I turned down a $40,000 cash offer. Here is how and why.

My 6-month-old project ($322 MRR) was offered $40k.

Good morning/afternoon/evening, everyone!

It’s Tony Dinh here 👋

This is not a typical monthly update. Today, I just want to share a short story that happened this month.

Please let me know if you enjoy/hate ad-hoc update emails like this, I really want to hear your opinion so I can adjust the newsletter plan going forward! 😊

I turned down a $40k offer to buy my 6-month-old project

Here is how and why:

Six months ago…

…I launched BlackMagic.so. It's a Twitter SaaS that helps people do fun stuff with their Twitter profile picture and banner.

The product gained a lot of traction, it later reached 1st Product of the day on Product Hunt. It also helped me to win a $5k grant from the Product Hunt Maker Grant last month.

I only make $322 MRR from it at that time, but it's a really fun project for me and has helped me grow my Twitter audience tremendously (from 1k to 10k followers).

Last month, I received an offer…

…to buy 100% ownership of BlackMagic.so at $40k from a buyer on Micro Acquire. That's more than x10 annual revenue!

Below is the breakdown of "100% ownership":

• Codebase and IP

• Website, brand, domain name

• Newsletter with 5,147+ subscribers

• Twitter account with 800+ followers

• AWS Account (with $5,000 credits)

• Customers

$40k is a lot to me. Living in Vietnam, it's enough to cover my living cost for a good number of years!

It seems like a very good deal, so why didn't I accept the offer?

Here are my reasons:

1. I don't really-really-really need the cash right now

Before I quit my job, I had piled up a good amount of saving enough for me to live without any income for 2+ years (even more after I moved back to Vietnam).

Considering I get to keep ~$30k from the deal after tax and costs, it's not a life-changing amount for me. Sure, I have some more breathing room for my indie hacking journey, but it's not quite that significant.

2. I still have so much love and plans for the product

My to-do list for Black Magic is long, and I'm nowhere finished. There are so many things I want to do to provide value for my followers and customers via Black Magic.

The project has helped me grow my Twitter account from 1k → 10k followers, and I believe it can help me grow from 10k → 100k soon.

I also believe I can grow the product to 2-3k MRR within the next year or two. I feel it is way too early to sell at this point.

3. Other reasons

The two above are the main reasons I didn't sell, but there are some other smaller reasons:

• The buyer's plan to grow the product isn't ideal for me.

• I don't want my customers to feel "betrayed". Many of them use the product just because I'm the one behind it.

• I have not yet sure which project I will move on to after I sell BlackMagic.

So yeah, that's why.

Is it the right decision?

Only time can answer.

If you want to see how this ends, I'm sharing my journey publicly on the internet. Make sure to follow me on LinkedIn and Twitter.

Thanks for reading, and have a good productive week ahead!

I'm back to building now.

See you next time 👊