The Exchanges

Q Nice. I love to hear that. Okay, so you, you build the products. Um, how did you get, um, you know, your first customers or first users?

A Yeah, so I learned a lot from, you know, the VC startup that I had before when I realized, you know, distribution is the most important thing. So I actually started working on distribution before I ever started working on the product itself to see, you know, what's the best place for the customers. So I found three ways. They were actually There was actually a community of international students. Um, it was like a newsletter essentially, so I reached out to the person who owned the newsletter to see if this would be a fit. Um, then I reached out to universities and their student unions, because they always had international students, student unions, um, on that end. And luckily enough, Facebook actually has an interest called international students. Um, so those are the three ways, um, I was looking to acquire customers, but my first way of getting proper customers was definitely through that newsletter. We're glad.

AI assessment note: “my first way of getting proper customers was definitely through that newsletter”

Q build the best product in the world, unfortunately, people will not randomly find your startup, so you, you gotta focus on, on distribution, so nice, nice job there. Okay, so going, going down the story, so you build the product, solving a problem that you had personally experienced, and you start to get customers and users. Um, what made you decide to, um, Sell the businesses and have them acquired?

A Um, two things. I didn't anticipate the amount of customer service, um, that happens before someone purchases. Um, so I think I kind of thought to myself, oh, this is what product market fit feels like when you have hundreds of customers shouting at your customer service, trying to get you to, or get to use your product, um, essentially. And I was a one man band, um, at the time. And again, travel wasn't necessarily my space that I wanted to fully go into. Like I knew there were definitely issues that could be solved. Um, so that was the first thing. And then second of all, we had actually received an offer from someone outside of micro acquire. And I think that's what first got me thinking, oh, actually, potentially I could sell this, um, on the end, but I've always done a micro acquire for the last maybe year or two.

AI assessment note: “two things. I didn't anticipate the amount of customer service”

Q with startups. Um, all right. So you, you, you got an offer even before listing on acquire.com. That's, that's always a good sign. So buyers are interested in what you built. Um, tell me about the process, um, listing on acquired, just from, you know, signing up, creating an account, Um, how did that process, um, work for you? Did you hit any bumps? Um, what'd you like about it?

A Um, yeah. So I think, yeah, it was pretty simple, you know, especially, you know, connecting your Stripe and all that kind of stuff. So I've always had a micro acquire account for a long time. I just, I never listed anything, um, on there. I kind of just used it just to window shop other, um, startups that were being sold on there. Um, yeah, there was no issues at all. I think sent across and it got reviewed. It took maybe a day max on the end. Um, I also did like the way they kind of reformatted my description of the company and all that kind of stuff to just make it look more appealing, or at least they brought, they brought out the most important parts that a buyer would care about. Um, so that was pretty simple to be honest on the listing side of things.

AI assessment note: “there was no issues at all. I think sent across and it got reviewed.”

Q on, um, acquire and I'm saying acquire cause Uh, we've, we've rebranded, we've dropped the micro, but we, but we can keep the micro in this conversation, but okay. So your listing goes live on acquire.com. Um, what, what happens after that? Were you surprised by the buyer responses? What was it slow? Was it, um, tell me about maybe the first like two weeks, um, after going, uh, live.

A All right, cool. So yeah, a lot happened even in the first, let's say it was quite at the first date, but then the second day we started getting loads of, um, Um, kind of, uh, NDAs being signed. So I was like, okay, cool. This is interesting. I didn't know what level of commitment those NDAs were, essentially. Then I end up finding out that most people just automatically sign an NDA. It was cool. Um, then, you know, after they send an NDA, normally I'll send out a message to them just to be like, hey, do you have any more questions? Um, you know, I'm here to answer them. Um, then I was probably saying like a week in, I got an email from you guys saying that we're going to get featured on the, um, on the newsletter. So before the newsletter, I believe we have probably like 10 people acquire. Then after the newsletter, it was like 30 in total, so there was a lot of inbound for sure, um, from then. Um, so the first two weeks, I had already essentially made contact with two of the buyers, or two potential buyers. Um, so one of them used to be an international student, um, and the other, actually both of them used to be international students actually, um, so they definitely understood the problem space. Um, one was based in India, and one was based in the States.

AI assessment note: “So the first two weeks, I had already essentially made contact with two of the buyers”

Q you want to get on a call? Literally anything. That can be a great way to show buyers that you are serious about signing the business and get them more interested. Um, okay. So going back to my question, sorry. Um, you're, you went live on acquire. Uh, now you've got 30 buyers interested. How did you vet and find, uh, the right buyer to finally, um, acquire these businesses?

A I think, yeah, I looked at a few indicators. Um, first of all, just go into LinkedIn. Helped a lot just to see, you know, whether what they were saying was true. That's kind of the first thing. I just kind of seen their background. Uh, something else that helped was, I think there's something on their profile that says, you know, how many acquisitions they've made or the prospective acquisitions they want to make or whatever it was. Um, then obviously when I go in on a call with them, um, ask them where they see the vision of this, of course, expect into them where I see the growth, um, on that end, um, and why they were interested in the first place. That definitely helped a lot. Then microquire also had this feature of, um, What was it? Uh, like showing your funds or something like proof of funds. I believe that was, that was, um, pretty good just to show, okay, cool. This person isn't just talking to talk like they're, they're, they're pretty serious on that end. So that's what I kind of used like those three, four things to. And then I think the final thing is always a vibe check at the end of the day. Um, cause then that's, that's why I call it on my end is kind of like, okay, do I, cause I didn't want to essentially just sell it and not help them at all. So I wanted that, you know, that transitionary period. Uh, to be able to help them as much as possible, because again, …

AI assessment note: “I looked at a few indicators. Um, first of all, just go into LinkedIn.”

Q I guess at this one, I'm wondering, you know, if you had to give maybe your top three tips and I know we kind of went over a lot of just really good, good stuff that you did, um, to get these, uh, deals closed. Um, you know, if you had to give like three quick tips for You know, people looking to sell their businesses, what would they be?

A I think, um, number one I would do is, you know, when, um, interest has been shown, actually reaching out to the buyer. Um, so for me, I had that kind of a process where I'd reach out to them twice, um, reach out to them first of all, when they've sent, um, the NDA just saying, Hey, um, if you have any questions, I'm open to answer. And then the second one, I always sent like three days later, just being like, Hey, you know, my message the first time, Hope you've received it. And actually give them a deadline to be like, if you don't respond by here, then I'm just going to decline. Um, on the end. So that kind of got them to respond at least with a yes or no, because I just want a quick yes or quick no. Um, second of all is when you are speaking to the buyer, you know, if, if I say this as growth, it's kind of like, you don't want to sell them here. You want to sell them that it's about here to kind of show that there's still room for that big growth, um, through there to let them know, okay, cool. This is the, Distribution channels that you haven't tapped into yet, um, and they could do so, and what I wear, why they are best placed to do so, um, instead of yourself. Um, and I would say the third thing is just keeping that relationship afterwards, um, really, because the person that acquired, um, uh, TripVisa, and the reason I was actually also selling that as well as there's a…

AI assessment note: “I think, um, number one I would do is... Second of all... third thing”