The Ledger
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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. …”
Gazdecki: 10x ARR Multiples Require at Least $10M in Revenue
“Cause the number one reason that a lot of startups don't sell on microquire is they just priced. 10 X annual recurring revenue. And those multiples are really reserved for when you're at scale. So when you're like at ten million revenue and above, that's when …”
Gazdecki: Bootstrapping builds wealth while venture capital is a 1% lottery
“If you want to create wealth, bootstrap. If you want to change market raise venture because your odds are, I mean Mike requires venture backed. I know my odds. I got a one percent lottery ticket.”
Gazdecki: Underpricing startups generates bidding wars and seller pricing leverage
“And I even recommend sometimes to price lower than you might expect, because then you'll draw on more buyers. There's no, if you have one buyer, you have no buyers. And so if you can get, you know, a bidding war going with a timeline saying, Hey, I'm looking t…”
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.”
Gazdecki: Successful founders figure out sales themselves before hiring reps
“From my experience of doing this, of just successful founders like yourself, they all figured out the sales process on their own, and they did not outsource it. They did not hire for it. They grew into it. You know, if you figure it out, you nail it, and then …”
Amann: SaaS founders must retain developers through post-sale transfer
“If you're a SaaS company and you have to keep on your contractors or your development team a little longer, like really expect to keep them on through the acquisition and not like cut them before thinking everything's going to go smoothly.”
Acquire.com rejects heavily funded VC startups generating negligible revenue
“We've actually had to turn away some that raised millions of dollars, and the revenue is less than a couple 100,000, and we're just like, I don't know who's gonna buy this. Like, you need to essentially, you know, this is an aqua hire situation.”
Gazdecki: MicroAcquire rewrites startup descriptions to clarify confusing value propositions
“You'd be surprised at how many startups we see at Microquire where we look at them and they're really good, but we're like, what do you do? What? So when you see the newsletter, actually, that's usually us. Kind of doing them some help in terms of clearly expl…”
Gazdecki: Overpricing is top reason startups fail to sell on MicroAcquire
“Yeah, I would say that's probably the number one reason we see startups not sell on Microquire is when they just price way too high.”
Skelly: Buyers should ask all target startups the exact same diligence questions
“Definitely, like, ask everyone the same, like, full set of questions, even if the tools are a little bit different. Cause that way, like you're just establishing that baseline. You're able to compare offers or compare companies you know, a more fair way.”
Gazdecki: MicroAcquire averages two to three acquisitions per day
“Believe it or not, at this point, we're seeing typically on average, usually two or three acquisitions per day.”
Gazdecki: Never share raw customer lists during due diligence, send anonymized data
“Some due diligence questions can be you know, tricky, like, hey, send me your entire customer list. The answer to that is no. Scrub it. Send anonymized data.”
Sidhu killed two acquisitions because sellers refused to share codebase access
“I got in a couple of situations on On micro-acquired, I think, one-off, where I didn't end up buying, and this is, again, pre-Stridist, where I submitted a letter of intent, we moved into due diligence, and the seller just was still really unwilling to share m…”
Gazdecki: Buyers can win deals by preserving founder vision over price
“Sometimes it's not just the price that, you know, you, I could tell you got some passion for travel and, you know, you don't want to just sell to someone who's gonna, you know, just destroy or ruin the reputation of the business. So that's something buyers, I …”
Keeley: Verne gave up convincing founders expecting 10x to 20x ARR multiples
“I just have mostly given up on trying to convince people like you could throw them the micro require reports and be like, well, this is what things are transacting at. But if people think their business is worth 10, 20 times ARR, it's just, you know, maybe the…”
Keeley: More venture orphans unable to raise will seek acquisitions
“What's exciting to us is, like, more of these companies that are, like, struggling to raise their next round, like these venture orphans. I've seen a few come up on Microquire. I think we're going to see more of those pop up.”
Gazdecki: Pitching unexecuted growth opportunities provides buyers a post-acquisition roadmap
“Just having like those growth opportunities on how you would continue growing this startup with a buyer, I think is a huge selling point because you kind of just give them a roadmap.”
Rathee: Operating a build-to-sell micro startup studio model via MicroAcquire
“I'm trying to kind of build a micro startup studio almost. So it's more like a build to sell model. And using kind of sites like might require to achieve that.”
Rathee: Founders should ignore early 1.5x to 2x lowball acquisition offers
“Every time I've listed a startup without fail. There's always that one person who lowballs you with like a 1.5 X multiple or two X multiple. It just says your startup isn't worth what you're asking for. I'll pay you this much. So, so don't fault them. Even if …”
Rathee: Requiring a phone call filters out unqualified startup buyers
“Always asked for the buyer to jump on the call if they're interested because anyone who's kicking the tire, anyone who's not interested is not going to go forward because there's a ton of people who might reach out, but at the end of the day, they're not reall…”
Gazdecki: Founders Will Increasingly Build Startups Specifically to Sell
“It's almost like I can see a future where, you know, people are able to build products specifically to sell them to someone else. And then you get to go back to doing what you love, which is building.”
Gazdecki: Showing business scars and unexecuted growth reveals upside to acquirers
“It's almost like a, in my opinion, a benefit to bring your business forward with, you know, scars and, you Especially, like, growth opportunities, like, hey, I haven't done this, haven't tried this, I tried this, and I failed at this, or this has a, you know w…”
Gazdecki: Pre-built data rooms signal serious sellers and drive successful acquisitions
“This is a definite pattern when we see across successful acquisitions is just preparation, like actually putting some thought and some time into preparing, you know, proper financials, you know, how does marketing work, like all the questions that a buyer is g…”
Gazdecki: Qualify prospective startup buyers by asking about experience and funding
“And what you want to do in those situations is I always recommend, you know, make the buyer perform. What I mean is, You know, you have someone inquire about the business. Instead of just granting them access, ask them a question like, hey, do you have experie…”
Gazdecki: Sellers Should Make Prospective Buyers Qualify Themselves
“One piece of advice I always give to sellers is make a buyer work for you, and what I mean by that is you ask them a series of questions like, have you acquired a company before, or in your situation maybe do you have any experience in this space, and they slo…”
First-time buyers will drive a surge in micro-PE acquisition activity
“I think we're going to see a lot more just general private equity activity specifically from first time buyers, like people, you know, just hearing about the success of like, You know, basically you know, entrepreneurship through acquisition is, is really beco…”
Garcia claims many software founders on MicroAcquire lack B2B sales capabilities
“There's a ton of tech guys on there, and I say tech guys, software guys, that are building amazing tools, that build amazing sort of applications, that I look at and go from a, I mean, I'm in, I'm selling to businesses every day, and I look at them and go, I s…”
Casel: Acquirers prefer under-optimized businesses because perfection limits growth upside
“Just show your business work like warts and all, like all, like it's okay if there are gaps, it's okay if things are not on, you know, under optimized because that's the opportunity that a buyer is looking for. You know, they're looking, if you're a buyer, you…”
Casel: Marketplace listing pages need high-level teaser prospectuses to close deals
“You can't expect just the listing page or just the asking price or just the name or something to be enough for a buyer to submit an offer. They're going to need to First of all, they're probably looking at many other businesses. Second of all but like you don'…”
Gazdecki: Overpricing is top reason startups fail to sell on MicroAcquire
“I'd say that's probably the number one reason a lot of companies don't sell microquare is they overpriced and it just stops the conversation from, because the gap is too big to close.”
Gazdecki: First-Time Acquirers in the Six Figures Should Hire an Expert
“I usually do recommend if it's your first acquisition and it's in like the six figures, it's a very small price to pay to have an expert come in and give you a second opinion and help walk you through the process.”
Gazdecki: Startups connecting live analytics on MicroAcquire get 500% more requests
“We have data around startups that connect Stripe, or Barometrics, or any sort of analytics within MicroQuare. They get, like, 500% more buyer requests, because it really cuts down on the due diligence of the buyer.”
Gazdecki: Having multiple buyers creates leverage to improve price and terms
“If you have one buyer, you have no buyer, so you want to draw in a bunch, and then If you're successful, you can, you know, negotiate and raise up the price or you have leverage on the terms and stuff like that.”
Toledano countered Reconcile's $350K asking price on $73K ARR with $180K cash
“They were reporting, you know, like, 73 K in our ARR and asking for 350 K which was, I found outrageous for, like, that kind of product but I didn't mind, like, I still got in touch, you know, I still basically did my thing, and Basically made an offer, which …”
Gazdecki: MicroAcquire does not plan to charge commissions
“Yeah, no, that's not our plan, so don't worry about that.”
Gazdecki: Value growing startups on ARR, and flat startups on EBITDA
“Typically even DAW best in my, from what I've seen when, you know, business isn't growing too much, it's flat or it's just extremely profitable. And then ARR if it's growing.”
Gazdecki Originally Built Acquire.com as a Personal Proprietary Deal Flow Platform
“Originally what I'm getting at is the original idea was a deal flow platform for myself. So I could potentially acquire small SaaS companies. And then if you couldn't find, if I didn't buy it, you could still find a buyer.”
Tabarnapp sold a doomed side application for $40,000 on MicroAcquire
“The smaller transaction of 40,000 US or something like that on microacquire was like, for us, more like a bonus. We didn't expect that. We were about to, I mean, sorry for the person who purchased that, that listens to the podcast, but we were about to shut it…”
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…”
Gazdecki: Loom Videos on Startup Listings Build Essential Buyer Trust
“One tip for those listening that I've seen work really effectively is kind of recording like a loom as you go live on MicroQuire, just kind of going over the tech stack, common questions, because most buyers have the same questions, like, how are you finding y…”
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…”
A single LOI triggered four competing buyer offers for Jump Studios overnight
“There was one night where like one person sent an LOI out of the blue. And then I got like four more right away.”
Gazdecki: In-line startup valuations see 2x to 4x higher buyer interest
“If you're in line with those valuations, your buyer interest is based on our data. It's like two to three, four times higher.”
Gazdecki: Non-technical buyers should hire an agency for technical due diligence
“One of my always, the recommendation I always make if they're looking to do technical due diligence is to have agency or, you know, some Individual that is technical that can help with that side.”
Gazdecki: Pre-planned transition roadmaps give startup sellers a major advantage
“Having a transition plan laid out in advance is a huge advantage comparative to other founders that may not have that. Because if you're interested in that application, you're wondering what's, what do we do next sometimes? And instead of figuring it out on th…”