They Got Acquired - Making bank with a browser extension 😮

January 31, 2022
​Read on web​

Most people could only dream of making their first $1 million before they could legally buy an alcoholic drink...

But that’s exactly what happened to these young co-founders.

After being sent home from college during the pandemic, they decided to build a company.

“We were a remote team from day one,” said Rithwik Pattikonda, one of the four co-founders. “In being fully remote, we had to coordinate everything and rally together completely online as we were building the company.”

They built OctoShop, an all-in-one shopping browser extension that helped shoppers compare prices across stores, set restock and price-drop alerts at a time when inventory shortages were rampant, and earn cashback on the websites they shopped on.

In less than two years, OctoShop went on to sell for a 7-figure sum.

But how did this startup founded by a squad of University of Texas students soar to success so quickly?

Our story shares the details 👇

​With 130,000 users, these college students sold their shopping browser extension to Ibotta​

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Behind the business

Over the last year, I've done 88 calls with founders about how to sell their business. 88 calls! 🙌

And get this: More than half of them are women!

I'll talk with any founder who's serious about selling in the next year, but helping women in particular feels good because: 1) women are generally underserved in business circles and 2) it aligns with my own personal mission of helping women make money so more women land in decision-making positions.

Of those founders, we've referred 53 of them to our partners: brokers and advisors we trust to help them sell their business.

When we can make this match, it's a win-win-win: the founder's happy, the advisor's happy, and we're happy to earn a referral commission if the founder goes on to sell their business.

Many of those leads will never convert; the founder might decide, for example, that it's not the right time to sell.

But even in those instances when we don't earn a commission, we've almost always helped the founder in some way. We've helped them figure out how to get started with selling their business, or how to evaluate whether to sell, or where they can find someone to help them do it well. Often, we've served as a sounding board when they didn't know where else to turn.

Of all the work we've done this year, this might be what I'm most proud of. These 1:1 conversations have turned into one of my favorite parts of each week.

If you or a founder you know wants to sell their business in the next year but doesn't know where to start or would benefit from chatting with a friend who's been there, here's how to get in touch. We always keep things confidential.

See you next time,

Lexi Grant
Founder & CEO
​They Got Acquired​
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P.S. Some big things ahead in this newsletter...

• Next week's our 1-year anniversary of launching this brand, so I'll share some takeaways and learnings
• The following week (of Feb. 13) we're launching our SaaS deals report, and offering a discount during launch week

If there's a person or group you think would benefit from all this upcoming goodness, would you forward this newsletter? They can subscribe here to join us.

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About us 👋

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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