Colin Keeley - How/Why to buy or sell a business

In this episode we go full send on the business side of IndieRails and explore with Colin how buying/selling a small SAAS works (as small as a couple of hundred MRR to 5m ARR) and the differences in building a company and buying.

Colin shares his knowledge and experience in going from many startup attempts to now buying multiple established software companies through his holding company Verne.  

Colin Keeley on Twitter

IndiePE.com (courses)

ColinKeeley.com (writing)

Verne (holding company)

Scout, Ottomatik and Blinksale

5:40 - Seller Financing

8:40 - Selling a business

9:02 - Why buy vs build?

11:15 - Are you a starter or a scaler?

12:30 - Getting experience running a saas as a developer

13:34 - Buying/Selling example breakdown

15:00 - ROI on buying a business (double your money slide)

15:50 - Brokers and Marketplaces acquire.com

16:05 - How to make your company attractive to PE

17:25 - How much cash would you need to buy a business?

18:23 - SBA Loans

18:45 - How to raise money?

19:40 - Constellation Software

20:55 - Partial / Minority Equity

21:30 - Due diligence

21:54 - How do you find a partner?

22:40 - Andrew Wilkinson & Chris Sparling

23:50 - Due diligence on the deal side (course & community)

24:30 - Working in an industry that you know. “All software tastes like chicken.”

25:30 - Game plan after acquisition

27:55 - Customer trust: in brand or person/founder?

30:10 - Marketing and Using Twitter

31:00 - https://typefully.com/ (writing threads)

31:45 - Promotional channels

32:45 - What should you be building right now?