Nanogram's $50M Customer Capture

Jason Lemkin shares the story of his first startup success with Nanogram Devices, which made implantable batteries from nanomaterials.

"Before EchoSign, I had a startup where I made my first million. Between when the internet died, I founded a startup making implantable batteries from nanomaterials, which I knew nothing about. We sold it for $50 million after 12 and a half months.

We raised $9 million in our seed round and sold 70% of the company in our first round. That was the deal - there was no choice, no negotiation, it was a different time. We did something that was thought to be impossible and got bought by our competitor. It was a classic buyout after we took away one of their largest customers.

After the $50 million exit, there was about $8-10 million to share between the founders. It was just enough to not work for the man, though I worked even harder on the next startup, EchoSign, which Adobe bought."