Does building software yourself make your business look... small?
Something I'm hesitant to admit:
I built our M&A platform myself.
This is a point of pride with an audience of indie hackers. But I'm reluctant to share this with the wider world, including our potential customers, for one specific reason:
I'm afraid it makes us look small.
The tool couldn't possibly be amazing if a non-developer founder built it, right?
Truthfully, building our platform myself was never my plan.
When I envisioned They Got Acquired offering a database of comps, I figured I'd hire a tech team to build it.
But as I fleshed out the project brief, I began exploring tools that make it possible to build interfaces on top of Airtable, where we keep our data.
And I realized that no-code tools are so far along now that I could lean on them for our build instead of a development team.
At first, I told myself it wasn't a good use of my time to build this myself. But once I started tinkering with the tools, I got hit with another surprise.
Not only was it possible for me to build what we needed, but I actually enjoyed getting my hands dirty.
This felt counter to what I consider my strengths. I'm operationally minded, and good at putting the pieces in place so my team can do great work. I don't think of myself as an indie hacker or creator; I'm more of an operator.
But once I got into Softr, I discovered I loved bringing this idea to life. It was so satisfying to turn all of our insight into a user-friendly platform that could drive real outcomes for sellers, buyers and advisors.
One specific move drastically accelerated the build: I hired a Softr coach, Cole Fortman.
We met regularly to work through obstacles, and he helped me build features I wouldn't have figured out on my own. This layer of support meant the build went faster and we got a better product, without the high cost of outsourcing.
A few magical things happened because I built our platform with my own hands:
✨ Buyers came to the forefront.
Our original idea was to focus on comps, because that's what I wished I had when I sold my business.
But since we don't anonymize our data, we can also see who the buyers are. So I ended up baking that into the product.
Our buyer profiles, it turns out, are a big draw. You can use our filters to identify good-fit buyers, see what they've acquired previously, and lean on the contact information we provide to reach out to those buyers directly.
✨ We can meet requests quickly.
When we have an idea for a new feature, I know whether it's possible to add using our current tool stack, and how easy or hard it might be.
For example, one user wanted to filter by deals where we know the sale multiple. I was able to quickly roll that out for her.
✨ I'm having fun.
When things are enjoyable, we stick with them longer. Giving myself permission to do what's fun helps me get through the challenging parts.
In the end, this was the right move for us. But sometimes, when potential customers ask questions, I still find myself saying:
"Let me check with our tech team on that."
I run They Got Acquired, which helps founders sell their business: https://TheyGotAcquired.com/newsletter
