Just sold our SaaS for 6 figures. Honest lessons I wish I knew - would have saved me time

[clmorgan]

Will try to be as honest as possible

Context: My brother (19) and I (25) sold Simple.ink for 6 digits

What app does: a Notion website builder.

What you can do - lessons learned I’d want to share​

1. Copy something that works…

• We weren’t the first Notion website builder.
• But I tried innovating still. If I were smarter (I’m not, but at least not as dumb as I was initially), I’d just copy something that already exists and works → add my take on it.
• Don’t copy as in steal. But copy and add the things you think you can do better. You’ll always figure some stuff out you can do better, even if it’s down the line.

2. … or stay in the lab

• Or maybe you want to keep inventing stuff. Good luck. My first success was that - and then my next 3-5 attempts were failures because I thought I had to invent new software products.
• My first success was pure luck, btw. And I’m the first one to admit.
• I tried replicating that luck - and burnt about $100,000. When we started building something that was already validated, we sold the company (this one)

3. Build smth you’d want to acquire

• Sound trivial but... put yourself in the shoes of someone who’s acquiring. They have money - they want to make their money make more money. That's it.

4. Actually just copy something that works

• It’s the same as point 3 but…
• Innovation is for geniuses and losers
• The problem is, you only find out if you’re a genius/loser months or even years after.
• From my POV, I don’t care how smart I am, I care about getting rich
• When I say Rich = rich in the right way. Provide a lot of value to people and, in a fair way, charge for that.

5. Turn a buck

• Profit. We optimised for profit. Idk what else to tell you other than do the same
• You might say "obviously I'll do that" but I actually mean it. Not for me, but for your acquirer
• I haven’t sold like DeepMind sold to Google. I didn’t raise VC money. So idk what to tell you about that path. I sold something that was very profitable, operated in a very lean manner. I suggest you do the same - for your mental health (see next point) and for your acquirer.

6. You can only sell when you don’t necessarily have to sell

• That’s leverage. That’ll protect you from making stupid decisions, accept lowballs, thinking short-term, etc
• Deal goes through? Great. Deal falls? Great.

7. Farmer, not hunter

• I’d avoid: FB/Google ads, PR, “going viral”, etc. “Hunting” is one-off
• I didn’t really suceed at going viral, though I tried loads of stuff… ultimately SEO was the way we were farmers. Farming keeps on reaping benefits
• This isn’t some wisdom mantra here. It’s because of one thing and one thing only: YOUR ACQUIRERS WILL WANT TO REAP THE BENEFITS OF YOUR FARMING.
• THEY CAN'T DO THAT FOR HUNTING.
• See point 1 - you wouldn’t spend $1M on an influencer’s stupid company if all its success came down from their influencing.
• MRR comes every day thanks to those 2 nerds SEO, which is faceless/nameless/etc? Yes, I’d buy that.

8. It takes time.

• No one wants to hear this - I don’t want to hear it either as I’m starting new companies now… but it does. I’m young so idk what else to say here. I’m still impatient…

9. When selling, list the startup everywhere

• We sold the company through Acquire.com (and paid the fairly-earned 4% commission to them). But really, list the company everywhere - even when you’re not selling (see point 6). Twitter, Acquire, Flippa, FB groups, etc. It’s better to have optionality.
• If you follow point 6, who knows - you might end up with a very good offer/price. And guess what - maybe for that price, you do want to sell!

That’s all I have now, but will think of some more. Why am I doing all this?

In all honesty: I started SaaSPad.co and I want your attention.

I might get 1-2 clients from this post. And for the rest of you, I might just help with info. With SaaSPad, we’re offering a couple of productized services - aimed at one audience: founders.