They Got Acquired - SaaS app that sold for 2.1x ARR

March 8, 2024
​Read on web​

Buyer Eyal Toledano was looking for small Saas businesses to acquire, with the goal of scaling and reselling them within two years.

He had accumulated $500,000 in investment capital after spending a decade in various digital marketing roles and co-founding the Shopify app Batch.

Now, Toledano planned to leverage his experience in marketing by acquiring profitable, small SaaS businesses. He’d grow them while living off their revenue, and eventually sell them for a profit.

He liked what he saw in Postcode Shipping, a Shopify app with $200,000 in projected ARR.

In August 2021, he purchased it for $425,000, plus a 7% cut of its eventual resale.

More details:

​The buyer of this SaaS app got a great multiple by offering 7% of future resale value​

Exclusive deal flow for buyers 👀

This week we announced a new product we're offering for buyers, a newsletter called First Look.

It features companies where the founder is considering selling, but hasn't listed the business yet.

Here’s how it works:

• Our First Look email hits your inbox once or twice per month
• It includes descriptions of several companies whose founders are thinking about selling and have not yet listed with a broker or on a marketplace (the company and founder remain anonymous)
• If you want an introduction, you let us know
• We pass that along to the founder, and they have the option to accept or decline
• If the founder accepts, we’ll put you in touch, and you take it from there

It's $99/month or $1,000/year... and until Friday, you can get 20% off.

Issue #2 goes out Monday (3/11), and will include an agency, e-commerce business, and SaaS.

If you're a founder who wants to be featured (anonymously) in First Look, reply to this email and let us know.

I'm curious... How is 2024 looking for you?

Here's a trend I noticed in 2023:

Lots of founders who wanted to sell their business held off on selling because they did not have the numbers they needed to justify their desired sale price. Last year was rough!

As a result, many went back to building, with the goal of increasing their revenue and profit so it aligns better with their hopes for a sale.

Many of those founders are still out there this year, working hard to hit their targets. In my view, they have a few paths to choose from:

1) Keep pushing on their own, even though the economic climate is still tough. Some will get there, and some won't.

2) Keep pushing with the added benefit of a support system, like an incubator for scaling or a partner that helps take the business to the next level. This can increase the chances of success, but the right fit is often hard to find, especially if the company doesn't have any money to spend on growth.

3) Sell the business even though they probably won't get as much for the business as they'd like. While this can feel disappointing, it's a better outcome than burning out completely and watching the business go downhill, where some founders end up shutting down instead of selling.

Will things get easier this year? I hope so! I'm hearing whispers of M&A activity picking up, but it's hard to tell if that's anything more than wishful thinking.

So I'm curious: How is 2024 looking for you?

How is business going, and what does your sale timeline look like?

As always, I'll keep your replies confidential.

See you next time,

Lexi Grant
Founder & CEO
​They Got Acquired​
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