Just trying to understand the context better. What does your startup do in real estate? What is the revenue model? What is the affiliate revenue that you are able to generate?
Ask HN: What's my profitable startup worth? (detailed stats provided)
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Re: Ask HN: What's my profitable startup worth? (detailed stats provided)
#12I'm just curious, how long did it take you to get up to 5M page views?
It took a few years of working on it evenings & weekends while I had a 9-5. During that time I always thought of my salary as VC money.
Re: Ask HN: What's my profitable startup worth? (detailed stats provided)
#13patio11 sold his business through this site and said only positive things about it: http://feinternational.com/ Considering that it is worth how much someone is willing to pay, might be a great place to some benchmarking.
I've heard of them and might contact them, but I'm not really interested in paying a broker fee unless they could get a premium price.
Re: Ask HN: What's my profitable startup worth? (detailed stats provided)
#14Just trying to understand the context better. What does your startup do in real estate? What is the revenue model? What is the affiliate revenue that you are able to generate?
Great questions and for obvious reasons I don't want to be very specific about the site's niche within the real estate industry, but the service that it provides will always be in demand by the general public & industry professionals.
The intent was that the majority of revenue would come from paid users (SaaS model), but AdSense & affiliate brings in more. I could probably change that by marketing, which I've never done, and I might do just that if I decide to keep it.
Re: Ask HN: What's my profitable startup worth? (detailed stats provided)
#15Congratulations on your success thus far. There are several pricing models one can use for small business valuation. In this case, your company earns revenue using advertising (AdSense and affiliate). Companies like this are priced differently from e.g. SaaS startups which are in turn priced differently from companies selling enterprise desktop software. The industry standard for ad revenue companies is a 20-24x mult…
Thank you for taking the time to respond.
So far all of the offers that I've received, some from "known" companies, value the business based upon it's traffic, users, brand & future potential within the real estate industry. And surprisingly, none have shown much interest in the ad revenue.
So this is really why I'm seeking outside advice on what others think based upon the little information that I've provided. I'm really at a crossroads where I need to decide if I want to truly focus on it or sell it so I can focus on another startup that's unrelated to the real estate industry.
Re: Ask HN: What's my profitable startup worth? (detailed stats provided)
#16patio11 sold his business through this site and said only positive things about it: http://feinternational.com/ Considering that it is worth how much someone is willing to pay, might be a great place to some benchmarking.
I've heard of them and might contact them, but I'm not really interested in paying a broker fee unless they could get a premium price.
I understand, but what I am suggesting is looking in their "sold listings" to get a benchmark on how much your startup is worth.
IMO it answers your post question much better than any HN commenter might do (except if a HN commenter is willing to actually buy your startup)
Re: Ask HN: What's my profitable startup worth? (detailed stats provided)
#17Your startup is worth whatever it is worth to the buyer. This is a serious statement. Unlike S&P stocks, a small startup does not have many buyers looking into your valuation. What one buyer is willing to pay will vary widely from another. A prospective buyer will consider things besides your revenue history. Such as operation risk, potential synergy, possible changes for growth, if you are a competitor, etc. Then th…
You are correct - different buyers will value the business differently based upon their intentions for it. Some would be more interested in growing the SaaS side, so far all of the offers I've received are related to this, whereas others might be more interested in growing the AdSense & affiliate revenue.
Important to note, my business provides a service which will always be in demand no matter if real estate is booming or busting.
I think if I could get a 5x sale price I would take it. Best so far has been 4x and none have been below 3x.
Re: Ask HN: What's my profitable startup worth? (detailed stats provided)
#18Earlier quoted context omitted.
I've heard of them and might contact them, but I'm not really interested in paying a broker fee unless they could get a premium price.
I understand, but what I am suggesting is looking in their "sold listings" to get a benchmark on how much your startup is worth. IMO it answers your post question much better than any HN commenter might do (except if a HN commenter is willing to actually buy your startup)
Excellent idea - you sir/ma'am are a genius!!
Re: Ask HN: What's my profitable startup worth? (detailed stats provided)
#19you might need a few more years of data to get a decent discounted free cash flow valuation.
eh, you can run a DCF on monthly data if you wanted. but no idea what relevant discount rate would be.
Re: Ask HN: What's my profitable startup worth? (detailed stats provided)
#20Congratulations on your success thus far. There are several pricing models one can use for small business valuation. In this case, your company earns revenue using advertising (AdSense and affiliate). Companies like this are priced differently from e.g. SaaS startups which are in turn priced differently from companies selling enterprise desktop software. The industry standard for ad revenue companies is a 20-24x mult…
Thank you for taking the time to respond. So far all of the offers that I've received, some from "known" companies, value the business based upon it's traffic, users, brand & future potential within the real estate industry. And surprisingly, none have shown much interest in the ad revenue. So this is really why I'm seeking outside advice on what others think based upon the little information that I've provided. I'm…
Serious question: why do you need to sell to focus on another startup, when you say this one is pretty much autopilot?
It seems whatever time you save on upkeep will be used by income anxiety instead.
If I were in your shoes I'd never sell unless I get a multiple that approaches S&P. Which already pays rather poorly for income considering how low interest rates are. This is only if your business is forecast to be steady though.