The Exchanges

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 a need more of the product service. Yeah. Um, anything on the like marketing side or sales side that you would look at? Like I've heard from other buyers where, you know, they would look at businesses where marketing sales is really limited or weak. And I think at this size of a business, there's, there could be none. Um, do you see that as a downside or an opportunity?

A A hundred percent. Um, I see that as a great opportunity. So I remember the listing that I came across, the, the actual person that sold the business to me, he was a, uh, uh, engineer at a large company, and he took this business as far as he could. And he said that if he were to grow this business, he had to quit his job. And, and that was a great sign for me that he fully believed in the business, which means I already quit my job. Fit. So I could take this and then I grow the business. And also I had the marketing background also, by the way, when I say marketing background, none of the marketing expertise that I had working at large scale enterprise B to B companies was useful to what I was doing with my company. Yes. I had the general marketing ideas and thoughts, but, uh, if they were really not transferable to more B to C in the space that we are in, um, That was also a bit of a learning curve for me, but yeah. So to your question, uh, if you find engineers, like technical people selling the project, uh, because they can't, marketing or sales is not their expertise. And if you are, if you have that expertise, absolutely. That's a fantastic fit. Um, it was the case for me, uh, with a second grader, um, and vice versa. If you're technical and someone is like sales and marketing, they really see the need for this product and they grow it, but they don't have the technical e…

AI assessment note: “A hundred percent. Um, I see that as a great opportunity.”

Q That was incredible. What was the main growth unlock? Was it just hard work over a long period of time? Did you redesign the product? Did you see things with the product or the business before you acquired it? Like, because that's extraordinary.

A We redesigned the product quite a bit. We talked to, I probably talked to Three, 400 teachers in the past year. Um, uh, as we started the business, which are the teachers are our core group of users. Like that's who we, 90% of our users are. Uh, but we probably talked to three to 400 users, just myself. And that doesn't count like the other, uh, staff in the company. And we have some really awesome developers that are very, uh, customer friendly. They can have like full conversations. Customers love these developers. Um, Yeah, it's been just an incredible journey building with a group of people that I really believe in, and a group of people that I really enjoy working with, with no politics, no hierarchies. It's just like getting shit done. Uh, that's.

AI assessment note: “We redesigned the product quite a bit. We talked to, I probably talked to Three, 400 teachers”

Q anything about acquisitions. Literally nothing. They're looking at franchises, maybe similar to you. Yeah. Uh, and they're thinking, okay, I have a 100,000 dollars. We use a budget like that. Um, what would you say to them? Would you say, hey, you should look at businesses that are only profitable. You mentioned growing industries. Um, what's like maybe two things, and I'm sure I'll have a couple questions after that.

A Yeah, um, first I would say if you're not thrilled with your job, um, that's already a sign that you wouldn't like, like, Telling people telling you how to do your job and you should definitely not look at franchises because that's their whole model. They tell you how to do your job and they give you like very set of defined instructions. So don't look at franchises. That's one thing that I would say if you don't get it right. That's that's that's that's that's intuitive. That's my intuition speaking. Maybe there are some people that did not like their jobs and they did amazing with their franchises, but that's what my intuition tells me. So Second thing, um, the two things that I would say, um, sorry, can you repeat your question? I kind of lost track.

AI assessment note: “sorry, can you repeat your question? I kind of lost track.”