A different kind of high-growth start-up

When Billy Lee and I started Reunion, we thought carefully about the type of company we wanted to build.

We both had experience working at companies that had raised a lot of venture capital. The teams were under pressure to spend money quickly, and to maximize short-term revenue targets to get to the next fund-raise. The VC focus on billion-dollar “unicorn” companies also influenced company strategy; teams were often chasing bright shiny objects, rather than building for the long term.

I learned rather late that VCs invest “preferred equity” in a company, meaning that when a company exits, the VC gets paid first. If a company has a “successful” $200M exit but they raised $190M of venture capital, then investors will be repaid at least $190M before a dime gets paid out to founders or employees. This often creates situations where employees don’t realize that their “valuable startup equity” is worthless, or becomes worthless when the company can’t raise another funding round. (WeWork is a prominent example of this, but it’s actually very common; I have more than a dozen friends who have previously worked at startups where this is true.)

Reunion has taken a different approach. Our goal from day one has been to build a profitable business focused on the long term, without reliance on outside investment. We try to solve our customers’ most difficult problems, so they see our value and stick with us over time.

We raised less than $3 million in a single funding round, and given our strong profitability starting in 2024, we have fully repaid our investors with interest. As a result, we have a single class of shares. No preferred equity. Full alignment of interests between founders, investors and employees. Most importantly, our profitability and capitalization give us the freedom to focus on long-term initiatives that we think will create an impactful and enduring business, without artificial deadlines.

This approach has hurt us at times. Prospective employees don’t see famous VCs or fund-raising announcements, and may assume that it would be risky to join. But we think it’s harder and more impressive to have funded our growth from profits (including an expansion into a fast-growing software business).

Finally, this doesn’t mean that we are any less ambitious than other high-growth companies. We recently reached a milestone of working with large corporations to invest over $7.5B in clean energy projects, and we are hiring for 10 open roles. We are also working hard to maintain our company culture: we believe that a lean and highly accomplished team can get an amazing amount done. We learn a lot from each other, and try to have fun along the way. If this type of company sounds like what you’ve been looking for, please reach out!