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First: congratulations to @shollsman @0x for playing your hand at Paystack incredibly well. Next: who& #39;s ready for some hot takes? 0/x https://techcrunch.com/2020/10/15/stripe-acquires-nigerias-paystack-for-200m-to-expand-into-the-african-continent/">https://techcrunch.com/2020/10/1...
2/x— Good rule of thumb: if a company exits for > 10X the capital raised everyone does well— including the team. With $10-12M in investment, this makes the Paystack exit good for everyone (not just founders and investors). These are the exits that build ecosystems.
3/x— Many capital sources have been reluctant to invest in Africa because it was unclear how the money would ever get back out. Closing out 2020— $1.1B in M&A (Paystack, Wave, DPO, Paystack, WeBuy Cars, KopaGas, etc) vs. $800M in venture investment.
4/x— Timelines. Paystack& #39;s Seed round was 2016 (sadly before we were on the scene). Standard rule of thumb in venture is that it& #39;s ~8 years from Seed to ready for an exit. Let& #39;s all 
https://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v2/... draggable="false" alt="🙏" title="Folded hands" aria-label="Emoji: Folded hands"> that accelerated development and value creation is a trend.
5/x— Valuations. Setting a bar at $100-250M valuations for strategic M&A in Africa gives some backbone to pricing financings... for all entrepreneurs out there raising Series A/B we hope this makes your lives a little easier.
6/x— Founders, take some wisdom from @shollsman— with this kind of exit the founders likely had 10-20% of the equity. If they had raised 1-2 more rounds of financing, they& #39;d have needed a $1B+ exit to make the cash register ring the same way (way way harder)
