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Selling My Bootstrapped SaaS Business

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Re: Selling My Bootstrapped SaaS Business

#101

Post by phlowbieuq »

tylertringas wrote: post #41
bryanph_ wrote: post #31

Shows how out of touch I am with the corporate world. I can't believe people pay monthly for this.

I know right. Big thanks to patio11 for convincing me (via blog posts and tweets) that, yes, many businesses will pay quite a bit more than you think for things like a store locator

Is it just me, or is patio11 the most widely helpful and valuable person on the entire internet? Can hardly make it through a long HN thread without finding some reference to "patio11 wrote a great post on this topic that helped me immensely"

Re: Selling My Bootstrapped SaaS Business

#102

Post by klttunets »

danieltillett wrote: post #90
csa wrote: post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> ... and what revenue multiple do you pay? I'm trying to figure out if you're just being a jerk here, or whether you are genuinely curious about a question with a wide range of acceptable answers. I hope it's the latter. Market rates are typically something between 2x and 5x some sort of revenue or profit measure. That said, the price can go over 5 if there is a big strategic advantage to be had. Conversely, the mul…

No I am asking a genuine question. My experience is all buyers want to pay 1x to 1.5x of the after tax profit after some massive owner salary has been subtracted. From a financial perspective it almost never makes sense to sell unless you have to get out today. If you have a good business that is earning good money then just run it out for cash. At worst take your best employee, give them 10% of the business, and let…

This hasn't been my experience at all - I'm sorry you haven't had better offers. If you haven't already, I suggest contacting the brokers mentioned on this page (FE International, Pixel Paycheques) and see if they can get you better deals

Re: Selling My Bootstrapped SaaS Business

#103

Post by enraged_camel »

danieltillett wrote: post #90
csa wrote: post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> ... and what revenue multiple do you pay? I'm trying to figure out if you're just being a jerk here, or whether you are genuinely curious about a question with a wide range of acceptable answers. I hope it's the latter. Market rates are typically something between 2x and 5x some sort of revenue or profit measure. That said, the price can go over 5 if there is a big strategic advantage to be had. Conversely, the mul…

No I am asking a genuine question. My experience is all buyers want to pay 1x to 1.5x of the after tax profit after some massive owner salary has been subtracted. From a financial perspective it almost never makes sense to sell unless you have to get out today. If you have a good business that is earning good money then just run it out for cash. At worst take your best employee, give them 10% of the business, and let…

>>From a financial perspective it almost never makes sense to sell unless you have to get out today.

On the contrary, you should never wait to sell until you have to. That just puts you in a very weak position and ensures you'll be selling it for pennies on the dollar.

Re: Selling My Bootstrapped SaaS Business

#104

Post by infinite8s »

joosters wrote: post #70
bryanph_ wrote: post #31

Shows how out of touch I am with the corporate world. I can't believe people pay monthly for this.

'I could do this. Why would I pay for it?' only works for people with copious free time.

Or people who value their time at 0, which seems to be a lot of developers.

Re: Selling My Bootstrapped SaaS Business

#105

Post by graeme »

tylertringas wrote: post #30

Hi folks. I'm the OP here. Hit me up if you have any questions.

Would this work for a business that requires domain expertise?

I run an online lsat prep business. I sell video courses. Not a monthly SASS, but everything runs automatically. Students arrive at predictable times of the year and buy in predictable quantities.

But, to expand on it, you would need domain knowledge. That can be hired; I have an assistant who’s an lsat tutor who handles a lot of support.

There aren’t really any buyers within my niche. Existing lsat prep companies already have a course.

There’s also the issue that my personality is in the business. The videos feature me, and the informational materials are written in my own style, using the word “I”, etc.

So far I’ve been operating on the assumption that I can’t sell it at a reasonable value. But maybe that’s mistaken. Do you think non-lsat experts might want to buy a business like this?

There’s definitely some cost savings potential. “Programmer” is one of my larger expenses. A developer could optimize it with their own labour instead.

Re: Selling My Bootstrapped SaaS Business

#106

Post by subpixel »

bryanph_ wrote: post #31

Shows how out of touch I am with the corporate world. I can't believe people pay monthly for this.

They have to. The functionality is table-stakes for any business selling a physical products in stores, and no site or store platform has the functionality built-in.

I implemented Storemapper for a few clients (indie sellers and major brands), and they absolutely loved it b/c it solved their exact problem and cost next to nothing.

Re: Selling My Bootstrapped SaaS Business

#107

Post by dboreham »

shostack wrote: post #61
cultvoid wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In my experience, hiring a marketing/adwords contractor is the very easiest way to transfer cash out of your business and into somebody else's business, with no discernible value gained. I'm sure there are some hotshot marketing/adwords contractors out there...and unicorns probably exist also.

As someone who manages digital media for a living and has done so with very large sums of money with measurable revenue attached to that spend, I'd invite you to share what makes your experience so concrete as to enable you to attempt to discredit an entire industry with a wave of your hand. I'll be the first to say that measuring the incremental impact of advertising is often very challenging for a variety of techni…

"The lady doth protest too much, methinks"

Re: Selling My Bootstrapped SaaS Business

#108

Post by hyperpallium »

I wanted to keep my first business as a life-style business, to fund other ventures, because the income is financially a much better deal than a sale... but also found that it just takes too much to run miltiple ventures (Elon Musk notwithstanding).

Really liked the "see an opportunity", of the business being worth more owned by them - the sale creates value in the world. Really, it's how a sale of anything, product/service, should be.

Unfortunately, getting a business into a saleable state, and getting a sale actually done, seem about as much work as creating a profitable (but not self-running) business in the first place. Conceptually analogous to Brooks' program vs. product.

> In a strategic acquisition, businesses can be purchased

Typo/something missing after that?

Re: Selling My Bootstrapped SaaS Business

#109

Post by ymow »

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