Startup Acquisition Stories – Details, episodes & analysis

Have you ever heard of the career readiness industry?

It’s a rarely reported on but active auxiliary industry spanning career coaching and development, edtech, vocational training, higher education, and more.

Just career coaching and development alone is valued at $45 billion.

Harris Osserman founded Talk Hiring originally to turn voice notes into job applications as a B2C career-readiness product. He and his team changed trajectories into the B2B industry when a school district tried to buy them out as an interview prep tool.

On the back of the successful pivot and many timely connections with hiring groups, Harris and his team developed Talk Hiring into a useful job interview simulation tool. Then they spun off a handful of other career-readiness apps when they saw the market was underserved.

However, after the birth of his first child and a move to Atlanta, Harris was ready to sell Talk Hiring and look for something new to spend his time on.

He created an account on Acquire.com and experienced just how effective it was to attract qualified buyers, securing seven offers within weeks. With the help of the Acquire team, he sourced an all-cash deal from a private buyer and closed quickly.

Listen to Harris’ talk with Andrew as they discuss:

• How Harris pivoted into the career-readiness industry (he did a lot of volunteering).
• How Harris marketed his product (about five different ways).
• Why using Acquire.com can help you land a higher sale price.
• The startup building mistake to avoid if you want to attract buyers financing acquisitions with SBA loans.

Harris is just getting started and you can follow him using the links below:

• Linkedin
• Twitter
• His blog
  

Software businesses can be immensely profitable in very little time. But they can also die just as quickly.

Software engineer Mark Jivko built Go index me!, a tool that speeds up Google page indexing, in six months for a bit of extra cash. He grew it to over 150 regular customers and thousands of dollars in sales in under a year.

But Mark knew building an app that only relied on the Google APIs was playing with fire. It could all be demolished with a keystroke during a system update. He wanted to sell while he was ahead so that he could move onto another project he was more passionate about.

Mark had previously sold a business on Acquire.com and knew he’d find the buyer he was looking for there. He sold Go index me! in one week under the tutelage of his buyer, an eight-time serial startup acquirer who DM’d him almost immediately.

Now Mark is gearing up for a new project to help founders using social media for product distribution to avoid platform addiction.

Tune in to this SASP with Mark and Andrew as they discuss:

• Mark’s trick to do escrows faster
• The questions you should never answer from buyers before going under LOI
• Why Mark knew he was going to sell his tool from the beginning
• How Mark plans to help founders who use social media reduce their addictions to the platforms

And read our writeup of Mark’s story here.

Mark is just getting started and you can follow him below:

• LinkedIn

• Twitter

Jeel Patel and his father built InvoiceOwl, an online invoicing tool for tradesmen like plumbers after Jeel noticed his family’s landscaper using an inefficient paper invoicing system. Three years later, they sold the company for six figures on Acquire.com.

Listen to Jeel share his insights and learnings from running his startup to the acquisition process:

• How Jeel discovered there was still room in a niche with behemoth-sized competitors

• How Heel played the SEO game to build hype around InvoiceOwl

• What Jeel believes is the most important thing to include in your startup sales process

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Be sure to subscribe to see the newest acquisition stories every Tuesday and gain the knowledge to buy or sell your own online business → ⁠https://youtube.com/@acquiredotcom?sub_confirmation=1 ⁠

Want more stories? Access the past 50+ acquisition stories here → ⁠https://blog.acquire.com/tag/startup-acquisition-stories-podcast/ ⁠

Thinking about selling your own startup? The number one question is always 'how much can I sell for' and we've got the answers in our biannual valuation multiples reports here → ⁠https://blog.acquire.com/tag/acquire-coms-acquisition-multiples-report/⁠

Thinking about buying a startup? Sign up for a free buyer account and browse all the live listings. Upgrade only when you find the right one that fits your acquisition criteria to engage. Get Started → ⁠https://acquire.com/buyers/⁠

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Follow the Host: Andrew Gazdecki

• ⁠https://twitter.com/agazdecki⁠
• ⁠https://www.linkedin.com/in/agazdecki/⁠
• ⁠https://acquire.com⁠

Follow Acquire.com -

• ⁠https://twitter.com/acquiredotcom⁠
• ⁠https://www.linkedin.com/company/acquiredotcom⁠
• ⁠https://www.tiktok.com/@acquiredotcom⁠

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About Acquire.com:

Acquire.com is the largest and most active acquisition marketplace for buying and selling online businesses. Acquire.com is the highest rated platform for both ease and quickness to match buyers and sellers.

We cater to all types of online, revenue-generating businesses while producing the highest success rates for SaaS and eCommerce/DTC businesses in the M&A industry. Join over 500,000 entrepreneurs making life-changing connections and deals everyday.

Startup Acquisition Stories with Roman Lytvynenko Founder of Pur Ninja.

Roman Lytvynenko: 

• https://twitter.com/romalyt
• https://www.linkedin.com/in/roman-lytvynenko-00523b103
• https://pur.ninja/en

Andrew Gazdecki:

• https://twitter.com/agazdecki
• https://www.linkedin.com/in/agazdecki/
• https://acquire.com

Startup Acquisition Stories with Daniel Jakaitis Founder of Chatkick.

Daniel Jakaitis: 

• https://twitter.com/DanJakaitis
• https://www.linkedin.com/in/daniel-j-b7037747
• https://chatkick.com/ (parent company)
• https://trinsly.com/ (company Acquire'd)

Andrew Gazdecki:

• https://twitter.com/agazdecki
• https://www.linkedin.com/in/agazdecki/
• https://acquire.com/

Startup Acquisition Stories with Landon Bennett Founder of Userfeed.

Landon Bennett: 

• https://twitter.com/LandonB32
• https://www.linkedin.com/in/landon-bennett-02285620
• https://www.userfeed.io/ (Got Acquire'd)

Andrew Gazdecki

• https://twitter.com/agazdecki
• https://www.linkedin.com/in/agazdecki/
• https://acquire.com/

Eyal Toledano launched a small angel fund to buy and grow micro-SaaS products for freedom & profit. Sharing the whole journey at microangel.so.

Eyal Toledano: 

• https://twitter.com/EyalToledano
• https://www.linkedin.com/in/eyaltoledano/
• https://microangel.so/

Andrew Gazdecki

• https://twitter.com/agazdecki
• https://www.linkedin.com/in/agazdecki/
• https://acquire.com/

Tara Reed is CEO at Apps Without Code. Also founder of Growthspree where she buys & scales marketing software companies.

Tara Reed: 

• https://twitter.com/TaraReed_
• https://www.linkedin.com/in/tarawreed/
• https://www.growthspree.com/

Andrew Gazdecki

• https://twitter.com/agazdecki
• https://www.linkedin.com/in/agazdecki/
• https://acquire.com/

Colin Keeley is a founder at Verne with a focus on giving SaaS founders straightforward dream exits.

Colin Keeley: 

• https://twitter.com/ColinKeeley
• https://www.linkedin.com/in/colinkeeley/
• https://www.vernehq.com/

Andrew Gazdecki

• https://twitter.com/agazdecki
• https://www.linkedin.com/in/agazdecki/
• https://acquire.com/

Startup Acquisition Stories with Arsen Nurmagomedov Founder of Restpack.

Arsen Nurmagomedov: 

• https://twitter.com/arsennurmag
• https://www.linkedin.com/in/nurmagomedov
• https://restpack.io/

Andrew Gazdecki:

• https://twitter.com/agazdecki
• https://www.linkedin.com/in/agazdecki/
• https://acquire.com/