Jeff Seibert (Twitter) - Acquisitions: Lessons from All Sides

Entrepreneurial Thought Leaders (ETL)

Stanford eCorner

Business, Life Lessons, Creativity, Startups, Strategy, Thought Leadership, Education, Stanford University, Leadership, Challenges, Journey, Culture, Etl, Innovation, Founders, Stanford, Entrepreneurship

4.5 • 740 Ratings

🗓️ 14 October 2015

⏱️ 55 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Jeff Seibert, senior director of consumer product at Twitter, describes what went well and what didn't during the acquisition of his earlier startups by big-name technology companies, stressing the importance of culture fit, maintaining your team's trust throughout, and continued investment in growth after being acquired. Seibert also explains how an acquisition isn't always the best exit strategy for a promising startup.

Transcript

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0:00.0	You are listening to the DFJ Entrepreneurial Thought Leaders series, brought you weekly by the Stanford Technology Ventures Program.
0:10.3	You can find podcasts and videos of these lectures online at eChorner.standford.edu.
0:18.3	Today I am totally delighted to welcome our special guest, Jeff Seibert.
0:25.6	Jeff only a few years ago was sitting in your seats.
0:28.6	In fact, he was sitting probably right in that seat over there.
0:31.6	He was not only a student at Stanford and a Mayfield fellow, but one of the student hosts for this lecture series.
0:38.3	So it's extremely special to have him back here today.
0:41.3	He was a CS major, and while he was a student, he started his first company in Creo, which
0:47.3	he sold to Box.
0:48.3	He worked at Box for a couple years.
0:50.3	He left to start another company, CrashLytics, which he sold to Twitter. And now he's
0:55.8	been at Twitter for three years now. He was recently promoted to Senior Director of Products,
1:02.3	and today he's going to share with his experiences and his insights on the process of selling
1:07.8	a company and then what happens once you've actually been acquired.
1:13.5	So, without further ado, please welcome Jeff.
1:21.2	Awesome. Thank you so much, Tina. It is an absolute privilege to be here. I remember so fondly
1:26.7	sitting in these seats helping organize this lecture series. There's actually quite a few be here. I remember so fondly sitting in these seats,
1:27.6	helping organize this lecture series.
1:29.1	There's actually quite a few people here
1:30.6	that I recognize from years ago when I used to help lead this.
1:34.2	So it is amazing to be here.
1:36.1	So I wanted to start out very briefly on the Twitter side.
	...

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