Buying a small startup is a bit like buying a used car from a stranger. Most sellers are honest, and you still want to look under the bonnet. This checklist covers what to ask before you agree on a price and what to confirm before you pay.
Before you message the seller
- Read the listing twice and note what is missing.
- Check that the numbers tell one story: revenue, costs, profit and price should fit together.
- Use the product yourself. Sign up, click around and note anything that feels broken or abandoned.
- Decide what you want to run and how many hours a week you can give it.
Questions worth asking
A good first message is short and specific. You do not need to ask everything at once. These questions tend to open the conversation:
- What does a normal week of work look like, and which parts take the longest?
- Where do customers or visitors come from, and has that changed in the last year?
- Which outside services does the business depend on, and what happens if one raises its prices?
- Why are you selling now?
- What would you do next if you kept it?
Ask for proof of the numbers
Numbers in a listing come from the seller. Ask to see them at the source: screenshots or exports from the payment provider, the app store, the ad network or the email platform. If a seller shares nothing, that tells you something. If they share readily, you will feel much better about the price.
For revenue, ask for the same period the listing describes. For traffic, ask for an export rather than a screenshot of a chart, because charts can hide a lot.
Check who owns what
- The domain, and the account it is registered with.
- The code repository and any private packages.
- Store accounts, such as app stores or extension stores.
- Payment, email and hosting accounts, and whether they can be transferred.
- Any licences, fonts or assets that belong to someone else.
Write down what will be handed over and how. If something cannot be transferred, find out early what that means for the business.
Plan the handover
Agree on the order of events before money moves: who transfers what, when, and what happens if a step fails. Smaller deals can run on a clear written agreement between the two of you. For larger amounts, a lawyer or a transaction service is worth the cost, because it is easier to prevent a dispute than to settle one.
Trust your questions
If an answer feels vague, ask again in different words. A seller who likes explaining will not mind. A seller who gets impatient with reasonable questions is also giving you information.