Forums: Discussions for entrepreneurs and small business.

Company, having developed over 3 years, a program for real estate agents` that uses Web 2.0 technology which is lower cost than competition and has automatic mechanism to generate qualified leads to lenders, is seeking to sale some of or all of company to interested buyer.  Buyer may be real estate company, title company, or mortgage provider or investor.   Revenues for company are aprox. $8000 net per month per 100 real estate agents.  Entertain a sale at 20x net, (based on annualized net) with $100K down now for option to close in 90 days with a max $2M valuation.  As more realtors added, price goes higher. Launch began this week of sales to agents.  Seeing if buyers interested now, with intent to negotiate price based on actual realtors signed up at closing.  Contact pgrant1229@yahoo.com

Grant217?
What do you mean by Internet Company? What is an Internet Company? There is no such a thing as an Internet Company...



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Edgar Monroy
Web Developer / Owner / Consultant
When starting your own business the need to "know-how" is greater than money!
http://www.nuevolution.net

Edgar,

Thanks.  It is a company that is using the internet as a basic platform for the company`s revenue stream.  It allows customers to sign up at the sight and then receive benefits, unique to the site.

Grant217

I would check your grammar and spelling in your pitch first.  Next, if you are an "internet company", why are you using a Yahoo email?  It literally screams "amateur".  (The first thing I thought of was that this "company" was something you built in High School and you want to sell it for college funding.)

If I were an investor, your pitch tells me very little.  The real-estate industry is one of the most difficult customers to change what works for them.  Individual agents rarely have the funds to buy much in the way of tools to help them in their work.  A house may sell for a million dollars but the agent may net only $2,500 for their efforts due to their contracts with the broker whose license they work under.  Even if the agent had the funds to buy a tool, they may not be permitted to use anything but what the broker has installed in the office.  Also, most brokers don`t usually use anything that has not been tested and approved by the regional real-estate trade association.

What is the $100K for and how did you arrive at that figure?  Have you even sold one seat to a client customer, let alone have a proven track record of sales to clients?  Company valuations are usually based on prior revenue (3x the average of the past three years gross revenue is a good starting place.)

Unless your company is generating revenue already, then you may as well ask for $100 million because the response is likely to be the same.

Does your "internet company" have a URL?  Potential investors would want to see the product working.



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Steve Mann
Internet Videographer
MannMade Digital Video
My Email

Steve,

Thanks for your constructive criticism.  While the company has a URL, I would like to share that with inquiries rather than public forums.  I understand the valuation of companies based on multiples can be negotiated and we are open to that.  As to the "yahoo" email, it may be amateur, but the address is my personal one instead of the company, as again, we are trying to be discreet.

In fact, the low entry cost of the service of the web site by the real estate agent, and the ability that they have to generate additional income from what they are currently doing, make this program very attractive to the real estate agents.  Competitive products are going for about 3x the price of our product.

As to customers, we are initially launching the effort this week and while the development of the programming has been ongoing for 3+ years, it looks like all the bugs are out and the beta testers were very happy.

So, as a pitch goes, I think we have a good program, that has competitive advantages and if a buyer comes up with $1-2 M, closing next 30 to 90 days, we are interested in talking.

Grant,
What I was trying to get at is that there is no such thing as an "Internet Company", Just because you have a web site, doesn`t mean that you are an Internet Company. I think anyone in their right mind, is going to ask you for the following:
1. Bank Statements
2. Company Profile - Business License / State Filing (if a corp) / and so forth
3. Company Debt






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Edgar Monroy
Web Developer / Owner / Consultant
When starting your own business the need to "know-how" is greater than money!
http://www.nuevolution.net

Edgar,

Thank you again for your post.  Of course the value could be on hard assets, and some companies may also look at the synergistic value of the program that is developed and ready for use, to promote their own business or complement their existing portfolio of programs.  I think we are looking for potential buyers interested in the latter as, while their are no debts, the real asset is in the development and future cash flow, now that the product is working.

Your pitch needs more substance to back up your future cash flow.  What market studies have you done that validates those numbers?  An idea or even a finished but not operating (I.E. revenue flow) web business is very difficult to place a value.  What you see as $100K of your time and effort may be realistic, but potential investors or buyers will still want to validate the cash flow potential.

Rather than selling an internet business, aren`t you really selling a turnkey business opportunity?


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Steve Mann
Internet Videographer
MannMade Digital Video
My Email

Yes Videography... thats what I want him to see...


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Edgar Monroy
Web Developer / Owner / Consultant
When starting your own business the need to "know-how" is greater than money!
http://www.nuevolution.net

Steve and Edgar,

Thank you, and I agree.  You are correct, we are selling a turnkey business opportunity.  Our reason for this is that the developer is in a personal situation that limits how much more value we might expect from his individual effort.  

His programming effort, an R&D project that over 3 years created a great product which has about 5 to 8 months of lead time over competitive programming, is now ready for a better financed group to incorporate into their business and realize its full potential.

One of the reasons for placing this pitch on Startup Nation was to refine it, as your comments have helped us accomplish, and to expand the network of contacts in the tech area that may have knowledge of the potential interested companies/investors which may have the ability to fully commercialize what appears to present a great potential cash flow for a variety of industies.

I also think the board would be open to paying a fee to anyone that is able to assist us in our effort to bring about a closure of this transaction quickly.