Red Hat chief tells start ups to grow, not cash out

"Szulik urged startups to rip up the prevailing Silicon Valley business plan of exit strategy via Google acquisition, and focus on delivering value - especially to enterprise customers."

Heh, wasn't it just a few short years ago when the goal was Microsoft acquisition?

This is a good article. I think Mr. Szulik makes a lot of sense every time he speaks.

Indeed. It is also refreshing to see a CEO of such a big company humbly admit that they too are still learning how to scale, and this is RedHat we are talking about, the synonym for a business success based pretty much fully on Free Software alone.

And RedHat isn't even the only one to be humble. Just look at Sun. Interesting. :)

Anyway, the point he makes is one I think many startups should hear. If every startup had a goal to merely be snatched up by bigger players then those same old big players will always be all we have in the market, which isn't really good as it poses a risk of stagnancy on their part as they simply wait for the next startup to come with something innovative to snatch it up.

Startups should look to become big players themselves instead, turning down the acquisition offers. This way, the big guys will be kept on their toes all the time, which is very good for progress.

A new motto for startups: "Don't be taken over. Take over!" :)