n early May of this year, the team at ClassOwl was running low on energy, morale, and most importantly, cash. We had 90 days of cash left in the bank. We came together as a team and decided we were either going to sell the company or return the remaining funds to our investors.

One month later our team accepted an offer to be acquired by Branch Metrics, one of the fastest growing companies in the valley. If you’re unfamiliar with Branch (branch.io), it’s a free deep linking service used by thousands of apps to increase user growth and retention.

This is the story of our acquisition based on first-hand experience and advice we received from advisors, investors, and executives at companies like Facebook, Google, Pinterest, Uber, and Stripe.

It’s worth noting at the outset that this was a talent acquisition (“acquihire”). There’s a great post by Founders Fund’s Geoff Lewis on selling & other types of acquisitions available here.

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