MicroAcquire

The 'micro SPAC': crowdfund an operator to buy a business

Shaan describes the micro SPAC he and Andrew ran: raise ~$85-100K from random Twitter investors into a shell, then buy a profitable Shopify app on MicroAcquire for an entrepreneur (Daniel) to operate and grow. He frames it as 'just add hustle' to an already-running business.

“And I called it at the time. I said, This is like when you go to buy like cake mix and it's like just add water. This is a like just add hustle. Here's a business. It's here's the code's already written, the business is already running, the revenue is already there, and all you need to do is grow it and you just need to add that hustle into it to grow this thing.”

Steal thisPool small checks to buy a profitable indie business and hand an operator the keys to grow it.

Market networks: a network where money flows on every edge

Shaan explains the 'market network' concept (per NFX / James Currier): a regular network passes likes and messages between nodes, but a market network has money flowing across every connection, like AngelList's jobs, investing, and rolling funds. He invested in MicroAcquire because it's structured as one.

“a market network is where it's 10 dots on a screen and there's lines connecting all of them, but there's money signs going in between each, right? So, like, on Facebook, you transfer likes to each other, you transfer comments to each other, messages.. But on AngelList, when you hire someone for a job, you give them money. When you invest in somebody, you give them money.”

Steal thisLook for or build platforms where money flows across every connection, not just content.

A $300 MBA: read business listings to learn the patterns

Shaan's tip: even if you're not buying, pay for a marketplace like MicroAcquire and study hundreds of business listings. You absorb which niches exist, which businesses sell fast, and which sell for more, calling it a self-administered $300 MBA.

“So even if you're not ready to buy, get the premium subscription or whatever so you can read the actual details about the businesses. And that's like a $300 MBA that you can give yourself because you're going to discover all these different niches, the patterns. You're going to see which businesses sell for more, which businesses sell quickly. It'll really shape your thinking.”

Steal thisSubscribe to a business-for-sale marketplace and study hundreds of listings to learn niches and patterns.

MicroAcquire: one employee, 1,500 subs, ~$400K ARR

Andrew Gazdecki's MicroAcquire is a curated marketplace newsletter for buying small SaaS businesses. With Andrew as the only employee, 1,500 subscribers paying $299/year put it at roughly $400K-$425K ARR, mostly grown in the prior 4-5 months.

“And so as of today, he's got 1,500 subscribers paying $299 a year. And that brings his revenue to about $400,000 a year.”

MFM raises a $100K micro-SPAC off a single tweet

After Andrew DM'd offering to give away a $5K micro-SaaS, Shaan tweeted it without even replying; strangers chimed in offering $5K each, so they raised $100K into a blank-check entity and closed on a Shopify app.

“And so we ended up raising $100,000 as a micro SPAC, meaning a blank check company. So we raised $100,000 into an entity to go and use that entity to go buy a business off of MicroAcquire. And then as of last week, it closed. So we found an entrepreneur, found a business, and we closed that deal to buy a Shopify app.”

Drop the price, add a course and community to MicroAcquire

Sam's playbook for MicroAcquire: cut the subscription to $39-$99/year to make it an impulse buy, then layer a $2K-$5K course and community around buying and selling companies. He estimates it could reach $30-$50M/year revenue and $10-$20M/year profit.

“what I would do if I was Andrew is I would decrease the price to $99 a year because that, or even $39 a year because that would make it an impulse buy and I would get loads of people. Then I would do this company selling. Then I would have a course that costs $2,000 to $5,000 and it would include a community and was all focused on buying and selling companies, growing businesses.”

Steal thisMake the entry product an impulse-priced subscription, then monetize with a high-ticket course plus community.

Giving away a $5K business turned into a $57K crowdfunded bankroll

MicroAcquire's founder proposed gifting a tiny business to someone in the community. After Shaan tweeted it, other people volunteered to chip in, turning the original $5,000 into a $57,000 bankroll to buy a business for a chosen operator to build in public.

“And then other people started chiming in like, dude, this is awesome. I'll chip in $5K too for free. And so we ended up with $57,000 in the bank of people who are willing to just let us basically, now we have a $57,000, it was a $5,000 bankroll to go buy a business. Now it's a $57,000 bankroll to go buy a business.”

Giving away a business is better marketing than 'come visit my site'

Shaan explains MicroAcquire got an enormous payoff from the giveaway stunt — roughly 4,000–5,000 new Twitter followers and 1,000+ concurrent users on the site — proving a remarkable giveaway beats begging people to check out your product.

“Like give away a business, that's a way better marketing push than just saying, hey, um, did you know, like, my site exists? Come, come visit it, right?”

Steal thisInstead of asking people to check out your product, give away something so remarkable that the giveaway itself becomes the marketing.

Listener flips an erotic newsletter for $75K

A British listener named Lotana built an erotic newsletter, advertised it through porn sites, grew it to $5K-$6K/month, then sold it on MicroAcquire to a private buyer for $75K — using the proceeds to fund his other business.

“He also built the erotic newsletter and advertised it through the porn sites and got that to being like $5K, $6K a month of revenue around his erotic newsletter. Um, and so he's doing a bunch of things, but he just posted an update, you know, a few months later. We, I think we mentioned him 4 or 5 months ago. Yeah, maybe. And he, he was like, by the way, update, I sold it for $75K and I'm, I'm out of the erotic newsletter business”