Buying an existing SaaS business can be the smartest shortcut to entrepreneurship. Instead of spending 18 months building, launching, and praying for product-market fit, you acquire something that already has customers, revenue, and proof of concept.
But here’s the uncomfortable truth: most SaaS listings on marketplaces like Flippa are garbage. Inflated metrics, photoshopped screenshots, and sellers who vanish the moment you ask hard questions.
After analysing over 1,000 listings across Flippa, Acquire.com, and various forums, we’ve identified the patterns that separate legitimate opportunities from expensive mistakes. This guide shares everything we’ve learned about spotting red flags, recognising genuine deals, and successfully closing an acquisition.
Why Buy Instead of Build?
Before diving into the how, let’s address the why. Acquiring a SaaS makes sense when:
- You want to skip the zero-to-one phase — Finding product-market fit is brutal. An existing SaaS with paying customers has already solved this.
- You have capital but limited time — Building from scratch demands 12-24 months of full-time focus. Acquisition compresses this dramatically.
- You have operational skills, not product ideas — Some people are better at growing businesses than inventing them. That’s valuable.
- You see an undervalued asset — A technically sound product with poor marketing is a genuine opportunity.
The maths can work beautifully: acquire a €3k MRR SaaS for €90k (30x multiple), grow it to €8k MRR over two years, and you’ve built significant equity while drawing a salary from day one.
This path is particularly attractive for non-technical founders. You bring business acumen, marketing skills, and operational experience. The product already exists. You just need the right support to evaluate and maintain the technology — more on that later.
Where to Find SaaS Businesses for Sale
Primary Marketplaces
Flippa — The largest marketplace, but also the noisiest. Expect to wade through many poor listings to find gems. Lower price points (under €50k) dominate.
Acquire.com (formerly MicroAcquire) — Better curation than Flippa, with more serious sellers. Tends toward slightly larger deals. Free for buyers.
Empire Flippers — Vetted listings only. Higher quality but also higher multiples. Minimum valuations typically €50k+.
FE International — Broker-led, premium positioning. Larger deals (€500k+). Thorough vetting but expect broker fees.
Secondary Sources
- Indie Hackers — Community marketplace, often founder-to-founder sales
- r/SaaS and r/MicroSaaS — Reddit communities where sellers occasionally post
- Twitter/X — Founders often announce sales to their audience first
- Direct outreach — Contact founders of products you admire; many would sell if approached
The 10 Red Flags That Kill Deals
After reviewing over 1,000 listings, these are the warning signs we’ve learned never to ignore:
1. Screenshots Without URL Bars
If a seller shows you Stripe revenue screenshots with the URL bar cropped out, assume the worst. Photoshopping revenue dashboards takes 30 seconds. A legitimate seller will share their screen live or provide dashboard access.
What to do: Insist on a live screenshare where you watch them log into Stripe. No exceptions.
2. “Verified MRR” Without Actual Verification
Marketplaces claiming revenue is “verified” often just mean the seller uploaded a screenshot. That’s not verification. Real verification means bank statements, Stripe API access, or accountant-reviewed financials.
What to do: Request 12 months of bank statements showing deposits matching claimed revenue.
3. Valuations Above 50x MRR
Standard SaaS multiples range from 25-40x MRR depending on growth, churn, and market. A business asking 50x+ MRR needs exceptional justification: 20%+ month-over-month growth, negative churn, or proprietary technology.
What to do: Calculate the multiple yourself. If it’s above 40x, demand clear justification or walk away.
4. “Passive Income” in the Description
This phrase is marketing to dreamers, not serious buyers. No SaaS is truly passive. There’s always customer support, bug fixes, server maintenance, and churn to manage. Sellers using this language are targeting naive buyers.
What to do: Ask specifically: “How many hours per week does this require?” Then triple their answer.
5. Seller Refuses Calls or Screenshares
A legitimate seller with nothing to hide will happily jump on a video call. Refusal suggests they’re either hiding something, running a scam, or not serious about selling. Any of these should end your interest.
What to do: Propose a call early in the process. If they dodge repeatedly, move on.
6. Churn Rate Not Mentioned
Churn is the silent killer of SaaS businesses. A product with 15% monthly churn loses half its customers every 4-5 months. Sellers who don’t mention churn are usually hiding something painful.
What to do: Ask directly: “What’s your monthly customer churn and revenue churn?” Anything above 8% monthly needs serious scrutiny.
7. “Viral Growth” Without Marketing Explanation
Claims of organic or viral growth with zero marketing spend should trigger scepticism. Where are these customers coming from? If the seller can’t articulate the acquisition channel clearly, the “growth” may be fabricated or unsustainable.
What to do: Request Google Analytics access showing traffic sources. Verify with customer interviews.
8. Tech Stack Not Disclosed
A seller reluctant to discuss technology is hiding technical debt. Maybe it’s built on deprecated frameworks, has security vulnerabilities, or requires arcane knowledge to maintain. You need to know what you’re buying.
What to do: Request a technical review. If you’re not technical, hire someone for a few hours to assess the codebase.
9. Customer List Not Provided
You don’t need names and emails during initial due diligence, but you need anonymised customer data: signup dates, plan types, usage patterns, support tickets. A seller refusing to provide even anonymised data is hiding churn or fake customers.
What to do: Request anonymised customer data showing cohort retention. Offer to sign an NDA if needed.
10. “Urgent Sale” Pressure
Urgency is a manipulation tactic. Real businesses don’t need to be sold by Friday. Artificial deadlines exist to prevent proper due diligence. The more a seller pushes urgency, the more you should slow down.
What to do: Set your own timeline. If they can’t accommodate reasonable due diligence, they’re not a serious seller.
The Green Flags Worth Paying For
Not all listings are problematic. Here’s what a legitimate, well-priced SaaS opportunity looks like:
Revenue Verification Done Right
The seller offers live Stripe dashboard screenshare, provides bank statements matching deposits, and welcomes you connecting directly to their Stripe via read-only API access. This is the gold standard.
Transparent Metrics
Good sellers proactively share:
- Monthly churn (customer and revenue)
- Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC)
- Lifetime Value (LTV)
- Monthly growth rate (with context)
They don’t hide bad months or explain away problems. They present reality and let you decide.
Documented Tech Stack
The codebase has a README. There’s documentation for deployment. Dependencies are listed. The seller can explain architectural decisions. Bonus points for automated tests and CI/CD pipelines.
Transition Support Included
Quality sellers offer 2-4 weeks of transition support: introducing you to the codebase, explaining customer quirks, transferring accounts, and being available for questions. This isn’t a favour; it’s standard practice.
Reasonable Multiples
For a stable SaaS with modest growth and acceptable churn:
- 25-30x MRR — Fair price for steady businesses
- 30-40x MRR — Justified if growing 10%+ monthly with low churn
- 40-50x MRR — Only for exceptional growth or strategic value
Anything higher needs extraordinary justification.
The Due Diligence Checklist
Before making an offer, verify these items:
Financial Verification
- 12 months of Stripe/payment processor statements
- Bank statements showing matching deposits
- Refund and chargeback history
- Expense breakdown (hosting, tools, contractors)
Customer Analysis
- Cohort retention analysis
- Customer concentration (is 50% of revenue from one customer?)
- Churn trends (improving or worsening?)
- Customer acquisition sources
Technical Review
- Codebase access and review
- Hosting and infrastructure documentation
- Third-party service dependencies
- Security assessment (at minimum, basic vulnerability scan)
Legal and Administrative
- Domain ownership verification
- Trademark status (if applicable)
- Terms of service and privacy policy review
- Outstanding contracts or liabilities
Operational Understanding
- Time requirement (be sceptical of seller estimates)
- Required skills (can you actually run this?)
- Support volume and complexity
- Roadmap and customer expectations
Why Non-Technical Founders Need Technical Due Diligence
Here’s a scenario we see regularly: a founder with strong business instincts finds a promising SaaS. The metrics look good, the seller seems honest, the market opportunity is real. They close the deal.
Three months later, they discover:
- The codebase hasn’t been updated in two years
- Critical dependencies have known security vulnerabilities
- There are no automated tests, so every change risks breaking something
- The original developer used unconventional patterns that no one else understands
- Hosting costs are triple what they should be due to inefficient architecture
The business that looked like a bargain now requires €20-30k in remediation work.
This isn’t the seller’s fault (usually). Many bootstrapped SaaS products accumulate technical debt. The founder-developer was focused on shipping features, not writing maintainable code. That’s normal. But you need to know what you’re buying.
What a Technical Assessment Reveals
A proper code review before acquisition answers critical questions:
Maintainability: Can a competent developer understand and modify this code? Or is it spaghetti that only the original author could navigate?
Security: Are there obvious vulnerabilities? Is authentication handled properly? Are dependencies up to date?
Scalability: Will the architecture handle 10x the current users? Or will you hit walls that require expensive rewrites?
Technical Debt: How much cleanup work is needed? What’s the realistic cost to bring it to professional standards?
Documentation: Is there enough context for a new developer to get productive quickly?
For non-technical founders, this assessment is not optional. It’s as important as verifying revenue. You wouldn’t buy a business without checking the financials; don’t buy a software business without checking the software.
How We Help
At REPTILE.HAUS, we offer technical due diligence for SaaS acquisitions. our experts have been building and evaluating software for startups and SMEs across Europe since the early 2000s, and we’ve seen codebases ranging from pristine to disastrous.
Our assessment covers:
- Full codebase review and architecture evaluation
- Security vulnerability scan
- Dependency audit and update roadmap
- Infrastructure and hosting analysis
- Maintainability scoring
- Realistic estimate of technical debt remediation
- Clear recommendation: buy, negotiate, or walk away
We provide a written report you can use in negotiations. If we find issues, you’ll have leverage to reduce the price or require the seller to fix problems before closing.
Post-acquisition, we can also:
- Handle the technical transition from seller to your systems
- Provide ongoing development and maintenance
- Implement improvements and new features
- Train your team or hired developers on the codebase
Whether you need a one-time assessment or a long-term technical partner, we’re here to ensure your acquisition doesn’t become an expensive lesson.
Get in touch for a technical due diligence quote →
Structuring the Deal
Asset Sale vs Share Sale
Most small SaaS acquisitions are asset sales: you buy the product, codebase, domain, and customer contracts, but not the legal entity. This is simpler and limits liability exposure.
Share sales (buying the company itself) make sense for larger deals or when contracts can’t easily transfer. But you inherit all liabilities, known and unknown.
Payment Structures
All cash at closing — Simplest, but highest risk for buyer. Appropriate for smaller deals with thorough due diligence.
Earnout — Portion of payment tied to future performance (e.g., 70% at closing, 30% after 12 months if revenue maintains). Aligns incentives and reduces risk.
Seller financing — Seller acts as lender for portion of purchase. Common in larger deals. Demonstrates seller confidence in the business.
Escrow
Always use escrow for the transaction. Platforms like Flippa have built-in escrow. For off-platform deals, use Escrow.com or a solicitor. Never wire money directly to a seller before asset transfer.
Post-Acquisition: The First 90 Days
You’ve closed the deal. Now what?
Week 1: Don’t Break Anything
Resist the urge to make changes immediately. Your job is to understand the business:
- Shadow the seller during transition
- Document everything they tell you
- Set up your own access to all systems
- Introduce yourself to customers (briefly)
Weeks 2-4: Stabilise
- Ensure you can deploy code changes (or have a developer who can)
- Verify backups are working
- Review and respond to all support tickets
- Identify any immediate fires
Months 2-3: Optimise
Only now should you consider changes:
- Fix obvious UX issues
- Improve conversion rates
- Address top customer complaints
- Begin exploring growth opportunities
The biggest mistake new acquirers make is changing too much too fast. The business was working before you bought it. Understand why before you “improve” it.
Frequently Asked Questions
How much money do I need to buy a SaaS?
Legitimate SaaS businesses start around €10-20k for very small products (€300-500 MRR). More established businesses with €2-5k MRR typically sell for €50-150k. You can find opportunities at any level, but smaller deals require more hands-on work.
What multiple should I pay for a SaaS?
Standard multiples range from 25-40x MRR. A €3k MRR business might sell for €75-120k depending on growth, churn, and market. Be wary of anything above 40x unless there’s exceptional growth or strategic value.
Can I buy a SaaS with no technical skills?
Yes, but you’ll need technical support. Many successful SaaS acquirers are non-technical founders who partner with developers or agencies for the technical side. The key is getting a proper technical assessment before buying, then having reliable support post-acquisition. Your job is to grow the business; you can hire or partner for the technical work.
How long does a SaaS acquisition take?
From first contact to closing: typically 4-8 weeks for smaller deals, 2-4 months for larger ones. Don’t rush. Proper due diligence takes time.
Should I use a broker?
For deals under €100k, probably not necessary. Above €250k, a broker can add value through deal sourcing, negotiation, and process management. Expect 10-15% fees.
What’s the biggest mistake first-time buyers make?
Falling in love with a product and skipping due diligence. The second biggest: underestimating the time required to run the business post-acquisition. For non-technical founders, the third is not getting a proper code review before closing.
Is Flippa safe to buy from?
Flippa is a marketplace, not a guarantor. Many legitimate businesses sell there, but so do scams. Use their escrow service, verify everything independently, and trust your due diligence over their “verified” badges.
How do I evaluate the code if I’m not technical?
Hire someone who is. A technical due diligence review typically costs €500-2,000 depending on codebase complexity / size, and can save you from a €50k+ mistake. At REPTILE.HAUS, we offer this as a standalone service for founders evaluating acquisitions.
