U.S. Census Data Database

Priced against revenue rather than profit, U.S. Census Data Database sold at 8.5× annual revenue, above the 2.3× median across the 249 deals with a disclosed revenue multiple. Revenue multiples run higher than profit multiples because they ignore the cost of running the business, so they are only comparable between businesses with similar margins.

The $8,500 sale price puts it in the lower half of the 570 deals with a disclosed price here, where the median is $20,000. 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 215 Content/Media exits, and the ones that disclosed a price sold at a median of $25,100. 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 2.0 years. The deal closed through Microns, one of 187 exits in this database that went the same route. 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.