The technique itself is pretty simple : find someone who's offering could integrate with your own, and buy them out. Predatory companies like Google, Facebook and even relative newcomer Twitter have all acquired a number of different, yet related services.
(According to Wikipedia, Google's bought over 100 start-ups, Twitter nearly 30, and Facebook around 10.)
Considering most of my readers don's have a spare $40 million in their back pocket, it may seem like a strange topic for the blog, but here's the rub : what happens if you're on the other side?
Show Me The Money
The process can be broken down as follows:
- find a predatory market leader in a domain that you have skills in;
- set up a service that is complimentary, and valuable to their users;
- allow users to sign up for free, monetize via adverts if need be;
- generate social noise;
- get bought.
I'll admit that re-reading that in black and white it feels a bit naive, but looking over the hundreds of high-tech acquisitions that have gone on over the last 10 years or so, one can't help wondering if, sometimes, very clever people haven't just adopted the above five step process.
At the very least, you'll learn a lot about traffic acquisition as you try to build up the service so that it hits the radar of your target predator. For that alone, it ought to be worth a shot!
