Acquire.com and Flippa introduce you to people who might buy your company. We are a company that buys companies. That distinction decides almost everything about how the next six months go.
Marketplaces do a real job well, and for a lot of companies they're the right route. This page is about which companies those are, and what the listing route costs in fees, time and privacy that the fee table doesn't show.
A buyer. We sign the purchase agreement and wire the money ourselves.
A platform that connects sellers to buyers and takes a commission when a sale completes.
The person who makes the decision, from the first call.
Whoever responds to your listing, whose experience and funding you have to assess yourself.
None. You keep the whole price.
Typically 3% to 8% of the sale price on completion, plus any listing or success add-ons.
Two companies and an NDA. Nothing is public at any point.
Your company appears in a browsable listing. Anonymized, and anonymization is thin when the metrics are specific.
We close within 60 days and pay cash.
Three to six months typical, and longer when the winning buyer needs to arrange financing.
Backed by operator LPs with cash on our balance sheet, so there's no financing risk.
Varies entirely by buyer. Deals falling through after an accepted offer is a known feature of the route.
$2M to $10M in ARR.
Strongest under about $5M, with the deepest buyer pool well below $2M.
One buyer. If we say no, you've spent a week finding out.
Thousands of registered buyers, which is the genuine advantage of the model.
The company keeps its name, product and team, and we operate it for decades.
Depends entirely on who bought it, and you usually learn their plan during diligence rather than before.
Written by a direct buyer, so we've been strict with ourselves about including the cases where listing genuinely wins.
None of these are hidden and all of them surprise founders, because listing feels like posting an ad rather than signing a brokerage contract. It is the second thing.
Most listing agreements claim a fee on any buyer introduced during the term, for twelve to twenty-four months after you delist. If someone contacts you through the platform and you close with them a year later, the fee is usually still owed.
Some agreements prevent you from selling through any other channel while listed. That can rule out a direct conversation you were already having, so carve out named buyers before you sign.
Read this definition closely. A buyer who merely viewed your listing sometimes counts, which can mean paying a commission on a relationship you built yourself.
Listings are anonymized by removing the name, not the details. ARR, category, growth rate and founding year together are often enough for a competitor to identify you in a couple of minutes.
It works well below about $2M in revenue, where the buyer pool is deepest and the businesses are simple enough to evaluate from a listing. Above that, the number of buyers who can write the cheque drops sharply and a direct conversation usually beats a listing.
Curious is a long-term holding company that buys and grows software companies with empathy.
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