Directory built by 37signals that helped businesses find web designers by budget and location. Rather than shut it down, it was sold in July 2012 to a pair of entrepreneurs at its full $480,000 asking price.
The $480,000 sale price puts it in the top quarter of the 547 deals with a disclosed price here, where the median is $21,000. Most indie acquisitions cluster well under the headline numbers founders read about, which is exactly why a real distribution is more useful than an average.
This database tracks 57 Marketplace exits, and the ones that disclosed a price sold at a median of $19,150. Category matters more than founders expect: buyers apply different discount rates to a content business, a mobile app and a B2B tool even at identical revenue.
From founding to sale took 3.0 years. Time to exit is a decent proxy for how built-to-sell a business was: shorter, cleaner processes usually mean documented operations and fewer surprises in due diligence.
See how this compares across the market on our market stats page, or browse more Marketplace exits.
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Acquirer renegotiations are common at the finish line. Co-founded by Jake Singer & Jake Schonberger (launched 2021). At $25K MRR / $300K ARR with 4 employees; beehiiv adjusted the original offer downw
Lifetime deal marketplace for SaaS products
Online marketplace for college student artists and makers built while the founder was still an undergraduate at Colby College. Sold to an outside buyer via Acquire.com.