The largest generational wealth transfer in history?

Here's the reason why: The Guardian recently published an article saying that "trillions of dollars of wealth are slowly being transferred to a younger generation by boomers selling their businesses to those looking to build their own."

If you're a software founder, I've got one idea for you: A marketplace to connect:

• Baby boomers who are looking to sell a business with:

• Millennials who are looking to buy a business

(If you're not a software founder, you can still make use of this trend, read on.)

Why is this a good idea?

Here are some key stats from the article:

• According to the US Small Business Administration, more than half of the nation's small-business owners are over the age of 50.

• Approximately 21% of the US population were born before 1964 (the baby boomer generation).

• As of February 2024, baby boomers owned about 51% of the privately held businesses in the United States. This translates to about 3 million businesses valued at $10 trillion.

• An estimated 10,000 baby boomers retire each day, which is driving the market for business sales forward.

The key word here is retire. It's a tough economy, and baby boomers are looking to retire comfortably.

What better way to retire than selling a business you've owned for a long time?

Most marketplaces focus on online businesses

(Micro)Acquire, FE International, Quiet Light Brokerage. You've probably heard about at least one of them.

Those marketplaces mostly focus on online businesses.

There aren't many marketplaces that focus on offline businesses. BizBuySell, the company that conducted the original study on this topic, is one such marketplace. However, they focus on the US primarily.

So the supply is pretty low, and the demand is high. According to the The Guardian, "The number of small businesses being sold has not only recovered to pre-pandemic levels, but is quickly rising."

How to position your marketplace

If you want to get started, here's an interesting stat for you: BizBuySell reported that 35% of today's business buyers identify as "corporate refugees" who desire to leave corporate America for the independence of small business ownership.

So one of the primary audience segments are people under 40 who are looking to exit the "corporate rat race."

This can help you when positioning your startup for the buyers.

As for the sellers, one thing to be aware is that they're not tech-savvy.

My guess is that a lot of them post their businesses-for-sale on Craigslist and Facebook Marketplace.

You'll be targeting two very different customer segments, so adjust your positioning accordingly.

What to do if you're not a software developer

Simply being aware of this trend gives you a competitive advantage; Now that you know that more and more people are looking to retire by selling their small business, so, if you have some cash saved, you may use it to buy such a small firm rather than beginning from zero.

Good luck!