The Exchanges

Q Nice. Is there any like app store optimization that you can do? Can you, Focus a lot on reviews. Can you optimize the titles or the images or anything like that? Like any advice if someone is listening to this and maybe they have a Shopify app?

A For sure. So something that works really, really well is definitely reviews. Um, so the more reviews you have, the, the higher up in the listings you appear. Um, so it's kind of like the typical SEO in general. So wording on your listing is also very important, like the title, the description, How it works, what it, what it does. All that, um, information description is very, very important for you to appear in different searches, in different categories, and just on the, like, the level of, um, of how high up in the list you, you appear, and that has to do with, obviously, um, uh, your wording and, and, and your descriptions, but also the number of installs, number of reviews, so that all plays out. And it's really, really important to focus on that. Images are also very, very important, and, um, something that we've actually never done, but I know it's really, really good, um, for your listing, which is great advice, is, um, having a demo store. So having an actual store, um, that, that works, I mean, it's obviously a demo store, so you're not really selling anything, but, um, to see the app in action, um, that, that works really well for your, App in your listing in general. So what would have happened if we would have done it is, like, you go into the store, abandon a cart, and then maybe an hour later you would have gotten a WhatsApp message from that store saying, hey, yo…

AI assessment note: “wording on your listing is also very important, like the title, the description”

Q Nice. And then when you initially met with the founder's Did you know this was an acquisition you were going to pursue right away? Did something persuade you over time? What did that look like?

A Well, what I would say is I was initially interested, um, immediately, um, for all the reasons I just mentioned, but what I, what I would say is, is I was, I started digging in and I wasn't dissuaded. You know, often you'll go through and you'll get excited about a particular opportunity. You'll start digging in the diligence. You'll find out that, that, that, you know, the target acquisition has this problem or that problem or something like that. And, And over the course of that diligence period, which was about, you know, a month or so, you know, I, you know, probed, looked, looked, looked, and, and I didn't find anything that, that gave me pause. In fact, um, it was really just, you know, doubling down on what I felt, um, was commitment on what they had built, what they were, their vision as to where they were going to go, and whether or not that I could be able to provide value for that. And then once those things kind of come together, Then, then it becomes almost a, I don't know, academic exercise in, in trying to put together a package that I thought would be, um, something that, that we, that would provide both myself as well as the sellers a, a path forward. Um, and you know, rather than just a simple, you know, handoff, execute, uh, or I should say handoff, execute a deal, and they walk away. You know, I, I was very much, and continue to be in the, in, The view that …

AI assessment note: “I was initially interested, um, immediately... but... I started digging in and I wasn't dissuaded.”

Q Nice. And then where do you think Aprebo can go from here? Do you have plans to continue growing it on the pace it's been growing? Do you have plans to bring it into new markets?

A We're going to start by focusing on doubling down on what they've already found success in, in their original ICP. There are certainly different paths that we could, we could go down. Um, but you know, you look at what I just said, the property condition data set that they have is so unique that You can spin that into different areas. Think, uh, you know, the roofers or other trades, um, insurance, um, you know, you could go on and on, but like, there are a number of different ways in which we can go through and create value by taking property condition data, applying some other data set to it to create derivative data that can be marketed as a product. And that is something that I certainly feel that we have a path towards. Um, you know, in the future.

AI assessment note: “We're going to start by focusing on doubling down on what they've already found”

Q What if as a buyer, you don't have a technical background? Do you think that matters?

A Um, only so much if you can retain the technical people that created it, um, or be able to, if, if they, as the seller is looking to exit, being able to replace that talent, um, You know, it again, it comes down to what stage is it at? Is it, are you still doing a ton of customer development? Um, you know, that's the right skill set. Are you hiring, you know, the team's first, you know, handful of sales reps or trying to build an initial sales motion? That's a different skill set. And so it's, what does the existing asset and team have? Um, do you compliment that? And if not, do you have the resources to go through and hire those necessary people post acquisition?

AI assessment note: “only so much if you can retain the technical people that created it”

Q Nice. So you have a playbook that you run. Are you open to talking about that a little bit?

A Yeah, totally. Totally. I'm a big, um, I think every growth guy has, you know, has their favorite channel. Um, you know, back in the day for me, it's, it's kind of funny to look back, but what worked really well for me was, um, I would just in person sell. So again, I was with my first company, I was, uh, selling to dental practices and kind of created a method to just go into offices every single day and had a thing where, you know, I would basically hit up 15 offices. I would talk with five decision makers and I would go home with a contract. And kind of a 1505 one. I'd do that every single day and did that for a handful of years and it was great. Um, but then kind of got, you know, burnt out on that and, um, got a little bit smarter and, and, uh, started leveraging partnerships. And so big partnership guy, um, in a nutshell, basically, you know, I'll pick a vertical, uh, find a couple hundred, uh, names of people within that space and then have a playbook to kind of reach out to them. And, you know, I position my SaaS products as being kind of the tool on their, you know, consultant tool belt. So I love working with consultants and, you know, basically acquiring customers through them.

AI assessment note: “in a nutshell, basically, you know, I'll pick a vertical, uh, find a couple hundred”

Q Nice. What tools do you use for follow-ups? Either like HubSpot or Outreach or something like that?

A Um, so honestly, for me, I just like to keep it really simple. I just plug it into my phone. So I plug it into my phone. I have a cadence where every, every day I, I reach out to 20 either potential partners that I'm working with or, uh, or Current partners that I'm working with are potential partners that I would like to work with, and depending on what stage I'm at, it's like, I'm either sending a text, I'm sending an email, um, you know, we have a call scheduled, or I'm shooting them a door dash, or some, some type of gifting type thing, and, and, um, that's, that's personally how I do it, and I just plug everything into Trello.

AI assessment note: “I just plug it into my phone... and I just plug everything into Trello.”

Q Okay, if you had to pick a product and a vertical to go after next, maybe a founder's listening to this, and like, this is a great idea, I think I can do this, uh, what's like, what direction would you point down? Would it be, uh, Reputation management platform for gems? Like, what do you think it'd be?

A Yeah, um, I mean, just because I, I know the space so well, I like the reputation space, so I, I would go with that. I would, I would just have, like, a simple tool, um, that works, and, and yeah, I would niche down, um, to a vertical, and I always say the, the reputation tool is a great, you know, foot in the door, so the idea is, okay, you're a reputation company for gems. But then once you get your foot in the door, you start working with gyms, then hopefully you can find out different tools and features that haven't been created yet, um, that you can add on top of the reputation tool. So that's, that's kind of how I would think about that.

AI assessment note: “I like the reputation space, so I, I would go with that.”

Q this way. If a founder was looking to sell, what are some tips that you would give them to be successful? I've, I think that's awesome. You fly to meet people, shake hands, and do in-person training. Uh, you mentioned the Trello board with, I assume, some due diligence items. Like, if you had to give like three main points that every deal needs, what do you think they'd be?

A Yeah, I think, I think first and foremost, your, your website, Um, should, should be solid. Um, your website should be solid. You should also invest a little bit in just creating a really good deck. Um, I think you guys have tools for, for doing that, but that's, that's one thing I've always had my design team that I work with. Um, you know, try to create things that look really good and presentable. Um, and then yeah, just having all the information ready. Um, I like to organize it in a Trello board and, and for all buyers that, you know, are, are pretty interested, I'll give them access. And that makes the process way easier for sure to get the ball rolling.

AI assessment note: “first and foremost, your, your website... really good deck... having all the information ready”

Q That's incredible. Where is this app available? Is it just the UK? Is it local? Is it in other areas?

A Um, technically it can be used across anywhere in the world, um, but we mostly, because of our business model, uh, it's mostly used in, uh, in the UK. Um, however, we have lots of people that, you know, whenever they go on holiday to US or to France or to wherever around the world, uh, they will often take their street tag with them because they want to stay competitive and make sure they're climbing the leaderboard. So there's a leaderboard system to it. So they don't want to miss out on all the points. So even when I go on holiday, there's two tagging, uh, which is great, but it can be used pretty much anywhere around the world. And we are scaling that to lots of places now.

AI assessment note: “technically it can be used across anywhere in the world, um, but we mostly... in the UK.”

Q That is amazing. Tell me about the business model. How does it generate money?

A Um, so, uh, our business model currently, which is, uh, you know, ever evolving, especially as part of this, uh, acquisition, uh, we're going to be expanding. Um, essentially we work with local authorities, uh, across the UK. So they contract us over a year or two years or three years, however long the contract is going to be. And then essentially their goal is to, uh, is to get people that are physically inactive within the local area to be more physically active. So we had to basically deploy the program, uh, to get lots of people. We do a lot of targeted work in, you know, in getting people to be more physically active as a result of the engagement with street tag. And at the end of it all, We, uh, get our data science team to basically showcase how the impacts that we've had, how we've transitioned people from being physically inactive to fairly active, and active as a result of the intervention that we brought in with Street Time. So that's what they pay us for, uh, to deploy the program and get people active. So it's a legal thing.

AI assessment note: “we work with local authorities, uh, across the UK. So they contract us”

Q Right on. How was, how did you get new clients? Was it mostly referrals, or did you do some marketing yourself?

A Yeah, so at the beginning, we really, that, that business partner I told you about, he, we really used his network to get those first few clients, and so that was really great, a great resource for us to get started, and then as time went on, we tried to spread the word more in those markets. We, I got some Facebook ads going. I failed. I tried different ones that failed. I tried different ones that failed. I probably spent tens of thousands of dollars on Failed attempts of, of sales funnels to get us new clients, and then I finally found a recipe that really worked, getting like the right message, the right funnel, the right follow-up, the right sales pitch to, to, to get more, more clients that way, and then once we started growing, we had enough people that referrals started coming in as well.

AI assessment note: “we really used his network to get those first few clients”

Q I feel like that's a mistake all entrepreneurs just have to make themselves and live through it. Sometimes the cheaper option is actually the more expensive option. For sure. That makes complete sense. So why did you want to sell the business? You had product market fit, it was an extremely profitable business, tons of happy clients. What made you decide to sell?

A I got to a point where So as an entrepreneur, like we, we were super excited about ideas and stuff. I got the business to a point where every, every role was filled, all, all the responsibilities I had. There was an employee who, who now had that task and I didn't really have to work on the business too much. And I got to a point where, okay, there's all these improvements to scale the business. And I looked at that list, and I'm like, I think I'm more passionate about starting businesses more than, like, scaling them, per se. And so once I kind of realized that that's my passion is building, not scaling, that's when I was like, hey, what, you know, what would it, I started asking myself the question, like, what would it look like if I, if I sold this, you know, use it, use this chunk of, this chunk of change to start a new one. What's more, what's more, what am I more passionate about, studying that, that second one, or doubling this existing one, and I just naturally felt more excited about studying a new one, and so to follow my passion, I wanted, I wanted to go with, with, with that route, and yeah, that, that's where the conversation came from.

AI assessment note: “I think I'm more passionate about starting businesses more than, like, scaling them”

Q started a business. It's grown to a certain point. They're starting to get bored. And I think that's huge because whatever you're most passionate about, that's where you're going to be really great. That's where you're going to typically add the most value. So I think that makes a ton of sense. Let's move forward a little bit. You reach out to acquire.com. What were your expectations? Let's start there.

A Um, I didn't, I didn't really have a lot of expectations. Like, I, this is, this is unknown territory to me. I had heard about Acquire through, like, social media or something. I wasn't a hundred percent sure how, because I'm, I'm, I'm, I've been, I have a lot of experience with building businesses and stuff like that. I've never really been, like, the person to, like, build, sell, build, sell, build. So, so this is kind of a first for me. So I had heard about Acquire. I just, Listed it on the platform for, just to see what would happen, and it seemed, seemed to work pretty, pretty good for me. I had a coach who kind of helped me know what things look best in the listings and stuff like that, and helped me build that, and once I went live within a month, we had a couple, a couple really solid offers.

AI assessment note: “I didn't, I didn't really have a lot of expectations.”

Q Nice. And then with text as well, what was the growth levers that you saw on that one? And then also what did text do just from a high level?

A Yeah, so with text.runner, it's a, it's a, again, it had the two same tiers. I didn't change anything there. Basically, it allowed users to kind of create a personal website with, you know, links to socials and things, and it, it kind of displays in the format of, um, like a text chat message system, so really simple website to spin up. Yeah, I, I didn't actually, so with that, I just kind of maintained support and helped people out When needed, I didn't have the time to grow that one before I sold it. It was more of a maintenance project, but I definitely did have some thoughts on how it could grow out that, you know, I put forward when I was able to sell it on Acquire.

AI assessment note: “allowed users to kind of create a personal website with, you know, links to socials”

Q Nice. If you only could pick like three different growth levers, what do you think those would be? Like, like when you looked at these applications, what are like the first areas that you look at? Uh, if you're seeing if it's a good app for you to grow.

A Yeah, sure. I think, um, one thing that worked really well was just throwing it out organically in index sites, especially when it's a micro SaaS and sharing it on, you know, socials and Reddit. I, I, they had been launched on product hunt previously, but I redid that as well. So I think just getting eyes on the product is probably the first growth lever to try and pull. And that way, you know, if the product's something people want, you'll organically get those customers to start coming through. So that's probably the first, the first thing I'd do. Second, I guess would be to, yeah, I think it's a long game. Luckily for me, because it was an established project, SEO was great. It was ranking really highly organically with, with kind of, you know, minimal blogging content there. The keywords were just optimized really well. So I think that was bringing in quite a lot of traffic also, which helped. I think that's a really strong play if you can do it, but that's long term. And obviously if you're, you're trying to hit growth quickly, it's not always the best, but it's a good strategy to always keep in mind and keep running. And then again, I guess the third thing is what you mentioned first is, um, making sure you're communicating with your users, getting their feedback on, you know, what's working, what's not, and what, what features they kind of want you to build out.

AI assessment note: “just getting eyes on the product is probably the first growth lever to try and pull”

Q Yeah. That's good advice. So it sounds like the apps were growing. They were doing well. Why'd you decide to sell both of them?

A Yeah. So they're both doing well and, you know, bringing in some passive income for me, which was nice, but, uh, I kind of just wanted to, well, both of them for me were kind of like a learning process, which was really great. I, I, because they weren't my products initially, uh, I wanted to kind of go off and grow my own thing. So growing my agency, almost human digital, I wanted to kind of put some more time and, um, money into that. So I was able to kind of flip them both, go through the learning process of meeting other founders and, you know, what it's like to sell, sell a business and staff and also get that capital to help kind of inject into future endeavors.

AI assessment note: “growing my agency, almost human digital, I wanted to kind of put some more time”

Q What's your thoughts on lifetime plans for products like this initially? I've heard both cases where downside is obviously you got to support the person lifetime. The other hand is you get, you know, an influx of revenue to support other things, maybe paid ads or something like that. What was like your thought process for having a lifetime plan and do you regret it? Would you do it again?

A I would do it again. It didn't bring in a ton of revenue. So I, I had two strategies actually. One of them is I was offering it when I did my product hunt relaunch. So that brought a bit of revenue in. And then I did partner with deal fuel, which was like an alternative to, um, AppSumo. The, the, one of my growth plans afterwards was to, to go on with AppSumo, but it didn't get around to that before I sold it, which I think at the state for me, because it was, you know, solo founder supporting this app. My, my plan was, I just wanted it in flux of revenue at the time, so I think if that's your goal, to enable you to grow, it's a good, good idea. One way to mitigate risk is to make sure that, you know, maybe it's a, maybe you create a specific tier for that lifetime plan, and maybe it covers it, you know, upgrades for a year, and then it's, you know, ongoing features, it separates it, so I think as long as you're upfront about it, and don't try and hide it, there's different ways you can mitigate risk there, but I think if, if it's kind of a make or break, or you want that really fast user base or revenue growth, then it's, it's a really good, uh, lever to engage, but, uh, obviously it's not for everyone, and it doesn't always play out the way you want, and it can lead to, you know, massive influx of having to, you know, support users with, um, feature requests or any, any minor…

AI assessment note: “I would do it again. It didn't bring in a ton of revenue.”

Q So how did you find all these people with RVs, with this problem, looking for a solution, money in hand? Like, you literally found, like, it sounds like close to a thousand of these people. Like, how, how did you get the first, like, hundred?

A Facebook ads. You just, just Facebook ads. So if you, you just have to learn Or partner with someone who knows how to run Facebook ads on an extremely small budget, right? There are certain like tiny, uh, tricks they can do, um, inside of the business manager, like duping the ad sets and just setting up the rules. It's, it may sound complicated, but once you kind of know it, it's literally copy and paste. Um, and so ultimately, as long as you know what a good ad should look like, Like, there's specific, specific things that, once again, I learned from my dropshipping days, like the 1:03 seconds, you must show a human, right? And then you must answer what you are within the first, like, six seconds, right? The 1:03 seconds, you're not showing a human, the click-through rate is a lot worse, so you're going to be spending a lot more. Anyway, so I just took all of those experiences selling iPhone cases and things like that, And put it, put it into this, and the budget was like, I started maybe like 20 dollars a day, and then on day two after launch, first customer purchase. I was like, alright, awesome. And then from there, you just keep, keep going, like, like that. But, um, Facebook ads is still by far, the Facebook and Instagram meeting, right, meta ads, by far the number, the number one thing. And you can, and I didn't even, Even up till now, I didn't have a single influencer. …

AI assessment note: “Facebook ads. You just, just Facebook ads.”

Q follow up quickly and you show that, uh, You know, you have your stuff together and you can move quickly. You're going to get that in exchange from a buyer. Um, I guess my next question is what was the hardest part throughout the whole acquisition journey? Was it that six month period where you were just trying to find a buyer? Was it due diligence? Was it something else?

A Um, I guess, uh, maybe like psychologically there's actually, this is really important for everyone who's selling for the first time is that when you listed Your business, and so on, and you made the decision to sell it, right? You can't relax in the sense that, okay, I'm selling. Think like you're not, you're not selling it, and you're, it's still your business, and you're still responsible to yourself, and to your team, if you have a team, uh, to continue growing. Because don't, um, if you're not growing, you're dying. There's no such thing as, and you know, sure, you can have a little plateau, but if it, If it, uh, if it stays for too long, ultimately you will end up going down. So you constantly have to have this, um, this feeling of pressure that every month I must, I must grow, grow by one percent, grow by 0.1%. Like to me in on Shopify, if month to date suddenly went into the red, like even two percent, I would be like freak out mode. Like, okay, cancel all plans. Like I'm doing these sales calls myself type of thing. Um, Because, because while the due diligence or talks with the buyers are happening, you know, mine was quick, like a month, but all right, let's say your business is more complicated and it takes you three months. If your business, if you relax and it starts going down, you're jeopardizing everything. So don't think that when you listed it or you made a de…

AI assessment note: “maybe like psychologically... You can't relax... constantly have to have this feeling of pressure”

Q That is crazy. Just seeing these companies, these AI startups grow this quickly and get acquired this quickly as well. We've never seen this before. Um, you had strong product market fit. The business was growing. What made it made you want to sell it?

A So it's a good question. Um, I think I just realized that the market, like unless you have capital, um, it's gonna be hard to take it to the next level. Like I wanted to take it to like one to five million error. It's definitely doable, but you need, you need money in order to, you know, in order to pay for ads and, uh, influencers and the cost of the LLM is very expensive. Um, so I didn't like, I felt like I was a bit late to the party of lovable and other competitors that were pretty well known. Um, so that's why I decided to sell. And then I realized that, you know, if I'm, if I, if I will sell and probably I will have a nice amount of money to reinvest in my next company. Um, so I'm really happy with the result.

AI assessment note: “unless you have capital, um, it's gonna be hard to take it to the next level.”

Q Geez, that is a huge improvement from when you originally bought it. Um, what got you into entrepreneurship through acquisition? How did you know, you know, maybe acquiring a brand is a better path than you and say starting it from scratch?

A Well, it's funny. I didn't, uh, I'd spent the last, uh, since I graduated starting most of the things that I had done from scratch. And honestly, I think me and a couple of my partners who went in on this with me, we both agreed like, Hey, this time let's try to buy something. Uh, let, let's like have something with, you know, an email list and a customer base and like just buy it in a place where we feel like we can make the improvements. So this is my first foray into actually buying a business. Uh, part of it was we, we both, we all wanted to do that. We wanted to get that experience, figure out, oh, doing due diligence on someone else's business is a lot more fun than having someone due diligence on your business. Um, so we went, we went through that process and yeah, I would say we, It's, it really has been, having started a bunch of businesses and then sold a couple before this, buying a business is now like, man, it's so much better. Um, you can use a lot more of your, um, experience to improve it, we found, uh, than the other way around. Uh, just, it's all, it just de-risks it up front. And that's what I love most about Acquire, is just, you can look at so many pieces of the business on the front end before taking, like, the massive risk.

AI assessment note: “let's like have something with, you know, an email list and a customer base”

Q Great advice. Let's move on to the acquisition. Sounds like things were going super well. You had tons of happy customers, millions in revenue. What made you want to sell a business?

A Um, I think from my perspective, it was like, we, we wanted to buy a business, we wanted to see what it was all about, um, what that process was like, and then we saw with the growth and opportunity to just take a win. Um, you know, we, we sold it for more than what we bought it for by a significant margin, and we just wanted to take the money off the table and move on to something else. So it really wasn't more to that. I mean, with any scale, we'd scaled it from 300 grand to You know, two and a half million, scaling from two and a half million to five million would have presented more challenges. So we were like, great, let's, let's do something different. Um, you know, I had an, I have another opportunity, so.

AI assessment note: “we just wanted to take the money off the table and move on”

Q Right on. How many, um, how did you pick the winning buyer? Did they have the best terms? Did you get along with the individual really well? What made that person stand out to you?

A Yeah, it was definitely like the first, like, just the initial phone call. It's like they were the right buyer profile for what we were looking for, and like surety of closing, right? Making sure that we felt like they actually had the funds. I think the verified funds on Acquire was helpful, so it showed they had significant, um, you know, liquidity to purchase the business that y'all had already verified, so that was actually a really helpful tool that you guys offer. Um, so I really, really love that. Uh, and then yeah, just the deal terms. So they had all cash at closing instead of any seller financing after that. Goes to cats. Yeah, that's what you want. You don't want to wait. You want to wait a year for the rest of it.

AI assessment note: “they were the right buyer profile for what we were looking for, and like surety of closing”

Q Nice. Did you change, like, the products at all? Did you have to improve certain processes? Was anything, like, essentially broken? You had to step in and rebuild the old marketing strategy? What was, like, the biggest unlock in the business?

A I think the biggest unlock was just better UI, UX on the website. Um, better offering. A lot of similar products. We introduced some new products. Just, we used the particle, um, website or platform. I don't know what you call that, particle. But we were able to look at, okay, these are the existing rings in the market. For alpine rings, we sell men's wedding rings. Uh, which ones sell the best? Okay, let's, let's get a version of that or a ring like that. Uh, that we know sells. And then really, we, we, we, it was kind of basic blocking and tackling. We improved the product photography. We did a video for every product. We really worked on our PDP to make the product page, like, as airtight as we could, and really iterate and evolve it from day one. So we used the tools to watch people's sessions, obviously, and see how people interact with the PDP page. And we spent, like, six months Trying to find the right balance of product market fit, what, what's working, what's not, and then just kept iterating the offer until the MER worked and we were able to scale ad spend.

AI assessment note: “I think the biggest unlock was just better UI, UX on the website.”

Q That's true. Right on. Well, tell me this. First week, you go live on Acquire. What were you expecting? How did that first week go? How many buyers did you talk to? Yeah. What did the process look like?

A Yeah. Um, like I mentioned to you, the process was awesome. Uh, once I submitted everything, it was under review. A couple of associates on your team reached out to me with just like really valuable feedback on the listing and how we should, you know, reformat and show the P&L and show all the different data. So that was really encouraging. Once we went live, I think I probably had 10 to 15 people reach out with different messages asking questions. So just made it exciting, right? Like we, we got it launched, we got feedback, we got a lot of questions. Um, and the process was, was seamless right when we posted it. I would say, like, within a day, we were talking to multiple people.

AI assessment note: “I think I probably had 10 to 15 people reach out with different messages”

Q Just someone in a similar spot, they're looking to get started in terms of looking for a potential business to acquire. Like, how should they think about that? Should they look at profitability first? Should they look at maybe products that they understand? Should they look at markets that excite them? Like, how did you narrow in on, you know, business that you felt was a good acquisition for you?

A That's a great question. So I think, I think it's, um, Too early to look for profitability at this size, you know, if you only have a 100,000 dollars, and I don't think you should be looking at profitability of the business you are purchasing. I think you should really look at the, uh, product market fit. You should really say, okay, can I grow this business to at least three X, four X, five X, uh, and, and just look at the competitive landscape. You know, if you at least see one or two competitors in that space, that's actually a good sign. Uh, right. That means that people are, uh, Uh, people are, uh, looking for a product like this and there is actual interest in the market for this. If you see a product that's like in a space where there are no competitors, I would say that's actually a red flag. Um, just really understand. Maybe you're one of those .1 person businesses where no one thought about the idea and you're the first to market and that's a golden opportunity. Go for it. But generally there are no, no competitors in the space. Uh, Step back and just like analyze it a bit more Um,. But like I said I,, I don't think people should look for profitability. If you only have a 100,000 dollars to buy a business, I think people should look for the idea itself. At that point, you're really buying the idea, not so much the business.

AI assessment note: “I don't think you should be looking at profitability of the business you are purchasing.”

Q I love that. Tell me about, let's step forward now. Tell me about the buyer that you ended up selling the business to. Was there something that stood out about them? Were they e-commerce background? Did you just get along with them? Was it the best offer? The mix of some of those?

A It was, yeah, a mix of all of it. We, we, so I met with a lot of different buyers who had, um, varying degrees of, uh, of, um, opportunity to, to present something to the table in, in regards to an offer. And when I met the gentleman who ultimately purchased the business, we hit it off right away. It was like, we were talking as if we were friends. Um, so that helped a lot. What I particularly liked about his background though, was that he was a EVP at A P firm that's quite large. And so I felt like, you know, if he's engaging with me, he's seen my P and L he's seen, you know, I had a, a robust amount of data, um, that I shared with, with the potential buyers. And, you know, I, I was like, if he likes it, he knows what he's doing. He has the background in, in acquisition M and a, and all that. And so I figured if, uh, you know, he was interested, he's somebody who's actually interested. And so we got along great. He really enjoyed the way that we were able to handle our data room. The insane amounts of data that we provided, the decks that we, we submitted, uh, we really came very well equipped. Um, we were very serious to sell the business, and, and so I think he appreciated that as well, and, you know, he jived with us, and

AI assessment note: “It was, yeah, a mix of all of it.”

Q you know, serious buyers from non-serious buyers. Um, so great job there. Um, so you pick the winning buyer. You're going to move forward. You have a letter of intent. You sign that you move into due diligence. Um, what did that look like? Did you have extra inventory on hand? Did you have a lot of assets that you had to transfer? Um, how long did that process take?

A Yeah, um, a lot of questions there too, but yeah, if I forget one, just please remind me, I'll do my best to remember them. But, uh, so yeah, we, we get into the due diligence phase, and actually it was incredibly easy for us because of how well prepared we were with our data up front. Um, after signing the NDA, like I said, we had a vast amount of information, and because we're using Shopify, a lot of it is integrated direct reports out of there, and you can't Make up an order number, for example. And so I think he trusted a lot in which, uh, was presented already. And so when he went into due diligence, it was more just assigning permissions so that he can physically go into Shopify, let's say, um, and look at the reports with his own eyes and Shopify is great for that because you can assign certain, uh, permissions so that they can't go in and let's say, you know, uh, change all the prices of your products or change your passwords or whatever. So yeah, Um, so he was able to go in and take a look at the reporting and give him permission for that. And yeah, he was satisfied with everything he saw. And so the due diligence phase was, uh, I was prepared for it to be almost grueling, so to speak. You know, I was, I was anticipating that and just because of how well prepared we were, it was, it was a very easy look over took, I want to say two weeks, if that maybe a week and a hal…

AI assessment note: “due diligence phase, and actually it was incredibly easy... took, I want to say two weeks”

Q Well, tell me this, Matt, um, if another entrepreneur is listening to this and you know, you had to give them three pieces of advice to successfully get acquired, what do you think those three pieces of advice would be?

A Yeah. Believe in what you're selling, right? Um, you might get pushed around on price a little bit, but know what your company is worth. Know that you've put the time in. Don't get overly emotionally attached to it. Do the research, figure out what it's worth and stand by that if you feel that the price is right. But also don't be afraid to negotiate. Um, somebody who's very serious about acquiring your business, you have to be a little bit flexible and it's not always on price. It could be on assets and inventory and other things, but Be firm, be flexible where you think it makes sense. Um, and then the other piece of advice that I have is, you know, stick with it. It took me a long time. Andrew, I knew, um, through listening to your old videos that it took you a long time to sell your business. Um, so that video gave me a lot of hope. You know, I didn't feel like I was behind because it can get discouraged and don't get discouraged, you know, stick with it, continue to motivate your potential buyers with new data. We went viral one time, and so we created a new pitch deck and sent it out to all the potential buyers and told them what was happening and where we were ranking in SEO. Keep them up to date. Give them updates. Continue working on the business. Keep it, keep it valuable. Um, yeah, I guess those are the two biggest things.

AI assessment note: “Believe in what you're selling... don't be afraid to negotiate... stick with it”

Q That's slick. So you have a product market fit. The business is growing super, super fast. Uh, why did you decide to sell it?

A I would say it's for a lot of reasons. Uh, there was one reason that I haven't publicly talked about yet. So this is the first time I'm actually talking about it, but my health was a huge reason in why I sold it. I had lots of problems with health during the time that I built it because I focused way too much on actually building it rather than caring about other stuff like my own social life, for example. I was building 14 hours, 16 hours every single day, and that kind of got me back to a point where I was once actually in the hospital as well because I shipped so much. But yeah, apart from that, it was Honestly, just the decision of like, hey, I want to do the next thing. I want to do something new, and potentially also something that's way bigger than what I was currently at the moment doing.

AI assessment note: “my health was a huge reason in why I sold it”