Co-founding a marketplace for acquisition entrepreneurs has made me keen to become one
Building an early-stage startup from scratch sucks 80% of the time.
Don't get me wrong, the residual 20% more than make up for it. But I think we can all agree that bootstrapping your journey through constant iteration and uncertainty is very demanding.
My co-founder Laurits and I made exactly this experience when launching our marketplace BitsForDigits, seeking to help acquisition entrepreneurs find the perfect company to buy - be it a full or partial acquisition.
This is a strain our users do not need to worry about anymore.
While we spent months chasing product-market fit... they simply buy it.
Seeing how aspiring entrepreneurs and seasoned founders skip the early days of a startup and go straight to the finish line of owning a successful, profitable business with happy customers is immensely provoking.
And it makes me want to follow in their footsteps.
Launching a business from zero is an experience I always wanted to make and one I would not give up for anything - but the second time around, I will most likely go with the "buy and build" strategy so many other entrepreneurs are seeing success with.
And guess what. I set myself up for exactly that - by building a platform that I can one day use to find the perfect business for me to acquire.
I set myself up for exactly that - by building a platform that I can one day use to find the perfect business for me to acquire. - So smart! Really cool idea, I'm surprised this isn't more common. Realistically though, how much money would someone need to save before being able to get into this?
I believe SBA loans require a down payment of 10% - so that makes a decent sized acquisition fairly attainable for most people with a bit of savings.
Alternatively, people can raise search funds and take over businesses that way. They just won't get to keep all the equity.
Funny, I discovered a similar approach recently. Have been talking to a lot of professional publishers (SEO on a corporate level). They don't bother 'starting' new sites if they acquire one of decent quality in the same topic vertical.
These corporate guys have already validated the value of the business once matured which gave them the confidence to acquire something that was 20% of the way there.
Totally makes sense, especially if they can do it in form of a roll-up. I can also imagine anything SEO takes a looong time to really work out, so buying time to market is surely very helpful.