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I sold TinyPilot, my first successful business

mtlynch.io

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Re: I sold TinyPilot, my first successful business

#131

Post by runako »

talldatethrow wrote: post #118
demondemidi wrote: post #93

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In the US there is the affordable care act from ~2013, where anyone can purchase insurance from a pooled market subsidized by the government up to a certain income (50k I think). But that is also impacted by the state you live in, as the states negotiate the contracts paid by federal dollars (I know it's effed up). So the ACA is cheaper on the west coast than it is in Alabama. Today, a "gold" policy for a single man…

I have a feeling your employer is paying the difference, so basically you're paying one way or another.

Exactly this. People feel like wages have not been increasing. In reality wages have been increasing, but employers are passing most of the increase over to health insurers.

Re: I sold TinyPilot, my first successful business

#133

Post by elevatedastalt »

mtlynch wrote: post #59
xyst wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A broker is just a middleman between the seller and buyer. What’s the value add for sales like this?

Author here. For me, the value of the broker was just someone to guide me through the whole process because I'd never done it before. It was good to have someone whose interests were pretty aligned with mine and who answered questions quickly and thoroughly without me having to pay by the hour. Another big part of the value was finding the buyer, as I probably couldn't do that on my own. I could have thrown a hail ma…

In what way were their interests aligned with yours? (this is not a snarky question. usually in real estate their interest is to make the deal happen asap, which doesn't align fully with your interests)

Re: I sold TinyPilot, my first successful business

#135

Post by kristianp »

> Sale price: $598,000 (2.4x annual earnings)

I don't want to offend, but 2.4x earnings is disappointing to me. I dream of selling a business for 5-10 times earnings and retiring. The assumption being the 5x earnings assumes the business will grow, perhaps doubling every 5 years?

Re: I sold TinyPilot, my first successful business

#136

Post by eric-hu »

mtlynch wrote: post #2

Author here. I'm happy to answer any questions about this post, the sale process, or my time running TinyPilot.

Congratulations on your sale Michael. I've been following your blog over the years and have learned a lot. Really happy for you that you could find a buyer and wrap things up with TinyPilot. Looking forward to seeing what you work on in the future!

Re: I sold TinyPilot, my first successful business

#137

Post by codegeek »

alberth wrote: post #34

Broker commission: $88,900 Legal fees: $18,297 This equates to ~18% of total sale price. Most people don't realize how much get eaten up in deal/closing costs. Congrats to him for the successful exit. Reading his blog post over the years should be eye opening to anyone just how hard starting/running a business is.

And don't forget that a buyer spends a decent amount on their own lawyers, CPA etc during due diligence. I recently spent 10K on a deal.

Re: I sold TinyPilot, my first successful business

#138

Post by lotsofpulp »

floating-io wrote: post #88
talldatethrow wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How is healthcare tied to employment? Isn't it available to buy on the open market?

Employer-offered plans tend to be extremely good value, so the vast majority take advantage of them. I was paying The bigger problem, IMHO, is that quitting means changing your insurance, which isn't just a financial change. It can also end up requiring you to change medical providers, which is no small deal! This adds massive friction and stress to the act of quitting/changing jobs, a major source of leverage on the…

> I was paying This is relatively small pickles. Your employer paying a few hundred, maybe a thousand dollars on your behalf if you are old, per month. You can buy the same on healthcare.gov

Re: I sold TinyPilot, my first successful business

#139

Post by codegeek »

ThePowerOfFuet wrote: post #124
yojo wrote: post #80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My wife runs her own consulting business, I’m taking a break from tech work. This means we buy insurance on the federal marketplace (healthcare.gov). It is expensive, but not insanely so. Family of four, living in Oregon, non-smoking, our premium is ~$1k/month. Granted it’s a high deductible ($12k), but it protects us from the kind of catastrophic emergency that could wipe out our savings. We are fortunate to not hav…

> Family of four, living in Oregon, non-smoking, our premium is ~$1k/month. Granted it’s a high deductible ($12k), but it protects us from the kind of catastrophic emergency that could wipe out our savings. We are fortunate to not have expensive, ongoing conditions. Family of two, living in the EU, non-smoking, our premium is ~€0/month. Granted it's a €0 deductible, but it protects us from the kind of catastrophic em…

:). If only people in America understood how they are being scammed by the Health Insurance Mafia.

Re: I sold TinyPilot, my first successful business

#140

Post by lotsofpulp »

demondemidi wrote: post #93
talldatethrow wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How is healthcare tied to employment? Isn't it available to buy on the open market?

In the US there is the affordable care act from ~2013, where anyone can purchase insurance from a pooled market subsidized by the government up to a certain income (50k I think). But that is also impacted by the state you live in, as the states negotiate the contracts paid by federal dollars (I know it's effed up). So the ACA is cheaper on the west coast than it is in Alabama. Today, a "gold" policy for a single man…

> I now pay $120 for me and my wife for a plan that is better than the $1000 plan through the ACA in Oregon because I'm no longer self employed.

Look at box 12 code DD on your W-2. That is the total amount you are paying for your health insurance (it’s just that your employer is paying it directly). It’s still counted in the cost of employing you though, obviously.

Assuming you have a silver or gold level plan, total cost to insure you and your wife is the same on healthcare.gov or if your employer buys it.

The only broad savings are if your employer is self insuring and their risk pool (employees and their families) are disproportionately low risk (young and single).

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