A WordPress plug-in sold for 8 figures 🔌

September 9, 2022
​Read on web​

A niche community might be one of the simplest and most frictionless places to find a buyer for your company.

That’s what Matt Cromwell and his co-founders, Jason Knill and Devin Walker, discovered through the acquisition of their WordPress plugin for charities, GiveWP, by web hosting company Liquid Web in 2021.

When the trio to decided sell GiveWP — which has helped more than 100,000 charities raise funds online — they didn't have to look far.

They reached out to their tight-knit WordPress community and found a buyer they knew personally that offered them an 8-figure deal. The trusted connection helped the sale process go smoothly, as well as ensure that GiveWP could continue its growth.

More about how they grew and sold GiveWP 👇

👨🏻‍💻 How these WordPress developers navigated an 8-figure acquisition by a trusted buyer ​

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The ins and outs of using a DBA

Your business name carries a lot of weight. It represents you in public through your branding and behind the scenes in legal documents.

How do you choose a name that meets all your needs? What if you run several businesses and only have one LLC?

Some business owners decide one name can’t do it all and instead set up several names for different purposes. You can do that by registering a DBA.

Here’s what you need to know about setting up a DBA for your company and what it means if you want to sell. 👇

​What’s a DBA, and when might your business use one?​

What's important to a buyer?

Here's something you can do now to set your business up for a sale down the line:

"[Think about] what things are important to a buyer. I've heard from some other people who have sold their business — that they wish they had thought a little bit more about ... which customers would be most valuable to a buyer."

That quote is from Nick Gray, who sold Museum Hack in 2019.

We tend to focus on the low-hanging fruit when it comes to preparing for a sale: tasks like cleaning up our financial records and building processes so the company can run without the founder.

But what if you went a step beyond that, considering how to change the core of your business to make it more appealing to a buyer? What if you took more of a long-term approach, with the goal of making changes that would increase your business value?

I don't think this makes sense if you're in the early stages of trying to find product-market fit; it's hard enough to find traction with a new business.

But if you're running a successful business that's consistently bringing in revenue and profit, push yourself to take a hard look at it. Ask yourself: What would I want to see differently if I was a buyer? What would make this business feel less risky? What would make it feel like an obvious investment?

Nick suggests thinking specifically about which customers would be most valuable to a buyer — in other words, which customers bring in the most revenue. Most businesses have several different customer buckets: some focus on B2C, for example, yet also cater to B2B. If those B2B sales are more lucrative, how can you move the needle in that direction?

If you think far ahead enough, you'll likely find opportunities for strategic tweaks that will make your company attractive to a buyer. Honing in on those is a solid way to increase the value of your business.

I'm curious whether this sparks any ideas for you. I'd love to hear about them if you want to reply.

See you next time,

Lexi Grant
Founder & CEO
​They Got Acquired​
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P.S. We're beginning to plan Season 2 of our podcast, and looking for 1-2 sponsors for the season.

It's a great way to build brand recognition for your company among entrepreneurs who want to sell their business. If your company might be interested, reply to this email and I'll share details.

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Our mission is to redefine startup success by showcasing companies that sell for $100K-$50M. Learn more about us or follow us on Twitter.

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