Is there a marketplace to sell a start-up?

Both Exitround.com and Flippa.com are great to sell your startup

You may have already sold your company, so this information may not be useful for you (hopefully it will be for others). I have worked with five companies that were either early stage or turnaround that marketed themselves for acquisition. I led the process for three of the companies and was closely involved in the other two. Of the five companies, four received offers and three closed. And while each of exit processes was unique, there are some common characteristics.

Here's my experience . . .

1. I am assuming that any investors (other significant stakeholders) are on board with your plan. However, you need to ask what will happen if the offer price is well below any discussions that have been had between you and the investors/stakeholders? Make sure that communication with these constituents is often, especially the communication of any information having to do with terms.

2. It is a time consuming, frustrating, business-encroaching process. It will take up most/all of your time.

3. If you have employees, expect them to find out. This is important to manage if you want the employees to remain with the company throughout the process. They will have many questions.

4. Leverage anyone you know (or can be introduced to) that has been through the process (whether using an IB or not).

5. Do you have a lawyer? Are they heavily versed in M&A? There are a lot of clauses (changing all the time) that acquirers insert that may not be in your best interest.

6. If you don't have updated, audited financials get that done. Make sure the books are squeaky clean.

7. Will the key employees move on to the new company? Is it an acqui-hire situation?

8. How defensible, unique is the IP? Be prepared for technical due diligence.

9. Most companies won't pay anything, or very little, for potential market (revenue). If you have no revenue, see #s 7 & 8.

10. What are the synergies with the potential buyer's product portfolio? Their market? How will the acquisition of your company be accretive to the buyer?

11. Cast a wide net. For four of the companies that I was involved in the offering process (one utilized an IB), we created at least 50 potential acquirers with "our" expectations for accretion and acquisition synergies. We developed a playbook and told each of the individual, unique stories to each of the 50 (or more) potential buyers. You need to quickly find a balance between what (how much and when) you disclose and what you hold back?

I've probably omitted some pertinent steps in the process. Oh, one more thing, never, ever lie or materially fudge information. If you get caught in a lie, everything you have presented will be questioned. This will likely cause potential acquirers to just walk away from the deal.

In the end, if I were doing it today (even though I've done it five times), I would seriously evaluate and strongly consider a platform like Exitround, especially for a company similar to the ones I worked with that had an expected value of less than $25M.

If you have employees, you can also consider an Employee buyout (Sometimes you can get grants/loans secured against future income for the employees to buy your shares off you)

Can you send me details

What does it do? What market sector? Does it have any clients? One-time or repetitive revenue? Current monthly revenue?