Episode 827 | The Founder's Guide to Selling Your SaaS for What It's Actually Worth
Startups For the Rest of Us
Ad break
Rob reads sponsor messaging for Conversion Factory and highlights their AI-enabled marketing services for SaaS companies.
What would it mean for you to leave 60 or 70% of your company's value on the table when you sell?
In this episode, Rob sits down with Einar Vollset, co-founder of TinySeed and founder of Discretion Capital, to talk about his new book, The Definitive Guide to M&A for B2B SaaS between $2 and $20 million ARR. They dig into why private equity now dominates the buyer landscape, why growth and churn are the top two valuation drivers, and how the myth that "startups are bought, not sold" could cost you millions.
Einar also explains the danger of running your business past its peak growth rate before selling, why ARR multiples matter more than profit, and how the right M&A advisor can add 30 to 300% to an initial offer.
Episode Sponsors:
This episode is brought to you by Mercury
Mercury is the banking solution I use across all of my businesses, from my personal single-member LLC to MicroConf and TinySeed.
Traditional banking is broken, slow wires, clunky interfaces, tools that feel like they were built in 2005.
Mercury is what banking should feel like in 2026. Everything just works.
Whether it's daily bill pay or wiring large sums to the dozens of companies we invest in each year, Mercury handles it. Simple when I need simple, robust when I need approvals and controls.
Over 300,000 entrepreneurs have made the switch. When founders ask me where to set up their account, I send them to mercury.com.
Free to get started, no in-person visits, no minimum balance.
Mercury is a fintech company, not an FDIC-insured bank. Banking services provided through Choice Financial Group and Column N.A., Members FDIC.
Everyone's talking about AI in marketing. But AI without strategy just means generating more bad marketing, faster.
The founders who win aren't the ones using the most tools, they're the ones with a real system behind their growth. Positioning, persuasion, conversion. That's what moves the needle.
That's what Conversion Factory does. They're a SaaS marketing and design agency that has worked with over 100 startups, including several TinySeed companies.
Book a call at https://conversionfactory.co/ and mention this podcast for $1,000 off your first month. And if you're at MicroConf US in Portland, grab Corey Haines in the hallway track to see how they can help you.
Topics we cover:
- (3:34) – Why Einar wrote an M&A guide for SaaS founders
- (5:26) – How founders leave value on the table when selling
- (8:22) – How private equity moved down market
- (11:24) – Choosing the right broker or banker
- (12:55) – Platform acquisitions vs. tuck-ins explained
- (19:24) – Why "startups are bought, not sold" is wrong
- (25:48) – Growth and churn as top valuation drivers
- (30:02) – Why ARR multiples matter more than profit
- (34:34) – The danger of running past peak growth
Links from the show:
- The Definitive Guide to M&A for B2B SaaS between $2–20M ARR
- Discretion Capital
- MicroConf US (Portland) - April 12-14, 2026
- MicroConf Mastermind Matching
- MicroConf Mastermind Playbook
- TinySeed
- Exit Strategy by Rob and Sherry Walling
- The SaaS Playbook
- ScrapingBee
- Built to Sell by John Warrillow
- Einar Vollset @einarvollset | X
If you have questions about starting or scaling a software business that you'd like for us to cover, pleasesubmit your question for an upcoming episode. We'd love to hear from you!
The AI-powered Podcast Player
