So we cannot always assume that the business owner (especially the solo mom and pops) wants more business. Good ones are already very busy.

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47405685

Points: 9

# Comments: 0

Source: I have bought 3 smaller projects (one for 500k so i guess not indie but still small) and in all 3 cases, the sellers were incredible genuine and truly cared about their company/product. Just because of how trustworthy and helpful they were, I closed the deals quickly after fair negotiations.

I declined 1 deal where the product was a great fit to my exiting business and it would have been a great transition but the seller was too arrogant and I just couldn't trust him. I backed out after exchanging a couple of messages with him.

For example, ask yourself why they really need to buy you out. Why can't they build it themselves ? Is it really your customer base they want ? Is it your technology ? Do they just want you (acquihire) ? What is the moat here that they want to acquire you ? If you cannot answer that clearly, they may not be serious.

In terms of finding a lawyer, you need to find a lawyer who has experience in tech acquisitions especially in your jurisdiction/area (for example, in US, even the state of residence will come into play). Selling a business involves various things including whether it will be asset vs stock sale (you will need to learn the difference),what will be the terms (all cash upfront vs earn out/equity etc).

Be ready to spend $1000s or even $10,000+ on lawyers and the deal may still fall through. So are you ready to spend your own cash ($10,000+ or higher) and still be ready for the fact that deal falls ?

Just some things to keep in mind.

SAAS companies are not just about the software. They provide a series of things including hosting/maintenance, support, data, integrations and most importantly: solving a problem that customer is not interested in solving themselves because they hae more core problems to solve for their own business.

Is it true that some SAAS companies need to go out of business or do better than what they do now (e.g. locked in contracts, shitty support etc) ? Yes, absolutely. However, AI or vibe coding is not magically going to solve this problem.

At the end of the day, SAAS is a business model that has extreme value.

Source: I may be biased as a SAAS founder but I can assure that majority of our customers are not waking up daily and thinking "How can I stop paying this company $xx,xxx/Year for my business where it makes me $xxx,xxx/Year without me needing to hire/build my own product/team". Most of them certainly don't even think about "lets vibe code this shit". How do I know ? They are telling me on a daily basis. Sure, they need us to get on the AI bandwagon to solve their problems a little faster than now. If we cannot keep up, someday they may leave who can solve their problem faster/cheaper but they are not going to vibe code their own homegrown solution. In fact, we routinely migrate B2B customers from their own homegrown solutions (even before AI).

Source: I sell a complex B2B SAAS and even though customers are open to learning more about using AI and are curious, I never had a customer ask so far "Hey so now this AI thing is out, do I really need to you the $xx,xxxx/Year because I can build this in a weekend now, right?". The software is just 1 thing. Customers want stability, support, maintenance, someone to call if shit breaks and if a SAAS vendor does a decent job at it, they won't leave.

If anything, customers who are AI adaptors are asking to collaborate with their existing vendors if possible.

I think once the dust settles n next 2-5 years, few clear winners will remain who will figure out a way to become cash positive.