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Sold my project for a 4-figure micro-exit 🥳

I am happy today because, for the 1st time, I sold my project (SwipeDirectory.com) for a 4-figure exit.

Hopefully, the 1st of many.

It took me just 4 days.

Initially, I listed it on MicroAcquire, but they rejected it because it didn't have any customer base.

Makes sense for their platform.

So I listed this on ZeroAcquire. As soon as Ian Nuttall acquired Zeroacquire, it got a lot of eyeballs.

Ian also pitched my project to a couple of buyers.

Then one day, I got a DM on Twitter asking for an acquisition.

I immediately sent all the details. Buyer agreed.

We initiated Escrow.

Transaction completed in 4 days 🔥

Reasons I sold:

  • Didn't get enough time to scale up
  • It was getting good affiliate sales (Buyer can do more justice to it)
  • I was working on bigger, better things (like Affiliate Corner)

This was my 1st ever micro-exit, and I just love this ❤️

Your 1st acquisition will always be fun, and so was it.

My learning from this is:

If you have that itch to start something, do it. Kickstart it. Monetize it on the way and try to think of it as an asset!

I am just getting started.

Looking forward to some life-changing exits in the future 🔥

Any questions? Feel free to ask!

  1. 3

    How long did you work on your product before you decided to list it on ZeroAcquire?

    1. 1

      So basically, what happened is: I started working on this project in Sept, Oct 2020.

      Didn't do anything much. If you see its just a google sheet, with categories, and affiliate links.

      I didn't add much data.

      But it was getting me affiliate sales. ALso I was busy with other big projects at that time.

      So you can say I just worked initially in the start. That's about it.

  2. 2

    heck yeah, good for you! congrats on this big win!

  3. 2

    That gives me hope that making directory style resources, which I enjoy doing, can still be fruitful. Not all that many listings. Im assuming you were getting some good affiliate returns as you said. What sort of traffic levels did you have?

    Well done. And thanks for introducing me to a new sales platform in zeroacquire

    1. 1

      Quite minimal traffic - 2k users / year.

      Yes, I was getting affiliate sales. Mostly from the appsumo marketplace affiliate link that I had on the home page.

  4. 2

    Congratulations Tejas. 🎁🎉

    As much I am aware, https://swipedirectory.com/ is based on SpreadSimple which is an another SaaS. So, did you hand-over your SpreadSimple license as well ( and it may have more of your websites ) or only told about the Google Spreadsheet Backend?

    When selling any SaaS which is based on another SaaS, how does the acquisition thing works in that case? Kindly share if you have some feedback on this.

    1. 1

      Yes, its based on SpreadSimple.

      The buyer needs to have a pro license running on their account. Then I just asked the SpreadSimple team to transfer the website to the buyer's pro license.

      My license will still be here, but the website is transferred.

      That's how it worked.

      & I also shared my Google sheet. Also told buyer that he can change as per his wish and plug in his google sheet as well.

  5. 2

    Congrats! May I ask why you sold?

    Lost motivation or passion? Or were you building for early exit?

    1. 3
      • I didnt have much time to invest in this product
      • I have much more bigger product in front of me (affiliatecorner.co)
      • I know that buyer can do more justice than me (if he executes properly)

      So kinda makes sense for me to just sell this asset and get some cashflow running.

      I also have left my job in Dec 2021, so a good cash flow is always nice to have

      1. 2

        This is good to know. I was wondering why you sold as well.

  6. 1

    I love the design of your website!

  7. 1

    Hey Tejas, thanks for sharing this inspiring story! Have you exited before? If not, how was navigating the sale process on your own through one of these sites? Also I'm curious about why Flippa wasn't considered as a place to list it? (Sorry if that's a dumb question.. i'm genuinely new to the idea of exits so I'm not sure which sites are legit for listing your business for sale)

    1. 2

      Hi Chris. Thanks.

      1. This is my 1st exit :)

      2. The process was little daunting. Because Escrow took almost 4-5 days to disburse the amount and I was very worried, anxious about it. But they did after constant follow up. Not a good experience there (but I can understand their due diligence)

      3. I didn't considered flippa, because I didn't list there. I was low on time. I had already listed on zeroacquire a long way back. & I got the message on Twitter regarding acquisition.

      So didn't wanted to back out.

      Legit sites for listing:

      • MicroAcquire (need to have customer base)
      • Zeroacquire (I exited from here. They are still developing it and don't have inbuilt escrow, we need to do it manually)
      • Empire Flippers
      • Flippa

      These are some options currently that I know.

      1. 2

        Thank you so much Tejas, I appreciate your insight :) and congratulations! Looking forward to more posts from you!

  8. 2

    This comment was deleted 7 months ago.

    1. 2

      Thank you so much. Me too. Love micro exits.

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