Today it was announced that Guy Kawasaki sold Truemors to NowRepublic. For those of you who do not remember, Truemors was Guy’s little experiment last year to prove that you could launch a Web 2.0 startup on the cheap. I believe all told, he was about 10k in (give or take a few, but who is counting, right). There have not been any numbers released on the actual sale price, but given that NowRepublic has raised two rounds of funding and the last one being a little over ten million, chances are Guy did not make a mint on this sale.

However, it begs the question, what constitutes a successful exit? Does it come down to shear percentages, or is it a hard dollar figure? I would have to assume that a successful exit is more of a percentages game than anything else, but I could be wrong. I mean, if you can get a 100x return on your investment, does that make for a successful exit? If so, if Guy sold Truemors for a million, is that a successful exit? I would have to go out on a limb and say yes, although in the grand scheme of things, one millions dollars is not a whole hell of a lot (to me it is, but to those that deal in this sort of business daily, it is not a ton of dough).

So what about a company that raises ten million and sells for sixty million? At first glance, that seems like a pretty substantial sale price and one might consider that a successful exit, but is it? The investors are only getting a 6x return on their investment, whereas the example above they are getting a 10x, so which one is more successful? I would also venture to guess that in this example, the investors would probably not bite on a sale for that price and want to hold out for more, but is that the right thing to do? What if the company will never be worth more than the sixty million, should they not get out while they can? I know there are a ton of factors that go into the decision, and I am grossly over simplifying my examples, but the question still remains, what makes a successful exit?

In Guy’s case, I would argue he made out pretty well, after all he is now the new chairman of NowRepublic and I am sure that comes with a pretty decent salary .