Ask HN: Is a 'reverse' Flippa a good idea?
People post appropriate bids for websites they'd like to buy.
This way, owners can see if there is interest in their website.
Would something like this be interesting?
This way, owners can see if there is interest in their website.
Would something like this be interesting?
There are far more buyers than sellers of quality businesses between $50K and $2MM. The result is that prices (multiples at least) are steadily rising and have been for the last three years. Currently, the average (what defines average is another discussion in itself) is around 2.83 annual net for an Ecommerce business and slightly less, ironically, for a SaaS one.
I know that significantly more inventory could be created from a middleman being proactive about letting an owner know that there's interest. Many of the sellers I speak to are only selling now because of a cold call or email from broker. Until that point, they didn't realize how fluid the market was for selling internet businesses of their size.
The idea of a reverse auction possibly needs some work, but the problem you're deliberately or perhaps unwittingly trying to solve is certainly one with a lot of reward if you can solve it.
Best of luck.
But that aside...
How could you stop people "bidding" $100m for their own site?
Anyone with capital, why would they waste their time putting fake bids down? If they're genuinely interested in a site - they'd approach the owner privately.
What is the value of this, beyond "ooo look how much this site is worth"? Don't you just become another flawed website value calculator?
Just some ideas.
Bingo. Why even give my money to a middleman?