Building Websites Strictly for Big Budget Acquisitions
- Thread starter $$DerekDavis$$
- Start date
tl;dr most of the thread, but I'd imagine a decent percentage of tech startups begin with the end goal of being acquired by one of the big companies. Most aren't going to be the next Facebook or eBay, so the best outcome for the founders would be to get bought out in a 7+ figure acquisition and sailing off into the sunset, with the dev team staying on board under the parent company.
You dont even need the patents, you just need a pending patent which can be had for around $200 and protects you for 12 months.
The idea is very similar to a book I read called One Simple Idea
The idea is very similar to a book I read called One Simple Idea
Our next BPlan involves patents on IP, but we haven't investigated costs yet. Got any good companies for patents, that won't rip you off?
the US gov. you can get the pending pat. directly from them for the $200
edit - thats you filling out all paperwork. If you need guys to walk you thru it and do it, then I dont have any info I could give you.
edit - thats you filling out all paperwork. If you need guys to walk you thru it and do it, then I dont have any info I could give you.
I think you're going about it the wrong way, but sort of on the right track. For a company to acquire you for any big sum of money, you're going to have to provide some value to the market and have the potential to take marketshare.
Throwing up a cute looking website and sending out press releases isn't going to scare anyone into buying you up. Anyone with half a brain at least. On the flip side if you do get bought out, it's not going to be for big money. Very simply because you won't have the revenue to show.
The days of throwing up a website and getting millions in valuation for it are long gone. Maybe 12 years ago this would've worked well when the internet was an unknown medium. If you want to make a lot of money via acquisition, create something of real value or raise money to acquire competitors and build a big business that way.
I'm working on something like this, if you'd like to chat PM me.
Throwing up a cute looking website and sending out press releases isn't going to scare anyone into buying you up. Anyone with half a brain at least. On the flip side if you do get bought out, it's not going to be for big money. Very simply because you won't have the revenue to show.
The days of throwing up a website and getting millions in valuation for it are long gone. Maybe 12 years ago this would've worked well when the internet was an unknown medium. If you want to make a lot of money via acquisition, create something of real value or raise money to acquire competitors and build a big business that way.
I'm working on something like this, if you'd like to chat PM me.
Appreciate your feedback man. Based on what everyone said, I see no reason not to try a different approach. We know that the approach we tried worked, but not with the amount of profit we were hoping for (6 figures). While 5 figures are good, we have to keep evolving and bringing in bigger guns.
Maybe we were going at it in the wrong direction. Luckily, we didn't fall on our faces lol. All this information is so useful though - many thanks to everyone who had a valuable input.
This is so stupid I can hardly even think where to begin.
So your strategy is to create a shitty copy of a huge site with millions of users with $25k...release some press releases...then get bought out?
But you seem to be saying you wont actually have a useful or profitable business, just a crappy shell site.
Your example of ibazar is retarded, they had 2.4 million users and were the number 1 online marketplace in 6 markets....in 2001, 10 years ago.
Frij were an angel backed silicon valley startup with connections and huge software engineering talent....
So your strategy is to create a shitty copy of a huge site with millions of users with $25k...release some press releases...then get bought out?
But you seem to be saying you wont actually have a useful or profitable business, just a crappy shell site.
Your example of ibazar is retarded, they had 2.4 million users and were the number 1 online marketplace in 6 markets....in 2001, 10 years ago.
Frij were an angel backed silicon valley startup with connections and huge software engineering talent....
You guys are missing one thing....It's already worked, lol. We profited 20K+ our first attempt. Stupid or not, we came in here for advice, not to be torn down, told our idea is stupid as hell - yet, we turned a decent profit.
Yes it may have worked once for a little bit of money but I thought you wanted to score big? I'm not bashing you at all.
I wouldn't count on your previous experience 1 time being a repeatable business model.
We know this actually. That's why we came here to get advice from those who may or may not have done something similar.
We don't want the small money, we want the big money. We don't want 5 figures, we want 6 figures. Any advice is good advice in my book, just not the people who state that the idea is completely stupid, when it's worked already. We know we have to make adjustments, which is the reason why the thread was started.
Explain what you did exactly then...
Really? You got someone to "acquire" your site because you had an awesome layout?
So a publicly traded company which has to do due diligence by law, makes presumably 7 figure yearly revenue at least to be publicly traded, felt so "threatened" by your layout and press release that they shelled out the princely sum of $30k to protect themselves from the competition from your shell site? Presumably with zero users, zero revenue?
OP, this is the same sort of methodology I've been leaning towards as well. There is an amazing book on this topic called "Early Exits" by Basil Peters. He argues that big companies don't know how to innovate and create companies that go from 0 to 20 million in valuation. Those big companies however, are excellent at expanding an already profitable company and take its valuation from 20 million to 500 million+. That's why you see so many big companies buying smaller startups. It's a good business decision.
I'm in an interesting niche where one big company has bought up and consolidated all the top players in this industry. I've built a competing website with a unique feature set. It's better than their current portfolio in some aspects, but lacks in other areas. The thing is, it's different then what they currently have in their portfolio. I'm hoping to approach them next year to be acquired.
I learned over the years that I get bored of things very quickly. My goal for the next 5 years is to design, develop, and sell an online business every 12-18 months. I'm hoping to sell each business in the 1-5million dollar range. I know it's a lofty goal, but I think I can do it, starting with my current website.
People will say, why not hold onto that one project for 5 years and sell for 100million+ ? Because I can't imagine working on the same thing for 5 years straight. I would go insane. I'm not programmed to work like that. I would rather switch it up every 1.5 years and live a happy life.
I think we are of the same mentality. Maybe we can chat on Skype?
I'm in an interesting niche where one big company has bought up and consolidated all the top players in this industry. I've built a competing website with a unique feature set. It's better than their current portfolio in some aspects, but lacks in other areas. The thing is, it's different then what they currently have in their portfolio. I'm hoping to approach them next year to be acquired.
I learned over the years that I get bored of things very quickly. My goal for the next 5 years is to design, develop, and sell an online business every 12-18 months. I'm hoping to sell each business in the 1-5million dollar range. I know it's a lofty goal, but I think I can do it, starting with my current website.
People will say, why not hold onto that one project for 5 years and sell for 100million+ ? Because I can't imagine working on the same thing for 5 years straight. I would go insane. I'm not programmed to work like that. I would rather switch it up every 1.5 years and live a happy life.
I think we are of the same mentality. Maybe we can chat on Skype?
