Rakuten's 3-Day Deal

A story about how Unroll.me navigated two very different acquisition attempts - one that failed after 3 months and another that succeeded in just 3 days.

"The first company that we signed a letter of intent with, we were in due diligence for over 3 months and it wasn't a good fit. They were great people and I respect them, but we didn't see eye to eye. They saw us as a number of users, didn't see the value in the team, and wanted us to come in, rip up the culture, and do things their way.

What really pushed it overboard was how they were treating our people. Everyone on our team was getting underpaid because we were an unfunded startup. We asked them to get people to market rate, and they kept pushing that conversation for 3 months. When they finally sent offer letters, they were only raising people by 5%. When I got on a call to push for changes, they said 'Jojo, as long as you come, we're happy.' So we walked away.

Then we found the right partner. We saw that a company Slice got acquired by Rakuten. We emailed the founders saying congratulations, and 5 minutes later got a phone call from Harpy and Scott asking if we were still available. This was on a Thursday - they said give us until Sunday night for a letter of intent.

First things first, we gave them the salary numbers we wanted for everyone on our team, and they approved it on the spot saying 'this is your team, your decision, we trust you.' Then we gave them a number that we thought they wouldn't reach - they said yes. By Sunday night, we had a letter of intent, and the rest is history.

It's been amazing for us at Rakuten Slice. They really let us continue to be entrepreneurs, even though Scott, Harpy, Eric, and Ben were founders who had done this multiple times. They trusted these 24-year-old hustlers with no experience to run the company. They mentored us and let us grow into who we are today, but most importantly, they cared about the people."