Re SaaS acquisitions - anyone have a view on buying from a 2nd owner?

searcher profile

November 30, 2022

by a searcher from New York University - Leonard N. Stern School of Business in Denver, CO, USA

As opposed to an original (and likely technical) founder. As you might expect, 2nd owners tend to establish much more process and automation in the business, though they've likely exploited the low-hanging fruit in terms of growth levers, new features, etc.

In contrast, there's typically more obvious value creation potential acquiring from an original founder, though the initial foundation needs to be established before pursuing growth and margin expansion etc.

If anyone has a specific view or experience with this scenario / tradeoff, I'd be eager to chat!

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Reply by a searcher
from University of Illinois at Chicago in Chicago, IL, USA
I just purchased a SaaS from a second owner. I don't think diligence is that different based on that. You still need to analyze what's there and decide if you think there's value that you can bring to the product.

I wouldn't try and build a model of what the second owner did vs. was capable of outside of asking specific questions of them. The less assumptions you make about the decision making history the better.
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Reply by an investor
from Stanford University in Dallas, TX, USA
https://acquiringminds.co/articles/jason-budd-metasystems I think was a purchase from a 2nd owner iirc.
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