

Ask HN: Need advice on how to sell my firm - shouldwemanup

I run a 5 yr old technology company with various web sites in our portfolio.  After the 5 years I've decided I am going to try to figure out different avenues, do I sell.   The issue is I do not know how to do it.  So I need some advice.   Do I hire a biz dev, find a tech lawyer to guide me, go hustle myself out their in the M&#38;A world?<p>Some details: I am a technical founder and have an agile team off shore that has helped build us to 1mil+ uniques a month and a bit north of $1mil ebitda on just one of the properties.  Our costs are about 150k, so high margins but in truth I could cut $100k from costs keeping it to only servers.  We are in an industry with some big players but have found a healthy niche.<p>If you've been thru this what are the steps you took.   What advice could you give.
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kitcar
My co-founder is an ex-investment banker/private equity guy who has been
involved in both a number of capital raises, public offerings and sales of
businesses - feel free to email me if you would like to be connected with him
to get an "insiders" viewpoint on your options.

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shouldwemanup
Thanks kitcar...

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kitcar
No problem, hopefully his contact is of value -

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rcavezza
"Do I sell? Do I Raise"

What are you trying to do exactly? What's the goal? Why are you selling the
business? It doesn't seem clear in your question.

Why would you raise capital if you're trying to sell?

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shouldwemanup
Not actually trying to raise capital. Just trying to figure out after 5 years
if it's time to move to another venture. We are in NYC so not the valley so
the culture is a bit different.

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rcavezza
I'm not sure you need to sell this company to start a new venture. Sounds like
you have a good staff and healthy revenues. Why not start a new company while
continuing to run this company? You can hire someone to fulfill your existing
role and use the extra free time to start searching for the next branch of
your business.

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shouldwemanup
Very healthy advice which we are doing. I am replacing myself as much as
possible but after 5 years I can see some opportunities in our market which
would be better guided by a current player in industry.

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rcavezza
Is it (1) someone that works at another firm (that you would need to poach) or
(2) another company that would be better at guiding this? Sounds like the
recipe for a joint venture: <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joint_venture>

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shouldwemanup
The players I am talking about would be names you'd know; some are in the Top
50 websites online. We are partnered with a few; but the core of this "Ask HN"
is how to exit in our situation.

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rcavezza
I'd take a look at this link: [http://techcrunch.com/2011/06/12/9-important-
things-sell-sta...](http://techcrunch.com/2011/06/12/9-important-things-sell-
startup/)

