I sold $180k worth of startups in 2023. AMA
Hey, Indie Hackers!
I'm Ilya, a founder from Ukraine. I started a micro-startup acquisition marketplace called Microns in 2021.
In two years, I grew the project to 6,000 newsletter subscribers, $40k revenue and $180k GMV (sold startups)! No investments, completely bootstrapped.
Feel free to ask me anything.
How did you build trust with your customers, being a new marketplace? Was it simply because people who wanted to sell their small startup, want the max exposure possible so were willing to bet on your marketplace as well?
Maybe. But I think it was because I started a newsletter and shared everything along the way: development of the project, growth, success stories, failes, asked and answered questions from my subscribers.
After that, I created Twitter account and started sharing even more info. And it slowly built trust and created a sense of community.
People saw it's working and submitted their own startups for sale.
The trust is the most important thing in marketplace business so I relied on transparency and honesty with my subscribers and customers.
Great to hear, sounds like you're on the right track! Totally agree that trust is absolutely crucial for this business, and in fact any business really
What was the largest and smallest deal?
Smallest: $300
Largest: $20,000
How did you get your initial insight for starting a micro-startup acquisition marketplace? Where did the inspiration come from to fulfill that specific need?
At first, I saw it on Twitter, where founders tried to sell their small projects and tweeted about it. Then, I discovered the MicroAcquire marketplace and figured out that there's a market for such products, so I started building Microns.
Real builders don’t wait for permission. This reminds me of some of the Operator moves I heard about — small circles, big plays.
FYI: we sold 40 startups with an average deal price $4,500.