🔥 AMA 🔥 - Andrew from MicroAcquire! Startup acquisition marketplace!

@adityasriganesh Great question, depends on the company as there as so many factors such as revenue, growth, churn, code quality, happiness of customers, industry, the list is endless but here's a good article on SaaS valuations check out: https://resources.microacquire.c...

@mahinckley I used to start a business every summer in high school and college. Started with an eBay store, web design company, job board, then Bizness Apps. I learned from each venture, how paid ads work, how to set up a website, how to talk to customers. how to find good engineers, how to market, how to sell, and most importantly how to hustle etc. You learn the most by doing and being able to teach yourself anything.

@chuckbrandt1991 Great question. To be candid, I wasn't looking to raise capital and the thought of giving up some ownership gave me seconds thoughts but it was all worth it. Since I already have a "win" under my belt I'm able to take bigger risks. As for arriving at valuation, that all comes down to negotiation and how interested other investors are. The more the better.

@jimt1277 Talked to customers, hired an agency, talked to more customers, rinse & repeat. We're building MicroAcquire with fellow founders and entrepreneurs, to develop a community-led platform that meets the needs of both buyers and sellers.

@adriancb We mainly acquired customers through a white label reseller network. Essentially we focused on the software, then would remove our branding, and then partner with web agencies to allow them to use our no-code platform to build mobile apps for the SMB clients. At our peak we had over 5,000 partners all across the globe and created more apps than any other company in the world: https://techcrunch.com/2015/12/2...

@adriancb Broad question but most obvious answer is the founder set a proper valuation, negotiated properly with buyers, was response with questions, and was motivated the sell the business. See here for an acquisition course I put together:

@greg_egan We've seen a ton of acquihires on MicroAcquire but it would probably be difficult without some working product or company in place. Great idea though!

@tadej_krevh Ah yes it wasn't easy. So I had "launch date". I found a group of serious buyers (mostly private equity) that loved the idea, then I pitched startups letter them know there were real buyers on MicroAcquire. Once both were onboarded I launched on ProductHunt same day: https://www.producthunt.com/post... Then that just began the fly wheel effect of startups & buyers coming to me but for a while, I'd see maybe 1 new startup posted per week. Now it's 100+. Startup take a lot of conviction and patience, this is where I see most failing by simply giving up. I stuck with it because I truly felt MicroAcquire needed to exist and enjoyed working on it, which is also important, find something you'd run for free.

@andrewgazdecki I think it's a great service and wish you all the best!

@abhash_kumar2 We used to list side projects without revenue but not as much anymore. The product has to be really good. I'd recommend trying to find even just a few paying customers before looking to sell your startup as your exit price will be much more meaningful, and much easier to find a buyer.

@shashcoffe Good questions... 1. Talk to customers. 2. Talk to customers. 3. Talk to customers. 4. You need to know your numbers, ideally customer acquisition payback period. How fast can you reinvest revenue from customers back into growth? Also need a team, can't do it alone. 5. Simple. Just focus on building a business with happy customers. The rest sorta takes care of itself but the key is to having a business with happy paying customers. :)

@cam_langsford Thanks Cam, really appreciate the kind words.

@cam_langsford Where can I listen to the episode??

@cam_langsford @hussain_tabha https://www.startupsfortherestof...

@abirxhossain Thanks so much! At the moment, no there's just too many startups I want to help successfully get acquired. The additional money wouldn't really change my life and I like having a purpose & helping entrepreneurs succeed.

@abirxhossain @andrewgazdecki That's a shame : ) otherwise you'd be able to use MicroAcquire to sell MicroAcquire.

@oleksii_sekundant Thanks so much for the support dude means a lot! Short answer yes, see here for the vision for MicroAcquire: The acquisition market is complex and opaque. Data is siloed in multiple systems, platforms, or agencies, and often skewed towards one party in the transaction. As a result, first-time buyers or sellers struggle to find the help they need and fewer acquisitions happen. We want to change that. Our goal is to aggregate the acquisitions market in the same way Zillow did for real estate. Due diligence, escrow, valuations, advisors, legal, and financing: we’re bringing everything together in a trusted and transparent marketplace, making acquisitions easy.

@andrewgazdecki Thanks for the answer, really appreciate! For a while had an idea, on how MicroAcquire can make the acquisition more transparent and add some due diligence for the tech part of the products. Considering you have already business brokers onboard, I feel that it may make sense for you. One of the things we have been doing is: https://www.producthunt.com/post... Basically, it is the audit of all the tech behind the platform, in order to detect the true state of the affairs (in terms of tech). It is mostly based on the requests we've got from our clients and network, to check the tech behind the platform before the acquisition of the competitors or just a random product. The problem is that before acquiring the product, they didn't know: How much support would cost? If there are major bugs in place? If architecture is ready to scale easily and fast? etc. I see there are might be a cool additional point where MicroAcquire can provide some added value, for both buyers and sellers. Not sure, if users had requests about something like that before, but would guess there might have been in place. Obviously, would be thrilled to chat about that :)

@andybeard Yeah most deals get negotiated down quite a bit. Tons of sellers also list high to keep buyers that aren't serious away (I advice not to do this) but it does only bring it people who really love the product rather than the valuation. Also, valuations are hard on the smaller end, see here:

@joshdance We focus on high-quality startups, typically SaaS & eCommerce. Also, it's 100% free to sell on MicroAcquire without any fees or commissions.