They Got Acquired - They raised $100K & sold for $7M

October 27, 2023
​Read on web​

“There’s riches in the niches.”

Entrepreneurs often say this about content companies, but it applies to other types of businesses as well.

Today’s story is a great example: this couple built a marketplace that helped doctors find side gigs.

The idea for flipMD came from Greg Hanson’s experience as a physician completing his residency. He had started doing medical consulting on the side so he could increase his income and help meet the family’s goals. Some of his gigs included ghostwriting medical articles and performing data analysis for new health technology companies.

Greg, along with his wife Lauren, created flipMD to bring that same opportunity to other doctors, especially residents, who earn around $60,000 in their first year and tend to carry heavy student loans.

Greg worked on sales and outreach, while Lauren, with a background in technology management and publishing, worked on the platform’s buildout, marketing, and customer service.

They began working on the project in June 2020, and by February 2021, the marketplace boasted 2,000 physician users. That traction helped them raise $100,000.

That fall, they heard from a company that was interested in buying flipMD. Greg used the opportunity to pitch other potential buyers, and in February 2022 they sold to GoodRx for $7 million cash.

Our story has more details:

​How flipMD grew its medical consulting marketplace and sold for $7M​

Sponsored by

When your buyer is... a bully

What happens when the buyer who wants to acquire your business leans on bullying tactics to try to get the deal done?

This happened to me (Lexi) when I sold a content site. I didn't end up selling to that buyer, in part because I had an advocate on the call who called out the behavior afterward.

That advocate was my lawyer, Andrew Ritter. We reconnected for this conversation, which was meant to be about mistakes to avoid when you sell... and ended up including tips for when your buyer tries to pull the "we know what we're doing and you don't" card.

Many buyers, by the way, are respectful and even collaborative. But if you end up with one of these bad apples, you'll know what to look for and how to react.

Watch our conversation, or if you'd prefer to take us along for a ride or a walk, there's also a podcast version:

The sale details you don't often hear about

Whenever our reporters find a blog post written by a founder who's sold a business, we bookmark that gem.

First-person shares simply aren't common, and we love getting a glimpse into why the founder sold and where their head was at post-transition.

We've aggregated some of these blog posts for you!

Here's one example:

Daniel R. Sim sold Plug in Useful

(7-figure sale, SaaS company)

👉🏼 Why I sold my profitable and growing Shopify apps​

He wrote:

You'll find lots more first-person blog posts on this list:

👉🏽 22 founders share, in their own words, how they sold their business​

See you next time,

Lexi Grant
Founder & CEO
​They Got Acquired​

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