The Exchanges

Q Um, so I guess my next question would be, you know, you locate the business, everything looks great. What, uh, tell me more about, um, what the buyer did that, you know, made you really comfortable. Like, what could other buyer, or excuse me, seller, um, what could other sellers do to, you know, position themselves or increase their chances of being micro-wired, if, uh, you got any advice there?

A I'll start with the practical info I have with the fact, and then I'll give my opinion, which might or might not be too valuable because I've never sold anything. So don't listen to me from that regard. What the seller did was immediately, I, so I asked for a bit of info and they've given me access to Google analytics, to chart mogul, to stripe. So I could instantly see through, through their guts, so to speak. I saw every transaction. Okay. They didn't give me bank account details in the first, uh, sorry, a bank statement in the first, Conversation. They did that later, by the way, but they just, uh, looked like they had nothing to hide. Um, what told me what the message that came with this was, okay, they're transparent. It comes from a place of probably confidence. I tried to supplicate on the other side by saying, look, um, I'm offering this price, but here's the big, but I'm promising a hassle-free As little headache as possible, uh, acquisition if this goes through. So unless I find something fishy, I want to make it simple. So to get to your questions answer, what sellers can do from my experience as a buyer is be transparent, but be careful. I, I guess it has, it matters which mindset, which headspace it comes from, because I've seen some other buyers having their, their shield really high saying, why would I share all this stuff? Why you can't, you can just go and Repl…

AI assessment note: “what sellers can do from my experience as a buyer is be transparent”

Q Uh, just what attracted you to this business? Cause there's, you know, 500 plus SaaS businesses on my career. I'm probably like a thousand, but, uh, out of those, how, what made this one business, you know, really stick out to you? Why did you feel like this one was worth pursuing?

A Initially I didn't because I was looking to spend around those mid five figures. And I thought this was not below my budget, but below my needs. So initially I said, nah, this isn't for me. But then I started talking to the, to the seller and they were very, very open. So this is for disclosure for, uh, you know, to be transparent is the first time I've ever done this. And I'm, uh, It's not like I have any background in PE or anything like that. So I just freestyle myself to it, but because the seller looked very transparent beyond what I requested them to do, it, it built a lot of trust really fast. And then I started looking into the technicals, the metrics, um, the, the perks. Cause I feel like every business has some plus, some pros and cons. I really liked the pros here. So to finally get to, to your question, to, to the answer, um, I like the fact that it was set and forget. I like the fact that it looked like it's low churn once people get through the value prop. I like the possible network effect and viral loop that might kick in. Not at the number of customers has now, because those can look great on paper, but they're, they're just like a mirage early on. I believe after a number of users, you get to unlock that.

AI assessment note: “I like the fact that it was set and forget. I like the fact”

Q Yeah. I was just looking at the website and, uh, congrats on getting product of the day. So it looks like, is it safe to assume when you launched this, was it maybe more of a surprise in terms of the amount of people interested in using this product?

A I'll be honest. It was, we knew there was going to be, in all honesty, we knew there was going to be customers because we weren't really the first ones to be doing it. Although we were early as well, but I was still surprised because this is the first time I was Tasting what it feels like to be building on top of a tailwind. So I don't think we would have gotten the growth we've had or the, yeah, the, the number of users and, you know, the support and, uh, access to all these people, which wasn't for notion. So this is the first time I was building in, in a, uh, as I said, with a tailwind and it doesn't have to be, I think, related to a product. Some people have been doing that, you know, on top of work. I mean, I guess WordPress is a product, but some people are doing it now in AI. Or have been doing it in crypto. Crypto isn't a product per se, but, um, those are tailwind as well, or at least have been. And so, yeah, it was surprising. It was a, a first time experience, so to speak.

AI assessment note: “I'll be honest. It was... but I was still surprised”

Q business. Uh, but getting, getting, I'm really enjoying this, this conversation, Daniel. We're going, we're going back, going back and forth. Um, just to kind of round things out. So you've been on the buy side, you've been on the sell side, you've been Successful of both. If you just had, you know, three pieces of advice to give, um, founders looking to sell their business, what would it be?

A Don't listen to any advice. That's number one. Cause, uh, but I mean, listen, but don't follow blindly, I guess, cause if you intersect at all, you just end up nowhere. So I guess if you just read all the pieces of advice and you, you try to do the, you know, put them all, uh, head to head, you're just going to end up nowhere. So after a certain point, it's, it's your gut feeling or your decision, but the good thing is that that's yours and you can train it. And I mean, it's even better to train it. Um, so that would be number one. Number two, most probably what I just said, the fact that if you don't have to sell, that's the best, not necessarily the best moment, but maybe the best position to be in when selling. So as I said, we had a deal, it fell through, and we were like, well, great. Well, it's fine. I mean, it is a bit disappointing because we spent the time, but as I said, we were just looking to test out the waters and The fact that we had the offers in the conversations, you know, it, it, I'll be honest, it was a bit of a, not an ego boost, but a bit of a confidence boost in, uh, as you said, entrepreneurship is a, is a game of, uh, is a mental game. So, you know, we were, we were sitting a bit more upright thinking, you know what, if we got some offers once, we probably could get it again, could get it again at a, at a later point or right now. Uh, and then the final…

AI assessment note: “Don't listen to any advice. That's number one.”

Q moving, moving back to your acquisition, um, tell me about like, and you know, quite a comedy, like, you know, um, what you were doing in terms of, you know, preparation and all that fun stuff, but, um, what was it like being on the sell side? So like first two weeks you go live, um, what happened? Like, were you, Uh, surprise. Were you not? Tell me about it.

A It's weird, because you get showered with, showered with this attention from, you know, people who are kind of, you know, obviously have an interest in you, so, um, I, I, I feel like I've got to find out how it's like to be a hot girl, because you get all this inbound, and you're like, whoa, I'm a bit overwhelmed. Not to say that all these people were, you know, Throwing money at us, but you know, they had the interest in the company. They had questions. So again, not to say that we got 15 LOIs or whatever, but, um, it, it, it needed a bit of management, and it, I felt like it did help that I, I have been through in their shoes before. So as I said, I acquired a company. Maybe you don't have to acquire one, but, you know, browsing for the listings, paying for that acquire.com subscription, maybe you don't need the highest plan if you don't, if you don't look at, uh, what is it,

AI assessment note: “you get showered with, showered with this attention... you get all this inbound”

Q this? And then it goes nowhere. Um, so the fact that the seller had, you know, all the information up front was responsive. Like all those things right there can dramatically increase your odds of being Acquired. So I, I like that. Um, tell me about, you know, how you structured the deal. Like how was, what were the terms? Are you comfortable sharing that? Yeah, you don't have to.

A Yeah, I am. I'm just smiling because I might not be the best example. So I'm starting with this disclaimer. I just freestyled myself into it. So you and I, I mean, you know him better than I do. Christian Friedland. I've listened to your podcast with him. I've been lucky enough to have him on my podcast. And, um, I emailed him at one point on a separate matter. And I said, you're more of a Branson. You're more of a Richard Branson type of person. So I'll ask you. So the reason why I smile is because I was more of a Branson move here. It was a lot of gut feeling. I, I checked as much as I could, but then again, I'm young. I don't have that much experience. So, um, I had to rely on, on my gut feeling. But, uh, how do we structure the deal? Well, we looked at your tutorials. Thank you for those, by the way. We took your document templates and all that. Um, I've, I've gotten some advice, some counseling, some consultants help here and there. And, um, the, the deal was all cash upfront because, um, let me see. It, it just felt right given, I think the business one was undervalued and I believe the seller believed that as well. Before starting this, I said, okay, if they believe that as well, why don't they just keep it? I even asked the, the person, why don't you just keep it for this multiple, this yearly multiple? And it was because of personal reasons. And, uh, this is the only t…

AI assessment note: “the deal was all cash upfront because, um, let me see.”