“Supply creates its own demand.”
That’s a famous quote from French economist Jean-Baptiste Say, and it’s one that still holds true in any marketplace – including Acquire.com.
Because he almost forgot that rule, Australian entrepreneur, Simon Thompson almost didn’t sell his SaaS business. He’d listed for much higher than most were willing to pay and it killed demand for six months.
But with just a small tweak in price, Simon’s startup became part of a low-supply group of businesses – that is, great products at affordable prices. After the change, he courted many more buyers and still clinched a six figure sale.
Here’s how it went down:
Podseeker was Simon’s database and outreach solution for finding the right podcasts to pitch and which emails to pitch them with.
For PR in previous jobs, Simon often got himself onto podcasts as a guest. He found the outreach process clunky.
After working alongside PR agencies at later businesses, Simon discovered agencies had established toolkits for outreach to traditional media. However, most lacked the same for newer media like podcasts.
Using the PR agency model for outreach, Simon created a basic website and database for podcast outreach and set subscriptions to $50-per-month. He then called media agencies to ask if they wanted to use his database to reach out to podcasts.
As most founders know, cold email tends to be a difficult medium for outreach, especially when you’re pushing a $50 per month subscription. But huge numbers of leads answered Simon and subscribed. After a few months, he’d reached $1,000 in MRR and begun scaling the business.
Podseeker seemed on its way to becoming a truly passive income business. But despite obvious traction, customers would mysteriously onboard, pay their subscriptions, and then quit weeks later.
Simon didn’t want to make his business a full-time job and eventually decided to sell on Acquire.com in 2022. He signed up and, within a week, 10 people reached out. He thinks he would have had more, but initially, he kept his listing price high because he wasn’t sure about selling.
After six months with no bites, Simon dropped the price and finally sold to a buyer he had a great relationship with.
Post-sale, Simon hopped on the startup acquisition podcast with Andrew to discuss his acquisition. Tune in to hear:
- Why cold email outreach is a great predictor of product market fit
- Why there is no such thing as truly passive income
- How to get a higher sale multiple on Acquire.com
Simon’s just getting started and you can follow his journey on his website and on social media:
