Startup Acquisition Stories with Ranjit Bhinge, CEO of Atomic Fusion

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I'm here with Ranjit, who has actually bought a startup on Acquire and has two startups currently listed on Acquire. Ranjit, how you doing today?

I'm good, how are you?

Good. Did I get those numbers correct, by the way? So you've. You've acquired a business and you're currently looking to sell two different businesses, is that right?

Yeah, yeah. So I acquired. Actually I acquired three.

Okay.

And I decided to focus on one and now I'm. I've listed the other two.

Very nice. Okay, so for those that don't know you, do you want to just give a brief introduction of yourself?

Yeah. So I'm Ranjit, I'm based in India and I acquired Atomic Fusion. That's my primary thing right now. So I acquired atomic Fusion in 2022 on Microacquire and I also acquired two apps at the same time. So a little background about me would be like, I'm a maker essentially. So I come from like a background of technology and design. So I did my electrical engineering and then I was a maker during my undergrad and I used to build a lot of stuff and I wished there was something like micro choir back then, but yeah. So then I started a small smart home product business in India right after my undergrad and I got knocked around a bit, learned a lot of lessons, and then I went for my masters to Manchester where I learned design, applied design. Basically it's called digital experience Design. So I was a good intersection between tech and design and I got a good chance to, you know, build stuff there and, you know, in context of all these interesting new concepts being taught and learned. And during my thesis, I was trying to build a tool that could automate what do you call it, like focus group study. Right. And that's when I discovered Bubble. Bubble is a no code platform that lets you build full stack web applications without the need to be a tech person and without even the need for a product team. So I discovered Bubble. I started building my focus group app there and I used that for my thesis. It worked well. And right after that, the lockdown, the COVID lockdown hit. Right. And that's when I decided to, you know, just because there was no, nothing else happening. So I decided to do some freelancing with Bubble because I just learned that and that worked out well. And then I was freelancing for a few years until in 2021, I got pretty good at bubble and I realized that it's probably the next step would be to get into a SaaS product business rather Than, you know, freelance full. And I was using atomic fusion at the time, so this was. Sorry, in 2021, I decided to start get into the whole SaaS scene. So I picked clients that were in SaaS so I could understand how it works. And then in 2022, I started using atomic fusion. It was this. Back then it was like, it's basically what it is right now, but it was like a very niche new thing. And one of my clients introduced it to me and we were using it for bubble development. And around that time I decided to get into, you know, micro acquire to start looking at what people are doing, you know, what the landscape is. Saw atomic fusion there and I got in touch with the founder, Neil, and we hit it off and it was just smooth sailing from there.

That's awesome. That's quite the story. And glad to hear you. Now, you took an opportunity where a lot of people accomplished so much during a hard time learning a new skill, got into SaaS. I love how you started with consulting. That's one of the best ways to really figure out how a certain business model works or problems that a certain customer has. So I love that. So let's get to the story of maybe we'll focus on just atomic fusion, specifically in terms of what made you acquire it. So I guess my first question is, I assume you're probably going through acquire a lot. Acquire.com I'm still jumbling with micro acquire. Acquire.com. that's the company name. You're on acquire.com looking at a bunch of different businesses. What made atomic fusion stand out to you? Was it the fact you had used it before?

Yeah, so couple of things. Yeah, I'd use it before it was in the. It was in my niche. I was a bubble developer hardcore and all of that. But, you know, it kind of stood out in the sense that it was. So all the other things that I was looking at, all the other startups that I was looking at was, you know, I kind of ended up looking at it from, you know, how much money can I make out of this in the future? Right. And that was kind of like, you know, me looking at it with blinders on. But when I found atomic Fusion, it was different because I realized that, you know, it's not about how much money you can make from it, but it's about what you can do for that user base. Right. And that I realized that when I saw atomic fusion and then that just made it. That just clicked.

Nice. So you, you saw a growth opportunity within the business.

So I saw a growth opportunity. I also saw an opportunity to add value to a niche that I care. So, so back then I was kind of in a, in a process of kind of discovering what I really want to do. So I knew I wanted to get into a SaaS business, a product business, but I was still discovering like what industry I would want to do that in, etc. Right. And then this just hit me and.

Then all in on Bubble. I love it. Okay, so, all right, so let's, let's back up to the point. You know, you, you discover this business and you love it. So I assume you reach out to Neil, the owner. How did those initial conversations go? And how did you, you know, qualify this as, you know, a good acquisition opportunity in terms of vetting the buyer, due diligence or what have you?

So there were two sides to it. One was like, how well I got along with the seller, Neil. So we immediately hit it off because we had a lot of things in common. We were both bubble developers and we were both, you know, we've been hustling in the past, so we knew kind of, you know, where we were both coming from. And I had used atomic fusion already, so I knew the, I knew the product, I knew how powerful it was and what it could be. You know, so sometimes it's important, like as a, as a buyer, I'd say to have a vision of what the product could be and it's, it's good if that vision is different from the person who's selling. That's just the way I see it. Because, you know, if, if, if there's an, if you see an opportunity to make it way, way bigger and help way more people than it currently does, then that's definitely a good, good enough reason to, you know, acquire. So I saw that and, and the other side of it was kind of like, it's, I'm kind of betting on no code in a big way. Right. So, and I've, I've always thought that that's, that's a good idea. You know, back then I really looks like something that's going to grow really soon. I mean, it's already growing, but it's going to grow way faster very soon. And that was just a gamble I wanted to take. So I mean, a combination of these two.

Nice. I could not agree more because with tools like Bubble and other no code platforms, it essentially democratizes building a startup. So you have to be technical anymore. We see a lot of really interesting no code tools. Tell me, for those that don't know what atomic fusion does. Let's back up a step. What does atomic fusion do?

So atomic Fusion engine is built in bubble and it's, it's a tool that helps bubble developers build stuff better and faster and easier in using bubble. So you can think of it as a combination of dribble and GitHub, but for bubble stuff. So in no code, what happens is you build stuff out. I think a lot of people have seen wix, so it's kind of similar. That's a good example of what no code is. So you know, you can drag and drop stuff and you build pages and functionalities, but you can't, you can't export that into code. That's text, right? So that's the traditional way of sharing what you build is by just copy pasting or uploading text code as text. You can't do that with no code because no code tools, most no code tools don't let you extract that code out. But atomic fusion lets you do that with bubble and it lets you extract the stuff that you build on bubble, store it on atomic Fusion, share it. And now we are even introduced to marketplace where you can, you know, build stuff and sell it on the marketplace.

Ah, that's clever. I like that. Okay, so awesome product, awesome individual that's selling it. Neil, what, what happens after that? So you had some, I assume a few due diligence calls, you agreed on a price. You know, I guess maybe from here, you know what went really well in the process of acquiring this business and whereas maybe like some areas like looking back were a little bumpy or just.

Lessons learned, I don't, I don't recall any bumpy parts of the whole thing. But so, yeah, so the main things that, that went down were the due diligence and then there was a little bit of negotiating. But I mean, I think we had built up a good rapport. So it wasn't really as much negotiating as it was, you know, what can we, how can we get this done? You know, how can we get this done smoothly? So there's more of a conversation. But the biggest part of it was due diligence and also me figuring out what it takes to run that product. So if I'm going to. Because at that point I was a solopreneur, right? I didn't have anyone, I didn't have a team or anything. So I was, it was really important for me to understand what processes I needed to set up for the operations of the, of the product and things like that. So those were really the things we got into. Due diligence was not too complicated because everything was on stripe and there was some analytics tools. So it was basically a combination of those two things and then just making sure that, you know, the numbers that were used to define the price were correct and those kinds of basic things. But yeah, it was pretty smooth from there actually.

Nice. I think that it, what you're bringing up is so important in terms of just building goodwill with the seller. And then it goes for. It's a two way street too because you got to do due diligence, you gotta get on calls together. You probably had questions from you like how does this work? How does this work? Can I review this? And if you don't get along, like it's just really hard to make a deal work. I hear this constantly from buyers and sellers. So maybe just like a tip for people listening to that that you know, are looking to sell or buy a business is just how important that goodwill. And I always say, you know, I've said this probably on half of the podcast that I've done is you can do a good deal with a bad person. It's a quote by Warren Buffett and it just kind of be more true because I hear it so often. I guess my next question would be so you're selling businesses, you're buying businesses, so I have to assume you're pretty experienced at this point with acquisitions. What are maybe the top three tips you would give to someone looking to have their startup acquired? What stands out to you? What's maybe something not to do? Just any general tips.

Maybe a couple of things. I'd say make sure to document the processes broadly. That's really important when you're selling the. So the other person will get the product in a lot of cases. So in most cases code is already documented, so that's not a problem. But it's really important for them to be able to easily transition into operating that startup or that product. So like, you know, operating procedures are really helpful. It's probably not something that most, you know, micro startup founders really do, but I think that really helps when you're selling micro startup or even a startup. I'd also say like I said before, like, so the right person to sell it to would be someone who has, has a, has a bigger goal in mind and your startup is a way to get there. So that's actually something I learned. Like I kind of realized this when I was selling this last app of mine last month. So it's basically, it's it was like Canva for gamers, right. So, so gamers want to kind of design logos for themselves and their clans or groups. And this was like a Canva way templatized Canva style app that lets you, you know, put in text and images and stuff and then, you know, download a logo. And now this guy wanted to use that platform to get into an NFT based startup directed towards gamers. And I thought that was really cool because I had never thought of that. And clearly this guy knows a lot about NFTs and he's really betting on it and he sees a lot of value in what my app is today because he thinks it can become something way bigger in the near future. Right. So I would say those are some things that would really make a good deal.

Nice. I like that especially the part of sometimes entrepreneurs, they build something, then they lose kind of that motivation or passion for it. And when you're able to sell it to someone, you can, you know, breathe in that new energy to take it farther than you can. And then Neil, who sold atomic fusion, he can go off and build something new that he's excited about and you're super excited about what you purchased. It's kind of like the perfect handoff. So I completely agree with you there. I guess at this point I'm wondering, you know, what are, what are you up to now? You got, you have so many different things going on. Are you building anything new? Are you solely focused on atomic fusion or kind of what's your, what's your main focus today?

So am primarily focused on atomic fusion, building a lot of new, interesting features on it. I am the product team, by the way. So like I'm, I'm literally building everything on Bubble. I have a few clients as well. I'm doing some consulting to support atomic fusion and some really interesting clients and really interesting apps that I'm building for them. So that's basically where I am right now.

Nice. Ramsay, thanks so much for, for joining the podcast. This has been fun to hear. Just, you know, I came in thinking that you had only bought and sold one app and it sounds like you're very active. So congr on all the success. If people want to learn, you know more about your story or just get in touch with you, where's, where's the best place to find you?

You could just email me. I'll send over my email address.

You probably don't want to share your email on a podcast. Are you on Twitter?

I'm on LinkedIn. I'm on LinkedIn I'm on Twitter. Yeah, you could reach me. I'm on. I'm on Instagram as well, but that's. That's private.

All right, I'll put the. I'll put those in the show notes. Well, Ranjit, thanks so much for joining the podcast, and congratulations.

Thanks for having me.

Yeah. Great to meet you. Yeah, likewise. All right, cheers.

All right, have a good day. See you. Bye.