Joe Speiser reflects on the peak social audience of LittleThings and the vulnerability of renting platform distribution.
Insight
One-star software reviews signal distressed opportunities with easy operational fixes
“I also tend to look at the overall reviews for each company and the more negative the reviews are from customers, the more likely I'm going to be interested. I know that sounds really perverse. It doesn't make a lot of sense to a lot of people, but it has to b…”
Prediction Didn’t hold up
Startups that raised $40M will sell for $1M-$2M within 12 months
“And then the other thing I'm looking for is I'm waiting for that like company that raised 30, forty million dollars and now burned through it all, but built an amazing piece of tech to go and micro acquire and sell for a million or two. Like, It's inevitable. …”
Assertion Supported
LittleThings generated $70M revenue before Facebook algorithm changes destroyed it
“We were doing, you know, 60, seventy million a year in revenue. And then Facebook just dropped the hammer on us one day and kind of destroyed our business, which was my point with like Shopify.”
Disclosure
Speiser handles his own acquisition legal work without using lawyers
“I don't have a lawyer that does any of this. I do all the legal myself. It's not terribly complicated when I could use your forms off your site, and we all agreed to not touch them and mark them up.”
Insight
Fast all-cash offers can win micro-SaaS acquisitions at lower purchase prices
“I don't need an SBA loan, which slows things down pretty dramatically. So I can offer them a low ball offer, but all cash all up front within like 48 hours. Right? So for people who've been sitting there for a while trying to sell their SAS, that's really attr…”
Insight
Founders usually sell because their skills can no longer grow the company
“Everyone always says the same thing about why they're selling. Which is kind of like, you can see through it, like, oh, you know, I want to do something else. I'm bored of this, which I get, and it could be honest, but more times than not, it's for a specific …”