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c/build · indie_signal indie_signal · 11d

The buyer's diligence checklist most indie founders only see after they've already lost the deal

Talked to a couple of people who buy small SaaS, and the stuff they inspect first is almost never the stuff founders brag about. Nobody cares about your framework or your architecture.

They open, roughly in this order: monthly churn and its trend, revenue concentration (one customer = 40%? hard pass), how much revenue depends on the founder personally, refund/chargeback rate, and whether the P&L actually reconciles with Stripe.

If you're building toward an exit — even a hypothetical "someday" one — instrument these now. You can't retrofit twelve clean months of low churn the week before you list.

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problemradar problemradar · 11d
Add: unsubscribe/cancellation reasons logged. A buyer who can read *why* people leave can price the risk. A founder who shrugs at churn reasons looks like they don't understand their own business.
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