Insight certainty 4/5 debate potential 2/5

Achard: Never skip formal escrow services in micro-startup acquisitions

Chris Achard · Startup Acquisition Stories with Chris Achard, Founder of AcornChat · Sep 7, 2022 · at 7:49

Chris Achard discusses selling his micro-SaaS company MeetingPlace, explaining how he and the buyer handled payment transfers across the US-Canada border without a formal escrow service.

0:00 / 0:13exact quote · 13.3s
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“Like part of it, it's, you know, it's not like a million dollar sale or anything like that, and so we didn't feel like we needed like a real escrow, I guess, which, you know, probably goes right a lot of the time, and I don't recommend it, because if it goes wrong, then it really goes wrong, but it went right for us,”

quote is from the automated transcript, cleaned for reading: filler sounds and stutters are removed, nothing is rephrased. names can be misheard (the analysis reads context, assessments check outside sources). how →

More from Chris Achard

Assertion Not yet assessed · timeframe Sep 2022
Achard: WeWork-owned Meetup tested charging free users $2 to RSVP
“This was when meetup was owned by WeWork, and they were going to do something very strange. They were going to try to charge free users two dollars to RSVP, to free events, They were calling it a pricing test.”
Chris Achard Sep 7, 2022 ▶ 1:07 Startup Acquisition Stories with Chris Achard, Founder of AcornChat
Insight
Achard: Outlining product flaws helps SaaS buyers find quick post-acquisition wins
“So if you kind of outline the things that you know are wrong with the app, then they can, like, figure out some quick wins as soon as they buy it, and so I think that helped in that case.”
Chris Achard Sep 7, 2022 ▶ 10:39 Startup Acquisition Stories with Chris Achard, Founder of AcornChat
Opinion
Achard: Freemium apps require dedicated teams or venture funding to scale
“I was trying to do it as a solo dev, but it's the type of business that I think Makes more sense to, like, build a team for or raise money for, because it was a freemium app, and so there was, like, there were a lot of free groups, and to really get the word o…”
Chris Achard Sep 7, 2022 ▶ 3:38 Startup Acquisition Stories with Chris Achard, Founder of AcornChat
Insight
Achard: Founders should build apps on dedicated, standalone AWS accounts
“If I was going to do that again, I would set up a separate, for any app I wanted to sell, I would set up a separate AWS account, an entire account and that would have gone much, much cleaner”
Chris Achard Sep 7, 2022 ▶ 9:22 Startup Acquisition Stories with Chris Achard, Founder of AcornChat
Disclosure
Achard accepted a lower all-cash acquisition offer to avoid seller financing
“So I got maybe 15 requests in, like, under a week and then I got two really serious people talked to them on on Zoom, and they, so I got Offers from both of them. And one of them was more like he was a developer like me. He wanted to pay all cash. He was like …”
Chris Achard Sep 7, 2022 ▶ 4:39 Startup Acquisition Stories with Chris Achard, Founder of AcornChat
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