Why do you have to take an offer at all? It normally takes anywhere from 1-2 years to make a site successful enough to justify selling for a gargantuan amount. In 3 months, how much growth can you get to show enough promise of future growth/monetization?
If a VC can choose to value a company at $15m, shouldn't a tech savvy acquirer be willing to pay that much instead of waiting another 2 years when the same technology might cost $75m?
Not quite, you should read Paul's essays (don't remember which exact one). VCs valuation depends more upon the amount of money (s)he's going to put and generally they won't invest smaller amounts for insignificant stake. Which implies you've to probably get more money than you really need and shell out a little more equity.
I realize... My point was that some of the buying companies have been willing to buy companies that traditionally would be raising their first rounds. A classmate of mine sold his company to Fox Interactive for $7m (reportedly) before they'd even LAUNCHED.
