The Exchanges

Q I was there for like a day. It was when I was, um, in between companies, and I had way too much time on my hands. Um, all right, so, okay, so that's awesome. Um, I have an Xbox, and I, I love playing Madden, the football game. Um, so now I'm wondering, um, you know, how did you go and get customers for something like this?

A Right, right, yeah. I mean, I basically just started out by putting it on the Chrome Web Store and made a post on Reddit. Um, I honestly didn't expect much. And initially I wasn't charging anything either, but it just kind of took off within that community. Uh, folks who play cloud gaming on xCloud, I think this is like a real thing that a lot of people, um, wanted. And so at some point, uh, as I was adding more features, I started charging a few bucks via one time charge for the extension. Um, so that was really how I got my first customers. Uh, people started using it originally through that Reddit post. Um, and then once I started charging, you know, people Uh, were willing to pay, although there was definitely some backlash initially making that transition from free to paid. Um, cause I had, there was a lot of people like kids in Brazil and things like that. They were using it that I wasn't even fully aware of. Um, so I got a lot of like review bombing and stuff like that when I first started charging, but, um, but I think a lot of people saw the value and we're happy to pay, uh, for the ability to use the keyboard and mouse on it. Um, so within like a few months, I had like, 250,000 active users. Um, and was making about 4000 dollars a month or so in new activations.

AI assessment note: “putting it on the Chrome Web Store and made a post on Reddit.”

Q Nice. How did you prepare for the acquisition? Because you're going to speak with buyers, they're going to have a ton of questions. Um, was there anything in particular that you prepared in advance that you think helped buyers understand the business before speaking to you?

A Yeah, I, I really focused in on, um, understanding the, the whole funnel, um, and adding, added, added a lot more analytics. Up to that point, I basically had no analytics. I had just been using what, uh, Google and the other Kind of web store platforms, Chrome extension platform, um, provides, but I knew there was going to be a lot more questions about, um, the purchase funnel and, and, uh, just engagement and, and that type of stuff. So, um, that was one of the things I did obviously, uh, put together like P and L and, um, thought more deeply about, uh, potential opportunities for the business and things where it could, uh, be expanded and, and that kind of stuff. Um, that was probably the main thing.

AI assessment note: “I really focused in on, um, understanding the, the whole funnel, um, and adding, added, added a lot more analytics.”

Q blown, you know, built from the ground up SaaS product that maybe is a hundred more moving parts. Um, I guess my last question on, um, the acquisition, if you had to maybe rewind the tape or another startup founder came to you and said, Hey, David, I'm thinking about selling my own startup. You know, what's your like top three pieces of advice so I can successfully get acquired?

A Yeah. Um, I think being mindful about Pricing, um, is one piece of advice that I would give. Um, I think I just kind of jumped straight in with an arbitrary price and didn't give it maybe as much thought as I should have. Um, and in particular throughout the acquisition process, talking to a lot of buyers, I think there's definitely a preference understandably for recurring revenue versus one time. Um, and of course that's, that's a trade off for the potential customer as well. So, um, you know, there's a lot of thought that Probably goes into those decisions, but, um, I think if, if the goal is to get acquired and make it really clear to a potential buyer, um, that this thing is going to continue to, to do well, that's something that, um, I would give some serious thought to. Um, I think being, being prepared, as you mentioned, uh, is really smart understanding all aspects of the business. I think it's something that when you're, when you're building something, you feel like you, you have a clear understanding of everything, but when you start to dig in, there's, There are sometimes little gaps of things that are kind of where naturally people are going to have questions. And it's, it's great to already have yourself, um, some investigation, some understanding of what's going on so that you can explain that to other people, um, rather than just kind of being like, well, I don'…

AI assessment note: “being mindful about Pricing, um, is one piece of advice that I would give.”

Q That is so awesome to hear. That really is. And then, um, all right, let's, let's move into, um, the reason we're, we're here, um, the acquisition. Uh, I, I, I gotta know, how did it feel when that, you know, it's closing day, the buyer's, like, ready to go, wires the money over to, over to you, it hits your bank account. How did that feel?

A Um, it was exciting, really. I mean, it's my first time going through this process. First time, uh, you know, selling anything like this. And, um, you know, I'm, I'm, I'm a developer. I'm not like a business person. And, and, uh, so there was, there was a lot of new things for me across the board, um, including the whole, the whole selling process, but, um, it was great. I think I was really enjoyed, uh, the conversations, frankly, learned a lot just talking to folks and seeing how they were evaluating the business. Got me to think about it in a, in a different light. Um, And I was happy for, for the buyer. I think they were, they were really excited about it and, um, and, uh, had, you know, kind of developers themselves. And, uh, so yeah, it was, it was really a exciting experience.

AI assessment note: “Um, it was exciting, really. I mean, it's my first time”

Q um, any, the more you can provide, the more interest you're going to get from buyers and, uh, the more buyers that are potentially going to submit an offer. Um, my next question would just be, um, you know, ok, so you, you started speaking with buyers. How did you, um, ensure that the buyer that eventually acquired this business was the right fit, the right one to go with?

A Yeah. That's a great question. To be honest, I was a little skeptical, uh, prior to the whole thing, because I heard stories of browser extensions in particular, um, getting bought up. I actually had some unsolicited offers come in via email to from, from people that were clearly maybe didn't have the best of intentions. I think just saw, you can publicly see some of the, um, download numbers. And I think, you know, they, a lot of times we'll just, um, you know, turn it into, to something completely different ads or, or, you know, Maybe worse because you can, um, Google's cracked down on a lot of this, but that was something I obviously didn't want. I knew this was providing value to the community and I knew it could stand on its own in terms of, um, the, you know, the business. So, so I think just looking for a buyer that understood the space was something I was interested in. Um, and ideally had the, the ability to maybe, um, take this even further and provide more value for, for the user base. Um, so I think In terms of the, the buyer ended up going with, as I mentioned, they, they had prior, um, browser extension experience and, um, you know, understood the space and, and also have the ability to, to add other features and things like that. So, um, to me, that was a big factor.

AI assessment note: “they had prior, um, browser extension experience and, um, you know, understood the space”

Q Um, tell me about, you know, um, your reason for selling, you know, you, you decide to sell, what was the reason and, um, what was your initial expectations when you listed on acquire.com?

A Yeah. Um, I think after, I mean, I didn't run the business for that long before I decided to list it. Um, and I think it was partly just because it was doing well, but I was interested in moving on to other things. Um, I didn't really have any other big ideas or, or things where I wanted to take it at that point. Um, so it's probably just to focus on other projects. And then the other aspect is, you know, there was some risk with, with the, um, the business side. Like I think both The fact that I started out of the gate with lifetime access and I wasn't doing kind of subscription revenue. Um, I didn't know for sure if it would continue or not. Um, and also the fact that Microsoft themselves could potentially compete. Um, these are all things I was really upfront about in the conversations with potential buyers, uh, and had some interesting conversations there. It was, um, but it was, it was a factor that I was just like, you know, I was happy with the, where I'd gotten it to and felt like I was ready to move on to the next thing.

AI assessment note: “it was partly just because it was doing well, but I was interested in moving”