4 years ago I noticed that many founders who built some cool projects tried to sell it on twitter or shut down the app. I figured out that some tweets got popular and decided to build a site where those founders can find a new owner for their side projects without hustling on twitter or other places. That's how microns was born and till this time I'm improving it to help more founders exit their profitable small apps. Would love any feedback from HN community.
I'm Ilya, a founder from Ukraine. I started a micro-startup acquisition marketplace called Microns in 2021.
In two years, I grew the project to 6,000 newsletter subscribers, $40k revenue, and $180k GMV (sold startups)! No investments, completely bootstrapped.
Sometimes people just don't have enough marketing skills or don't want to promote products but they might have a great potential to make a revenue. In this case, you're right, focus on profit is a great to have to attract buyers.
It's a tricky question. One man's trash is another man's treasure. The concept of relative value is especially acute in this market. Person A may be willing to pay $1,000 for a project, while Company B may be willing to pay $5,000.
In my opinion, prices are pretty accurate on the platform. However, you should count the work done(hours spent), marketing activities, tech expenses(domain, hosting), maintenance, customer support.
Every case is unique, so it's hard to tell about all listings at once.
After interviewing all founders who sold the project, I always asked one question. "What was the actual selling price?" And 100% of founders replied the same number as it was in the asking price.
Exactly. The most significant differentiation is that most of the tech projects run worldwide. The founder might not have a permanent place like other small traditional businesses. You could be a nomad with a desktop and Wi-Fi in Bali and travel without being fully dedicated to the business. So, for me, it's freedom.