Have you built and sold a Micro-SaaS? Share your story.
I'm currently in the process of building a Micro-SaaS company called wrap.so. After I reach a certain target ARR, I'd like to sell it.
Have you built and sold (or bought) a Micro-SaaS? If so, can you share the ARR and acquisition cost?
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Hey Nev! I've bought a small online business in late 2021 via Tiny Acquisitions. I think TA founder Stephen has done a great job with the site, would recommend taking a look if you're planning to sell for under $10K.
I'm afraid I won't share too much specific detail here (haven't discussed in advance with the other parties involved) but had some advice from my side of the process:
Decide what kind of acquisition you want upfront- are you selling the business (legal entity) or just the code/site/assets you've made? If you're selling the business, where and how you're legally incorporated can make this easier or harder. IMO, 'Asset sales' are generally easier for everyone at this scale, and the path we went down.
Consider other compensation models for the sale- you might want a lump sum, but in some cases you could also seek a longer earn-out process or percentage of sales for a period.
In general, for an SAAS-like business, I always want to see a Stripe and Google Analytics dashboard (or similar traffic/revenue breakdown). It's the quickest way I can get my head around what the story of this business is, and how well acquisition/retention is working at present. I think Tiny Acquisitions also now has a spot to show off analytics.
It's also good to know the 'why' behind the sale and thoughts on potential threats/avenues for growth from the founder- this really could be as simple as 'I have other things I'd prefer to be doing' or 'I'd prefer the cash'. It gives me a better sense of if my skills are the kind needed to grow the business further, what the customer/community expectations will be or if there are external obstacles which might prevent growth.
Hope that's helpful- happy to take further questions if it'd be useful.
Great answer. We've started adding analytics and revenue breakdown to the Microns.io platform. Would be so powerful feature for potential buyers.
Just took a look, very cool! I'd love to be able to see/sort/filter by traffic or non-paying community as well as paying users.
Thank you 😊
I plan to add analytics + payment screenshots. If the founder attached screenshots from analytics and stripe gateway, it would be easier for buyers to analyze data and do due diligence.
Filters are on our roadmap for Premium members.
This is such a good answer; thanks for taking the time to share it.
I've bought and sold a few WordPress plugins over the years. Prices were usually 2.5-3x ARR. I wrote a long post on my company's blog about the process if you want to check it out:
https://linksoftwarellc.com/blog/wordpress-plugin-acquisitions-a-guide-for-small-software-developers/
Thanks for sharing!
Is this something you still do? How's the market for WordPress plugins today?
I bought one last summer and then sold one of my smaller plugins this month. I'm at four plugins with combined sales between $1,500 and $2,000 a month. Nothing huge. They are fun side projects that break up the boredom of my regular work.
I think there's a strong market for WooCommerce plugins. General WordPress plugins only seem to be successful in certain popular categories.
WordPress plugins are a great way to learn how to build, market, and support a product. I've written about that here:
https://www.indiehackers.com/post/grow-your-development-and-marketing-skills-with-wordpress-products-7c6a372913
Good read! Amzing this ecosystem still live and kicking 20 years
Wow. You have a great plugins portfolio. Good job 🔥
Awesome, Nev. I've interviewed a person who bought a micro-startup.
He is building micro-saas portfolio and learning along the way.
Interview link: https://newsletter.microns.io/issues/new-micro-startups-for-sale-from-student-to-entrepreneur-848423
I am selling ConvertX and listed it on various marketplaces (It is currently in pre-revenue). Let's see how it goes.
Any bites so far?
yes, in talk with 2 potential buyers
Currently working on a Lead Gen Search Engine SaaS. So my plan is to adapt it to export Leads to Lemlist right now. Then I will target Lemlist users and followers.
https://leadgen.tools
I hope this week I have rendered the option to start giving free trials.
Anybody knows a cold emailing app that has API so I can add Leads to Campagins?
Nice. How has user acquisition been so far?
Right now 17 recurring, just started a rebranding this month. I had it all with some other brandings and as Desktop software, I ported many functions as API and soon will be opening it to customers.
Before that, all those tools I sold for Lifetime price, it was good money but not recurring. Been farming this niche for about 5 years now, so that's why my SaaS will be focused on user needs that I coded before as custom scripts.
I made notionflow.co
I love Notion and we use tasks to manage our backlog at the startup I work full time. After using tasks for a while we needed a better way to keep tasks and PRs in sync. As soon as Notion released their API, I started looking into this. So I came up with this tool after lots of procrastination :)
One of the best ways to motivate myself became hanging out in IndieHackers and also collecting emails and trying to talk to people who are interested. Once I see some interest that was the driving power. Thankfully I can say I have a working product but with lots to add.
Watch how it works here: https://www.loom.com/share/bfd13502b9c24aeaa849027af8f3343b
Have you sold this company? Check out the title of the post!
Either way, looks like a cool product. Good luck with it!
oh, I just realised I missed the sold part sorry!
You can always sell it on Microns site. Let me know and I will introduce you to a few potential buyers.
@NevFlynn what tool are you using to build your website?
Plain ol' React!
Why sell it if it can continue bring you more money?
This is an oversimplification. There are lots of potential reasons someone might want to sell. Here are some examples:
Haven't sold yet, although been offered to sell PriceWell
(Too early to exit yet🚀)
I have recently been taken an interview about it by Founderness.
There are some actionable insights in there. Let me know what you think 😃
Didn't know about Founderness before.
Do you have a target for when you'd be willing to sell? E.g. ARR and a target acquisition price?
Would love to hear it if you're willing to share.
I think it should be on a high valuation (5x ARR) but on a large enough price that will allow us to foster our next project or path.
It should definitely be on the high 6-digit side to consider it.
I can’t say exact number right now since we are on a super growth trajectory and currently we are not seeing a plateau.
We just booked an onboard call with a
9-digit valuation customer!
So definitely staying with it for the time being.
Awesome, thanks a lot for sharing. Sounds like the business is in a really good place. Best of luck with it!
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Yeah, you should care about marketing as much as the product building.
Really interesting.
Do you think if you'd paid more attention to marketing you'd have found an audience?
Would love to know the numbers around the acquisition if you're comfortable with sharing them!
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