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Although I realize that this is entirely private, but it would be incredibly awesome if you could share some vague ranges of how much you paid for both this sta

Although I realize that this is entirely private, but it would be incredibly awesome if you could share some vague ranges of how much you paid for both this startup and the other "web apps" mentioned in part 1. This info could put it into perspective of what it would cost to buy the idea and work, as opposed to having to incubate it yourself. You make interesting arguments about how buying saved you time and effort, and also reduced risk, but ultimately everything is a trade-off and knowing the range of $$$ would make comparison a lot easier. Thanks for a great post too!

rwalling 15y ago
Sure. I've purchased web apps and websites (and have colleagues who have done the same) for $1k-$2k that today make right around that each month. But those are the best results; that's not the most common outcome of purchasing in this range. The most common purchase price is between $2k and $7k. Though I do feel like that's been creeping up over the past couple of years as this approach of buying becomes better known. The more you can spend the better off you are; everyone's trying to buy in the $2k-5k range so there is far less competition in the $10k-$25k range. But $5k-$10k can also net you a nice app. In addition, although this approach saves months of dev time it does take time to find deals. You either have to sift through sites on Flippa, which I did for years, or find deals and cold email like I did. It's not something where one day a deal just drops itself into your lap with no work invested. The hardest one is the first one - once that's going you can use revenue from that to buy the second, and so on. This most recent acquisition was funded purely with revenue from the other 8-10 apps I've bought and revamped over the past several years.
- sologoub 15y ago
  Thank you! This is actually incredibly helpful in putting this into context. Reading your original posts, I somehow expected to see 5 to 6 digit numbers, as opposed to the 4 to 5 digits that you quoted.

rwalling 15y ago

Sure. I've purchased web apps and websites (and have colleagues who have done the same) for $1k-$2k that today make right around that each month. But those are the best results; that's not the most common outcome of purchasing in this range. The most common purchase price is between $2k and $7k. Though I do feel like that's been creeping up over the past couple of years as this approach of buying becomes better known. The more you can spend the better off you are; everyone's trying to buy in the $2k-5k range so there is far less competition in the $10k-$25k range. But $5k-$10k can also net you a nice app. In addition, although this approach saves months of dev time it does take time to find deals. You either have to sift through sites on Flippa, which I did for years, or find deals and cold email like I did. It's not something where one day a deal just drops itself into your lap with no work invested. The hardest one is the first one - once that's going you can use revenue from that to buy the second, and so on. This most recent acquisition was funded purely with revenue from the other 8-10 apps I've bought and revamped over the past several years.

sologoub 15y ago
Thank you! This is actually incredibly helpful in putting this into context. Reading your original posts, I somehow expected to see 5 to 6 digit numbers, as opposed to the 4 to 5 digits that you quoted.