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Ask HN: Tips for selling a website/startup

11 points by philiplindblom ↗ HN
Hey eveyrone.

About 1½ years ago, I created 1000designers.com as a little side project, a marketplace for the best designers in the world - And while it went rather ok actually, I am now in pursuit of another venture. However, I think that it's kind of stupid just to abandon 1000designers as we generated quite a lot of revenue and press coverage - Such as in TechCrunch.

The technology behind the app isn't very sophisticated, however - I have a V2. built with rails purely that has incorporated a new revenue model that I know is more effective than the one I used and I generated around $150k in revenue during one year.

So - Any channels where you could potentially sell it?

12 comments

[ 2.8 ms ] story [ 35.6 ms ] thread
krzrak
The site seems to be down right now?
philiplindblom
Yeah, it's been down for a few weeks.
[dead] superman007
WOW !! One of the most stupid statement i have seen. A single week downtime will ruin everything you built for years . It wont sell for 100 K now for sure unless you make it online and bring back the traffic
rwhitman
I've attempted to sell a product on Flippa before... Buyers are pretty skeptical especially about revenue and traffic.

You generally need to have some proof of revenue and that it's continuing to generate income, leads and traffic prior to the sale.

Trying to sell a product that's been offline for weeks is going to be an uphill battle unfortunately. On auction sites like Flippa for instance most of the buyers are SEO-focused so 2 weeks of downtime is going to be a liability.

If you want to sell it getting it back up should be a priority

philiplindblom
What I wish I would be able to say is that WE ARE SELLING A BRAND but unfortunately, I'd be lying. hehe.
iSloth
On a market place like flippa that's killing any chance of a decent valuation, I'd work on getting it back up ASAP
dangrossman
Most small website sales happen on Flippa -- https://flippa.com/

If you're hoping for more than $100K or so, you might look into brokers or reach out directly to companies you think might be potential buyers.

philiplindblom
Interesting, no - I'm not looking to get over $100k.
centdev
How much are you looking for?
MalcolmDiggs
Flippa is still worth checking out. When you list such a high-revenue site on Flippa you'll get taken through a different track than normal. They'll act more as brokers for you than just listing your auction (they'll contact the buyers on their list, etc).