Mar 31, 2021 · 18m · top-founders
How To Acquire A SaaS For $1.2m, Flip for $2.4m Quickly
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gold bands on the timeline = statements, start to end. Hover to read, click to jump. CC turns on captions
Digital asset operator JP Quiry joins Nathan Latka to break down how he acquired SaaS platform Ninja Outreach for $1.2 million all-cash, stripped away agency bloat, pivoted the product to influencer discovery, and flipped the company on Flippa for a 300 percent return within 30 months.
How this conversation actually went
Every chapter scored 0–10 on four independent dynamics. Hover any point for the reasoning behind the score. Nathan holds 27.6% of the talking time here. How this is scored →
Nathan as informed peer 5.2 Guest teaching 3.0 Guest disagreement 2.0 Nathan pushing back 2.3
speaking balance: gold is Nathan, purple is the guest (3 minute bins)
Sharpest disagreement ▶ 14:47 Pushing back against broker fees
Quiry dismisses traditional SaaS brokers and 15% commissions as unnecessary for founders capable of listing on Flippa.
Hardest push from Nathan ▶ 9:54 Latka presses on overpaying for Ninja OutreachLatka directly confronts Quiry on whether he originally overpaid for the business at $1.2M cash.
Biggest teaching moment ▶ 5:15 Quiry outlines sourcing via Baremetrics OpenQuiry educates Latka on directly prospecting SaaS companies by mining revenue stats publicly displayed on Baremetrics Open.
Nathan holds their own ▶ 13:55 Latka models leveraged buyout mathLatka demonstrates underwriting knowledge by calculating how non-dilutive debt financing could have significantly boosted Quiry's equity return.
the scores for every segment, with the reasoning behind each
| Chapter | Topic | Nathan as informed peer | Guest teaching | Guest disagreement | Nathan pushing back | Why |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Introducing JP Quiry and Ninja Outreach Origins | 4 | 2 | 1 | 1 | Nathan Latka opens the interview by reviewing JP Quiry's background and recent exit of Ninja Outreach. The dynamic is collaborative and conversational with Latka asking clarifying questions about the business model. | |
| Sourcing Deals on Baremetrics and Cutting Agency Revenue | 5 | 3 | 1 | 2 | Latka frames the practical hurdles of SaaS acquisitions. Quiry explains finding the deal via Baremetrics Open metrics and promptly firing service agency clients upon closing. | |
| Evaluating Software Acquisitions and Managing Operational Transitions | 5 | 4 | 2 | 2 | Quiry details his acquisition criteria and managing operational transitions after the SEO team quit unexpectedly. Latka guides the conversation with focused questions on operational management and cost reductions. | |
| Executing the $1.2 Million All-Cash Acquisition | 6 | 3 | 3 | 4 | Latka and Quiry discuss the $1.2M valuation, revisiting Latka's past critique that Quiry overpaid. Quiry acknowledges paying a premium but defends it based on the growth potential he realized. | |
| Scaling SaaS Revenue and Achieving Threefold Returns | 6 | 3 | 2 | 3 | Latka pushes for specific metrics on revenue and exit multiples while discussing how debt financing could have juiced returns. Quiry explains the revenue trajectory and unleveraged return. | |
| Flippa Marketplace Listing and Deal Execution with TCM | 5 | 3 | 3 | 2 | Quiry explains using Flippa to avoid broker commissions and closing the deal with TCM before announcing his new fund. Latka playfully references competitor brokers like FE International. |
Statements from this episode (15)
Quiry names Flippa and Andrew Wilkinson's platform as top deal-sourcing sites
“My favorite two are without a doubt Flippa and Andrew's new play.”
Quiry sourced the NinjaOutreach acquisition via Baremetrics' Open startups page
“Before Josh sold bare metrics and they probably still have, they have this open page, right? And on that page, they display SAS businesses and their revenue. And I just started contacting the ones that I felt were interesting. And Ninja outreach was one of the…”
NinjaOutreach generated $60,000 monthly in 2018 before Quiry acquired it
“I'm going to guess it was doing 60,000 a month, but 20,000 was from SEO customers.”
Quiry slashed NinjaOutreach revenue by a third by firing SEO clients
“And so day one, I fired all the SEO clients, which was a third of revenue. And so we went from 50 to 40 on day one.”
Quiry avoids acquiring SaaS businesses with over 5% customer revenue concentration
“And so I don't like any customer who accounts for more than two to five percent of revenue.”
Quiry says NinjaOutreach only needed one of its three original developers
“It had three developers when I acquired it. It turned out it only actually needed one. And so two of them left on their own accord.”
Quiry requires SaaS acquisition targets to be at least three years old
“When you buy a company like I do, that's at least three years old. It's one of my prerequisites. You really don't have to do much to just keep it running, right?”
Quiry structured early SaaS acquisitions as all-cash with $200,000 holdbacks
“In all of my early deals, it was all cash up front there. There was a 200,000 dollar hold back for six months. That's it.”
Quiry sold NinjaOutreach for more than double his $1.2M purchase price
“I just don't remember, but it was more than double than what I paid.”
Quiry argues SaaS founders do not need brokers charging 15% exit fees
“If someone has the capability to start and grow a SaaS company, there are outlets like Flippa that don't require you to go spend 10 or 50% of your initial eventual outcome on a fee. Absolutely unnecessary, in my opinion, for everybody. Some people need it. Som…”
Flippa's CEO brokered Quiry's handshake sale of NinjaOutreach in 48 hours
“The CEO saw the deal, saw that it was the most popular deal on Flippa in terms of watchers, traffic, and eyeballs. Picked up the phone to, I guess an outfit called TCM that was actively buying deals. And I guess they had communicated and already done a big dea…”