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Ask HN: How to fire sell a web startup?

15 points by bdclimber14 ↗ HN
I have a startup, OrangeSlyce.com, that I am looking to exit from... We haven't been able to monetize very well, but I know the web property has got to be worth something. Has anyone sold an web startup before? I don't even know where to start or what to expect.

I'm thinking of reaching out to competitors, listing on flippa.com.

Stats: PR4, 5000 unique visitors monthly, pending patent, 1500 users, some revenue (hundreds/month), beautiful design and functioning application. Users love us. Not enough to pay though.

20 comments

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davidw
Flippa seems to work out ok. I've sold a few things on it and have generally been happy.
brk
What do you think its worth?
bdclimber14
I don't even think I can begin to guess. I have absolutely no reference point.
il
A 5-20x multiple of your monthly revenue is a good place to start.
BenSchaechter
Bah! I met you guys at a TechCrunch event. Sad to see it not work out. I would recommend Flippa. Or, perhaps what all the cool kids are doing: "Offer HN"
bdclimber14
haha awesome. What we were doing is a really hard problem I think. I think there's a reason internship/college job related sites are a dime a dozen. Hopefully not literally ;)
WillyF
And there's plenty of money in the market, but most people get the business model wrong, fail to get enough users, and quit too soon.
amoore
Put it on flippa.com and let folks here know. Spend a bit of time on your flippa description. It will make a difference. You have to stand out from all of the crap sold on flippa.

Or, let me know what you want for it. My email address is in my profile.

jayhawg
I think the site is good and could be great. I wouldn't sell it yet. Plus, if users love it, there's hope. If you want a few ideas, send an e-mail; I'd be happy to give .02.
bdclimber14
I'd love to hear your thoughts. Unfortunately, I'm not sure we can survive the time for it to be great, or produce revenue that sustains us. Can you email me at sean@orangeslyce.com.
adityakothadiya
I agree too. It looks stunning and polished service. I'm not sure what marketing strategies/tactics you used so far, and what were the results of it.

But I think you need to focus entirely on marketing and reaching out to many students. Think about some creative marketing ideas that are directly related to university students or so.

See if you can get someone on advisory board who is marketing pro, and help you grow from here. If I was in your shoes, probably I wouldn't quit at this stage. There got to be something that you'll figure out that will work.

Worst case, pivot this crowd-sourcing model to other domain - you already have product ready, see if you can apply this model to other high-paying industry.

Just my $0.02s

bobf
Hundreds/month of revenue, with what sort of expenses? Is it mostly just the issue of the amount of time you're putting into it with relatively little return?
noodle
1) hundreds/month revenue, but what does the profit look like? are you covering operating expenses?

2) what are you expecting? the "we have revenue but want to quit" makes me feel that you're expecting to be properly compensated for your time, which is highly unlikely.

bdclimber14
It covers hosting expenses, but doesn't cover the team as employees (we don't have day jobs).

I'm definitely not expected to be compensated for time, but hope to get some cash out to fund our next big thing.

noodle
why don't you just pivot? abandon all work on this product that does anything except directly generate revenue. as long as you're not losing money, just let it stay alive and gain the passive revenue. go do that other thing now.
bdclimber14
That's what we'll probably end up doing. I was just thinking that selling could offer a surge of revenue to cover living costs while developing the new product.
noodle
it could. but it looks like you put a lot of time and effort into this. would you be willing to sell it on flippa for like 2 months rent and then watch as someone runs it into the ground?
Flippa_com
Hi there. Sorry to hear it is not working out for you. Full points for giving it a serious go. As some of the other responses have already said, Flippa is the number one marketplace for getting OrangeSlyce.com in front of the most qualified website buyers. Having existing revenue will help in getting buyer attention. Just make sure you have a reserve price that you are happy to sell at. Let us know if you go ahead and we'll send a few credits your way to get you rolling.