Startups, be careful who you sell to

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As a photographer, the saga of Amazon buying Digital Photo Review (DPReview among friends) before slowly grinding it into the ground, then suddenly announcing they were shutting down the site, then saying "j/k , we're selling it after all" gave me a lot of time to think. Sometimes you see startups that end up being acquired in a way that seems a little peculiar, and I don't know if Amazon was ever a good place for DPReview.

Amazon dropping the brand makes me wonder what will happen with IMDb and Goodreads - two other highly rated brands that seem oddly in line with Amazon's current situation.

For startups, the lesson here, in my opinion, is that you need to find a mission-aligned acquirer who can invest in the long-term future of your business. Otherwise, you're in for a world of frustration. If you're ready to go and stop, that might be fine - but if you're hoping to continue building and expanding what you started, determine if the acquirer has a budget and is ready. to continue investing in your business.

The other thing I've been thinking about a lot this week is intellectual property. I launched a brand new TC+ series on IP (intellectual property), starting with strategy. Stay tuned for lots more over the next few months!

Image Credits: Malte Mueller (opens in a new window) / Getty Images

This week, a popular bicycle company, VanMoof, filed for bankruptcy protection. The neat feature here is that the bikes can be unlocked and tracked using your phone. If the company disappears, what happens to the app? Curiously, one of the bike company's competitors has come to the rescue by releasing an app that allows VanMoof owners to continue unlocking - and riding - their bikes.

The VanMoof Challenge advances the conversation about what happens with software-enabled hardware when something happens to the companies developing it. When my own company, Triggertrap, went out of business, we decided to open the apps, but that too is a poor solution: even though we all love open source, the learning curve to download, compile and load one on your phone is well beyond the reasonable skill level of the average consumer, including the typical VanMoof owner.

When it comes to bikes, our transportation team has looked at the best e-bikes in 2023 for every type of rider, plus... what causes battery fires in e-bikes.

Well, that sounds uncomfortable...