#297 - Interviewing Yossi and Simon About TinyKiwi Acquisition
Indie Founder
The Price of Taking Over a Tooling Product
I asked Josie to share some of the code in a GitHub just without sharing or giving me access to the entire code base before we kind of went on. The price was like partially, it was a multiple of the revenue that the product had at, at the time. And then we took it from there. We actually, we bought part of the price in the very first 10 minutes of our discussion and we stuck to that price. I didn't see any reason to try to discount based on anything I saw in the code case.
Have you ever wondered what it's like to sell or acquire a company in the indie scene? In this podcast episode, I had the pleasure of interviewing Simon, the founder of Feedhive, and Yossi, the founder of Tiny Kiwi, as they discuss the acquisition of Tiny Kiwi by Feedhive. We delve into the process of selling and acquiring a company in the indie market, as well as the benefits and challenges of being an indie entrepreneur. We also touch on the importance of balancing work and personal life. Tune in for valuable insights into the world of indie entrepreneurship and the potential for growth in the market.
Links
Timestamps
Introduction [00:00:12]
The host introduces the guests, Simon and Yossi, and explains that they will be discussing the acquisition of Tiny Kiwi by Feedier.
Selling a company in the indie scene [00:02:32]
The host and Yossi discuss the market of selling a company in the indie scene and how it differs from the startup and VC scene.
Yossi's background and shift to indie hacking [00:05:36]
Yossi talks about his background as a developer and his shift to indie hacking, inspired by the Building Public community on Twitter.
Indie Founder Stories [00:10:13]
The speakers discuss the toxic starts of good founder stories and the importance of setting your own rules as an indie founder.
Managing Work Addiction [00:14:53]
The speakers discuss the potential for work addiction as an indie founder and how they manage their work-life balance.
Description of Tiny Kiwi [00:18:00]
Simon describes Tiny Kiwi as a minimalistic and easy-to-use image editing tool for creating beautiful designs quickly.
Building Tiny Kiwi [00:18:51]
Yossi describes the inspiration behind building Tiny Kiwi as a tool for indie developers to share beautiful screenshots of their work quickly and with more control.
Selling Tiny Kiwi [00:21:11]
Yossi explains how he decided to sell Tiny Kiwi to Feedier after realizing he no longer had the time to work on it. He also discusses his lack of experience in selling companies.
Attachment to Products [00:25:24]
Yossi and Simon discuss the emotional attachment that comes with building and selling a product, as well as the different levels of attachment when buying a product. They also discuss the impact of having paying customers on the attachment to a product.
The Canva Integration [00:27:55]
Simon and Yossi discuss their failed attempts to integrate Canva into Feedier and their search for an alternative tool, which led them to Kello/Vista Create.
Brand Bird Integration [00:32:14]
The founders discuss their experience integrating Brand Bird into Feedier and the challenges they faced with users having to pay for the tool separately.
Acquiring Tiny Kiwi [00:34:39]
Simon and Yossi discuss the acquisition of Tiny Kiwi by Feedier and how it solved a problem for Feedier's image creation tool.
Trust in the Acquisition [00:36:37]
Yossi and Simon discuss the process of selling and acquiring a company in the indie scene, and the importance of trust in the process.
Code Quality Concerns [00:38:09]
Yossi expresses concerns about the quality of his code and the potential for negative feedback from Simon, while Simon discusses his expectations for the tech stack and code quality.
Importance of Code Manageability [00:43:09]
Simon discusses the importance of code manageability and compatibility with his team's tech stack, while also acknowledging the functionality and usability of Tiny Kiwi's code.
Tech stack for indie makers [00:46:11]
Yossi discusses the tech stack used for Tiny Kiwi, including Next.js with React, JavaScript, and Superbase, and how it was deployed on Digital Ocean.
Choosing a tech stack for acquisition [00:49:33]
Simon and the host discuss the importance of choosing a tech stack that is matchable and easy to migrate when acquiring a company, and the advice for indie makers building products to consider using a generic tech stack.
Due diligence in the acquisition process [00:52:02]
Yossi talks about the due diligence process in the acquisition, including sharing access to the Github repository and the nervousness he felt about showing the actual code.
The Sale Process [00:53:52]
Yossi and Simon discuss the process of selling and acquiring a company in the indie scene, including the potential for deal breakers and the excitement of the experience.
Managing Multiple Priorities [00:57:43]
Simon discusses the stress of managing multiple priorities, including the acquisition of Tiny Kiwi, while also launching a new tool and dealing with personal life events.
Indie Community and Acquisitions [01:02:11]
The host discusses the increasing trend of indie companies being sold for large sums of money and what it means for the indie community.
The Indie Market [01:02:58]
Discussion on the indie market of selling and buying side projects, including marketplaces like MicroAcquire and Site Projects, and the potential for indie makers to build and sell profitable products.
Acquiring Tiny Kiwi [01:06:22]
Simon discusses the process of acquiring Tiny Kiwi, including the challenge of transferring subscriptions from Paddle to Stripe, and the value of the acquisition even if the company was not profitable.
The Future of Indie Acquisitions [01:08:34]
Simon and Yossi discuss the evolution of the indie community and the potential for small bootstrapped indie companies to acquire other small bootstrap tools, pointing towards a future where indie acquisitions become more common.
The Indie Community [01:12:56]
The host discusses the indie community and its growth, mentioning some well-known names in the community.
Selling and Acquiring Companies [01:12:07]
Simon and Yossi discuss the process of selling and acquiring a company in the indie scene.
Consider Selling Your Project [01:14:38]
The host encourages listeners to consider selling their projects if they are feeling tired or want to build something else, and mentions platforms that allow for selling SaaS.
Links & Mentions
Github Gist (mentioned by Simon at 00:41:37)
Symfony (mentioned by Tiago at 00:46:11)
Next.js with React (mentioned by Yossi at 00:46:20)
JavaScript (mentioned by Yossi at 00:46:20)
Database and authentication with Superbase (mentioned by Yossi at 00:46:20)
Plausible for analytics (mentioned by Yossi at 00:46:20)
Digital Ocean (mentioned by Yossi at 00:46:40)
AWS (mentioned by Simon at 00:47:06)
Google Cloud Platform (mentioned by Simon at 00:47:06)
Palomi (mentioned by Simon at 00:47:06)
GraphQL (mentioned by Simon at 00:47:06)
Firebase (mentioned by Simon at 00:47:06)
TypeScript (mentioned by Simon at 00:49:03)
Svelte (mentioned by Simon at 00:51:29)
Micro Acquire (marketplace for buying and selling companies) - mentioned at 01:02:58
Site Projects IO (marketplace for buying and selling side projects) - mentioned at 01:02:58
Paddle (tool for managing subscriptions) - mentioned at 01:06:22
Stripe (tool for managing payments) - mentioned at 01:06:22
Upwork (platform for outsourcing work) - mentioned at 01:09:25
Fiverr (platform for outsourcing work) - mentioned at 01:09:25
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