Oct 10, 2023 · 40m · startup-acquisition-stories
Startup Acquisition Stories with Daniel Ch, Founder of SimpleInk
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gold bands on the timeline = statements, start to end. Hover to read, click to jump. CC turns on captions
In this episode of Startup Acquisition Stories, host Andrew Gazdecki interviews entrepreneur Daniel Ch about bootstrapping, scaling, and successfully selling his Notion website builder, SimpleInk, for six figures. Together, they explore startup validation strategies, founder psychology, ecosystem tailwinds, and best practices for navigating acquisitions and buyer relationships with confidence.
How this conversation actually went
Every chapter scored 0–10 on four independent dynamics. Hover any point for the reasoning behind the score. Andrew holds 46.5% of the talking time here. How this is scored →
Andrew as informed peer 5.0 Guest teaching 1.1 Guest disagreement 0.3 Andrew pushing back 0.1
speaking balance: gold is Andrew, purple is the guest (3 minute bins)
Sharpest disagreement ▶ 33:26 Daniel amends Warren Buffett quote regarding Twitter speed
Daniel politely pushes back on the Warren Buffett quote cited by Andrew, asserting that in modern social media, reputation destruction takes mere hours instead of days.
Hardest push from Andrew ▶ 25:58 Andrew corrects quote attribution from Andrew Wilkinson to Warren BuffettWhen Daniel attributes the 'can't do a good deal with a bad person' quote to Andrew Wilkinson, Andrew steps in to correct him that it is originally from Warren Buffett.
Biggest teaching moment ▶ 5:50 Daniel recalls the specific Bill Gross TED talk titleWhen Andrew mentions a TED talk about market timing without naming it, Daniel immediately provides the exact title and author ('The single biggest reason why startups succeed by Bill Gross').
Andrew holds their own ▶ 14:31 Andrew provides industry data on startup SaaS revenue milestonesAndrew demonstrates deep industry expertise by citing specific SaaS statistics: taking 2.5 years to hit $1M ARR and only 4% of startups achieving that threshold.
the scores for every segment, with the reasoning behind each
| Chapter | Topic | Andrew as informed peer | Guest teaching | Guest disagreement | Andrew pushing back | Why |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Introducing Daniel Ch and SimpleInk | 3 | 1 | 0 | 0 | Andrew Gazdecki introduces Daniel Ch and asks about the inspiration behind SimpleInk. Daniel explains how building on top of Notion's aesthetic provided an early tailwind. The exchange is warm, welcoming, and collaborative. | |
| Market Timing, Tailwinds, and Startup Success Factors | 6 | 2 | 0 | 0 | Daniel mentions Andrew's previous mobile app experience, prompting Andrew to share his philosophy on making non-obvious bets and citing Bill Gross's TED talk on market timing. Both participants exchange startup examples like YouTube and Uber in full agreement. | |
| Validating SimpleInk and Pre-Selling to Early Customers | 5 | 1 | 0 | 0 | Daniel details how he pre-sold SimpleInk subscriptions via Twitter video demos before writing much code. Andrew validates this strategy, explaining how simple landing pages and customer feedback de-risk early products. | |
| Finding Product-Market Fit and Achieving Ramen Profitability | 6 | 1 | 0 | 0 | Daniel discusses reaching ramen profitability and how it granted mental peace. Andrew expands on this with SaaS benchmarks, noting that reaching $1M ARR takes an average of 2.5 years and only 4% of startups make it. | |
| Managing Founder Psychology and Startup Journaling | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0 | Andrew shares his personal journaling habit on Penzoo to keep psychological perspective during entrepreneurial swings. Daniel agrees and explains how managing founder psychology influenced his decision to cash out chips and list SimpleInk. | |
| Managing Buyer Interest, Due Diligence, and Mutual Trust | 5 | 1 | 0 | 1 | Daniel describes managing inbound buyer attention on Acquire.com and highlights finding buyers with mutual trust and Trustpilot social proof. Andrew clarifies that the quote Daniel attributed to Andrew Wilkinson actually originated from Warren Buffett. | |
| Prioritizing Deal Certainty and Navigating Buyer Ethics | 6 | 2 | 1 | 0 | Andrew shares case studies on prioritizing high-probability buyers over higher-priced flaky ones, and explains banning predatory buyers who reprice at the finish line. Daniel lightly quips that on Twitter, reputations are ruined in hours rather than Warren Buffett's 'days'. | |
| Key Takeaways and Advice for Startup Founders | 5 | 1 | 1 | 0 | Daniel shares three core pieces of advice for founders selling a company, starting with a contrarian quip not to blindly follow advice. Andrew adds actionable advice on buying a small $5K project first to learn the M&A process before closing the show. |
Statements from this episode (12)
Gazdecki: SimpleInk was recently acquired for a six-figure sum
“I'm here with Daniel, the founder of Simple Inc, who recently got acquired for six figures.”
Daniel Ch: Notion's aesthetic appeal drives user demand for Notion websites
“Notion is very aesthetic. It's very hard to make it look ugly, and it turns out people want to build websites out of that.”
Daniel Ch: SimpleInk's growth required the Notion tailwind
“So I don't think we would have gotten the growth we've had or the, yeah, the number of users and, you know, the support and access to all these people, which wasn't for notion.”
Daniel Ch: Simple.ink acquired its first users via discounted annual pre-orders
“We were selling a pre-order, so I think we had a pre-order for something like Six dollars a month, and when we launched, it was 12 dollars a month, so we had, like you would pay for a year upfront and get 50% off, and that's how we got our first users”
Daniel Ch: Simple.ink validated market demand using a mockup video before launch
“For us, I just made a simple preview of the app, it wasn't even actually the app, it was a bit of a, kind of like the iPhone demos back in the day, it was a bit like a movie of the no-code app, I made it To look like simple.ink, but in turn, I knew that when w…”
Gazdecki: SaaS startups average 2.8 years to hit $1M ARR; 4% succeed
“On average, it takes a SaaS company, 2.5 years, two years and eight months to get to a million in recurring revenue, and only four percent of startups get there.”
Daniel Ch: The best way to sell a company is not needing to
“The best way to sell your company is to not have to sell your company, So if you keep on going without selling it, you're perfectly fine.”
Gazdecki: Founders should treat every acquisition offer as their only one
“Any offer that you get, you should also view it as the only offer you'll ever get, because it may be”
Daniel Ch: I would accept a lower valuation from a trustworthy buyer
“I would even go as far as saying that I would at any moment choose somebody with, you know, a lower multiple, but, or, you know, maybe a lower valuation, but somebody that I know is a good person, as opposed to the other way around”
Gazdecki: Founders should accept lower acquisition offers to guarantee deal certainty
“I would recommend going with someone even at a discount because you know that the probability of that acquisition closing is higher instead of kind of signing and going into like a mystery tunnel with this person where once you sign there, cause the worst thin…”
Gazdecki: Acquire.com bans buyers who strategically reprice deals near closing
“Anyone who does that on acquire.com, we unfortunately ban buyers that do that. So it depends. It, if it's on a what we would deem as, you know, egregious, where there's no, if it's repriced based on information you had at day one, and we feel that that was you…”
Gazdecki: Founders should buy a $5,000 business to learn acquisition mechanics
“Whenever someone Emails me and says like, how do I get an acquisitions? Or I'd love to learn more about acquisitions. I'm looking to sell my company in like a year or something like that. I always kind of just say, go buy something for a five K and go through,…”