With fresh $2.8M, MicroAcquire wants to sell your SaaS project
With a recent $2.8 million round, startup acquisition marketplace MicroAcquire is expanding its platform to sell more companies with $500,000 annual recurring revenue or less. Since its launch in 2020, MicrcoAcquire has closed more than $100 million in deal volume.
Micro mission: The typical process of selling a business can be grueling and full of disappointment. Hiring an investment bank is pricey, due diligence can take months, and founders still have to grow their company as they focus on selling it. Even if you find a seemingly good fit, there’s still no certainty it’ll work out.
“It’s like going on a string of bad dates until you finally find a match, and even then, there’s no guarantee the relationship will go the distance.” —MicroAcquire
Likely to fail: The Harvard Business Review reports that companies spend more than $2 trillion on acquisitions each year, but that between 70 to 90 percent of mergers and acquisitions fail to materialize. Most acquisitions fail as a result of executives incorrectly matching candidates to the strategic purpose of the deal, HBR found.
No Middlemen: MicroAcquire simplifies the buying and selling process with an intuitive marketplace that allows buyers to browse vetted companies by revenue, profit, keywords, or asking price. Sellers can anonymously list their business in a few minutes after sharing basic info and metrics, including product information, asking price, a growth forecast, outside financing, and a pitch deck.
Born from experience: MicroAcquire founder Andrew Gazdecki was inspired to launch MicroAcquie after the time-consuming process of selling Bizness Apps in 2018. Bizness Apps created build-it-yourself mobile app software for small businesses.
“The exit has always been an important part of the founder’s journey and the process has been historically characterized by information- and experience-asymmetry that effectively penalizes founders. We’re changing that at MicroAcquire and shifting the balance of power towards founders.” —MicroAcquire founder Andrew Gazdecki
Early traction: According to Gazdecki, MicroAcquire is now the largest startup acquisition marketplace in the world. In little more than a year, MicroAcquire has:
- $630,000 in ARR
- 300+ successful acquisitions
- 70,000+ registered buyers
- 1000+ active startup listings
- $100M+ in closed deal volume
The round: MicroAcquire’s $2.8 million round included Bessemer Venture Partners, Naval Ravikant, and Remote First Capital. Bessemer has invested in companies such as Pinterest, Shopify, Yelp, and LinkedIn. MicroAcquire plans to use the investment to build its team, develop the platform, and introduce new tools that help founders sell their companies.
“MicroAcquire solves problems on both sides of an exit. I’ve been at the negotiating table during many acquisition discussions, and I’m certain MicroAcquire will play an instrumental role facilitating exits for startups.” —Jeremy Levine, partner at Bessemer Venture Partners
Seller profile: Gazdecki told Axios in 2020 that most companies listed on the platform are bootstrapped, profitable, about 3- to 5-years-old, and generating less than $100,000 in ARR. About half the companies are in the U.S., and the other half are located around the world.
Pricing: There are no fees or commissions to list and sell your SaaS company on MicroAcquire. To place an offer on companies, you’ll need to purchase a Premium Buyer account for $290 per year.
Making its own deals: MicroAcquire has acquired two companies in the 18 months to help build out its platform. In May of 2020, MicroAcquire bought ForSaleByMaker, a site that allows users to post products featured on Product Hunt for sale on its marketplace. And back in April, the company acquired Exitround, an anonymous marketplace for buyers and sellers of small to mid-sized tech companies.
An indie hacker's experience
Indie Hacker Dustin McCaffree used MicroAcquire to sell Rocket Note, a Chrome extension that allows you to take timestamped notes on YouTube.
McCaffree told me it took about 24 hours to get listed, and he had offers on the same day. McCaffree said he sold the company, which was producing about $100 MRR, for about $10,000 to a private buyer.
"I listed it, and that same day it went live, I had offers at asking price. ... Highly recommend it. Fast, painless, helpful. I do recommend getting someone experienced to help you price your business though. Definitely have a good idea of what you should price it at." —Dustin McCaffree
McCaffree, who's now a senior software engineer at Copy.AI and also building Marvel.so on the side, shared more about the experience on Twitter.
What are your thoughts on MicroAcquire? Do you plan to buy or sell a company via MicroAcquire? Please share your experience below.
