Thanks for this Ross. Its always an interesting choice (and its good to have a choice!) I recall when my CEO got an offer to buy the company in the late 90's and turned it down because he was fixated on going public. Even later it wasn't clear if that was the 'right' financial choice or not, but as a VC funded company it really drove a wedge between him and the board. That was a really high price to pay.
You didn't mention the size of your team at the time of the sale, was it just you? You and a co-founder? How did they feel one way or the other about the choices?
Thanks for sharing that story. That's a big fear a lot of founders have when they are deciding if they should seek/take VC money.
As far as our team, we were small. CraftJack was owned by the first company I started, Tribe9 Interactive. I owned the majority of that, but I brought on a CTO a few months in to CraftJack and he has a share of Tribe9 and my first employee has a small share as well. But that was it. I was careful to get both of their approvals before taking the deal (although I didn't have to legally as I owned the majority), but I wanted everyone to be on board and would be happy with the move.
Also, the fact that they still own part of Tribe9 means they have equity in future companies we start or invest in (we already co-founded and invested in one called Mystery Tackle Box, http://mysterytacklebox.com, which is off to an amazing start growth wise). It was important to me to make sure everyone was game.
You didn't mention the size of your team at the time of the sale, was it just you? You and a co-founder? How did they feel one way or the other about the choices?