wow, sorry to hear about it don... that's a bummer. still, i'm sure you'll get scooped up quickly, so best of luck on your next adventure! take care & keep on bloggin' :)

more important factor to consider than just the size of funds being larger:

1) capX rqmts for companies is lower (at least for consumer internet startups)
2) likelihood of IPO / large acquisition is much lower

imho, i believe there are just a lot more potential acquiring companies out there these days, but they don't really need to wait for startups to become huge like Skype or YouTube before acquiring them. they're much more likely to buy them small & integrate them into their own platforms (sometimes unsuccessfully, but that's besides the point).

no not really. all about the "faces" really is more like "all about the warm fuzzy graphics i relate to", which could be both pictures of faces, or avatar icons.

in my case, for twitter i've chosen an icon that's associated with some brand & iimagery that i like, and that seems to resonate with a lot of people. it's fun, and approachable... just like the smiling picture i have on facebook.

they're different, but both fun & approachable.

>>I heard the line “it’s all about the faces” from someone in the past few weeks.

that "someone" would be me:
https://twitter.com/davemcclure/status/1789385359

both profile photos of faces and avatar graphics have their advantages / disadvantages... but for sure, it matters a lot that it's recognizable, high-quality, warm / friendly / sexy / powerful, reasonable level of zoom, smiling, etc.

it's even important which way the face is angled (looking left vs right, up vs down). there are powerful evolutionary & psychology factors that determine this. there was a fascinating presentation by Joseph Carrabis at NextStage Evolution on this topic i saw a few years back... if i can dig up a link to the deck i'll post it back here.

happy to help plant the seed, but honestly all i did was make an introduction... you folks did all the rest :)

now good luck turning GS into a big tall oak tree!