* + Love working on complicated product logic, simplifying complex ideas & making software more personal. Preference for mobile products or creative tooling, open to anything interesting!
All valid reasons, but I think my point was moreso if they find themselves posting on MicroAcquire, they will likely end up in my #3, whether they intended to or not, and rightfully so.
No shame in my #3 above. I'm not an expert, but typically multiples range from 1-4x annual profit, but I've heard through the grapevine that some folks are paying 5-10x. So absolutely list on MicroAcquire.
If it's very profitable, then they might consider talking to FEInternational (or another firm like them). They take a cut, though. But they do pay referral fees, so make sure you get that cut!
Edit: Before someone says I'm crazy for saying things sell for 1x annual profit, I'm not saying that's typical for a brilliant business. It's more typical for something with heavy maintenance, or with really low profits. If you're really interested, check out the link in my bio.
Yeah that's messed up. Any time you're buying anything, but especially a business, you need to do your due diligence.
Perhaps I'm naive, but I think your risk in buying a business goes down if the current owner under-appreciates what they have, and you have the skills to do it better than them.
If you're interested in buying and/or selling small projects, you can typically expect to pay more than $5k for something that's making any consistent amount of money.
You're also unlikely to find a great deal on a really special project on a marketplace. People who post on marketplaces like Flippa or MicroAcquire or SideProjectors (there're dozens of them) have either:
1. Realized the time it takes to maintain is not worth the revenues/profits
2. Realized the income is not sustainable and are trying to cash out at the end of a great run
3. Realized that some folks are willing to pay very high multiples and will list their projects at prices most (but not all) people will balk at.
If you're really interested in taking over a project that's profitable, network with people, do cold emailing, and find opportunities to take over projects that the owners are simply not interested in any more.
In other words, look for the elderly couple who is ready to move on from owning their profitable, outdated shop.
I was an ML engineer, and to me it was far more about data management/cleaning than nitty gritty algorithms improvements, but that's definitely not industry standard.
I've also found "Product Engineer" job listings to range from essentially just a backend engineer to a product designer who codes.
I understood what the problem your product was solving from the title of this Launch HN thread, but viewing the landing page, I think there's big room for improvement for how you explain that.
I think a few things would help:
- Revise your copy to speak more plainly. You're addressing folks working on many different parts of the product, but the language comes off as jargon. As a starting point, I think the title of this thread is way clearer
"Keep product text in sync from design to production" -- Makes sense
"manage and componentize the words across their product from design to production." -- I have no idea what that means
- Replace all of the screenshots and graphics. I see this done a lot, where screenshots are shown and the reader is supposed to understand what's happening, but is not often effective, because they don't understand the context for the screenshots, and it's not clear what part of the screenshot they should be focusing on. I would suggest you provide a very simple clear animation that demonstrates the "magic" behind your application. If it's syncing copy across many different tools and stages of the product, show that magic happening. In other words, if a reader saw nothing but this graphic/animation would they understand what your product is offering them? The demo video is not what I'm referring to, although it is helpful and should remain on the page, maybe even move it up a bit.
Location: San Francisco, CA
Remote: Yes, or hybrid
Willing to relocate: Not likely
Technologies: Figma, Play, SwiftUI, HTML/CSS, Python...
Résumé/CV: (email me for my resume)
Email: [email protected]
* Product Designer
* + Engineering background -- ML, Full stack, iOS, CS degree
* + Experience leading/owning projects, collaborating across disciplines
* + Strong product thinker w/ entrepreneurial spirit. Lots of startup experience.
* + Love working on complicated product logic, simplifying complex ideas & making software more personal. Preference for mobile products or creative tooling, open to anything interesting!