Startup Acquisitions Stories Podcast With Victor Metelskiy, Founder of Sitekick.ai

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Victor Matowski, who recently had a startup, Sidekick, acquired. Victor, how you doing today?

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

Good. Well, thanks for joining me. Congrats on the acquisition. For those that may not know you, do you want to give a brief introduction of yourself?

Yeah. Hi, everyone, my name is Victor. I'm a startup founder. I'm the founder of Sidekick AI, which is an AI landing page builder which allows entrepreneurs to build beautiful landing pages without any skills in coding, design, or marketing. Yeah. And now I. I've got the startup acquired and looking on to the next project.

Awesome. I guess to start. I'd love to hear what motivated you to start Sidekick.

Well, originally Sidekick was called flightkick. It was a totally different product. Originally, it was an AI flight deck builder. And I feel this because I used to work as an IT evangelist. So I used to travel a lot and talk about things like AI blockchain, chatbots, IoT and stuff like that, and make presentations about different topics all related with it. And basically half my work time was making slide decks, another half was presented them. I was with PowerPoint on my laptop all the time. And, well, it was a very tedious process. And when GPT3 was launched, I thought, well, maybe now is a good time to try and automate this. And I launched Sidekick. Yeah. And I launched it and launch was relatively successful. I launched it on product hunt and it became a product number one of the week on product hunt. And there was a lot of hype around there and I got some media attention. But long story told short only I made only one sale worth 19 bucks. And I've been talking to some customers and you know, there was really no, like, not even a sign of product market fit. And I was talking to one guy and he told me, hey, look, I don't need it for slide decks, but I've built a slide deck with slidekick. And I turned it into a website, I turned it into a landing page, and I'm like, huh, okay, that sounds interesting. And you know, that started the pivot process. Well, talking about Sidekick, it's also a huge challenge of mine. You know, I launch multiple products all the time just, you know, to iterate, get some feedback. And I always thought it's a very tedious process. It always took me longer than I wanted to. And basically I just wanted to build something that would allow me to validate my ideas quickly. And Sidekick was born.

I like that. That's some good traction too. You were product of the week on product on and then I like how you listen to your customers too. Where it started as a slide deck builder, then you pivoted over to a website builder. That's smart.

Yeah. You know, and that's huge growth spike. And then another tech YouTuber, I, I assume they follow each other and they're like friends. He also made a video about Sidekick. Next thing I know, it's trending on Tik Tok and I see all these videos like these five AI tools are going to change your life. Yeah. And we just received this huge wave and that, that really helped us grow. Yeah. Coming back to your question, what made me sell later? Well, I think it's a very deep question, kind of, you know, when do you sell? I think there is the financial matter. So is it a good time to sell? Do you have a good offer? I think it all boils down to whether as a founder you are happy working on the product. You know, are you excited to wake up every next day and keep working on it and do you believe that you can make it a bigger business or is it just a job? So just for some time, I wasn't really excited about the product anymore and I thought that there are some other great opportunities and now it's a good time to launch products and a lot of stuff is happening. So I thought, well, if I'm not happy working on this, then maybe I should sell it and move on to the next thing.

That's smart. You know, when you have something that's doing well and you're not that excited about it and you feel like someone else would pay you to work on it and they're going to be super excited about it, that's a good time to think about acquisitions. So kudos to you on the timing in terms of, okay, you list the business on acquire.com buyers start reaching out to you. What was your initial expectation when you listed the business and were you kind of surprised to have so many buyers reach out to you initially?

First thing, thank you for the goodest. And I just wanted to say kudos to you too because really I think like five, seven years ago or so, there really was not, there weren't too many options for a startup founder who wants to sell the startup, you know, like, so, okay, now I guess we're kind of spoiled because there is acquire that come when you can just say, oh, I'm tired to working on this thing. Maybe I just list on acquire and I see, you know, if I get any offers. But like five to seven years ago, well, go figure. You Acquired. Well, okay, good luck. You just, you either go bankrupt or you keep growing. So thanks to you for the opportunity to have, have such a place where we can list our products. Thank you from all the founders.

I appreciate that, man. Thank you.

Yeah. Coming back to your question, it was going at the beginning. It took some time to get the momentum, to get the speed. So with definitely one I just published on Acquire, really not too much stuff was happening in the beginning. I had a really helpful M A advisor from your side. His name is Matt and he helped a lot, you know, because when you're listing you have all these questions, what should I put here? What's the valuation, et cetera, et cetera. And then what really helped is we got featured. I think you've got something like a daily featured startup section in your mailing list. And then one day also, I don't know, I got 50, 60 potential buyers reaching out. And yeah, that was a bit overwhelming. And so I spent the whole day just replying to them, proactively reaching out. Because that's what, what Smack told me is like, you gotta, you know, sell if you want this deal to happen, then you gotta actively talk to customers. So I've been reaching out to everyone who inquired about Psychic and we talked. I set up as many calls as possible. So yeah, that was a little bit overwhelming at the beginning, but we didn't get that many offers initially. We've only got one. The things really started speeding up when we've got our second offer and then the third offer. So technically I had three legit offers with Loi. And yeah, that's when things really started picking up because the, the buyers were like, okay, we can't just, you know, keep time talking, spend time talking anymore because the, the other buyer can, you know, take it from us. So. And I also like used it as a leverage a little bit and then that, that really helped us to get acquired at the end.

Nice.

Did.

Were you surprised to learn that we had a team of M and A advisors that would help you every step of the way when you're selling your business?

Yeah, it was when Matt, I think Matt reached out and told me, hey, let's have a call. That was super helpful. Actually. Previously I, I already published my other startup on what was micro acquired back then. And it was, I mean, the product went a long way, moving from micro require to require. And like a lot of things changed. It was a bit more complicated back then. There were no M and A advisors, I believe. And the last time the acquisition fell through so it didn't happen. And now, yeah, having, having Matt being able to answer all the questions and help me with the listing, help me make every, everything really, you know, stand out and the to, to package the product, being the company, yeah, it helped a lot. And we kept in touch during the whole acquisition process. We had another follow up call when I started getting offers. So, yeah, that was really, really helpful.

Yeah, we, so since we rebranded, we put a lot of investments in obviously the product and then just resources available as you're going through the process, if you have any questions, stuff like that. So I'm glad to hear it. It all worked out. Matt's. He's awesome. Okay, so you're going through, you're meeting a bunch of buyers, you're having a lot of different calls. How did you figure out which was the right buyer to work with? Was there something about this individual that stood out? Was it the highest price? Was it the best terms? How did you make sure that you were working with a buyer that would obviously make you an offer, but then be the right one to move forward and do due diligence and all that fun stuff so you can actually close acquisition?

Well, so back then I really had two offers and I was negotiating with both of them. They were fine. I can say I was really happy about the offer. I mean, it was a good offer, but there were some things to be considered. So one of the acquirers wanted me and my co founder, Igor, to stay in the company after we got acquired for another year. This is kind of, you know, typical, but we weren't really happy about that. There was no connection with our acquirer really. And we spent multiple calls. We were having daily calls discussing the, the deal and going through some due diligence. And this was just very tedious and it, it didn't feel right, you know, so we were discussing the smallest, smallest details. There was no feeling like, oh, we will find an understanding later. This is fine. So later this investor from New York reaches out and he tells me like, hey, I'm super interested. So the thing is, I was so deep in the acquisition process with other two potential acquirers, I stopped replying to new messages on acquire.com so this guy, he reached out on Acquire and I didn't reply to him. So he reached out to my LinkedIn, I think that his sent me a message on Twitter. And then he went to a customer support chat and he just like, hey, like, where is this guy? I need to talk to Victor. So he was, you know, he was really trying to make it work. He really wanted to talk. And I'm like, look, I. And my customer support manager, he reached out to me and he told Victor, there's this guy who wants to talk to you. I'm like, okay, sure. And we had a call and I was like, yeah, you know, we're so deep in the process, but if you are willing to move quickly, then yeah, sure, why not? But we gotta get some kind of offer from you until the end of the week. And he was like, yeah, sure. And the next day he reached out to me and he told me, hey, let me just Pay. Just transfer 10% retainer to your account. Just, you know, we will sign a small loi where we will say that it has to be refundable if the deal doesn't fall through, but otherwise, let me just send you, you know, 10% retainer to show you that I'm serious and we'll move on. Yeah. And I was like, okay, you know, this, this guy, he's already willing to send some money to my account. So I respected that. And yeah, since that, you know, he was the one who eventually bought the company.

That's a good sign. Yeah. Getting a non refundable or, excuse me, a refundable deposit before you move into a formal offer. That's. That's a good sign. And it sounds like it worked out, so that's great. Yeah, yeah, Right on. So you get the offer. I'm just going to follow the timeline of the acquisition. So you found a great buyer. Everything seems like it's going as planned. You're comfortable moving forward. The buyer is excited to move forward. You sign a letter intent, and then you start moving into due diligence. Was there any surprises in due diligence? Was it as tedious as you thought? Was it easy, smooth, long, short? Like, how did, how did that part of the acquisition go?

Yeah, well, I don't think there were any surprises, really. I knew from the start that it's kind of a long and tedious process. It didn't happen overnight, I think. No surprises. But one thing I can tell you is just during due diligence, you kind of, maybe as a founder, you yourself, you see your business for what it is. Because sometimes as a founder, you know, it's our. It's our child, it's our project and we care about it. So sometimes, you know, we just say, oh my, you know, my child is the best. He's the smartest and, you know, the prettiest and whatever. But during this feel like you maybe for the first time you. You look at the things and you're like, oh, so these are my cohorts and here is my churn. And here is the. Here are the raw numbers. And I mean, obviously we didn't try to hide anything. So I was just collecting loads of data and I was like, huh, okay, this is slightly painful, you know, so we are not as great as I thought we would be, but it is what it is. So just going through this and collecting a lot of analytics and statistics and financial. Yeah, it was. Just took a while and was complicated a little bit, but really no surprises. And I mean, overall it wasn't too bad. I think it really depends on the acquirer with. With another guys who ended up not buying Sidekick. Yeah, we had daily calls for, I don't know how, two weeks, three weeks, and they didn't end up buying the company with. With the new acquirer. I think the whole process took like two weeks max. And I. I mean, maybe two, three weeks. And one week was the due diligence process. I was just basically collecting all the data and so on, all from all the accounts. And then maybe another week after he made the offer and we signed for the asset transfer. So it wasn't that bad. I know in some companies, the acquisition process it takes with due diligence, it can take like up to half a year. I don't know. A year was now a case. So I think it went relatively smooth.

It's good to hear. Yeah, due diligence can be one of those processes where it can take a lot of time and a lot of deals fall through in due diligence just because emotions are high, people are tense, and you're sharing sensitive information about your business. So again, glad it. It all went smoothly. So you got to the end of it. And speaking of the end of it, I'm now curious. Did you do anything to celebrate the acquisition when it first closed?

Yeah, I just went to restaurant with. With my wife. And, you know, I think it. It really. It's hard to tell when the deal actually closes. So, I mean, then there is this date when you sign, and you're obviously very happy about it. And, you know, it's like you see this confetti@acquire.com and it all sounds great, but the money, you know, you know, the money is still not in your account. And you're like, okay, is this actually happening? Because I'm not gonna believe it until the money gets to my account. And then we were arranging the transfer, I think. Yeah, it really hit me when The. The money was transferred in a few tranches. When the first biggest branch got into my account, I'm like, oof. Okay, now I think I can celebrate. I was slightly exhausted from everything and feel even after the transfer, I felt a bit of responsibility. I didn't want to just, you know, get off the grid. I wanted to make sure that the asset transfer goes smoothly too. So. Yeah, but I certainly took some time to celebrate with my wife, who went to a restaurant. And then I'm also a part of this startup founder in the hacker community called Akagu. So I, yeah, we meet up once per week and we hack together and we discuss our products and make the demos and yeah, I just bought some, you know, donuts and went there and shared the news with. With my fellow indie hacker founders, founder friends. And, yeah, so I guess there were two celebrations.

I like that. Just keep it simple. You know, you went to dinner, get some food, hang out with your friends. It's all you need if you ask me. So I want to know a little bit more about. We're going to back up a little bit in terms of, you know, Matt from our M and A advisory team. Can you tell me a little bit more? How much did he help you? What specifically did he tell you that was maybe surprising, or was there anything he did where you felt was instrumental to getting acquired?

Yeah, I think. I think just generally having an advisor by your site just helps you to feel more safe or secure about going through this whole process, because obviously there are some things you don't know how to handle and, well, you can use ChatGPT to ask questions for it, which I also did. But, you know, just having a person who understands the process by your site, it's. It's really helpful. So I think there were two. Two major infliction points where I needed Matthew. First one was the listing. And obviously you're wondering. I. I had this idea, oh, I'm gonna make the listing. Really? Really. You know, I'm not gonna put too many materials to the listing and then, you know, kind of make it. If you want to know more, just reach out and, you know, I'm gonna share more info about our company. And Matt said, well, that's. That's not the way to do it.

I was about to say, no, yeah, what you want to do is you want to share a good amount of information upfront, especially after they've signed an NDA. Because your job, as you know, you've already gone through the process, but you want to invite the buyer to a call so you want to get them excited. So is that what you did, I'm guessing?

Yeah. Yeah, that's. That's exactly what I did. And also, there is also another side of things. Is it just. I think we get like more than 100 potential buyers reaching out on acquire.com and this process gets so tedious so fast and the questions are all the same and, you know, it's even slightly boring. So, like, what's your churn? What's your mrr? What's your ARR? Show us the financials and what's the reason for growth? What's the reason for churn? And all the same questions. And at some point you just want to automate this. So just providing as much information as possible upfront before the first call even so that you can get to discuss the actual, you know, details and next steps. Yeah, that, that helps a lot. So that's what I did. I, I filled all the forms Matt shared with me. You know, there are. I made an acquisition deck and shared our, our P and L statement and, you know, some other materials. I created a list of frequently asked questions which I was filling in as the acquisition process was happening. So I was receiving new, new questions. I would just type in them into the document and I had this document for all the next potential acquirers. So, yeah, that, that was not number one thing. The first thing was to how to fill in the, you know, the acquisition, how to fill in the listing. And the second, the second stage where I really needed Matt's help and Matt's help, and he helped me a lot. One was when we started getting the offers. I was slightly confused about how I should, how I should handle this because I, I watched the videos in your acquisition academy, which, which you recorded, and it said that it's bad if you just synchronize everything and you have an acquisition schedule. And then, you know, you say, well, for the next three weeks we are receiving Lois, and then, you know, we are choosing the, the acquirer. It didn't really work for, for us. So when I started getting the offers, I was wondering how I should address them, whether I should push into them actually making an loi. Signing an loi. So, yeah, we had another call with Matt and, you know, he helped me a lot. I also have a personal advisor investor who invested in Sidekick and he's into, he's into M A actually, he's an investor, but his major, what he does the most is MMA deals. So, yeah, both him and Matt were really helpful. I. I don't Know if I would have made the acquisition work without them, that's great.

I mean built a great business. I think that's the hardest part. And then after that the acquisition gets a lot easier. So that's great. And then I guess kind of my, my two final questions. I'll start with, you know, advice for other entrepreneurs. So I think there's probably going to be some entrepreneurs listening to this that might be interested in selling your business. And given that you've gone through an acquisition process, if you could rewind the tape or give three pieces of advice to someone looking to sell their business, what would it be?

Yeah, I think, well, it's easy really. So with, with acquire.com you can just. First one you can just make a listing, you know, post, post it and see if you've got some interesting offers. So it's not a one way road. Right. So you can always, if you don't get an offer that you like, that's YouTube, then you don't have to make this happen. So the whole listing process, it can take I don't know, a day or two if you. Depending on how detailed you want to get. So if you are curious about getting acquired, just go make a listing on acquired.com that's it. And then, but, but the next thing is if you actually want to make it happen, you know, after you see that oh there are some people interested. So I, I made the price and you know, it kind of seems it might work. Then when you move into the next step, the actual acquisition, you gotta realize that it, it's gonna take time. So it's not like just posting it there. It's not gonna happen if you don't work on it. So I would advise to, to actually dedicate some time working on it. I think that should be your primarily think you're the first thing you're doing. So something you devote the most time to is the acquisition process. So if you are serious just spend some time talk to talk to the potential buyers, prepare all the documents, financials, the acquisition deck, etc. And the third one advice I would give is just if you feel that you're not happy working on what you're working on, just tell. I mean some people would be surprised by you know how much money and freedom you can get from just like selling and you're not a slave to your product. So if you're not happy, if you have some other ideas you want to work on, just, just sell the company and move on to the next thing you know, life is short And I think it's good to spend it working on something you are excited about.

It's great advice. I love that, that last piece, it's so true. Entrepreneurship is, you know, you get to work on whatever you want. So if you're working on something you don't like, you should maybe reevaluate that decision.

Yeah, yeah, absolutely.

So final question. Victor, you sold your business. Congrats again on the acquisition. What are you, what are you up to now? What are you doing now? What are you building?

Well, I actually had a really, really long vacation. So you know, I took some time for myself, spent some time with my wife, went on a couple of trips together, you know, went to the gym and started doing more sports and you know, stuff like that. So after taking, I think it was like two months vacation for the. I, I don't, I don't even remember if I've ever had a two months off period. So yeah, after that I started slowly getting back into working. So right now I just to learn a lot of AI stuff. So I'm definitely, my main area of interest is still AI, so I'm just basically learning more technical stuff, learning how to, you know, train the models. I'm very interested in like image recognition stuff and the agents and knowledges like LangChain and something like that. So at the moment I'm just building, I'm just quietly building some side projects, you know, seeing whether it sticks, whether I enjoy working on them. And yeah, I'm not making any big launches right now. I think what matters to me at this moment is not now. I more and more realize how important it, how important it is to have the founder product fit, you know, so it's not like previously I was just like, oh, I'm just gonna build this thing because the market is huge and I see the market opportunity and I can make some money there. Now I'm like, I gotta really enjoy it. So I, I, there is really, I have to see purpose in it so that I would enjoy working on it in the long term. So I'm just building small projects and seeing how I feel about them and you know, trying to, trying to be conscious about making the next big step.

Awesome. Well Victor, I'm definitely rooting for you. If people want to hear more about your story or just connect with you, where can they find you online?

Yeah, I think the best way, the best place to find me would probably be my Twitter. Twitter or LinkedIn accounts. So it's Victor Matelski at Twitter and LinkedIn. I think maybe I can give you the links and you can put them under the video. I think that would work best. Yeah.

I'll put those both in the show notes. But, Victor, thanks for coming on and huge congrats again on the acquisition. Thanks for the compliments. And I hope we see you back on acquire.com sometime in the future.

Definitely. Thank you so much, Andrew. It's been a pleasure.

Yeah, my pleasure. Cheers.