No way that 7, 15x is realistic. From my previous 2 startups none were sold for more than 4x. And these were healthy growing +10m businesses. I am not sure where you got those numbers from. I am curious.
I thought this had a lot of good data: https://www.bizbuysell.com/learning-center/industry-valuatio.... For "Software and App Companies", the multiple was 3.17.
But if you're growing, have big upside, and can be a rollup or been operating quite inefficiently 4x would be ridiculously low.
That's the dream, but the number of startups that check all the boxes to fall into this category is extremely small.
There's a lot of data supporting 2-4X for small SaaS companies. You'd have to be growing at an extreme rate year over year over year for 4X to be considered "ridiculously low".
As many small business owners learn the hard way, it's nearly impossible to find someone capable of single-handedly operating a small startup who would rather operate your startup than their own startup.
Frequently, you can find someone to take the role for a while. They might even perform well while you're training them up. Then they're likely to go off and start their own thing, which might come uncomfortably close to competing with you (while staying just outside the reach of noncompete agreements).
Even bog standard SAAS companies struggle to sell at a decent multiple when they are really small, and they aren't especially complex.
If you buy this company and hire somebody who can do all those things, that $235k of net profit becomes $0.
Buying it just to shut it down without continuing the product- eh- does your product really address all the needs of the customer base? Or will they go to another competitor instead?
But bootstrapped business with growth rate for 7x+ (non-trivial) revenue are uncommon.
4x may be "ouch" for a VC but not a bootstrapper.
If you're in your thirties or forties, a million bucks won't even get you a school teacher's lifestyle for the rest of your life. A million bucks makes the rest of your work life low-stress, but not non-existent. You still have to work, you just don't have to worry about paying rent, or getting exploited by your boss. You can always quit, and you can always say no (one of the reasons some bosses like a hint of desperation on their employees)
They bought water view condos, one got his teeth fixed, and then they had to go right back to work.
Forgive me but I'm not sure I see the relationship to my comment.
Investing a million today say in real estate over 20 years will give you money to live on while you rent and a the property can be sold for double in 20 years. Repeat and this strategy would bring increasing wealth for a 20 year old.
2-4X is the current range.
The exceptions are for companies with extreme growth rates for multiples years in a row. These are extremely rare, even more so with pure bootstrapping.