RailwayHow to value a micro-SaaS before you sell it
Why small internet businesses trade at 2–5× ARR, which four numbers move the multiple, and how to make your listing believable to a buyer in 30 seconds.
Marketplaces for small internet businesses (Acquire.com, Microns, TrustMRR's acquisition tab) share a pattern: listings that sell cluster around 2–5× annual revenue, with profit multiples of 2–4× for the smallest deals. The spread inside that range is where founders leave money on the table. Here is what decides it.
Start from ARR, not "potential"
Buyers of sub-$1M businesses price what exists. Take your normalised MRR — active recurring revenue only, no one-time payments, no expired trials — and multiply by 12. If you sell annual plans, spread them across the months they cover. (Our MRR calculator does this and separates new, expansion, contraction and churned MRR, which is exactly the breakdown buyers ask for.)
The four numbers that move the multiple
- Growth. Flat revenue trades at the low end; ≥5% month-over-month sustained for six months moves you toward 4×; ≥10% can push past it.
- Churn. Monthly revenue churn under 2% is a premium; over 6% is a discount, because the buyer is purchasing a leaking bucket. Compute it honestly with the churn calculator — buyers will recompute it from your Stripe export anyway.
- Margin. Software-grade gross margin (80%+) is expected. Heavy API costs (LLM tokens, SMS) or a large support load pull the multiple down and invite profit-based pricing instead of revenue-based.
- Transferability. Can a buyer run it? One founder, tribal knowledge, a custom server in your closet and a domain in your personal name are all discounts. Documentation, a clean deploy and a boring stack are premiums.
The SaaS valuation calculator applies these adjustments to a 3× base and shows the arithmetic, so you can see which lever is cheapest to pull before listing.
What buyers verify in the first 30 seconds
- Is the revenue real? Screenshots are worthless; a connected payment provider is not. Platforms that verify revenue through the provider's API (this is what "Revenue Verified" means on ExitFounder) exist because the first question every buyer asks is "how do I know?".
- Is the traffic real? Estimates (Similarweb-style) are fine for a sanity check; Google Analytics or Search Console connected to the listing is what closes.
- Who owns the domain? Domain verification (DNS record) proves the seller controls the asset.
- What is the stack? A buyer who sees "Next.js, Supabase, Stripe, Vercel" knows the transfer takes a weekend. "Custom PHP on a VPS" means diligence.
Pricing the listing
Pick a number inside the range the calculator gives and justify it in one paragraph: growth, churn, margin, transferability, and what is included (domain, code, social accounts, customer list, brand). Over-pricing costs weeks of silence; under-pricing costs money. Listings with verified numbers can afford to sit at the top of the range because the buyer's risk is lower.
Before you list
- Normalise MRR and export 12 months of provider data.
- Connect the payment provider and analytics to your ExitFounder profile so the badges show.
- Write a two-paragraph "why I am selling" — the first thing every buyer reads.
- List what is included and what is not.
- Run the CAC payback calculator if you spend on ads; a buyer will.
The acquisition marketplace on ExitFounder opens with verified-only listings. Until then, the profile you build today is the listing you will sell tomorrow.