Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Show HN: Venturu – Zillow for the market of local businesses

venturu.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

11–20 of 38 posts

Re: Show HN: Venturu – Zillow for the market of local businesses

#13

Post by lifenautjoe »

bitxbitxbitcoin wrote: post #8

First impression: Bizbuysell with extra LLM.

we get why it might look that way on the surface

the real difference though is the monumental effort happening behind the scenes. We're building direct partnerships with brokerages, one by one, to sync their entire inventory onto Venturu.

For many of them, it's the first time they can put all their listings online without getting hit by massive per-listing fees. It might not sound like a huge deal, but we believe this will eventually reveal the true size of this hidden market.

It's a world still built on handshakes and business cards, and we're just trying to help pave the way.

we do use some generative models for mundane things like headlines to make that free discoverability possible, but our core tech, like the valuation tool, is "old school".

My cofounder, Luis, built that model over years in a spreadsheet from his experience buying businesses. My job was to turn it into code and supercharge it with historical data and location-specific variables.

Fun fact, the model was actually born first, Venturu came later

Re: Show HN: Venturu – Zillow for the market of local businesses

#14

Post by alexshuhu »

Great work! The Zillow analogy really resonates — the small business buying space has needed this kind of transparency for a long time. I like that you’re removing upfront fees and moving toward verified data rooms; that balance between accessibility and trust could be a real edge. Excited to see how the platform grows and how transaction-level data shapes the next stage.

Re: Show HN: Venturu – Zillow for the market of local businesses

#16

Post by lifenautjoe »

edoceo wrote: post #11

How do you qualify the buyers? IME there are loads of wannabe buyers, who aren't ready (experience, capital) and just waste broker/seller time.

That is in fact a million-dollar question. it's a huge pain point we've heard from nearly every of the 100+ brokers we've talked to.

Right now, it's a mix. we do basic "I'm a human" verification with e-mails and phoone numbers, and our team manually reviews inquiries to filter out the obvious noise before it hits a broker's inbox.

Longer term, we're exploring a concept we're calling a 'Venturu Passport.' It would be an optional one-time-thing-setup for a serious buyer to verify their funds, experience and readiness upfront, so a seller knows they're talking to someone credible.

It's just an idea for now, but we are very much obsessed with solving this. Would love to hear your thoughts on an approach like that.

Re: Show HN: Venturu – Zillow for the market of local businesses

#17

Post by lifenautjoe »

2Gkashmiri wrote: post #12

You have filters for online only business? SomeSomething that non us people could invest in for example

Our focus is both fortunately and unfortunately 100% on local, main street businesses because that's the world my cofounder and I know and the problem we experienced ourselves. We think platforms like Acquire.com already do a great job for the online/SaaS world.

That said, a long-term dream of ours is to explore ways to let people co-invest in businesses in their own communities. It's a ways off, but it's part of the bigger vision.

Re: Show HN: Venturu – Zillow for the market of local businesses

#18

Post by lifenautjoe »

alexshuhu wrote: post #14

Great work! The Zillow analogy really resonates — the small business buying space has needed this kind of transparency for a long time. I like that you’re removing upfront fees and moving toward verified data rooms; that balance between accessibility and trust could be a real edge. Excited to see how the platform grows and how transaction-level data shapes the next stage.

very suspicious comment, but even if you're a robot, thanks!

Re: Show HN: Venturu – Zillow for the market of local businesses

#20

Post by lifenautjoe »

TZubiri wrote: post #19

Reminds me of DealStream

There's definitely some overlap

I think the main difference is our core philosophy on what should be free.

Their model is built around monetizing the buyer's access, with things like "locked deals" and daily inquiry limits on the free plan.

Our whole bet is that this market only gets unlocked if discovery is completely open and frictionless for everyone, buyers, sellers, and brokers.

So on Venturu, there are no locked deals, no paywalls to see listings, and no limits on inquiries.

We give all that away for free and will build our business by helping our broker partners succeed, similar to the Zillow model

Post reply on HN