

Ask HN: Should I sell or cash-cow my startup? - next20years

Hi HN Community,<p>Really appreciate your brutal honesty on this one.  I run a social network in a small niche, and I'm trying to figure out my next steps for this business.  Here's the situation:<p>THE GOOD:<p>* My team and I have been running this site for years and have successfully dominated our domain (more traffic than any other site in this space)<p>* Our business is profitable: we expect about $800K-$1M in revenue this year.<p>* We are bootstrapped and thus have no investor obligations.<p>* Costs can be controlled to under $250K each year--maybe much more.<p>* Only 1 or 2 people is needed to keep the business running.<p>* Finally, our business is VERY stable--unlikely for it to be disrupted in the next several years.<p>THE BAD:<p>* I've been working on the site for many years and I'm not emotionally excited about the business any more.  I'm proud of what we've achieved, but I want to move on to new projects and learn new stuff.<p>* My team doesn't think there is much growth left in our space (both traffic and revenue).  We could start to attack other verticals similar to our space, but I think our team doesn't have the intestinal fortitude to make it happen since we're a little tired of what we're doing.<p>THE CHOICES:<p>Scenario 1: Sell the business - An attractive option if we can get an offer.  Our team can get some liquidity for all our hard work.  With the right parent company, we may be able to more easily grow our business as well into adjacent verticals with a decent bankroll behind our efforts.  However, in this scenario, we may be tied to a retention term of 1-2 years, which keeps us in this domain even longer than desired--this may be okay though at the right price and right company.<p>Scenario 2: Cash cow the business - Since our business is stable, we could stop new development on our site (our biggest cost) and reduce expenses/headcount to a point where the business throws off a lot of cash.  Our business is quite stable and I think that we can go several years with decent profits and decent owner's draws.  However, in a cash cow scenario we still will need to put in some effort--at least on a part-time basis--to maintain the site; that may be tough for us later on if we're emotionally tired of the business.<p>A Scenario we don't want: continuing 'as is' is not an option for the team.  Raising money also doesn't seem right either.<p><i></i>*<p>HN community, how would you evaluate a decision to try to sell or cash cow?  Are there other options I should be thinking about as well?<p>Thanks very much for your input.  Also, if you might be interested in acquiring this business, feel free to reach out at thenext20years [at] gmail [dot] com
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stefanobernardi
A bit hard to comment without knowing what it is about, but ff the business is
stable and anyone can run it, you can probably get a deal without a lock in.
You won't get a 10x but you might be able to sell it for 5m if you find the
right strategic acquirer that can fit it into his business model.

Having it as a cash cow is also cool, and you might be able to sell it in a
few years at the same amount, pocketing the cashflow in the meantime.

What I'd do is:

\- start transitioning to other people. This will take you in the sweet spot
of being able to pursue option 1 and 2.

\- get the dividends every month

\- get heavy on the lookout for an acquirer

In this way you'll be free to do other things (or party), not be in the
pressure to sell for a small amount and be ready for the big payday when it'll
come

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next20years
Neat hybrid idea between the two scenarios. Thank you for the advice!

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valuegram
In my opinion, the first step is to collect information. It won't hurt to see
what interest there is for selling the business... from there crunch the
numbers on what you think you can generate on your own. Then it's a matter of
what you think is more profitable. If you don't find the acquisition offers
suitable, Scenario 2 is always a good option, because in general the more
profit you're generating from the business, the greater the valuation. Step 2
could be a good intermediate step before Step 1. I'd imagine in either
scenario, there's the capability for you to be more hands-off, which it sounds
like its one of your ultimate goals.

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next20years
Thank you valuegram!

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next20years
One follow-up question--do you have thoughts on how to float interest among
interested buyers? Or, once I have identified a potential set of buyers, how
to propose that I'm open to an acquisition?

Thanks! I'm a newbie to M&A as well.

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alapshah
If you tell us what site it is there is a chance that the right acquirer might
be on this forum who wants to buy it, invest a little and use it as a
lifestyle business.

Between the 2 options it is more of a personal choice, but one will become
more clear if you have an offer. I'd suggest posting it on those flippa type
sites at what you're willing to sell for and seeing if anyone bites.

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next20years
Can't provide more info publicly, but if anyone is interested in making an
offer, feel free to send me a message (can you do that on HN? total newbie)

And thank you for that response too. :)

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next20years
Actually it seems like you can't send any private messages on this platform.
Created an e-mail: thenext20years [at] gmail [dot] com

Thanks for that suggestion.

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tonyarkles
You might want to have a look at the book "Built to Sell"
[http://www.amazon.com/Built-Sell-Creating-Business-
Without/d...](http://www.amazon.com/Built-Sell-Creating-Business-
Without/dp/1591843979/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1329442172&sr=8-1)

This book talks about one approach to converting an existing business into a
more sellable one. Judging by some of the other posts, there's some concern
about what you'll get for a sale price. One of the tips in this book is to
take a piece of paper and write down your immediate thought on how much money
you'd like to get for the business - stick this in an envelope; down the road,
once you have been negotiating and are starting to get emotionally attached to
the process, open the envelope and see how the current offer compares to what
you'd originally thought. That should help bring some perspective to the whole
process.

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revorad
This post might help you - [http://cdixon.org/2011/11/28/business-development-
the-goldil...](http://cdixon.org/2011/11/28/business-development-the-
goldilocks-principle/)

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next20years
Thanks for sharing that.

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AznHisoka
Is it really a good idea to ask potential suitors if they want to buy it?
Wouldn't that send them the message that you're desperate and receive low ball
offers as a result? I'd probably establish relationships with people in the
same space as you, and just mention you're looking to move to something else.

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next20years
Agreed, how you send that message that you want to get acquired matters. In my
case too, I'm not really that desperate, so I do have the advantage of time on
my side to work on a good deal.

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j45
Contacted by email..

