[HN Gopher] Thank HN: My bootstrapped startup got acquired today
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       Thank HN: My bootstrapped startup got acquired today
        
       Hello HN,  I'm Paras Chopra, founder of VWO. We're an A/B testing
       platform that was born here as a Show HN in 2009:
       https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=876141  Today, I sold the
       company to a private equity firm for $200mn.  It's covered on
       TechCrunch: https://techcrunch.com/2025/01/23/everstone-acquires-
       bootstr...  I was a 22 year old fresh graduate when I launched VWO
       on HN and got initial users. Feedback from people like @patio11
       helped me get to PMF. And now, 15 years later,
       "site:ycombinator.com" is what I appended when I wanted to search
       for advice on what to keep in mind while selling my company.  Thank
       you HN for sharing inspiration and wisdom all along. I honestly
       don't think I would have been an entrepreneur had it not been for
       hacker news.  Every single day, HN is the first website I open! I'm
       feeling very grateful towards the community. Thanks @dang, and
       thank you Paul Graham for your essays and for creating this
       beautiful corner of the internet!
        
       Author : paraschopra
       Score  : 889 points
       Date   : 2025-01-23 17:58 UTC (5 hours ago)
        
       | toomuchtodo wrote:
       | Congrats on the successful exit and your journey to it!
        
       | arey_abhishek wrote:
       | Congratulations! This is such a great story. I've followed you
       | for years and your success is inspiring
        
       | ignoramous wrote:
       | Great run, Paras!
       | 
       | If I may:
       | 
       | - Did VWO ever apply to YC?
       | 
       | - Do you foresee PE asset stripping (crashing & burning) VWO
       | eventually?
       | 
       | - What's next (5y time period)?
       | 
       | Thanks.
        
       | srirangr wrote:
       | Congrats Paras! Great to see a bootstrapped success story from
       | someone that I have been following for over a decade. Kudos!
        
       | guynamedloren wrote:
       | Incredible. Congrats, enjoy the fruits of your hard work!
        
       | duxup wrote:
       | Congratulations.
       | 
       | I'm curious... what do people do after something like this?
       | 
       | Vacation?
        
         | nico wrote:
         | "I am rich and I have no idea what to do"
         | 
         | https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42579873
        
           | andrepd wrote:
           | Jesus Christ, I pray that I never become such a grotesque
           | caricature of an alienated SF techbro. What a tool.
        
         | dylan604 wrote:
         | I would hope some time off is possible, but I could totally see
         | myself self-funding the next thing immediately after that time
         | off. I'm guessing the bootstrapping types would get bored and
         | look for the next thing
        
         | klik99 wrote:
         | I met someone who was an early employee at King about a year
         | after they were acquired for 5.9b - it's a little different
         | since he wasn't involved with the sale, but he was still
         | processing the insane amount of money he had. A year on he
         | hadn't moved out of his small apartment, still contracted,
         | still used the same cheap phone, and hadn't started investing
         | beyond just the normal mutual funds/bonds/etc. it struck me as
         | the smartest move, take your time to come up with a plan and
         | don't just dive into recklessly spending it.
         | 
         | I also know a founder couple I was close friends with who had a
         | sizeable exit, who moved to Costa Rica where they could spend
         | little and focus on writing, a side interest that ended up
         | leading to their next company.
         | 
         | I find it's really interesting how people act when the
         | financial pressure gets suddenly removed.
        
           | criddell wrote:
           | > I find it's really interesting how people act when the
           | financial pressure gets suddenly removed.
           | 
           | It seems so strange to me to hear stories about people
           | suddenly coming into a bunch of money and not finding
           | contentment or even ending up depressed. If I could afford to
           | retire today, I would do it in a heartbeat and I'm pretty
           | sure I wouldn't run out of things I want to do.
           | 
           | When the lotto gets to be above $1 billion, I'll usually buy
           | a ticket because it's fun to imagine the life I could have
           | with that money. Lots of it would be spent on hiring experts
           | to teach me things.
        
             | mrsilencedogood wrote:
             | Imo, it's mostly because our brains are still hunter-
             | gatherer brains. While things like language acquisition and
             | culture-instilling do fundamentally change us, our base
             | hardware is still pre-currency pre-agriculture (pre-pretty-
             | much-everything) hunter-gatherer. In Sapiens, it's noted
             | that if a homo sapiens from 100k years ago ended up on an
             | autopsy table in the modern day, you would never know
             | anything was amiss anatomically. You might notice the teeth
             | are unusually straight and free of decay (pre-grain diet,
             | with huge amounts of chewing strengthening the jaw and
             | allowing teeth to properly align), well-trained body with
             | low body fat, and similarly free of many of the scourges of
             | our modern diet and lifestyles). But that's it.
             | 
             | So, people suddenly get taken out of "the grind" which was
             | their only approximation of the drive-reward cycle that
             | their brain depends on. So what now? Unfortunately, they've
             | been freed to confront man's ultimate foe: philosophy. And
             | lots of people aren't cut out or ready for that. (One could
             | even say most philosophers aren't, given how much many of
             | them suffered).
        
             | conductr wrote:
             | As somewhat of a counterpoint, my experience was we often
             | romanticize these things that we'd like to do if only we
             | had the time/money/etc. But sometimes you'll find once you
             | do have the opportunity to explore those things, it's not
             | as interesting as we had hoped. It might keep you busy for
             | a year or so, but then boredom and lack of fulfillment rear
             | their head again. I think this is why serial
             | entrepreneurship is a pretty common thing.
        
             | dr_kiszonka wrote:
             | > When the lotto gets to be above $1 billion, I'll usually
             | buy a ticket because it's fun to imagine the life I could
             | have with that money.
             | 
             | I buy lotto tickets for the same reason! Their expected
             | value is very low but the maximum value is thought-
             | provoking. For me, $50k would be life-changing. One billion
             | is hard to imagine.
        
               | applied_heat wrote:
               | What would you do with $50k that would make such a
               | difference in your life?
        
               | Dansvidania wrote:
               | I'd buy a house, myself..
        
               | WJW wrote:
               | For 50k?
        
               | tasuki wrote:
               | Yes why not. Hell, there are places in the world where
               | you can buy _whole villages_ for $50k!
        
               | mschuster91 wrote:
               | 50k is enough to comfortably live on for a year even in
               | Germany, much more so in other countries. Allows you to
               | completely change perspectives or to pivot your entire
               | career.
        
               | ge96 wrote:
               | Sadly for me it'd pay half my debt off
               | 
               | edit: with that in mind, leanfire is on my mind since I'm
               | single/don't actually need much to live
        
               | dr_kiszonka wrote:
               | It feels strange to write about this, but resolving a
               | health issue, paying off debt, and escaping the nerve-
               | wracking cycle of short-term, low-paying gigs would be
               | life-changing. I am the sole breadwinner, working 50-60
               | hours a week just to stay afloat, so I don't have the
               | time to prepare for interviews and pursue a stable
               | career.
               | 
               | There are many people like me.
        
               | Sohcahtoa82 wrote:
               | Likely drowning in debt.
               | 
               | When you're living paycheck-to-paycheck, even just $10K
               | in credit card debt at 30% is enough to keep you down.
               | ~$250/month merely pays the interest.
               | 
               | Maybe there's medical stuff that needs to get done. Maybe
               | the car needs fixing. Maybe you haven't gone on vacation
               | in YEARS and it's taking a huge toll on mental health. I
               | mean, consider how many people work jobs that don't offer
               | ANY PTO, so even going on a stay-cation costs money due
               | to lost wages.
        
             | duxup wrote:
             | Agreed, I think I could find things to dedicate my time to
             | that would be fulfilling. I'm not surprised, but maybe I do
             | wonder what is in those folks lives who can't find
             | something.
             | 
             | Having said that ... I'm also not in that situation, you
             | never know.
        
             | servercobra wrote:
             | I buy lotto tickets because my friends do a pool. I'm not
             | sure I'd be happy with the money, but I am very sure I'd be
             | very unhappy if I was a schmuck who didn't put in a very
             | small amount (to me) of money to be in the pool. I consider
             | it insurance more than anything!
        
             | sky2224 wrote:
             | It's almost analogous to having a video game totally
             | completed for you in a way. Everything is "done" for you
             | essentially since you just buy your way out of problems at
             | that point.
             | 
             | Before coming into that amount of money, you can be
             | distracted by the survival aspects of living in society
             | where you're just trying to make money and live
             | comfortably. There isn't any necessity to have to figure
             | out what you truly want out of life or what your passions
             | are.
             | 
             | Once you do have money, now you have to face that. You have
             | to truly find who you are. Otherwise, you're depressed or
             | you go and blow all the money on things to distract you
             | from finding who you are.
        
               | criddell wrote:
               | > There isn't any necessity to have to figure out what
               | you truly want out of life or what your passions are.
               | 
               | I most certainly don't have life figured out and I'm not
               | particularly passionate about much but I do know as a 54
               | year old, I'm on the downward side of this mountain and
               | there's so many things that are interesting to me. I'd
               | love nothing more than to be a full time dilettante,
               | living my life quarter-by-quarter, exploring a new topic
               | every 3 months.
               | 
               | I guess what I'm really wondering is how some people with
               | more money than they will ever need don't wake up in the
               | morning excited to work on some topic they find
               | interesting. A certain portion are just depressed or
               | dealing with some other mental illness, but isn't the
               | typical person interested in lots of stuff that they
               | don't pursue due to life getting in the way?
        
           | thwarted wrote:
           | > _I met someone who was an early employee at King about a
           | year after they were acquired for 5.9b - it's a little
           | different since he wasn't involved with the sale, but he was
           | still processing the insane amount of money he had_
           | 
           | Is there a word missing in this? How did they join after
           | acquisition and have a meaningful financial windfall? And
           | being an early employee?
        
             | hapidjus wrote:
             | They met a year after.
        
           | nojvek wrote:
           | > hadn't started investing beyond just the normal mutual
           | funds/bonds/etc
           | 
           | You'd be surprised how far you get ahead with S&P 500 +
           | Treasury inflation adjusted securities.
           | 
           | It's really hard to beat S&P500. Most funds after fees don't
           | beat it. If S&P500 goes to shit, inflation adjusted
           | securities give you guaranteed returns.
           | 
           | The richest IMO people are those who live a modest lifestyle
           | only from their interest, never having to touch the
           | principle. Maximizing who and what they spend their time on.
        
         | gregschlom wrote:
         | I have a couple of friends in this exact situation. In their
         | mid-thirties, no kids. They bought a very very nice house in
         | the mountains after their startup got acquired, and spend most
         | of their time travelling around the world. It's pretty awesome.
        
         | jborden13 wrote:
         | I bought a steel bike, grabbed my hammock, and went on a 4 day
         | 250 mile solo adventure through the Texas hill country.
         | 
         | Riding through empty valleys at sunset with a herd of deer
         | pacing alongisde me was enough to break me into tears. It's
         | what I needed to move on.
        
           | duxup wrote:
           | It is interesting how many stories in a way involve running
           | or moving away from the lifestyle that ... bought them a new
           | lifestyle.
        
             | hipadev23 wrote:
             | _Well, you don 't need a million dollars to do nothing,
             | man. Take a look at my cousin: he's broke, don't do shit._
        
               | sebmellen wrote:
               | There is a luxury class at both ends of the economic
               | spectrum, as Veblen observed.
        
               | tasuki wrote:
               | *leisure, I suppose. I'd love to read more on that. Is
               | that from "The Theory of the Leisure Class"?
        
               | mewmew wrote:
               | Haha, I almost never reply on HN. But the Office Space
               | ref made my day <3
        
               | technol0gic wrote:
               | my favorite quote in the whole movie
        
             | jborden13 wrote:
             | When something consumes you so rabidly and ferociously for
             | so long, and then is just gone (poof), it leaves you
             | searching. Searching for recovery and meaning.
             | 
             | It's 4 years later, and I'm still searching...
        
           | JALTU wrote:
           | Steel is real. And comes in colors other than black! :)
        
         | samiv wrote:
         | Just because the company was sold for a bunch of money doesn't
         | mean the people (yes even the founders) got a huge payout.
         | Liquidation preference and other schemes can make sure that
         | when the investors get their money there's nothing to left to
         | share between other share holders including the founders.
         | 
         | (Not saying that this is the case here, just pointing that out)
         | 
         | EDIT: As some are already pointing out, yes the title says
         | "bootstrapped". I missed that initially, so apologies.
        
           | Klonoar wrote:
           | This particular OP notes they were bootstrapped. That term
           | might mean any number of things here, but I would imagine
           | they had less exposure to losing out.
           | 
           | Or at least, I hope they did. What a fantastic win for them.
        
           | fourseventy wrote:
           | The title of this post literally says "bootstrapped"
        
           | robryan wrote:
           | To note as well the Techcrunch article specifically says 71%
           | ownership.
        
         | anonzzzies wrote:
         | I had this 25 years ago when I was 25; the amount was lower but
         | it was enough to never do anything ever again. I went hiking,
         | got 1 billion ideas during walking for new companies and
         | products, so started making some of them. Still am.
        
         | soheil wrote:
         | Typically PE deals require the founders to very much stay
         | involved in the daily operations of the business unless they
         | are near retirement age and that is the primary motive they are
         | selling in the first place.
        
         | amrrs wrote:
         | He is already running a hacker house in bangalore with cohorts
         | of researchers and practiontioners getting together -
         | https://turingsdream.co/
         | 
         | so probably it's picking one of those ideas or investing in it!
        
         | mooreds wrote:
         | I know one founder that worked a few days a week at the company
         | and took a lot of vacations.
        
       | tikkun wrote:
       | Awesome. For others, I see that Paras is now running
       | https://turingsdream.co/ "an AI hackhouse running a six-week
       | residency for coders and researchers who're interested in AI. The
       | hackhouse is in Bangalore, India and you can join it either in-
       | person, or in a hybrid fashion."
        
       | lazyeye wrote:
       | Off to /r/fatfire for you
        
       | rikthevik wrote:
       | Big congratulations!
        
       | amendegree wrote:
       | So happy for you! Great job on growing to 50mil! I'm curious how
       | this process got started, did you approach them or did they reach
       | out? Are you still gonna be involved day to day, or are you
       | taking a much deserved break?
        
       | croes wrote:
       | Is it the final goal to get acquired?
        
         | handfuloflight wrote:
         | Perhaps we can change the goals if death wasn't going to
         | acquire us all.
        
       | dinkumthinkum wrote:
       | Congratulations to you! It's great to see the hard work coming to
       | fruition.
        
       | senordevnyc wrote:
       | I really appreciate this post, especially after some of the
       | recent ones about how we're in a startup winter. I'm
       | bootstrapping a project on the side (although I acquired it as a
       | POC, didn't build from scratch), and whether it's "realistic" or
       | not, stories like this are still inspiring. Thank you!
        
       | kylehotchkiss wrote:
       | Congrats! Since it seems you're based in India, I hope you can
       | continue to invest in other promising Indian startups in the
       | coming years!
        
       | klik99 wrote:
       | Congratulations!
        
       | sandeep_kamble wrote:
       | Congratulations Paras, you made it! Looking forward to your next
       | gig!
        
       | nexarithm wrote:
       | Are you planning to write blog post of the journey? It is always
       | joyful to read about process and details about such acquisitions.
       | I remember couple shared in HN and got lots of interest such as
       | waze.
       | 
       | Congratulations!
        
       | handfuloflight wrote:
       | Congratulations! Did you reach out or did they?
        
       | phtrivier wrote:
       | Good for you ! Are you completely exiting the company, or will
       | you still run the product, if only in part ? Are you leaving a
       | team behind ?
       | 
       | I'm very curious about how to approach such a moment. There are
       | so many horror stories where an acquisition ends up being "bad
       | news" for teams and users alike - I hope this won't be the case
       | here !
        
         | dowager_dan99 wrote:
         | linked TC story says "owned 70%... retaining a small ownership"
        
       | adeptima wrote:
       | Inspiration for all of us. Congrats!
        
       | sainib wrote:
       | Congratulations Paras! Great milestone. Please share more details
       | for your journey and learnings as a blog post.
        
       | refrigerator wrote:
       | Amazing, congrats man!!
        
       | devops000 wrote:
       | Could you share your Revenue and EBITDA of last 3 years? I am
       | interested to understand multiplies. Did you sell all-cash or 51%
       | cash + other?
        
         | packetslave wrote:
         | what an intrusive, nosy question!
        
           | wnolens wrote:
           | I mean.. the guy posted on a public forum "I just made
           | $142M!"
        
           | s1artibartfast wrote:
           | Some founders are very open about these things. It doesn't
           | hurt to ask. They might even have a public blog about they
           | can link to.
        
       | myflash13 wrote:
       | Wow, what an inspiring story? Care to share any stats, such as
       | team size, when you hit your first ARR milestones, or anything
       | else?
        
         | ignoramous wrote:
         | Today, we're a team of 250+ people and seen that initial "Show
         | HN" grow into a $20mn+ bootstrapped business (no VC funding).
         | If anyone's interested in reading more, I've blogged this
         | journey (from launch to now) on our website [0]
         | 
         | from: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23466470 (2020)
         | 
         | [0] clicky: https://vwo.com/blog/vwo-evolution-10-years/
        
           | sureglymop wrote:
           | I checked out the explainer video from 15 years ago in the
           | linked blog post. It's crazy but this would still get me
           | interested even today! Wow.
        
       | dang wrote:
       | I put this post in the second-chance pool* as soon as I found out
       | about it, but given that the startup is India, I think Paras
       | might also be, in which case he may be offline for a while!
       | (Edit: and will have rather a lot of responses waiting for him
       | when that changes...)
       | 
       | * https://news.ycombinator.com/pool, explained at
       | https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26998308
        
       | firefoxd wrote:
       | My employer picked vwo over my own custom in house ab testing
       | tool [0]. I was so pissed!
       | 
       | Congrats, yours was the better tool.
       | 
       | [0]: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23471050
        
         | dang wrote:
         | Here's that earlier thread - thanks for pointing it out!
         | 
         |  _Thank HN: My startup was born here and is now 10 years old_ -
         | https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23466470 - June 2020 (128
         | comments)
        
       | FlyingSnake wrote:
       | Congratulations Paras!
       | 
       | I've been following your story since it's inception and it's
       | incredible what you've achieved.
       | 
       | Best of luck for your next endeavours.
        
       | deadbabe wrote:
       | I'm sure you made a lot of money on this exit, but given that
       | your company was sold for so much it must mean you had already
       | been making good money before the sale? Why sell?
        
       | richardw wrote:
       | Wow! I used you back in the day. Good work, Paras.
        
       | devops000 wrote:
       | Congratulation!
        
       | fatnoah wrote:
       | Wow, payoff after 15 years. Congratulations!
        
         | XCSme wrote:
         | So I just need 2 more years :D and then +$49.98m/year revenue
         | will come
        
       | pantulis wrote:
       | Congratulations! I remember using VWO in 2013, outstanding
       | product!
        
       | romanzubenko wrote:
       | Amazing outcome, congratulations! Back in 2015 working at Gusto
       | as the first growth engineer I remember reading vwo blog to
       | understand how a/b testing works.
        
       | ulf-77723 wrote:
       | Congrats!
       | 
       | What have been your highest highs and lowest lows during this
       | journey?
       | 
       | When Google discontinued their A/B Testing tool - was it
       | surprising for you?
       | 
       | How has the CRO landscape changed out of your perspective in the
       | last 15 years? 1st party tracking, serverside testing, etc.
        
       | adityapuranik wrote:
       | Congratulations Paras!
       | 
       | Been following you for a while on Twitter, love the book recos!
        
       | dcdgo wrote:
       | Really inspiring to hear your success story Mr. Chopra. I showed
       | it to my coworkers and we're all impressed.
        
       | gigatexal wrote:
       | This post made my day. What a dope shoutout to everyone. Congrats
       | to you! and your team and everyone who got paid.
       | 
       | Congrats again!
        
       | thiago_fm wrote:
       | Holy shit you killed it! Congratulations.
       | 
       | You are an inspiration for us, that didn't make it (yet).
        
       | thiago_fm wrote:
       | Holy shit, you've made it!
       | 
       | You are an inspiration for us, those who haven't made it. I've
       | been around for a similar time and never even ran my own company.
       | 
       | I hope one day to hit a homerun like you did. You deserved it.
       | Cheers!
        
       | prashp wrote:
       | I hope you have a fulfilling future ahead of you, instead of
       | being in the Hawaiian jungle and climbing Mt Everest without
       | training like some NPCs out there.
        
         | vosper wrote:
         | Maybe they would find those activities fulfilling? It's their
         | life, and wealth, after all.
        
           | jorams wrote:
           | For what it's worth gp is a reference to this post[1], in
           | which the author does not.
           | 
           | [1]: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42579873
        
             | vosper wrote:
             | I see, thanks. I wasn't aware of the reference :)
        
             | gsf_emergency_2 wrote:
             | Texas hills are also an option, if Himalayas are not in
             | your backyard :)
             | 
             | https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42806991
             | 
             | This guy has taken the (conceptual) step beyond
             | viscerality-as-a-salve:
             | 
             | https://geohot.github.io//blog/jekyll/update/2025/01/22/dea
             | t...
        
         | dang wrote:
         | Please don't take HN threads in sour and bitter directions like
         | that. We want _curious_ conversation here.
         | 
         | https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
        
       | janosch_123 wrote:
       | Another overnight success - after 16 years of work.
       | 
       | Well done, very inspiring.
        
       | XCSme wrote:
       | Congrats!
       | 
       | I am curious where do you think VWO is heading now? If people buy
       | it, they expect growth, I assume. I guess the plan is to expand?
       | Either through marketing or extending the product scope?
       | 
       | I was surprised by this:
       | 
       | > Delhi-based Wingify has grown from a two-person startup into a
       | profitable global software provider with over 6,000 clients
       | 
       | So 6000 clients is enough for a $50mn/year revenue? Enterprise is
       | where the money at!
        
       | pulkitsh1234 wrote:
       | Congrats Paras !
        
       | 2024user wrote:
       | That's awesome.. huge congrats!
        
       | neilv wrote:
       | Congrats! Questions:
       | 
       | * Are you happy with the journey, and the time horizon to exit?
       | 
       | * As advice to the impatient, do you have any insight into
       | whether a sufficiently big exit could've been sooner?
        
       | justmarc wrote:
       | I remember you launching this! I even used it and it was one if
       | not the best at the time!
       | 
       | Well deserved.
        
       | mhog_hn wrote:
       | Congratulations Paras :)
        
       | anonzzzies wrote:
       | Well done! Some good questions here; hope you get a chance to
       | answer them.
        
       | ryanmerket wrote:
       | Massive congrats! Good to see the dream is still alive and well!
        
       | mattfrommars wrote:
       | Congrats!
       | 
       | What made you commit and build this project when you were 22 year
       | old vs million others SAAS you could have built at that time?
       | Say, a CRM to compete with Salesforce, or a new web based Excel
       | or web based Photoshop tool?
        
       | soheil wrote:
       | Here is what the site looked like initially - so don't be scared
       | that everything has to look perfect and shiny.
       | 
       | Plans start at $49/month
       | 
       | https://web.archive.org/web/20140701054439/https://vwo.com/
       | 
       | and now
       | 
       | $393 per month, billed annually
       | 
       | https://vwo.com/pricing/
       | 
       | They sure did listen to @patio11
        
         | paulpauper wrote:
         | 3 letter .com. pretty impressive to get one of those
        
       | flyinglizard wrote:
       | Inspiring. Congrats!
        
       | juhanakristian wrote:
       | Congrats! Would be interesting to see the growth rate of the
       | company.
        
       | elevatedastalt wrote:
       | Congratulations!
       | 
       | Just curious, usually being purchased by a Private Equity firm
       | spells a death knell for the company. Of course at the right
       | price it makes sense that you wanted to sell it away, but what
       | are your thoughts about what will happen to the company now?
        
         | bigiain wrote:
         | Just as a counter point, private equity seems to have helped
         | WPEngine become so successful that Mullenweg has totally lost
         | his mind over it.
        
         | mooreds wrote:
         | It depends on the type of private equity too. There are
         | absolutely firms that want to milk a profitable business by
         | shutting down investment.
         | 
         | There are others that are all about growth.
        
       | rwalling wrote:
       | Bravo, @paraschopra What an incredible journey. I remember when
       | you launched. I hadn't realized it was 16 years ago!
       | 
       | I'll hit you up privately with an invite to tell your story on
       | Startups for the Rest of Us. It's a fitting place for a
       | bootstrapper like yourself.
        
       | cabinguy wrote:
       | What a great story & ending. I'm very happy for you -
       | congratulations!
        
       | didip wrote:
       | Congratulations. Now tell us stories when things were hard and
       | you almost gave up. Bet you have a lot of stories like this.
        
       | nivals wrote:
       | Long time user. Great product. Strong willed execution. Congrats
       | to you!
        
       | twapi wrote:
       | What an incredible achievement! Congratulations @paraschopra
        
       | manav wrote:
       | Congrats Paras.
        
       | constantlm wrote:
       | Congrats! I used VWO extensively in a previous life as a "growth
       | hacker".
        
       | l2silver wrote:
       | Hey Chopra,
       | 
       | Thanks for sharing, this is really inspiring!
       | 
       | Just wondering, for other bootstrappers, if you do end up selling
       | for, I don't know, $200 million letsay, how does that money
       | generally get split? What percentage of the company did you own
       | before selling, and what were the tradeoffs when selling
       | ownership?
        
         | malshe wrote:
         | The TechCrunch article the OP linked above mentions this:
         | 
         | > Chopra, who owned 71% of Wingify before the acquisition, will
         | retain a minority stake in the firm, one of the sources said.
        
       | petekoomen wrote:
       | Congratulations, @paraschopra! A great and well-deserved outcome
       | :)
        
       | sedatk wrote:
       | Congrats! Was the "Show HN" feedback useful, and did it affect
       | how you developed the product?
        
       | paul7986 wrote:
       | Very nice and congrats.
       | 
       | Yet sharing the cost of the sale I'd be concerned about doing
       | that on the public Internet.
        
       | pranade wrote:
       | Congrats Paras - amazing story!
        
       | aunty_helen wrote:
       | The HN dream. Congrats and enjoy the fruits of your labor :D
        
       | manish_gill wrote:
       | Question - What is typically the future of companies that are
       | acquired by Private Equity firms?
       | 
       | As a former employee of VWO who worked there for ~3 years, I'm
       | curious about the future of the company.
        
       | harisenbon wrote:
       | Congratulations!
       | 
       | I just checked when I started using VWO, and found a really nice
       | exchange between you and me from Fri, Dec 11, 2009.
       | 
       | VWO is still the absolute best split testing tool out there. You
       | deserve all the success.
        
         | edelwiess wrote:
         | This here speaks so much more to the success. Actual customers
         | praising the product.
        
       | mooreds wrote:
       | Congrats. Thanks for closing the loop. So many stories/comments
       | on the internet are left unresolved; it is nice to see a loop
       | closed.
        
       | nojvek wrote:
       | VWO was bootstrapped? wow!
       | 
       | Some of the PMs I worked with loved showing off what VWO could do
       | with a few clicks. Great tool.
       | 
       | Congrats on $200M!
       | 
       | Paras, You're now an inspiration for millions of devs, especially
       | from India on what is possible to build bootstrapped.
        
       | orliesaurus wrote:
       | VWO vs Optimizely was the biggest internal debate back in 2017.
       | Enemies were made, heads rolled...
       | 
       | Congrats!
        
       | dsiroker wrote:
       | (Co-founder of Optimizely here) Congrats! It was fun competing
       | with you
        
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       (page generated 2025-01-23 23:00 UTC)