When your startup gets acquired

I'll share how much I got paid out as an early employee, what I really got out of working there, and lessons learned from the entire experience

Some big news for me: The startup I joined seven years ago, Logikcull, was acquired this week by Reveal. It marks the close of a big chapter in my professional life because Logikcull was where I first pivoted to after I left the practice of law. Earlier this week, I shared a bit about my journey there on LinkedIn, for those of you who missed it.

In today’s article, I’m going to give more of a behind-the-scenes look on what that acquisition meant for me. Financially. I’ll tell you how much I made from my stock options (and yes, I’m going to make you scroll all the way down if you clicked in just to find out). But the real, underlying message of this post is this: The financial upside of my time at Logikcull was nothing compared to the value of the career growth I experienced there.

I’ll close this article by sharing 3 important lessons I took away from this whole experience. TLDR: (1) Pessimism has a price; (2) Take bets that have limited downside; and (3) Early on in your journey, career growth is FAR more valuable than startup equity. Warning: This week’s article is SUPER long.