Listing teardown · SaaS
Teardown: $20.3K Per Month Subscription Business in the Business Niche (Empire Flippers #91852)
Short answer: a first-pass read of a live public listing, asking $188,619: 2 red, 7 yellow and 4 green flags from the checker's rules. Every figure comes from the public listing page; nothing here has been verified with the seller.
How to read this. Flags are questions to answer, not findings. A red flag means the listing's own figures or text need an explanation before you spend money on diligence; it does not mean anything is wrong. Sellers often have good answers. Listing details can change after the date above.
Snapshot (as listed)
| Asking price | $188,619 |
|---|---|
| Stated multiple | 2.8× annual SDE |
| Average monthly revenue / profit | $20,343 / $5,614 |
| Latest month revenue / profit | $14,500 / $7,071 |
| Payback (ask ÷ monthly profit) | 33.6 months on the average; 30.9 months on the last 3 months |
| Reported margin | 28% |
| Age | about 73 months |
| Monetization | Subscription, SaaS |
| Owner hours (seller-stated) | 20 a week |
| Top traffic channels | Direct 55%, Paid Search 18%, Paid Social 8% |
| Stated MRR | $16,732 |
| Stated monthly churn | 24% |
| Stated customers | 80 |
Red flags
- Marketplace-reported revenue trend -31%. Profit trend -51%.
- Monthly churn 24.0% (checker default limit 5%). At 24.0%/mo roughly 96% of today's customers would be gone in 12 months without new sales.
Yellow flags
- Volatile monthly profit (CV 0.67). Monthly profit ranged $-1,749–$11,606.
- Stated MRR exceeds the latest month's revenue. MRR $16,732 vs latest month revenue $14,500.
- Platforms the listing relies on or mentions: Amazon, Google Search. Ask how much revenue and traffic depends on each, and whether there has been any past policy or algorithm impact.
- Seller reports 20 hrs/week. Above the checker's default limit of 10 hours a week.
- Payment-account transfer has conditions. Listing text conditions Stripe transfer on buyer entity/jurisdiction; subscriber migration may be manual.
- Customer/revenue concentration not disclosed.
- Generic reason for sale. The Seller would like to explore other opportunities.
Green flags
- The listing shows connected data providers: Google Analytics, Stripe. These reduce, but do not remove, the need to reconcile figures to bank deposits.
- About 73 months of operating history (first revenue 2020-09, per the listing).
- Last-3-month average profit $6,107 is 9% above the 12-month average.
- Post-sale support is offered: The seller is willing to provide operational walkthroughs, technical onboarding, training calls, introductions to key partners and affiliates, assistance with tool and account transfers, and general continuity support during the handover period.
Questions to ask the seller
- What is causing the year-over-year decline and what has been tried?
- How is churn calculated (logo vs revenue), and what are new-customer adds per month?
- Explain the low months (refunds, annual-plan timing, one-off costs?).
- Reconcile MRR to collected revenue (failed payments, discounts, refunds, annual plans).
- What would happen to revenue if Amazon changed its policy/API tomorrow? Any past incidents?
- Exact Stripe transfer path for my entity type, and how many subscribers failed migration in past tests?
- What share of revenue comes from the top 1 and top 3 customers (or traffic/affiliate partners)?
- Why sell now, and what would you do with the business if it doesn't sell?
- Provide a month-by-month P&L for the last 24 months with every cost line.
What to verify
- Read-only Stripe (or billing) access, reconciled to bank deposits for 12–24 months
- MRR and churn rebuilt from the billing export (logo and revenue churn, new subscriptions per month)
- A month-by-month P&L with every cost line, including contractors, hosting and the owner's time
- Analytics and Search Console exports for the same 12 months as the listing's traffic figures
- Code, hosting and database walkthrough; who holds the keys; what the payment-account transfer involves
- Contractor agreements and IP assignment for code and content
Payback at the asking price: 33.6 months on the stated average profit, 42.0 months if profit is 20% lower, 56.0 months if 40% lower. This is arithmetic on the listing's figures, not a valuation or a bid suggestion.
Seller statements to check against evidence
Quoted from the listing. Each is a reasonable thing for a seller to say and worth confirming with documents.
- “Revenue is primarily generated through recurring subscriptions, with approximately 85% from monthly plans and 15% from annual plans.”
- “The business experiences recurring reactivations from former subscribers due to the cyclical nature of sourcing activity and seasonal inventory trends within the Amazon seller ecosystem.”
- “Combined founder involvement averages around 20 hours per week, focused primarily on product development, strategic growth initiatives, partnerships, and ongoing platform improvements.”
- “Workflows are well established operationally and transferable to a new owner.”
Risks the listing itself discloses: Google algorithmic changes could cause traffic to fluctuate. Subscription services require customer service and the ability to stay on top of the subscribers requests. Due to constant changes in technology, competition, and the market as a whole, the software could become irrelevant. Any extended downtime or security breach could erode user trust - service failures often lead to customer churn as clients quickly seek more reliable alternatives.
Sources
- Empire Flippers listing #91852, public listing data read 13 October 2026.
- FirstPass red-flag rules, the 33 published rules used for the flags above.
Related
FirstPass Memo is independent and buyer-paid. Not affiliated with, paid by or endorsed by Empire Flippers or the seller. Informational screening only, not investment, legal, tax or valuation advice, and not an audit. Figures are the seller's and marketplace's, as listed on the date above. If you are the seller or broker and something here is out of date, email hello@firstpassmemo.com and we will correct it.