They Got Acquired - $10M in revenue

October 15, 2024
​Read on web​

For these founders, the key to creating a successful SaaS wasn’t building – it was listening.

Muntasir Rashid, Moin Uddin and Mohiuddin Sarker Siam grew their SEO content analysis software Contentpace — and landed a 6-figure acquisition after three years.

It started when they were working remotely from their homes in Bangladesh in 2020. The founders wanted to help content marketers understand what helps search-optimized content succeed, and which keywords are best for driving traffic.

They introduced their MVP (minimum viable product), which was originally called Postpace — and then got to work listening to their users.

They collected hundreds of instances of feedback each week, compiling and studying it intensely. But translating user suggestions directly into action would have been a mistake, Rashid said. Instead, the key was identifying the pain points behind those user suggestions.

“It is very easy to fall for the perpetual cycle of building random features,” Rashid said. “Our focus was to identify the problem from the proposed solution, and then design a solution which is suitable for everyone.”

Here’s how they found their buyer and sold the business:

​These SaaS founders focused less on building – and more on listening​

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How company culture contributed to the sale of this software business

Founders tend to pore over revenue and profit.

But that’s just one element of building a great business. The company’s identity and culture can also have a big effect on whether the company succeeds.

That’s the No. 1 piece of advice founder Roberto Dominguez shared after he sold his software company, Comalatech, for mid-8 figures in 2022.

“Focus on revenue and profit, then work on your corporate identity,” he said. “Corporate identity is fundamental to build and maintain a team — which is the basis of the company — and to earn the respect of your customers, partners and potential buyers.”

Dominguez, based in Vancouver, founded Comalatech in 2005 when he realized companies needed a better way to create, approve and distribute content in Confluence, a content collaboration and management workspace by Atlassian.

Comalatech grew into a suite of products focused on the Atlassian ecosystem, starting with Comala Document Management, a document approval app that helps teams automate document reviews and approvals.

Dominguez wasn’t looking to sell when software company Appfire, which builds products for workflow platforms like Atlassian, approached him about buying Comalatech.

Here’s how it happened:

​How company culture and identity helped get this software sale to the finish line​

See you next time,

Lexi Grant
Founder & CEO
​They Got Acquired​

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P.S. Several founders reached out saying this thread on LinkedIn was helpful for them...

It suggests resources for founders who've raised money and ​now want to sell, but don't have the revenue/profit numbers to justify selling for a sum that would pay back their investors.

It can be difficult to find advisors/brokers to support you in this situation, but here are a few that do this type of work.