We've bought 10 start-ups. Here's what we've seen

Our start-up buys start-ups. According to Steve Blank, we buy a bunch of "untested hypotheses". YIKES 😬 Well, he's not wrong, but we're okay with that. Here's why!

Success for start-ups, especially microSaaS companies, is extremely squiggly 🦑. After speaking with hundreds of potential acquisitions over the past 24 months, Our 10 acquisitions (wide range in size: $500 - $25k+ MRR) fall into one of these 3 points in this squiggly journey:

1. Lightning in a bottle⚡: This is the company that's been around for 3 months and have only experienced the good times. They have some early traction (this could mean purely just sign-ups with no monetization), and they want to capitalize before the downward squiggle. For us that was www.colddm.me, www.screenshotapi.net, or www.sheet.best.

2. Rollercoaster ride 🎢: This is the resilient, fearless founder who has endured the roller coaster ride...sometimes multiple times. Maybe they want a break. Maybe they want to hop on a different ride. Or maybe they've had their fun. Regardless, these founders are amazing, and they are instrumental in our success post-acquisition. Examples for us are www.workclout.com or www.inlytics.io

3. End of a tunnel 🔮: Sometimes, founders have a gut feeling about what's at the end of the tunnel. It could be rainbows and butterflies. It could be a big pile of crap. Regardless, they are happy passing off the keys to the next person to steer the ship into the next chapter. For XO that's www.growthbarseo.com

Steve Blank did indeed describe start-ups as a series of untested hypotheses. For us, one our core value propositions as a bootstrapped start-up is patience. I've got some gnarly stories coming up about all the squiggly lines we go through, but at the end of the day, we stay patient, pursue incremental growth (not venture scale, sorry) and continue learning and building.

It's been an absolute pleasure listening to and learning from the hundreds of founders who we've talked to over the past 2+ years about a potential acquisition. Sometimes I can't help but feel so ill-equipped dealing with constant unknowns, but strangely enough, the little squiggly line always ends up point UP and to the RIGHT 😂

Let's keep it going ✌