Greg Isenberg is a multi-exit Silicon Valley entrepreneur and owner of Late Checkout product studio. He has:
- Headed Product Strategy at WeWork
- Been an advisor to Reddit
- Founded a startup, Islands, which was sold to WeWork
- Founded 5by, which was sold to StumbleUpon
Guest Author: Greg Isenberg
I met a 50 year old founder yesterday.
Guy is doing $6.5M/year ARR and never raised a dollar of VC. I asked him what his goal for 2024 was: “Retire and give my business to my daughter. Nothing will make me happier to see her as CEO and me as chairman.” It got me thinking…
Prediction: We’re going to see a rise of family owned businesses. It’s already happening. Except this time they won’t be restaurants, general stores or laundromats.
They’ll be internet businesses. You’ll bootstrap your SaaS startup or paid community to millions and give it to your children. I for one, am excited about it.
Quick backstory: My great grandfather had a store (selling dinnerware, home stuff) my grandmother worked at. My grandmother took it over. My dad took it over.
This photo is from WW2 era (“pre-war prices”) of my grandmother and my grandfather proudly in front of their little store on Saint Laurent street in Montreal. Saint Laurent used to be called “the main” aka the main street of the city.
My family had made it.
You can see how proud they are. Immigrants from Europe coming with nothing with their very own store. I had lots of good memories growing up in the store, learning about the business and feeling the same sense of pride my family felt. It ended up closing as Wal-Mart and large chains hurt these tiny “mom and pop” businesses.
But it was a great ride. If stories like this are interesting, I’ll share more of them. Back to the rise of internet family business. Will we see less “Silicon Valley”, more Succession? I think this is the beginning of an incredible rise of family-owned internet businesses and I’m here for it.
— Follow me @gregisenberg for more of this stuff.
I don’t use ChatGPT or steal content, just sharing my thoughts in real-time that’ll get your startup creative juices flowin’.
Check out the original tweet here.
