Ganesh Kendale
Jyoti Bansal, the 46-year-old founder of computer application company AppDynamics sold his firm to Cisco for $3.7 billion in 2017. The deal made hundreds of the startup’s employees millionaires. In an interview with CNBC Make It’s The Moment series, Bansal reflected on the complex emotions surrounding AppDynamics’ sale – from the challenging deliberation process to the subsequent doubts he experienced shortly after the deal.He said “that’s the bittersweet part of selling your company. It’s a great outcome in a lot of ways, but it’s the end of a chapter, or end of a book, in many ways too. I was kind of lost.
How he made about 400 AppDynamics employees wealthy
AppDynamics then employed about 400 employees. The Cisco acquisition proved life-changing for AppDynamics’ workforce. The decision to sell was driven by several factors, such as the alignment of AppDynamics’ software with Cisco’s portfolio and the potential financial and cultural impact on the company’s 1,200 employees. “We had dozens of employees with $5 million-plus outcomes. These are life-changing outcomes,” Bansal told CNBC Make It.
A spokesperson for Bansal confirmed that roughly 400 employees became millionaires when their shares were valued at $1 million or more following the deal.
Three factors why he sold his startup
During the interview, Bansal revealed three factors that he considered while selling his firm to Cisco.
“We could be part of a bigger platform, like Cisco, and their customer base and market. That’s one factor. The second is culture, what kind of home your employees get. Cisco, to their credit, did an excellent job giving a high degree of independence to the AppDynamics unit, I’d say”, he said.
“The third factor is financial. Is it the right thing for the stockholders — founders, investors and employees?”
He further added “As the only founder, I was fortunate enough [that] any outcome financially would be fine for me. [But] we had about 300 or so employees who made more than a million dollars in the final offer we accepted.”
Bansal also revealed why, with his current venture, he would likely reject a comparable acquisition offer. He said “[After the sale] I realized that I really enjoyed building the company, creating products, solving problems, competing in the market, every element of company building that I’d gone through. It was intense and stressful, but I really enjoyed it. I also felt like we didn’t fully finish what we could’ve done.”
