Good for you. Raising money for a Prof. Services business is not easy (acquisition is the more common route) but know that investment firms that consolidate similar (or complementary businesses) under one umbrella have their pros and cons. This is what you should be asking:
* Obviously, you need to understand their valuation model (EBITA-multiple, Revenue-multiple etc.)
* What's the operating model after the firms are merged? Who calls the shots? How many seats for you, the investors and the other founders (of other firms) on the board?
* What's the likely exit for the post-merger entity? (IPO is extremely unlikely for a professional services firm in 2018.)
* How will your team be protected from potential merger shakeout? (Personnel in Accounting, HR etc are always the target in such mergers.)
* How will the merger affect your company culture?
* Will they be comfortable in letting you talk to other founders/CEOs as part of due diligence?
> one of a founder's most valuable assets is a deep understanding of the customer's problem(s) and how to solve them.
IMHO, it's the ONLY thing that matters - and like you, I too learned it the hard way. Optimizing for non-existent (or non-critical) problems is a very common mistake.
I'm curious - given that they support hundreds of integrations across so many platforms, all with their own product roadmaps etc, how does Zapier actually develop and maintain these integrations?
What happens if Google or Trello or Salesforce changes their APIs? How does Zapier keep up?
We maintain the ones we built originally, but new ones are typically maintained by the app/service in question. At some point, the question of maintaining and updating "X,XXX" integrations with a comparatively small team does arise, so the idea of the partner owning and being responsible for the integration begins to make sense.
> The "manipulative" implications the author is making could be applied towards print journalism just as accurately.
Yes - and it does apply. Editorial control and fact-checking are the two MOST vital aspects of good journalism. Any idiot - I mean, any Fox news anchor - can make up facts and report them.
> podcasts being popular without Apple having to release an app for it.
Apple was arguably the MOST important distributor of podcasts, given that they had millions of devices (including iPods - you could download/sync podcasts onto the classic iPod) in the market.
I am also not picking up the "old media is better" vibe here. Non-fiction/investigative podcasts need quality control, editorial control etc. It's hardly a gatekeeper thing.
* What do you mean by "efficient way"? Piano pedagogy is an old system that's been perfected over 200 years. What aspects of this system do you believe to be inefficient?
* Are you trying to supplement piano lessons taught by a teacher or are you trying to replace a piano teacher?
* Are your target students looking to learn classical piano or pop or jazz? Do they want to learn basic chords to sing along with, or do they want to learn to play instrumental pieces?
Which problem exactly are you hoping will go away by eliminating copyright? There was innovation and progress before copyright and there has been innovation and progress with copyright.
* "B2B" is a catch-all term. There's indirect/MRO procurement and there's direct procurement. It's very hard to break into direct procurement without also owning the product/manufacturing. So yes, that does mean Amazon is going to go after the bigger MRO market. (This is a space they excel in already.)
* Amazon is operating in the marketplace model, not just in the conventional e-commerce model. This means their inventory can be MUCH BIGGER than anyone else's with FAR LOWER operating risks. This is what is worrying Grainger and others.
* Also worth noting that Amazon has more or less given up on product quality and instead, chosen to focus on Fulfillment and Supply Chain quality. With a marketplace model, that could lead to major headaches (while still giving the B2B buyer perfect delivery and a great price!).
* Obviously, you need to understand their valuation model (EBITA-multiple, Revenue-multiple etc.)
* What's the operating model after the firms are merged? Who calls the shots? How many seats for you, the investors and the other founders (of other firms) on the board?
* What's the likely exit for the post-merger entity? (IPO is extremely unlikely for a professional services firm in 2018.)
* How will your team be protected from potential merger shakeout? (Personnel in Accounting, HR etc are always the target in such mergers.)
* How will the merger affect your company culture?
* Will they be comfortable in letting you talk to other founders/CEOs as part of due diligence?