Conflicted: sell SaaS or not?
I own a SaaS that's doing well, especially as I don't advertise it at all and only reply to support requests for the time being.
Between 2 side-hustles and freelance work, I lack the time to invest in it to make it grow. I feel burnt out due to lack of free time. So it seems good to let one of my projects go and sell it.
However, the SaaS is growing without much effort (currently at $1.5k/mo) and it's also in a recently popular niche. So I feel that if I sell it, I may be missing out on an opportunity to grow this into a proper SaaS business.
Do you have any advice for me? Should I sell it or not?
One option to consider: sell 50% - sometimes it's good to have a partner to divide the workload.
I'm pretty sure there would be people interested in partnering with you on this, you could make some cash now but still be invested in the future success.
Just a thought, if you think this is an interesting idea and need help finding a partner, send me an email or DM me on Twitter.
From 1k MRR to 10k MRR there is often a small distance in effort, I will try to grow it before selling
This definitely was not my experience :)
Hi @wavve, I see it took 1 year for you to get from 1k to 10k MRR, and if you think about it, it's not a lot of time (obviously you have to work every day).
In my case, it was about 6-8 months, which is also good IMO.
What I'm saying is, he can sell the SaaS for 50k today, or he can spend 1 year growing it and sell for 500k.
I think it makes sense to work for 1 year and earn 450k, I wouldn't sell anything without seeking the full potential.
Yeah, it took me a year of working mostly full time with little pay (3 months of freelancing part-time). Hard AF IMO but yes, worth it if you can do it.
It sounds like you don’t want to work on it. Asking the question here makes me think you’ve already made up your mind but need some external justification.
If this is growing nicely on it’s own, how well could it do with your focus? Can you see yourself giving it that focus (by dropping other things)? Would you enjoy working on it?
If it’s truly requiring little effort on your part and could outsource some of the tasks, and it’s generating a positive cashflow then it sounds like a nice asset to keep hold of.
But if it’s an obstacle in your life and the money doesn’t matter too much to you, then look at selling.
And before deciding you could look for a potential buyer to figure out what it could be worth and see if that matches how much you want for it. You don’t have to commit.
Final point - you could also flip a coin. If you don’t like the outcome of the coin flip then you know what to do 😄
Finding the time for everything can be quite the challenge. MMR looks good enough to sell. PM me and we can talk further. Depending on the niche, I would be interested in buying cash.
Given your MRR, I'm guessing the offer is less than $50k. Although it can be a nice chunk of change(maybe pay off some school loans, get a car, down payment on a house, etc...). This amount of money is not life changing. In 10 years it will hardly even be rememberable.
I know most of us on Indie Hackers are here for two reasons. 1: We love building things, and hope to have something with our name on it used by a lot of people. 2: We want freedom(usually the financial type).
$50k is not going to accomplish any of these goals. Getting a SaaS to product market fit is extremely hard! It's probably the hardest step of the business. At 1.5kMRR and an offer on the table you probably have some things going for you. If I were you, I would keep it and grow.
Now that being said, you know your business more than anyone here. Maybe you don't see a future with this SaaS, or maybe you see better potential in one of your other projects. Only you know what the right decision is.
I'd try to focus on less stuff.
I hope it helps.
If it doesn't require much effort, I'd just let it do its thing tbh. Unless you get a really good offer (10x ARR or something)
What type of product and how much are you selling it for?
Burnout is never fun and taking on a new partner can be tricky/time consuming process. If you are interested in selling it, let me know I'd love to learn more about the product.
Contact me via a Twitter PM :-)
I will buy it if you want to sell it, If you are looking for a partner as well let me know .
How long has it been live?
About a year.
You’ve built something that obviously is valuable and worthwhile. That doesn’t necessarily mean you feel like working on it.
$1.5k is a tricky amount of MRR. Depending where you are in the world, it’s enough to live on or barely make a dent in your finances. But it’s also enough to prove that you’ve got a valuable asset.
Why not put a couple months of hard work into growing your SaaS to around $3-4K/mo, and THEN sell it? Not only will you get $100-150k instead of $40-50k, but the sorts of people interested will be much easier to work with and well funded.
Fair point, thanks! :-)
I'd definitely keep it and bring on a partner or freelancer to build it further, given that it is in a popular niche (don't want to lose momentum). It of course depends on the needed spend to make it better and the ROI.
Bringing someone in is indeed also an option. I guess the final verdict is between partnering up or selling.
I would personally keep it. It's growing without much effort and getting to the first $1.5k is much harder than the following milestones.
That said if you do look to sell it, let me know...
This is an interesting one!
Can you tell us what product it is?
Personally: I'd keep it! It sounds like the SaaS is growing almost on its own?