
Ask HN: Should I hire a new CEO or sell my business? - crab_cakes
I&#x27;m the founder of a bootstrapped B2B SaaS company that&#x27;s been growing at a decent clip for the past two years.<p>Context:<p><pre><code>  C-Corp
  Revenue is ~$100k&#x2F;year
  ACV is ~$5k&#x2F;year
  I&#x27;m the only employee
  60% Outbound&#x2F;40% Inbound
  Profit margins ~75%
  TAM is any B2B company in North America, possibly worldwide with ACV &gt;$20k&#x2F;yr.
</code></pre>
Problem: I&#x27;m currently running another business which is growing like mad and can&#x27;t put any time into this business which means that it&#x27;s in zombie-mode. Existing customers will get full support, I&#x27;m not releasing any new features and I&#x27;ve ceased any outbound effort.<p>Options:<p><pre><code>  1) Hire a CEO or 
  2) Sell it
</code></pre>
Questions:<p><pre><code>  What&#x27;s the best path here? Sell or find a replacement and give them a stake?
  What&#x27;s the best way to go about finding a potential CEO?
  If I were to sell the company, where should I start this process?
</code></pre>
Thanks in advance
======
rajacombinator
Nice spot to be in. I’m not an expert but based on what I’ve heard about
selling small software businesses I think you’ll have a tough time getting an
attractive price on a sale.

On the other hand, finding someone with the right skill set to step in as a
replacement CEO/founder - and incentivizing them properly - will be tough. But
given that the business seems capable of running on autopilot currently, I
think this option is still best. The question just becomes how do you find the
right person and structure a deal to align everyone’s incentives. Happy to
offer further input if you ping me. (Email in profile.)

------
quaquaqua1
The answer depends on if you need the money generated from the sale of the
business.

For example, if you had someone who would pay you non-negotiable cash up front
of 200k (after taxes) with no strings attached, I imagine that would be
meaningful to your financial goals in life.

However if you can afford to wait and believe that there is significant upside
in your business that a new CEO can unlock for you while you work on the other
business, then you should consider hiring an extremely sharp and self-
motivated person who can grow the business to a multimillion dollar
opportunity instead of what it currently is.

Such a person would be me! You can email me at waybetterthansaas@gmail.com.

Good luck!

~~~
crab_cakes
Thanks! I'll shoot you a note shortly.

To answer your question, a few hundred k is definitely meaningful but I'm open
to taking a shot with a savvy CEO.

talk soon!

~~~
quaquaqua1
Looking forward to it, and I hope some others will give you some guidance too.

If you go down the sale route, you will definitely need to proactively reach
out to other businesses (or private investors) who would want to own those
contracts and revenue streams. And you would need a lawyer to facilitate the
legal transfer of ownership of the entities.

see you!

