Time getting wasted with acquisition offers?
It's been a really long while since I've posted - mostly because I've been inactive due to health and other personal reasons. I have however been fit and back at it since almost 2-3 weeks now and have been doing a lot of reading on here.
However, back to topic, something just on my mind - thought I could get some insights from all you smart people on here:
How often do you get acquisition offers and how much effort do you put into it?
I've got 2 in the past 3 weeks and I spend a good amount of time talking and sharing details with both. Both turned out to be a bust. Couldn't find a price which would suit both with one and the other just disappeared.
To be clear, It's not like I'm actively looking for offers, but if they come along I am giving it some thought. Also, I do understand getting offers is a good thing - shows other people believe in your product. Just kind of disappointing when it gets so close and then doesn't work out.
PS: It's for Snap Search
Acquisition can be a long and exhausting process for BOTH the buyer and the seller. Trust me, buyers often have to trawl through many deals to find anything worth buying. My advice for sellers, is decide if you're actually committed to selling, an then have some steps to try to gauge the commitment of the buyer - eg. are they will to have a video call with you - can you prepare some simple materials on your numbers that doesn't take you too much time, but gives them the important things they need, and do they try to proceed beyond that?
I developed 2 Shopify apps. I'm getting acquisition requests quite often, at least once a month. So far I was ignoring them. It's only recently when I replied to one.
Can you share some numbers? If not exact amounts, then maybe just a percentage of the discrepancy between the offer and your expectations.
Health is #1 and glad you are feeling better -
Many times offers will be "Low Ball" offers and the background for the offer is if they can buy your IP at a low enough price they don't have to develop from scratch. Two Suggestions: If you get another offer - Response 1: Please provide you offer and terms in writing and I will forward to my IP legal team. (You achieve several things with this response - A. if they are serious they should have no problem with written Letter of Intent with outline of terms. B. By you saying your sending to your legal IP team you send strong message your IP/Code is being protected (doesn't really matter if you have a lawyer or not - they do not need to know.)
Response 2: Lead with your High Price first - say I don't want to talk unless anything under $500K. They might come back with 250K offer and this could be something to consider but at least your not spending weeks on low ball offers.