The Business Inquirer #048
In this week's issue, I highlight nine listings including a patriotic apparel brand, a B2B billing app for Shopify, and a data visualization tool for Asana.
The Business Inquirer covers the most interesting tech-enabled business acquisition opportunities. Written for entrepreneurs, search funds, investors, and business owners. It’s completely free and you’re guaranteed to learn something new.
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Hello Friends!
Last week I launched Deal Flow Scout. It’s a peer-to-peer deal flow exchange directory. Simple, free, transparent. If you’re actively searching, add your deal criteria. If you come across a deal, check the directory if it’s a fit for someone. We have ~16 participants so far. Check it out: https://www.dealflowscout.com
In this week’s issue:
🛒 eCommerce - 1 listing
☁ SaaS - 4 listings
🕸 Content/Marketplace/Service - 4 listings
🛠 Tools & Resources
This issue of The Business Inquirer is brought to you by Microns. Microns.io is a newsletter to discover the best micro-startups for sale. Join hundreds of other entrepreneurs and investors looking for their next micro-acquisition opportunity.
🛒 eCommerce
Patriotic Apparel - $6.7M
For sale is a 5-year-old brand of patriotic apparel sold through Shopify and Amazon.
All designs are exclusive to the brand; 300 SKUs; 200k+ customers;
Revenue split 50/50 between Amazon and Shopify;
Fulfillment done by Amazon and own warehouse;
TTM Revenue: $5.4M; Profit: $1.5M; Margin: 28%
Asking: $6.7M; Multiple: 4.47x
✔ What I Like
As long-time readers know, I love these types of niche businesses. Very detailed listing. Good operating history. Margin is OK. Nice split between Amazon and Shopify. I assume there’s an e-mail list of 200k+. Interesting to see the search volume and CPC for this niche…
❓ Questions & Concerns
How defensible is this business? Is there a moat? If all clients are from social media advertising, then those costs have gone up. What’s been happening with CACs? Where are the suppliers based?
You can view the listing on WebsiteClosers.
☁ SaaS
Shopify B2B Billing & Shipping - Open to Offers
For sale is a 6-month-old Shopify app that handles billing and shipping for B2B orders such as wholesale, distributors, and corporate customers. Sellers identified a bigger opportunity and selling this young product.
Competitors: Recharge Subscriptions, Resolve Pay
Tech: React, Express
Bootstrapped; Sellers willing to finance acquisition;
$47k in projected ARR
Asking: Open to Offers
✔ What I Like
Interesting niche as Shopify is typically used for B2C commerce yet this startup is targeting B2B space. Could be a good angle. Seller estimates the TAM for this particular app at ~$5M ARR. They’ll finance the acquisition for the right team. That’s a good sign and makes this an interesting opportunity.
❓ Questions & Concerns
The sellers are moving on after just 6-months. I’d want to understand a bit more about their thought process.
You can view the listing on MicroAcquire.
————
Data Visualization for Asana - Open to Offers
For sale is a 5-year-old analytics and exporting platform integrated with Asana. The SaaS helps customers get insights from their project management data (Asana) with charts, dashboards, visualizations, and exports. Seller looking to start a fund.
Competitors: Asana native tools
Tech: RoR, Heroku, Mailchimp
TTM Revenue: $33k; Profit: $20k; Margin: 61%
Asking: Open to Offers
✔ What I Like
Single owner business with some operating history. Nice margins. Simple tech stack. Opportunities to integrate with other popular project management tools. Asana is still one of the most popular project management platforms out there…
❓ Questions & Concerns
I think the biggest threat here is that Asana simply builds these types of tools natively into their platform. I would want to understand and quantify the risk of this happening. A buyer would have to have a tech background or team in order to add functionality and integrate with other project management tools.
You can view the listing on MicroAcquire.
— — — —
Workforce Management - $1M
For sale is a 16-year-old SaaS that provides public safety organizations with workforce management software. Owner planning retirement.
244 customers; 4+ years avg customer lifetime;
Owner willing to stay in the business for a transition;
$49k MRR; $202 avg MRR per customer;
TTM Revenue: $578k; Profit: $256k; Margin: 44%
Asking: $1M; Multiple: 3.91x
✔ What I Like
Very well aged business. Original owner is willing to stay on for some time. I bet there are some creative financing options available. Could be some easy wins if you just increase pricing. If these are government contracts then it’s a very sticky customer base.
❓ Questions & Concerns
Does public safety mean you’re selling to government entities? That would require specific know-how. Is there any key-man risk? Would all employees stay on? What’s the TAM for this business if it’s at $578k after 16-years? How does the competition look? How are new clients acquired?
You can view this listing on Quiet Light Brokerage.
— — — —
Business Loan Platform - $74k
For sale is a 3-year-old SaaS that gives users access to a platform to secure business financing. The platform has relationships with private lenders, merchant cash advance funders, hard money lenders, and brokers.
Competitors: One Park Financials, Primo Cash, Camino Financial
$70k ARR; Asking: $74k
✔ What I Like
Interesting solo-founder business. There’s some nice traction at $70k ARR. It’s an evergreen niche with constant demand…
❓ Questions & Concerns
Not a lot of detail in the listing. I wonder if there are any legal considerations around this type of business. A lot of competitors in this space.
You can view this listing on MicroAcquire.
🕸 Content/Marketplace/Service
Video Creation Marketplace - Open to Offers
For sale is 4-year-old Industry Jump which is a 2-sided marketplace to source premium talent for original video creation and production. Technical co-founder left the startup and they can’t move forward. Seller very flexible with deal terms.
Competitors: Staffmeup, Mandy
4,500 individuals on the supply side of the marketplace; 500 video production companies on the demand side;
Raised $300k through SAFE at $2.5M valuation;
Pre-Revenue;
Asking: Open to Offers
✔ What I Like
Seller is very flexible in terms of deal terms. Can sell just the tech or the whole company. Could be an interesting acquisition for a video production Agency or a strategic already in the industry.
❓ Questions & Concerns
Why can’t they just bring on a new technical co-founder and continue? This is a pre-revenue marketplace startup. Have they figured out some marketing channels and CAC? Hiring a direct sales team is very expensive. Agreeing to a valuation could be difficult. Can you replicate this for $25-$30k if you wanted to?
You can view the listing on MicroAcquire.
————
Microsoft Reseller - $2M
For sale is a 2.5-year-old Microsoft SaaS reseller and service provider. The startup has developed a method & service (using Agile principles) for keeping Microsoft licensing optimized at the enterprise scale.
Competitors: CDW, Vology
30-Day Revenue: $55k; Profit: $15k; Margin: 27%
TTM Revenue: $650k; Profit: $170k; Margin: 26%
Asking: $2M; Multiple: 11.76x
✔ What I Like
I know nothing about this type of business except that CDW and Vology are very large IT managed service firms. Assume there’s a huge TAM. Haven’t seen too many of these types of firms come up for sale.
❓ Questions & Concerns
Requires a specific buyer that understands this space.
You can view the listing on MicroAcquire.
— — — —
Conservative News Site - $500k
For sale is 1-year-old Steadfast Clash which is a conservative news website. Revenue is generated from advertising. I’ve had some conversations with this seller and the price is negotiable.
300k+ e-mail subs; 350k page views per month;
Avg monthly revenue: $13.7k; Profit: $10.9k; Margin: 80%
Asking: $500k; Multiple: 46x
✔ What I Like
Detailed listing. I love these types of niche businesses. Super engaged audience. Owner spends just a few hours a month on the business while everything else is outsourced. Seller is experienced in this particular niche.
❓ Questions & Concerns
Very young website for such high traffic numbers and financials. I know the seller has other similar websites and also runs an advertising agency geared towards this audience. He’s selling off all the websites to focus on the Agency. I’d want to understand the interplay between those things. Websites are valued on # of months profit and at 46x this is very expensive. Maybe it’s justified in this case but have to do your due diligence.
You can view the listing on Flippa.
— — — —
DevOps Search Fund Deal
This is a search fund deal where a searcher is raising capital for an acquisition. This interesting opportunity comes from the One Interesting Deal newsletter.
It is for a SF Bay Area searcher with a strong tech background acquiring a managed service provider (MSP) in the DevOps space.
Lots to like about the trajectory of that sector. DevOps a “necessary evil” for many companies in that gives little to no strategic advantage. Combine that with the idea that DevOps talent is rarer than an ice cube in the desert and you’ve got a nice niche to consider.
Learn more about this opportunity on One Interesting Deal.
🛠 Tools & Resources
These are tools & resources that I personally use. They may contain affiliate links so I’ll get a few shekels if you sign-up.
ProjectionHub - Access to 50+ CPA-developed financial projection templates. 25% discount.
PrivSource - Deal aggregator for lower and middle-market listings.
Logology - Best automated logo & brand identity tool I’ve come across.
DeepBench - Access a cutting-edge expert network. $200 discount.
OpenPhone - The best business phone solution that I have found. $20 credit.
Eloquens - Knowledge marketplace. I’ve bought a few guides and templates here.
Deal Flow Scout - a peer-to-peer exchange of deal flow. Free.
That’s all for this issue of The Business Inquirer!
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