Andrew Gazdecki is the founder of Acquire, previously known as MicroAcquire, the largest startup acquisition marketplace. I’ve spoken to many indie hackers about selling their businesses, many of whom have done so using Andrew’s platform. Before starting the Acquire, Andrew spent 8 years bootstrapping Bizness Apps to $10m ARR before being acquired by a private equity firm. You might also know of Boostrappers.com, the site Andrew started, sharing stories of bootstrappers. Finally, he also wrote a book called Getting Acquired, which tells his story and outlines exactly how you can sell your business.

Timestamps

• 00:00 - Intro
• 01:20 - Startup and acquisition trends Andrew is seeing
• 03:34 - Ideal time to sell your business
• 05:10 - Should you build to sell?
• 07:19 - How to make your business look good to a potential acquirer
• 08:59 - Twitter/X and bootstrapping
• 10:24 - How would Andrew Gazdecki start a business today
• 11:52 - The best marketing channel for a bootstrapped business
• 12:56 - The most unlikely acquisition outcome
• 13:35 - Which business types have the highest multiples
• 15:26 - The future of acquire.com
• 15:56 - Recommendations

Recommendations

• Book: Impossible to Inevitable
• Podcast: All In Podcast
• Entrepreneur: Jack Dorsey

Today I’m talking with Flo Schirmer about "sweaty startups", a term for old-fashioned, low-risk businesses that are often service based and unsexy. I’m talking window cleaning, car washing, self-storage, house moving and more. We’re going to discuss if you can do this as a side hustle, if you should do this over a regular software business, and what you need to do to get started with some ideas along the way.

Timestamps

• 00:00 Intro
• 01:38 What is a sweaty startup?
• 03:18 From window cleaning to home security
• 04:37 How to start a sweaty startup
• 06:41 Growth for a sweaty startup
• 07:26 Sweaty startup vs software - what is best for indie hackers?
• 08:45 Injecting a tech edge into old fashioned businesses
• 11:34 Examples of successful sweaty startup brands
• 13:58 Two free sweaty startup ideas
• 15:57 Recommendations

Recommendations

• Book - $100m Leads
• Podcast - My First Million
• Indie Hacker - Alex Hormozi

My links

• Twitter
• Indie Bites Twitter
• Indie Bites YouTube
• Join the membership
• Personal Website
• 2 Hour Podcast Course

Sponsor - EmailOctopus 🐙

EmailOctopus is an independently owned email marketing platform, built to support other small growing businesses. With a focus on affordability and ease of use, EmailOctopus contains all of the features you need to reach and grow your audience. You can start today, with their industry leading free plan where you can contact up to 2,500 subscribers without paying a penny.

Marie Martens is the co-founder of Tally, a form builder she started with her partner Filip, now used by half a million people and are over $150k MRR. Marie was on the pod 3 years ago when they’d scaled to 16,000 users and $8k MRR in 1 year. In that episode we discussed the origin story, getting their first 100 users and how they’d grown so quickly. Today, we’re going to be finding out how they’ve built such a robust business over the past 3 years and 15x’d their revenue.

Listen to Marie's first episode:
https://indiebites.com/43

Timestamps

• 00:00 Intro
• 02:09 From small lifestyle business to larger sustainable business
• 04:50 Retaining the fun in the business
• 06:02 Struggles in hiring a remote team
• 07:32 Building an in-person team in Belgium vs remote
• 08:17 Running a startup as a parent
• 10:06 How Tally has grown to $150k MRR
• 13:07 The pros and cons of building in public
• 15:08 Growing the product while keeping it simple
• 15:49 The future of Tally
• 16:43 Recommendations

Recommendations

• Book - First Round Capital
• Podcast - Lenny's Podcast
• Indie Hacker - Olly Meakings

My links

• Twitter
• Indie Bites Twitter
• Indie Bites YouTube
• Join the membership
• Personal Website
• 2 Hour Podcast Course

Sponsor - EmailOctopus 🐙

EmailOctopus is an independently owned email marketing platform, built to support other small growing businesses. With a focus on affordability and ease of use, EmailOctopus contains all of the features you need to reach and grow your audience. You can start today, with their industry leading free plan where you can contact up to 2,500 subscribers without paying a penny.