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Ask HN: How to fire sell a web startup?

• davidw 16y ago
  Flippa seems to work out ok. I've sold a few things on it and have generally been happy.
• brk 16y ago
  What do you think its worth?
  • bdclimber14 16y ago
    I don't even think I can begin to guess. I have absolutely no reference point.
    • il 16y ago
      A 5-20x multiple of your monthly revenue is a good place to start.
• BenSchaechter 16y ago
  Bah! I met you guys at a TechCrunch event. Sad to see it not work out. I would recommend Flippa. Or, perhaps what all the cool kids are doing: "Offer HN"
  • bdclimber14 16y ago
    haha awesome. What we were doing is a really hard problem I think. I think there's a reason internship/college job related sites are a dime a dozen. Hopefully not literally ;)
    • WillyF 16y ago
      And there's plenty of money in the market, but most people get the business model wrong, fail to get enough users, and quit too soon.
• zone2 16y ago
  clickable http://orangeslyce.com http://orangeslyce.com
• amoore 16y ago
  Put it on flippa.com and let folks here know. Spend a bit of time on your flippa description. It will make a difference. You have to stand out from all of the crap sold on flippa. Or, let me know what you want for it. My email address is in my profile.
• jayhawg 16y ago
  I think the site is good and could be great. I wouldn't sell it yet. Plus, if users love it, there's hope. If you want a few ideas, send an e-mail; I'd be happy to give .02.
  • bdclimber14 16y ago
    I'd love to hear your thoughts. Unfortunately, I'm not sure we can survive the time for it to be great, or produce revenue that sustains us. Can you email me at sean@orangeslyce.com.
  • adityakothadiya 16y ago
    I agree too. It looks stunning and polished service. I'm not sure what marketing strategies/tactics you used so far, and what were the results of it. But I think you need to focus entirely on marketing and reaching out to many students. Think about some creative marketing ideas that are directly related to university students or so. See if you can get someone on advisory board who is marketing pro, and help you grow from here. If I was in your shoes, probably I wouldn't quit at this stage. There got to be something that you'll figure out that will work. Worst case, pivot this crowd-sourcing model to other domain - you already have product ready, see if you can apply this model to other high-paying industry. Just my $0.02s
• bobf 16y ago
  Hundreds/month of revenue, with what sort of expenses? Is it mostly just the issue of the amount of time you're putting into it with relatively little return?
  • bdclimber14 16y ago
    yeah that's it.
• noodle 16y ago
  1) hundreds/month revenue, but what does the profit look like? are you covering operating expenses? 2) what are you expecting? the "we have revenue but want to quit" makes me feel that you're expecting to be properly compensated for your time, which is highly unlikely.
  • bdclimber14 16y ago
    It covers hosting expenses, but doesn't cover the team as employees (we don't have day jobs). I'm definitely not expected to be compensated for time, but hope to get some cash out to fund our next big thing.
    • noodle 16y ago
      why don't you just pivot? abandon all work on this product that does anything except directly generate revenue. as long as you're not losing money, just let it stay alive and gain the passive revenue. go do that other thing now.
      • bdclimber14 16y ago
        That's what we'll probably end up doing. I was just thinking that selling could offer a surge of revenue to cover living costs while developing the new product.
        • noodle 16y ago
          it could. but it looks like you put a lot of time and effort into this. would you be willing to sell it on flippa for like 2 months rent and then watch as someone runs it into the ground?
• Flippa_com 16y ago
  Hi there. Sorry to hear it is not working out for you. Full points for giving it a serious go. As some of the other responses have already said, Flippa is the number one marketplace for getting OrangeSlyce.com in front of the most qualified website buyers. Having existing revenue will help in getting buyer attention. Just make sure you have a reserve price that you are happy to sell at. Let us know if you go ahead and we'll send a few credits your way to get you rolling.