Ask HN: What is the best way to sell a software business in 2019? - ezekg
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davismwfl
Without context I doubt anyone can give you good advice.

The size of company is a huge factor, the locale, the market, potential buyers
etc. All that makes a huge difference. And outside of VC startups (and even a
number of those) most acquisitions in the business space are not stock
acquisitions but asset sales so that changes how the math is done and how
things are valued etc.

If you are just talking about just in general, most small businesses use a
broker to sell/find a buyer, mid-sized and up will use an M&A bank or specific
advisor. Businesses under $1M are many times done very quickly with no brokers
involved, just depends.

Most people looking to acquire businesses talk directly to the businesses or
find a broker or other intermediary they can trust to approach the business.
If they are looking for the best deal they will usually go straight to the
business for small transactions.

~~~
ezekg
Sure, I understand. This post probably is a bit too vague. I guess I was more
looking for personal experience in selling a profitable small business outside
of a typical inbound acquisition offer. I know of the brokerage
feinternational.com, just from the occasional mentions here on HN, but not
really sure if there are other well-known alternatives which also focus on
software/internet businesses.

~~~
davismwfl
Gotcha. When I sold my businesses it was always from direct conversations with
other people, always inbound in my case. And always asset sales not stock
sales. Same for acquiring, I have reached directly out to a business but never
used a broker, and I only bought assets.

You've probably seen it but Patrick McKenzie (patio11) has talked about his
experiences using FEI, [https://www.kalzumeus.com/2016/08/26/kalzumeus-
podcast-episo...](https://www.kalzumeus.com/2016/08/26/kalzumeus-podcast-
episode-13-selling-online-businesses-with-thomas-smale/) . And I swear I
thought he posted some other details on it, but I don't see any I have saved.

Nathan Latka also talks about it in his book, "How To Be A Capitalist Without
Any Capital".

I am not really sure of any other specific online brokerages outside of some
of the basic ones like [https://www.flippa.com](https://www.flippa.com). It
may just be me, but every time I look on Flippa I see people wanting,
sometimes quite a bit of, money for something that is worth $0 in business
terms. Essentially what I see is they want to be paid for their time building
something that has no revenue, no customers and no marketing which isn't a
business it is an unfinished, unvalidated project. And I get it, I respect
their time is worth something, but I do not understand why anyone would buy a
"business" when the founder hasn't validated someone is willing to pay for it.
To me it isn't a business until there are customers using the system that you
can turn into revenue.

