By Brett Kaufman. 8 years using relationships to build sales pipelines, from political fundraising to a 7 figure business to running matchmaking for two communities. Over 1,000 introductions facilitated.

Here is how to buy a SaaS business that other buyers never see: use the marketplaces to learn prices, then get known by the founders, mastermind peers, developers and SaaS advisors a founder talks to before he lists. The deal that reaches you first usually comes from someone who heard you were buying, recently.

Here is the scene. A solo founder runs a profitable SaaS product for seven years. On a mastermind call he says he is bored, and he would sell for the right number to someone who will look after his customers. One founder on the call says, “I know a buyer. Let me intro you.”

If that buyer is you, you get a quiet first conversation. If not, you see the product six months later as a listing, with an alert going out to every paying member at once.

Where do you start when you want to buy a SaaS company?

Start on the marketplaces, because that is where the pricing is public. Just do not stop there.

Acquire.com calls itself the largest marketplace to buy and sell profitable online businesses. It lists SaaS, ecommerce, agencies, content, newsletters, mobile apps and crypto businesses, and it says it has 500k+ entrepreneurs, 2,000+ startups sold and $500M+ in closed deal volume. Its pricing page shows a free Basic plan for public listings and a buyer membership starting at $390 for detailed financials, instant alerts and direct contact with founders.

Flippa calls itself the world’s #1 platform for online business transactions. It says it has 1.9M+ registered buyers and lists SaaS, ecommerce, content sites, apps and more.

Read those numbers as a buyer. They are the size of the crowd you compete with when a good listing goes live.

Who hears first when a SaaS founder wants to sell?

The people inside the founder’s week. Almost none of them work at a marketplace.

Who	What they hear	Why they would mention you
Founder mastermind peers	“I am tired,” months before a listing	You are a buyer they met and trust
Other founders in the same niche	Who is stalling, who wants out	You asked good questions and kept in touch
The founder’s developer or agency	The roadmap stopped, the founder stepped back	You might keep them on the account
The founder’s accountant or bookkeeper	Clean books being prepared for a sale	You are easy to work with and close
Integration and app partners	A product that stopped shipping	You will keep the integration alive
SaaS brokers and M&A advisors	A founder asking what the business is worth	You are on their list and recent

Founder communities matter most. MicroConf describes itself as the original community for bootstrapped SaaS founders, with curated masterminds, events and a private community called MicroConf Connect. Those rooms are built for founders, so go to learn and meet people, never to pitch.

And the clock is real. In the IBBA and M&A Source Market Pulse for Q2 2026, retirement was the top reason owners sold in most deal sizes, and below $500K burnout, health and new opportunities each made up 14 to 17 percent. Many small SaaS products sit in that size band. A tired founder is a real seller.

Marketplace or relationships: which should you use?

Both, for different jobs. Here is the decision table.

Question	Marketplace	Relationships
Who else sees it?	Every member with an alert	Often only you
Speed to first call	Fast, once listed	Slow to build, fast once trusted
Price	Set by competition	Set in a conversation
Best use	Learning valuations and terms	Finding the founder before the listing
Cost	Free to $390 and up for Acquire.com membership	Your time, every week

The marketplace teaches you what a fair price looks like. The relationships get you the founder who has not decided yet.

How to buy a SaaS business without looking like a vulture

Say exactly who you are and what happens to the customers. Founders worry about the people who pay them every month.

1. Write a one page buyer profile. Revenue range, product type, the kind of customer, your capital, and who will run the product after you close. See deal flow for business buyers for the full system around it.
2. Open with continuity. “I want to keep the product running and the customers happy” beats a multiple in the first message.
3. Do not cold pitch in founder communities. A buyer working the room gets talked about, and SaaS circles are small.
4. Ask what the founder wants next. Some want cash and freedom. Some want to stay on as an advisor. The answer shapes the deal.

What does a 90 day plan look like?

Here is how I would run it, focused on one product niche.

1. Days 1 to 14: watch the market. Use the free Acquire.com plan and Flippa to read 30 listings in your niche. Note asking multiples and what sold.
2. Days 15 to 30: tell the people one step away. Your own lawyer, accountant, any developer you know, and founders already in your phone. One question each: “Which founders in this space are thinking about what comes next?”
3. Days 31 to 45: meet founders as a peer. Attend one founder event or community. Ask how they built it. Make no offers.
4. Days 46 to 60: get on two or three advisor lists. Find the SaaS brokers your founder contacts name. Send each your one page profile.
5. Days 61 to 90: one founder conversation a week. From the intros you earned. Log any timing a founder gives you.

After day 90, the job is staying recent. Touch every founder, advisor and partner with a real reason every six to eight weeks.

What do you text a SaaS founder or advisor?

Short, specific and easy to answer. Illustrative texts, under 40 words each.

To a founder after an intro: “[Name], thanks for the call. Your point about keeping support personal stuck with me. No agenda, I would just like to stay in touch as you think about what is next.”

To a SaaS advisor: “[Name], updated profile attached. Still buying one B2B SaaS product, same size range. Happy to look early, even before it is packaged.”

To a founder peer: “[Name], saw you shipped the new reporting feature. Congrats. If anyone in your mastermind ever talks about selling, I would value an intro.”

To a developer: “[Name], good to catch up. If one of your clients ever wants out of their product, I am a buyer who would keep you on the account.”

How do you find owner direct SaaS deals in your own phone?

Start with people one step from founders: the agency owner who builds products for clients, the investor who backed a few small tools, the accountant with software clients. The method is in how to find owner direct business deals in your network. For the association and community side, see trade association acquisition targets.

Most founders will say not now. Write down when. That founder may come back in 18 months, and the deal goes to whoever is still in touch when the date arrives.

Where this breaks

Between conversations. You meet a founder in March and an advisor in May. By fall, the founder tells his mastermind he is ready, and his peer mentions whoever texted last month.

That is the job I built FRONT OF MIND for. Say a name and a sentence out loud, snap a business card or a badge, or take a selfie together, and it is filed under the event. Then it opens on your 10 minutes for today. Each person has a one line reason why today: they posted, their company was in the news, a follow up is due, or they are going cold. Every draft is a text style message, 40 words max. Nothing sends without your tap, and it learns from your edits. Ask Liala “who do I know that runs a SaaS company” and get the right people with why.

It runs in your phone’s browser and can be saved to your home screen. There is no native iPhone app yet. Your contacts are encrypted. No one on our team looks at them. Export or delete anytime.

Start free with your first 25 contacts and see which founder comes up first.

See how it works