Before any acquisition can happen, many prerequisites need to be in place. There will be an extensive due diligence process. Commonly, "buyer-side due diligence" is the procedure of an acquirer making sure that everything is in order with the business they are about to acquire. It's a detailed investigation, making sure that everything you claimed … Continue reading Preparing for the Sale From Day One: Getting the Documentation Right
Author: Arvid Kahl
Arvid Kahl is a software engineer turned entrepreneur. He co-founded and FeedbackPanda, an online teacher productivity SaaS company, with his partner Danielle Simpson. They sold the business for a life-changing amount of money in 2019, two years after founding the business.
Arvid writes on TheBootstrappedFounder.com because bootstrapping is a desirable, value- and wealth-generating way of running a company.
In over a decade of working in startup businesses of all sizes, Arvid has learned a thing or two about what works, what doesn't, and how to increase the chances of building a successful business.
At a Crossroads: The Different Kinds of Exits
Companies get acquired for a few reasons: they’re interesting economically, they’re interesting strategically, their employees are attractive, or they are a thorn in the eye of the acquirer, a foe to be vanquished. Depending on why someone wants to buy your company, the deal and the whole process of selling the company may be radically … Continue reading At a Crossroads: The Different Kinds of Exits
A Unified Voice: Staying Consistent When You Grow
At a certain point, it won’t be just you talking to your customers anymore. Your employees will be the first touch-points for customer interactions, co-founders and directors, and partners and other businesses. What once was a unified voice—your voice—is now a chorus. If you want to have a company that is consistent and aligned, you’ll … Continue reading A Unified Voice: Staying Consistent When You Grow
How I Self-Published Zero to Sold, a Bestselling Book on Bootstrapping
Two months ago, I self-published a book called Zero to Sold: How to Start, Run, and Sell a Bootstrapped Business and released it on Twitter. Within twenty-four hours, I sold 350 copies. Within another twenty-four hours, the book was #1 on Product Hunt and already a category bestseller on Amazon. After a week, 1000 copies … Continue reading How I Self-Published Zero to Sold, a Bestselling Book on Bootstrapping
Positioning Is Where It’s At
You can position your product in different ways in many different markets. You may have started describing your product in a certain way, only to find that your customers understand it very differently. Many first-time founders make the mistake of iterating on their product but keeping their positioning the same. Even if they're capable enough … Continue reading Positioning Is Where It’s At
You Want a Tribe
According to Seth Godin, a tribe is a group of people that are connected to each other, an idea, and a leader. Tribes are supercharged communities. They are dense networks of people who bond over specific interests or goals. These interests range from the mundane to the most personal and exciting topics. No matter if … Continue reading You Want a Tribe
When You Reach Your Limits: Growing a Company Beyond the Founder(s)
If you’re coming from a professional background in salaried positions, the chances are that you’ve never hired anyone before. And even if you have, hiring someone for your own business will be a daunting task. It certainly was for me. I thought that I could manage all that work by myself just fine, so why … Continue reading When You Reach Your Limits: Growing a Company Beyond the Founder(s)
The Power of Omission: Killing Features for Fun and Profit
If you add features to your product indiscriminately, you will end up with a gigantic bloated mess of software. One way to deal with this is to be very careful when deciding if new features should be added. Another rarely used approach is to remove unused and outdated features. Removing the cruft from your SaaS … Continue reading The Power of Omission: Killing Features for Fun and Profit
Made to Stick: Shaping an Extensible Product
It won’t take long before customers start asking for one particular kind of feature: integrating into other tools that they use all the time. They have adopted your product into their routine and their workflow, only to notice that something is missing. Some steps need to be taken to get your product to seamlessly join … Continue reading Made to Stick: Shaping an Extensible Product
Standard Operating Procedures: Managing Your Future Self
Delegation is most effective if there is an Operations Manual for the company. Michael E. Gerber calls this the "Turnkey Revolution" in his book The E-Myth Revisited: the idea of documenting your business like a franchise. Build your business in a way that you could hand it over to someone else, and it would still … Continue reading Standard Operating Procedures: Managing Your Future Self
