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Sure, I understand. This post probably is a bit too vague. I guess I was more looking for personal experience in selling a profitable small business outside of

by ezekg 7y ago

Sure, I understand. This post probably is a bit too vague. I guess I was more looking for personal experience in selling a profitable small business outside of a typical inbound acquisition offer. I know of the brokerage feinternational.com, just from the occasional mentions here on HN, but not really sure if there are other well-known alternatives which also focus on software/internet businesses.

davismwfl 7y ago
Gotcha. When I sold my businesses it was always from direct conversations with other people, always inbound in my case. And always asset sales not stock sales. Same for acquiring, I have reached directly out to a business but never used a broker, and I only bought assets. You've probably seen it but Patrick McKenzie (patio11) has talked about his experiences using FEI, https://www.kalzumeus.com/2016/08/26/kalzumeus-podcast-episode-13-selling-online-businesses-with-thomas-smale/ https://www.kalzumeus.com/2016/08/26/kalzumeus-podcast-episo... . And I swear I thought he posted some other details on it, but I don't see any I have saved. Nathan Latka also talks about it in his book, "How To Be A Capitalist Without Any Capital". I am not really sure of any other specific online brokerages outside of some of the basic ones like https://www.flippa.com https://www.flippa.com. It may just be me, but every time I look on Flippa I see people wanting, sometimes quite a bit of, money for something that is worth $0 in business terms. Essentially what I see is they want to be paid for their time building something that has no revenue, no customers and no marketing which isn't a business it is an unfinished, unvalidated project. And I get it, I respect their time is worth something, but I do not understand why anyone would buy a "business" when the founder hasn't validated someone is willing to pay for it. To me it isn't a business until there are customers using the system that you can turn into revenue.

by ezekg 7y ago

davismwfl 7y ago

Gotcha. When I sold my businesses it was always from direct conversations with other people, always inbound in my case. And always asset sales not stock sales. Same for acquiring, I have reached directly out to a business but never used a broker, and I only bought assets. You've probably seen it but Patrick McKenzie (patio11) has talked about his experiences using FEI, https://www.kalzumeus.com/2016/08/26/kalzumeus-podcast-episode-13-selling-online-businesses-with-thomas-smale/ https://www.kalzumeus.com/2016/08/26/kalzumeus-podcast-episo... . And I swear I thought he posted some other details on it, but I don't see any I have saved. Nathan Latka also talks about it in his book, "How To Be A Capitalist Without Any Capital". I am not really sure of any other specific online brokerages outside of some of the basic ones like https://www.flippa.com https://www.flippa.com. It may just be me, but every time I look on Flippa I see people wanting, sometimes quite a bit of, money for something that is worth $0 in business terms. Essentially what I see is they want to be paid for their time building something that has no revenue, no customers and no marketing which isn't a business it is an unfinished, unvalidated project. And I get it, I respect their time is worth something, but I do not understand why anyone would buy a "business" when the founder hasn't validated someone is willing to pay for it. To me it isn't a business until there are customers using the system that you can turn into revenue.