Make your startup sexy for investors and companies

Startups, unlike small companies, grow rapidly and usually do not have in mind inherit the business but to make it prosper and make it attractive to brands and investors.

Cristián Tala, entrepreneur and investor says that a startup needs to be sexy so that a large company buys it, because in this way it will be attractive and will give value to the other company.

He emphasizes that any company can be sold and the ideal is to have that mentality from the beginning, “because being one of the objectives, many of the decisions they make are based on that, such as having the part orderly financial, everything regularized and not having problems with the government. It is these things that are making your company sexy”.

With that idea, Cristián founded his startup Pago Fácil, a Chilean fintech that was acquired by BCI Payments and Evo Payments three years after it was created.

“Pago Fácil was born to be sold, although it was sold earlier than expected. I wanted to sell between three to five years; I thought, it’s three years, I’m in good shape, let’s sell it!”.

According to the entrepreneur, it is easier to buy technology companies, since many of the large companies acquire them because they do not know how to grow as fast as a startup and instead of competing with them, it is easier to buy and acquire all the knowledge, speed and customer base.

However, any company can be sold, for example a bakery or shop around the corner, it can be bought by a chain of convenience stores.

Cristián says that the partners are usually aligned with the idea of ​​selling, but they may not want it yet because they know that they can sell it more expensive the following year. “However, in a ecosistema startup it is very difficult to predict what is coming in a year. Your company could be worth double, but it could also be worth zero.

Being sexy for funds

During the pandemic, Venture Capital made several investments in technology startups and now the funds are becoming more exquisite for investment, therefore, if you are looking for investment it is important to be sexy

According to Cristián, the funds are prioritizing profitable companies that may be worth 10 times in five years and are not necessarily a unicorn. They look for those startups that say: “I don’t need your money to survive, but to grow”.

The entrepreneur points out that the funds are not going to invest in a company that is “burning” the crazy money, but if in a company that is “burning” enough money to break even.

Many companies tend to confuse the period in which they have to organize to be more profitable with stretching the money to survive, two completely different things, in the second you are extending a survival period and in the first you are making the life sexier. startup for possible investment.