Ryan Culp

Founder, TRMNL · 2 appearances on the record.

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founderinvestorengineeroperator@ryanckulp ↗ryanckulp.com ↗

Ryan Kulp is best known for acquiring Notify and bootstrapping it into the social proof SaaS company Fomo, which he sold to Relay Commerce in 2022. He also founded the micro-private equity firm Fork Equity, the platform MicroAcquisitions.com, and the e-ink dashboard company TRMNL.

20statements → 3claims → 1claims resolved → 3.8/5average certainty → 1.65/5average debate potential →

1 supported 0 partly supported 0 contradicted 2 not checkable as stated how the 3 claims stand · each chip opens the sources

3 assertions · 1 opinion · 6 insights · 10 disclosures · every statement was checked. The predictions and assertions are the 3 claims: statements the public record can support or contradict. 1 is resolved, and 2 name no date, number or outcome precise enough to check. Everything else (opinions, insights, what ifs, disclosures) can never be settled by the record, so it carries no assessment.

The record, in short

What the tape says about how Ryan argues and how the claims held up. Everything they said, and everything said about them, is in the tabs below.

Their most notable supported claim

Assertion Supported
Ryan Kulp sold an NFT tracker on MicroAcquire within hours
“Within seconds, maybe just a couple minutes of listing, I got a few messages, and within a couple hours, the money was in the bank, and it was done at, like, three a.m. It was a very small deal, right? I think it was, like, 1750 dollars, maybe. That was my ask…”
Ryan Culp Jan 31, 2023 ▶ 16:53 Startup Acquisition Stories wtih Ryan Kulp, Founder of Fork Equity

How they sound: not measured why? →

We measure speaking style by listening to the audio itself, and a fair number needs at least 2,000 words from one person on tape we have measured. There is too little of Ryan Culp on measured tape to publish a rate. This says nothing about how they speak.

Everything Ryan Culp said on Startup Acquisition Stories that made the record, most notable first. Filter by type, assessment or year in the ledger →

Opinion
Ryan Kulp prefers solo Rails apps over higher-revenue software teams
“I would almost favor an app built in rails run by one person than something that's like making more money and has a team because there's so many I'd say in between the lines pattern matching that you can do when certain parameters line up, at least in our in o…”
Ryan Culp Jan 31, 2023 ▶ 6:19 Startup Acquisition Stories wtih Ryan Kulp, Founder of Fork Equity
Insight
Ryan Kulp: Customer support overhead kills lifestyle software applications
“Customer support can be the ultimate killer if you're trying to build or buy lifestyle Applications.”
Ryan Culp Jan 31, 2023 ▶ 6:51 Startup Acquisition Stories wtih Ryan Kulp, Founder of Fork Equity
Disclosure
Fork Equity avoids high-touch sales to strictly target self-serve SaaS
“So for that reason, for my temperament, we avoid businesses that require high touch sales processes. We only are interested in businesses where people sign up and pretty much figure out how to use the product. On their own.”
Ryan Culp Jan 31, 2023 ▶ 8:07 Startup Acquisition Stories wtih Ryan Kulp, Founder of Fork Equity
Disclosure
Ryan Kulp never wrote code or answered support for Cross-Sell
“And with Crosssell, what I really liked about it is that I, and I'll admit this publicly for the first time right now, I never wrote a single line of code, and I think I never replied to a single customer support ticket.”
Ryan Culp Jan 31, 2023 ▶ 12:27 Startup Acquisition Stories wtih Ryan Kulp, Founder of Fork Equity
Insight
Ryan Kulp: The best software acquisition deals are never publicly listed
“You always have to keep your deal flow sources. I would say agnostic. You have to be willing to look under every nook and cranny to find something. And sometimes the best deal is never going to be listed anywhere. It's going to be the right time, the right pla…”
Ryan Culp Jan 31, 2023 ▶ 17:54 Startup Acquisition Stories wtih Ryan Kulp, Founder of Fork Equity
Insight
Culp: Software Companies Don't Have to Be High-Stress Venture Startups
“Just because you write code doesn't mean it has to be a startup. It doesn't mean it has to be stressful. It can just be a technology company.”
Ryan Culp Jan 24, 2023 ▶ 18:52 Startup Acquisition Stories with Sam Lillicrap, Founder of Alignr
Disclosure
Culp's Ideal Target: Part-Time Solo-Founder Apps Built in Ruby on Rails
“My wishlist is something that is run currently by one person part-time built in Ruby on Rails.”
Ryan Culp Jan 24, 2023 ▶ 22:00 Startup Acquisition Stories with Sam Lillicrap, Founder of Alignr
Insight
Culp: Customer support can kill lifestyle software businesses
“Customer support can be the ultimate killer if you're trying to build or buy lifestyle applications.”
Ryan Culp Jan 24, 2023 ▶ 23:10 Startup Acquisition Stories with Sam Lillicrap, Founder of Alignr
Disclosure
Fork Equity Avoids High-Touch Sales in Favor of Self-Serve Products
“So for that reason, for my temperament, we avoid businesses that require high touch sales processes. We only are interested in businesses where people sign up and pretty much figure out how to use the product. On their own.”
Ryan Culp Jan 24, 2023 ▶ 24:26 Startup Acquisition Stories with Sam Lillicrap, Founder of Alignr
Disclosure
Culp: Never wrote code or answered support tickets while running CrossSell
“With Crossell, what I really liked about it is that I, and I'll admit this publicly for the first time right now, I never wrote a single line of code. And I think I never replied to a single customer support ticket.”
Ryan Culp Jan 24, 2023 ▶ 28:46 Startup Acquisition Stories with Sam Lillicrap, Founder of Alignr
Insight
Culp: Best Acquisition Deals Are Unlisted and Require Cold Outreach
“You always have to keep your deal flow sources. I would say agnostic. You have to be willing to look under every nook and cranny to find something. And sometimes the best deal is never going to be listed anywhere. It's going to be the right time, the right pla…”
Ryan Culp Jan 24, 2023 ▶ 34:13 Startup Acquisition Stories with Sam Lillicrap, Founder of Alignr
Insight
Ryan Kulp: Writing code does not make a business a startup
“Just because you write code doesn't mean it has to be a startup. It doesn't mean it has to be stressful. It can just be a technology company.”
Ryan Culp Jan 31, 2023 ▶ 2:33 Startup Acquisition Stories wtih Ryan Kulp, Founder of Fork Equity
Disclosure
Ryan Kulp has completed between 10 and 20 software acquisitions
“Maybe 10 or 12. I think total deals like 20. We've started things that we've then sold. So that was like a deal, but not an acquisition because we were the creator and the seller. And then we've done things where we bought it and resold it. We've bought things…”
Ryan Culp Jan 31, 2023 ▶ 4:54 Startup Acquisition Stories wtih Ryan Kulp, Founder of Fork Equity
Assertion Supported
Ryan Kulp sold an NFT tracker on MicroAcquire within hours
“Within seconds, maybe just a couple minutes of listing, I got a few messages, and within a couple hours, the money was in the bank, and it was done at, like, three a.m. It was a very small deal, right? I think it was, like, 1750 dollars, maybe. That was my ask…”
Ryan Culp Jan 31, 2023 ▶ 16:53 Startup Acquisition Stories wtih Ryan Kulp, Founder of Fork Equity
Disclosure
Ryan Kulp's MicroAcquisitions course acts as a proprietary deal flow engine
“We've actually got at any given moment, a few deals in our inbox that are just there. You know, they're direct to us. They're not on marketplaces. They're unlisted. They're private deals just because microacquisitions exists.”
Ryan Culp Jan 31, 2023 ▶ 26:08 Startup Acquisition Stories wtih Ryan Kulp, Founder of Fork Equity
Disclosure
Culp Built and Sold NFT Tracker App for $1,750 Within Hours
“I built an app. That was an NFT tracker that would let you publish sales to, like, a Discord channel... Within seconds, maybe just a couple minutes of listing, I got a few messages, and within a couple hours, the money was in the bank, and it was done at, like…”
Ryan Culp Jan 24, 2023 ▶ 32:42 Startup Acquisition Stories with Sam Lillicrap, Founder of Alignr
Disclosure
Culp: Educational Content Yields Unlisted Micro-PE Deal Flow
“We've actually got at any given moment, a few deals in our inbox that are just there. You know, they're direct to us. They're not on marketplaces. They're unlisted. They're private deals just because microacquisitions exists.”
Ryan Culp Jan 24, 2023 ▶ 42:27 Startup Acquisition Stories with Sam Lillicrap, Founder of Alignr
Disclosure
Ryan Culp's Fork Equity Has Completed 10 to 12 Acquisitions
“Maybe 10 or 12. I think total deals like 20. We've started things that we've then sold. So that was like a deal, but not an acquisition because we were the creator and the seller. And then we've done things where we bought it and resold it. We've bought things…”
Ryan Culp Jan 24, 2023 ▶ 21:13 Startup Acquisition Stories with Sam Lillicrap, Founder of Alignr
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Fork Equity Rebuilt CrossSell in Ruby on Rails With Zero Downtime
“We were able to rebuild the app from scratch in rails with zero downtime.”
Ryan Culp Jan 24, 2023 ▶ 30:00 Startup Acquisition Stories with Sam Lillicrap, Founder of Alignr
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Culp Generated $10K in One Day by DMing Twitter Engagers
“I made a landing page that of course accepted money. And after I made that landing page, I DMed every single person who hit like on the first tweet. And I said, Hey, you liked my tweet or you replied and said you would buy it. Here you go. And it worked. I thi…”
Ryan Culp Jan 24, 2023 ▶ 38:52 Startup Acquisition Stories with Sam Lillicrap, Founder of Alignr

Appearances (2)

EpisodeDateSpeaking time
Startup Acquisition Stories wtih Ryan Kulp, Founder of Fork Equity Jan 31, 2023 19m
Startup Acquisition Stories with Sam Lillicrap, Founder of Alignr Jan 24, 2023 19m
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