4 ms·
Ask HN: Should I hire a new CEO or sell my business?
I'm the founder of a bootstrapped B2B SaaS company that's been growing at a decent clip for the past two years.
Context:
C-Corp
Revenue is ~$100k/year
ACV is ~$5k/year
I'm the only employee
60% Outbound/40% Inbound
Profit margins ~75%
TAM is any B2B company in North America, possibly worldwide with ACV >$20k/yr.
Problem: I'm currently running another business which is growing like mad and can't put any time into this business which means that it's in zombie-mode. Existing customers will get full support, I'm not releasing any new features and I've ceased any outbound effort.
Options:
1) Hire a CEO or
2) Sell it
Questions:
What's the best path here? Sell or find a replacement and give them a stake?
What's the best way to go about finding a potential CEO?
If I were to sell the company, where should I start this process?
Thanks in advance
- quaquaqua1 7y agoThe answer depends on if you need the money generated from the sale of the business. For example, if you had someone who would pay you non-negotiable cash up front of 200k (after taxes) with no strings attached, I imagine that would be meaningful to your financial goals in life. However if you can afford to wait and believe that there is significant upside in your business that a new CEO can unlock for you while you work on the other business, then you should consider hiring an extremely sharp and self-motivated person who can grow the business to a multimillion dollar opportunity instead of what it currently is. Such a person would be me! You can email me at waybetterthansaas@gmail.com. Good luck!
- crab_cakes 7y agoThanks! I'll shoot you a note shortly. To answer your question, a few hundred k is definitely meaningful but I'm open to taking a shot with a savvy CEO. talk soon!
- quaquaqua1 7y agoLooking forward to it, and I hope some others will give you some guidance too. If you go down the sale route, you will definitely need to proactively reach out to other businesses (or private investors) who would want to own those contracts and revenue streams. And you would need a lawyer to facilitate the legal transfer of ownership of the entities. see you!
- rajacombinator 7y agoNice spot to be in. I’m not an expert but based on what I’ve heard about selling small software businesses I think you’ll have a tough time getting an attractive price on a sale. On the other hand, finding someone with the right skill set to step in as a replacement CEO/founder - and incentivizing them properly - will be tough. But given that the business seems capable of running on autopilot currently, I think this option is still best. The question just becomes how do you find the right person and structure a deal to align everyone’s incentives. Happy to offer further input if you ping me. (Email in profile.)