Accel Cautions Startups to Play Nice With Traditional Companies

Accel Partners, the venture-capital firm behind startups like Dropbox, Slack and Facebook, summoned its portfolio companies to a meeting at a San Francisco museum and gave them a little advice.

First, tamp down the disdain for established, non-technology companies that startups traditionally try to disrupt, because based on recent experience, a company like that might end up your acquirer. Second, the days of going public based largely on dazzling growth are over — startups need to make sure their earnings are passing muster, too.

While most startup founders dream of initial public offerings, an acquisition by a larger company is a far more likely outcome.