Historically, Andrew Gazdecki has founded and sold software companies multiple times, and his experience of being acquired by well-known companies gives him a concrete perception of the risks of "early exit" from the perspective of "founder persistence until acquisition".

In terms of capital pathways, early founders refusing to give up too soon means continuing to invest time and organizational resources, allowing the product and revenue curves to have the opportunity to cross the "undervalued range", providing subsequent angel investors, VCs, PEs, or strategic buyers with more verifiable growth data, thus changing pricing anchors and transaction terms.

In similar cases and industry positions, Instagram underwent multiple product iterations before its acquisition, and Figma continued to invest rather than exit early when facing competition and technological evolution pressures; these cases turned "extending the persistence cycle" into a scarce asset, allowing companies in the SaaS and consumer internet sectors to shift from passive survival to actively choosing exit timing.

Structurally, this emphasis on "not exiting early" essentially points to "the transfer of pricing power": when founders use time and performance to push the company from the survival zone to the competitive advantage zone, the valuation discourse shifts from a buyer's market to a seller's (founders and early shareholders), changing who decides the timing, terms, and valuation center of the transaction.

ABAB News · Cognitive Laws

Exiting early ensures safety, but exiting late may allow for pricing power.
If founders persist one more round, capital has one less opportunity to bottom out.
Giving up is an emotion; exiting is a structured time decision.