was already doing so well, we felt like, hey, we can really come in and have a huge impact here from a B2B and data security perspective. So those kind of three things just really aligned well for me and my co-founder. And the acquisition process was, I've never done acquisition before, but I think it was pretty smooth. It was like six weeks of dealing with lawyers, working through all the due diligence, getting them everything that they needed, we were getting them everything that we needed. We had our counsel, they had their counsel. Um, and it was more or less a fine process. We were kind of in limbo the entire time of trying to figure out what do we do with existing business, we have to continue to support our customers, we have to tell them that we're going to be acquired, while trying to move this acquisition process forward. And at the end of the day, the signatures got released and we have been officially acquired. I'm going to have more thoughts as I process it more, because to be honest, I haven't really started the process yet. Like I said, it's been three years of just 70 hour weeks, putting one foot forward in front of the other. And now I'm going to be an employee again. I'm not going to be the CEO, not going to be the co-founder. I'm going to have a manager I report to, a team that I'm working on that's going to be bigger than three people. The company that we're joining is 500 people, they're a multi billion dollar company. So it's going to be a change, but it's one that I'm excited about. I love being a founder, I love being an entrepreneur. It was the hardest job I've ever done, but it's also the most wonderful and fulfilling job I've ever done. And I'm definitely going to do it again.