Plug in Useful

Plug in Useful changed hands at a 2.8× profit multiple, right around the 2.5× median of the 102 deals in this database that disclosed both price and profit. A multiple in the median range is what the market pays for a steady business with no red flags and no standout premium either.

The $400,000 sale price puts it in the top quarter of the 570 deals with a disclosed price here, where the median is $20,000. Most indie acquisitions cluster well under the headline numbers founders read about, which is exactly why a real distribution is more useful than an average.

This database tracks 109 E-commerce exits, and the ones that disclosed a price sold at a median of $141,000. Category matters more than founders expect: buyers apply different discount rates to a content business, a mobile app and a B2B tool even at identical revenue.

From founding to sale took 5.0 years. Time to exit is a decent proxy for how built-to-sell a business was: shorter, cleaner processes usually mean documented operations and fewer surprises in due diligence.