Deal clinic · Acquire.com · SaaS (B2B subscription / AI proposal platform)
Async deal clinic: when "profitable SaaS" shows −57% growth
Listing: Acquire.com public listing rkyndnt2ju (AI proposal SaaS for agencies). Ask $39,000. Checked live on 14 Oct 2026 (CT).
What the listing claims
B2B SaaS for agencies to create, send, track, and close proposals (AI drafts, branded docs, e-signatures, payments, revisions, analytics). Ask $39,000. Metrics panel: TTM revenue $20.5k, TTM profit $11.6k, last-month revenue $1.6k, last-month profit $1k. The same page's title and body also state $17.4K TTM revenue. It reports $835 current MRR / about $10.0K ARR with 29 active subscribers (panel also shows $10.4k ARR), 400+ historical trials, 10–50 customers, −57% annual growth, and 10%+ upward churn. Founded April 2025. Stack named: Next.js, Supabase, PostgreSQL, Stripe, Webflow. Sale reason on the page: new venture / lack of time.
What passes (on the public text alone)
- Ask is in the micro-SaaS band ($20k–$100k).
- Recurring subscriptions, a live product, and named transferable assets (codebase, domain, brand, customer database).
- Arithmetic on seller-stated figures only: ask ÷ TTM profit = $39,000 ÷ $11,600 ≈ 3.4×; ask ÷ (TTM profit ÷ 12) ≈ 40 months; ask ÷ stated MRR ($835) ≈ 47 months. Ratios, not a price opinion.
- Named billing and stack (Stripe; Next.js / Supabase) give concrete places to verify later.
What fails or is unproven
Biggest flag: the listing itself shows the business shrinking. Annual growth is −57% and churn is 10%+ upward. A first pass treats that as the hinge before any growth story. Paying on TTM profit buys a trailing average while run-rate and retention are moving the wrong way. Until Stripe and cohorts show whether $835 MRR is stable, recovering, or still falling, TTM profit is not enough.
Also unproven on the same page:
- TTM revenue stated two ways — $17.4K in title/body vs $20.5k in the metrics panel. Needs reconciliation, not a shrug.
- ARR / MRR vs TTM revenue — ~$10k ARR beside $17.4k–$20.5k TTM can mean one-time fees, annual prepay timing, or a recent drop. The text does not say which.
- Short age — founded April 2025, so "TTM" may mix launch months with later ones.
- Churn is a band only — no monthly cohort table, NRR, or logo-count series.
- Distribution pause is asserted — limited recent marketing is not proof that restarting SEO or outbound restores MRR.
Questions to ask the seller
- Reconcile TTM gross revenue ($17.4K vs $20.5k): which months, and a Stripe monthly export that adds to the correct total?
- Month-by-month MRR bridge for 12 months (new, expansion, contraction, churned) ending at $835.
- For the 29 active subscribers: plan mix, ARPU, and top-5 share of MRR (percentages; no customer names needed).
- Definition behind 10%+ upward churn (logo vs revenue; monthly vs annual), plus cohort retention for the last two quarters.
- Last-month revenue $1.6k / profit $1k: list that month's costs (AI/API, hosting, tools, fees) and confirm the same treatment in the TTM P&L.
- Of 400+ trials, how many converted, in which months, and what is trial-to-paid with marketing paused?
- Required third-party dependencies (model APIs, email, e-sign, hosting) and those costs for each of the last six months.
- Who handles support and deploys today, hours per week, and what access (Stripe, git, DNS, analytics) transfers on day one?
Paid next step
A full FirstPass memo on this listing (or any listing you paste) runs the same checks against your criteria and ranks seller questions — $79, pay after delivery.
Disclaimer
Educational screening only. Not investment, financial, legal, tax, or accounting advice. Not a valuation and not a recommendation to buy, bid, or pass. Based only on public Acquire.com listing text as of 14 Oct 2026 (CT). Figures are seller- or marketplace-stated and unverified. FirstPass Memo is not affiliated with or endorsed by Acquire.com.
Sources
- Acquire.com public listing rkyndnt2ju, read 2026-10-14 (CT).