The Business Inquirer #096
The Business Inquirer #096
In this week's issue, I highlight two SaaS listings that sell into the university vertical.
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Hello Friends!
This week is a bit light on listings. Just didn’t see too many that caught my eye.
In this week’s issue:
☁ SaaS - 2 listings
🛠 Tools & Resources
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☁ SaaS
Interview Prep - $3.9M
For sale is a 21-year-old interview prep SaaS for university career centers. Corporate divestiture of a non-core asset.
270 clients; 100% recurring revenue; $2,700 ACV;
Clients include Harvard, Princeton, Duke
TTM Revenue: $800k; Profit: $650k; Margin: 81%
Asking: $3.9M; Multiple: 5.38x
✅ What I Like
A lot of operating history. Recurring revenue with great margins. Very large TAM if you include adjacent markets. Well-known clients assist with marketing & sales. Opportunities to monetize the audience and expand the offering. Valuation isn’t too bad for this type of business. Since this is a divestiture, they may be open to negotiating on price.
❓ Questions & Concerns
The listing makes it seem like the business hasn’t really been marketed in a long time. Have operations simply been on autopilot? What type of technical upkeep is required? What does client churn look like? What are the alternatives to this solution? How long is the sales cycle? Any impact due to COVID? What % of students use this product at a client university?
🚀 Growth
There are at least two clear paths to growing this business. One is to continue to expand the client base by going after universities, high schools, incarceration centers, and community centers. Hiring a sales professional with experience selling into these verticals could generate some great ROI. One problem I foresee is that there’s probably a long sales cycle.
The second opportunity is to monetize the existing client base. Over 100k students use this software per year. I would think that they could use help with resume writing, personal branding, job placement, and other relevant value-add services.
It doesn’t sound like this SaaS has gone after the general consumer. There may be opportunities there as well.
I took a look at some search terms around this topic…
You can view the listing on MicroAcquire.
__ __ __ __ __ __
Roommate Matching - $3M
For sale is 5-year-old My College Roomie (I think), a roommate matching & self-selection tool for the student housing industry. Sold directly to student housing providers.
Competitors: Roomsync
Annual SaaS subscription; Most clients sign 3-5 year deals;
TTM Revenue: $675k; Profit: $520k; Margin: 77%
Asking: $3M; Multiple: 5.77x
✅ What I Like
A lot of similarities to the business above. Love the annual subscription model and pushing clients to sign 3-5 year deals. That leads to a very predictable revenue stream.
From listing:
Very low overhead, minimal support required, and an outsourced tech team that keeps everything moving.
❓ Questions & Concerns
A lot of the same questions as the listing above. This seems like a must-have for every university but clearly, there are other solutions to the same problem. How do those solutions compare? How was this business impacted by COVID and how has it recovered? What does the sales cycle look like?
Student housing supply is expected to hit 11-year lows. I don’t think this has much impact on this business but an interesting data point.
🚀 Growth
It sounds like there are two markets that this solution is going after. First is universities that have student housing. Second is private off-campus student housing providers.
There are a few articles & discussions around the topic of selling software into higher education.
I am wondering if there’s a way to expand this beyond student housing and offer it to rental communities. In my downtown high-rise, I see that there is some mention of roommate matching on the tenant portal but I am not sure how it works.
You can view the listing on MicroAcquire.
🛠 Tools & Resources
I want to share some tools & resources that I have found helpful. Please note that some of these may contain affiliate links. This means that I may receive compensation if you sign-up and use them.
Kumo - Find every deal in one complete platform. Spend less time sourcing deals and more time closing them. Kumo aggregates 180K+ business listings into one easy-to-use platform.
Cerebro Capital - Cerebro has a network of 1,500+ lenders who can provide debt financing for your acquisition, refi, etc. $500k minimum.
X5 Deals - Proprietary deal sourcing. They do the outreach and send you relevant, actionable deals directly into your inbox.
Curators - Proprietary deal sourcing. You need targets that fit your investment criteria, and Curators delivers week after week - we even update your personalized database on a daily basis with new information on best-fit targets.
BizNexus - Proprietary deal flow, deal aggregator, and exit prep. Local Boston company and I consider the founder (Adam Ray) a friend.
PrivSource - Deal aggregator for lower and middle-market listings.
The Website Flip - a newsletter that sends content sites for sale to your email inbox. They send deals each Wednesday and Friday.
Logology - Best automated logo & brand identity tool I’ve come across.
OpenPhone - The best VoIP phone solution that I have found. I use this for DueDilio. You get a $20 credit if you sign-up.
Eloquens - Knowledge marketplace. I’ve purchased a few templates from them.
Deal Flow Scout - Peer-to-peer deal flow exchange. Free, open, transparent.
Deal Sourcing Guide - A directory I put together of online marketplaces, brokers, DFY deal flow, and more.
That’s all for this issue of The Business Inquirer!
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