How to evaluate buyers

A guide to finding the best fit for your startup

1. Speak with interested buyers to find the right fit

Once your listing is live, interested buyers will request access to your startup’s private information to decide whether your business is worth acquiring.

Before acquisition talks get serious, get to know interested buyers and their goals.

Look for the Verified identity badge on their profile, meaning they’ve successfully passed our ID checks, so you can feel safe that they are who they say they are.
Check LinkedIn to ensure their background and experience backs up any claims they’ve made in their opening message (or will make later).
Verify they have the skills and experience to earn a return on their investment. If you leave your business in good hands, everybody wins.
Look for the Verified funds badge that indicates they have the capital to acquire your startup. You don't want to waste time with a buyer who can't close the acquisition.

2. Utilize platform tools to help keep track of buyers

As conversations begin to progress with buyers you can track and evaluate buyer progress via the custom stages for buyer management

By utilizing this feature you can prioritize and advance deals more effectively and have clear insights into buyer intent and engagement.
You can customize the different deal stages to match however conversations are progressing
With this enhanced visibility you can move buyers along based on intent and have the ability to manage which deals to prioritize effectively.

3. Securely share more data as talks progress

Buyers might ask to view code, contracts, and other sensitive data to help them decide whether to pursue an acquisition with you (called initial due diligence).

We recommend asking buyers to sign a mutual NDA automatically with their requests for access so you can share data with confidence, available from your listing settings.

Now is also a good time to set up your data room:

A data room is a virtual folder for sharing acquisition data.
Create and populate your data room now to save time later.
Your data room lets you control access to sensitive details.

4. Lock in buyer interest with an acquisition timeline

Set deadlines for each stage of your acquisition up to and including a letter of intent (LOI). Without deadlines, you risk the acquisition stalling, but they must work for both of you.

For example, set deadlines for:

Initial calls and light diligence
Negotiations, final questions, and initial offers
Receipt of the final, formal LOI

Communicate often and consistently to ensure your acquisition maintains momentum, utilize all on platform tools that are available to you will help you keep track and maintain momentum with buyers up until you have signed an LOI.Communicate often and consistently to ensure your acquisition maintains momentum.

Evaluating buyers with Acquire.com founder, Andrew Gazdecki

How to use Customizable Deal Stages with our Director of Design, Rocky Beck

Templates

Glossary

Letter of intent (LOI)

A formal, written document indicating the terms a buyer is offering a seller in a proposed acquisition. Although not a contract, it is a document stating a serious intent, and may be legally binding in some circumstances. Consider the LOI as a starting point for negotiations.

Data room

A virtual, shareable folder where you store all the documents and data relating to your acquisition. As well as being a convenient way to share information, your data room allows you to retain control of sensitive data while moving forward with the acquisition.

Non-disclosure agreement (NDA)

Sometimes called a confidentiality clause, an NDA is a legal agreement between you and the buyer that prevents the buyer from sharing or disclosing information about your company to third parties or for other uses outside of an acquisition.