Startup Acquisitions Stories Podcast With Nour Shaaban, Founder of a SaaS Acquired for 7-Figures

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I am here with Noir, who recently got acquired for seven figures. Nora, how you doing today?

Hey, Andrea. I'm doing great. How are you doing?

Good.

So.

I know, but before we started recording on this one, we were talking, and we can't disclose too many details because this acquisition is under NDA. But, Nora, you want to introduce yourself for those that may not know you?

Yeah, absolutely. So, I'm Noor. I'm originally from Lebanon. I moved to Amsterdam about four years ago, and since I was in high school, I've always been an entrepreneur. I've started four businesses in the past, one of which I also scaled to seven figures, but two or three of which have failed. So my most recent one was the one that I grew and got acquired. So, you know, sort of a serial entrepreneur that's just, you know, been. Been my thing and hope to continue that.

Nice. I always like to ask this question, so, you know, it's closing day, so it's the day where the acquisition closes. What did it feel like when that first wire hit your bank account, given you sold your business for over a million bucks?

Yeah, it felt good because, you know, I kind of always envisioned that happening. And as I was going through the process of building the business, I sort of always expected that at some point, you know, I'm. I realized I'm someone who loves to build things and not necessarily grow them or scale them up. And I think at some point I realized that there was a different level that was needed to scale the business up, and there was a different person that had that skill set to be able to get there. And so I always sort of envisioned me during that process and going through the acquisition and closing the sale and, you know, receiving the money and. And the bank account and.

Tell me. Tell me about the. I want to hear the emotion, though. Like, yeah, you know, seven figures getting wired over to you. What. What. What was your initial reaction?

Yeah, it was. It was very happy. It was very in line, like, with it. It felt very much. I think if I were to say one word, it was like a lot of freedom. That was maybe the main emotion. It was like freedom, happiness, relief in a way, because it's like such a long process as well.

Not. Not many. Not many entrepreneurs get there. So. So congrats on. Congrats on that acquisition. Now let's. Let's pull it back a little bit. Okay. You built a great business. You know, we won't go into. Into too many details on the business again due to larger acquisitions typically are under NDA, but what, what made you decide to sell the business?

Yeah, well, yeah, just like kind of what I was saying before is a lot about like, I just realized I love to build businesses and rather than scale them up, at least at this point in my life, and the second thing was the business I built was something was very dear to me as well. And the, the mission that was on and the value that was providing to people was very important. So I realized that if I were to keep in line with that mission, I needed to find a, you know, buyer who can actually get it to where it needs to be. And if we were to reach as many people as possible with that, maybe I was not the person to get there. And so that was another reason of why I wanted to sell.

I like, I like that. That's. I always say, you know, entrepreneurs with self awareness in terms of, you know, hey, I'm really good at building a business to want, you know, a few million of revenue. And then there's other, or, excuse me, a few million in revenue. And there's entrepreneurs who are, they don't know how to do that at all. But what they can do is take a business from a few million of revenue to tens of millions of revenue.

Right.

So that's, that's huge. That's huge to know. Next question would be, how did you, how did you initially find out about.

Acquire.Com well, I actually used them before. So, you know, I, I found you guys maybe a few years ago when I had another business of mine that was not necessarily. Yeah, it was not necessarily like my, my successful business. It was more so something that did revenue. It, you know, it did over 100k in revenue. We had a good product. Okay. Content, but it was just not something I was really passionate about. And I was like, why don't I try to sell this rather than just shut it down. I put it up on Acquire and within a few weeks I got someone who submitted an offer. And that was very interesting because it made it very real. Like Acquire works. You know, Acquire actually is a platform where you can sell your business and you can find serious buyers. Now I actually decided to keep that business and I tried to grow it myself. It didn't go great. It actually, you know, failed. But I had it in the back of my mind that if I ever grow business again and I decide to exit, you know, I know acquire.com works. And so, yeah, as, as soon as my most recent business got to that point and I sort of kind of had a goal from the start, I reached out to acquire. And yeah, that's sort of how I knew about it.

I. I appreciate that. I did not know that. So that's awesome. N so I'm assuming since the time that you listed your first business and the time you listed this larger, more successful business, a lot of a lot had changed within acquire.com in terms of the services we offer.

Right.

Specifically our M and A advisory service. Do you want to walk through just how that kind of maybe helped you maximize your acquisition, find your buyer?

Yeah, yeah. So yeah, initially, like a few years ago when I listed on my previous business on Acquire, it was called Microacquire at the time and you know, it was more of a self serve thing. So I just listed the business and I just waited for people to sort of reach out. When I tried to list it again, I did not really. I kind of expected the same thing. But I was pleasantly surprised to find out about the Guided by Acquire program. And that was a, like, that was a game changer for sure because I realized there was a lot I didn't know about selling a business. So I had a valuable business, but I didn't know how to actually go through the whole process to sell it. And there was a lot of different things that, you know, the advisor I had, Rainier helped me with. For example, what are all the different documents that you need to upload to sell your business? Like, you know, some people might think about pitch decks or something, but there's a lot of different things. Like, you know, having a transfer document that actually shows you, shows the new buyer what is going to happen after the sale, like what is involved, what, you know, what are we going to transfer, how we are going to do that or like how to set up, you know, proper profit and loss. Like all the different templates, all these things. But even after that, like even after getting the first, you know, offers or the first buyer signing NDA all the way to closing the sale, it was just invaluable. I think having someone on the, on the back end of acquire, just helping me make sense of everything and understand things when I had questions. Because I think selling a business is a very anxious process. Like it's kind of a roller coaster. So you know, you get an offer and you get an NDA and you're sort of like, what could this person be? Or you know, is this the right fit? Is person actually going to buy the business or work at things lead? There's a lot of anxiety in the process and you're also afraid of making a mistake or you know, submitting, you know, maybe like sending out an email where you share something that, you know, maybe you should word differently or all that different stuff. So, you know, it's just always good to have someone who could help you make sense of all of that and calm you down and give you certainty in these different and these anxious times. Yeah, I think that was invaluable, honestly.

Yeah, I would. I completely. That's why we built the program really is just feedback from founders, especially as we started to move away from, you know, just smaller businesses and larger businesses like yours, where, you know, advisory really can be the difference between getting acquired or not at all. Because I'm sure you had a ton of fun preparing your business for sale with the SIM and the profit and loss and the transition guide. But all of that is necessary because with buyers, they're typically looking at sometimes 20, 30, 40 businesses a day. And so the easier you can make it for them to understand your business quickly, get excited to hop on a call with you, meet you all. That's extremely important. And so being prepared like you were going to market is. Is crucial. And then, yeah, I remember when, you know, your. Your Lois would come in too, we all review them as a team. We all kind of give our. Our own feedback on them.

Awesome.

I guess another question would be what. What part about, you know, the buyer that you ended up selling the business to did what. What made them stand out? Or was it just the. The offer amount? Was it your relationship with them? What. What made you decide to move forward with the buyer that you sold to?

Yeah, I definitely think it was the relationship because, you know, we also had competitive offers. But I think the relationship is really what made. Made the deal because, you know, as soon as we talked, we had a great relationship, we had a great connection. It seems like we were really aligned on both our vision for the product, but also sort of in a strange way, our vision on life. And so we were both trying really well to make it easy for each of us to work with the other. And, you know, the relationship was. Was good and was growing. And then I actually ended up going to California and meeting the buyer in real life. And, you know, it sort of like, felt like this was really the right person for the business and he was the person who can take it to that next level. But at the same time, it felt like he was someone that I would enjoy working with, and he was, like, great to work with and, you know, easy to work with. So. And we had that connection. And so it just, like Overall, it was really the relationship that made the deal happen. And so, yeah, I would say that was the most important part.

That. Yeah, I. I even say sometimes, you know, when. Because you can get a much higher offer, but if you're not getting along with the person or you don't trust them, because it's one thing to get a letter of intent, a formal offer to buy your business, but if you're not getting along with that person or you barely talk to them, the chances of that letter of intent closing is very small. So what that means is you get an offer and you're super excited. I'm going to sell my business. But you're like, at step one of 10, you know, you're going into diligence. You.

Right.

So you want to make sure you trust the buyer and you have a good relationship with the buyer. So it sounds like you made the right move there. If I could ask, how many. How many NDAs were signed for your business in terms of just buyer interest?

I think. I think we got close to like 60 or 70 NDAs, if I'm not mistaken. It was definitely in that range.

That's a lot.

Yeah, that's a lot of NDAs. Yeah.

Wow. Well, good for you. Well, that. That's just probably. That's a testament to just the business that you built. I guess my next question would be, what was, you know, I guess if you could give. So you. You found a great buyer, you know, you. You sold it for, you know, a. A f. You really maximize your acquisition. It's a huge, huge accomplishment that every entrepreneur, you know, that's why they start a business. Typically, if you could give maybe, you know, three tips to another entrepreneur looking to get acquired for, you know, potentially millions of dollars, what. What would that advice be?

Yeah, that's a good question. So I think the first step would be start with the end in mind. So the path to a hundred thousand is different than the path to a million, is different than the path to 10 million and so on. So starting with the end in mind, I think is really important. So just know what your goal is. Know where you're going with in this business and start with that and make sure that you're kind of using that as a guiding light, because, you know, if you start with the. With the right goal, then you're likely going to get there. So that. That would be my first tip. The second tip would be create a lot of value, because in the end of the day, the deal is an exchange of value. So if you're trying to sell a business for a million dollars, then you need to expect to give a million dollars worth of value to the buyer, because otherwise why would they put a million dollars into the business? So it has to be worth that much. And so rather than trying to focus on how can I sell my business for a million, focus on how can I create a million dollars worth of value to the world or to people or, you know, whatever your product is trying to target. And then eventually you will find someone who sees that value because maybe your goals align or maybe, you know, that's the next thing for them or so on. And so if you have that value there, it's going to be very easy to sell the business for that price or ask for that price. But if, if you don't, then it's going to be very difficult. And the third tip is just something we already talked about, which is just build a great relationship. Like try to find someone you really connect with because you're probably going to work with them for some time. There needs to be trust. It's a big deal. And also, you know, you want to make sure your business ends up in the right hands. And so, yeah, I think relationship is just really important.

Those are all, all great tips. So let's say there's, there's someone in your shoes right now. They have a business that's potentially worth, you know, you know, you know, millions of dollars. What would you say in terms of, you know, why work with acquire.com and how, like, why, why go with guided Acquire in terms of other options in the market?

Yeah, I mean, look, if I'm honest with you there, it does not make sense to go any other way. For me, at least when, when I was really thinking about my options, I did contact different brokers. I contacted different M A websites. And so what I found was that a lot of them were taking up a very high fee, you know, not necessarily very high, but just like higher than acquire by quite a significant margin. And at the same time, they did not have as big of a reach. And so I realized that with Acquire, I was only paying 4%. And also you had a big reach and you were helping me in coaching me like step by step and, you know, helping me make sense of all the different elements that are needed, all the different documents, preparation. But also when I was getting offers like, you know, pricing, strategy, valuation, all those things, I think it was really, like, helpful. And so it just didn't make sense to pay like 10, 15, 20 with a different broker given the service. I was also getting with Acquire, and so, yeah, it just really made a lot of sense for me to work with you guys.

That's awesome. Well, I'm glad it worked out. And congrats on. On the acquisition again, and thank you. Hey, so Raniere is going to watch this. And did you want to say anything to Raniere? Because I remember when your acquisition closed, we all celebrated. We were all like, yeah.

Yeah. I actually told this to Rainier, but I'll say it again. I think Rainier is a legend. You know, I think he's really. He's someone who sounds like. Or it feels like he's really passionate about what he does, and I just really appreciate him being there every step of the way. It always felt like he was there. Always felt like he knew what was, you know, needed and the time. He always knew what steps to take, and he was just, like, very intelligent in the whole process, so. And. And I think he's very kind. You know, I think he's just very, like, you know, he's someone who you feel that you can really trust and who's really got your. He's. He's got your. He wants the best for you, basically, is what I'm trying to say. So, yeah, I really appreciate Rainier. So if you're watching this big shout out. Thank you.

Yeah, no, Rainier is a man. Well, again, Noir, we're super. We're super happy that, you know, everything worked out. Congrats again on the acquisition and looking forward to your next one. I think. I got a feeling you're going to build another business, and I hope we can. We can help you get acquired with the next one.

Definitely. Definitely. Yeah.

Thanks again for coming on the podcast, and again, congrats on all your success, man.

Thanks, Andrew. I appreciate it. Cheers.