What should a solo founder prepare before selling a SaaS?
Prepare accurate financial and operational records, establish which assets you own, identify customer commitments, and document how someone else could operate the service. Treat acquisition preparation as an evidence exercise. This guide does not estimate a valuation, promise marketplace acceptance, or recommend transaction terms. Legal and financial decisions need advice suited to the parties and jurisdictions.
Create an evidence inventory
List source records for subscription activity, processor payouts, refunds, expenses, and customer concentration. Reconcile the periods and definitions with the metrics guide, while retaining the underlying financial records. Separate recurring subscriptions from lifetime receipts or one-time services. Document outages, support effort, and important dependencies rather than presenting a favorable revenue screenshot as a complete picture.
| Area | Evidence to organize |
|---|---|
| Finances | Reconciled transaction records and documented metric definitions |
| Ownership | Code, domain, media, licenses, and contractor agreements |
| Operations | Deployment, recovery, support, and vendor dependencies |
| Customers | Contracts, plan commitments, refunds, and concentration |
| Transfer | Accounts, permissions, approvals, and transition responsibilities |
Reduce dependence on the founder
Write a deployment and rollback procedure, a recovery guide, the support workflow, and a list of recurring manual tasks. Test whether another appropriately authorized person could follow the instructions using safe access. Record the time required to operate the service honestly. Work hidden in personal accounts or undocumented scripts is a transfer problem even when the product runs smoothly today.
Understand the marketplace process before sharing access
Acquire.com’s due-diligence guide describes evidence requests about finances, technology, people, and legal matters, with responsibilities shared by buyer and seller. Marketplace guidance is not independent verification of a business or a substitute for your own advisers. Check the current listing requirements and transaction process directly before relying on them. Share information in stages with suitable access controls; do not publish customer records or credentials to make the listing seem complete.
Plan transfer before agreeing what is sold
Identify which domains, repositories, vendor contracts, licenses, and customer arrangements can actually be transferred and which require consent or replacement. Document how old credentials will be revoked and new ownership established at the agreed stage. Have the sale documents and treatment reviewed by qualified advisers. A maintained public product explanation can help someone understand the workflow, but a ShowMeYourSaaS listing is not an acquisition endorsement or valuation opinion.