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Ask HN: Sell my startup for $14M because I can't raise $2M?

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Ask HN: Sell my startup for $14M because I can't raise $2M?

#1
I founded an vertical-focused enterprise startup. We signed a few huge customers in the space on a build-and-beta basis, and that led to industry awards and a full pipeline of leads and signed contracts for installation (SaaS pricing with small implementation fee).

We've done it with a ridiculously small team, however. And it's become impossible to handle the dev and deployment, support and training, security reviews, feature requests, etc. So we are looking at options.

We've been approached by a few large companies in the industry regarding acquisition. It looks like we could sell for $12-14M. Kind of exciting, but also well under the value that's possible (which would probably be something north of $400M in our industry alone, with the possibility to move laterally).

The alternative is to raise money. We've put together a solid deck and model (I think), but the local venture capital scene is not great (think $1M+ ARR).

We think this is a product ripe for SV firms, but those critical "warm introductions" are elusive. We just don't have the network. Only 4% of my cold emails have even been opened (yes, we track it).

It's crazy to me that our industry is jumping up and down for our product, we've got offers to buy the company, but we can't raise a seed. I've failed hard here. I'm open for advice.

Re: Ask HN: Sell my startup for $14M because I can't raise $2M?

#8
post #3

If you're young, sell now. Then take some time and pursue something more recreational for a while. When you're ready to get back into the grind you'll still have a nice stake to start with.

I might even argue even if you're old, sell now still. I assume "a ridiculously small team" means 3-4 people. Even assuming an equal split (it sounds like OP is CEO/main founder, so should be even more), that's $3mil a person at least. After tax that's still $1.5mil. It allows OP to live a much improved life, while at the same time optionally pursuing more business ventures if they wanted, or simply spend more time with family and kids.

Re: Ask HN: Sell my startup for $14M because I can't raise $2M?

#10
post #5

Do you not have enough revenue from current clients to be able to expand your team and hire more people for dev/deployment/support ?

The launch cycle is usually about 6 months from signature to first user onboarding. We expect it will take about 12 months to get full organization saturation. We've looked at upfront pricing, but it has been hard to get for a new budget-line product.
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