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- Startup Sphere Weekly #16
Startup Sphere Weekly #16
A car tracking solution making $22,500/month. Plus, an online test platform selling for $6 million.
Vlad Verba
April 11, 2024 • Estimated Reading Time: 5 minutes
Hey all, Vlad here. Welcome back to Startup Sphere, a 5-minute weekly digest about online businesses selling for life-changing amounts of money.
This week I changed the look of the newsletter a bit. I added an image header and changed some of the fonts, and colors. Respond to the newsletter and let me know what you think 😊
Anyway, enough boring talk. Let’s get into this week’s business listings 👇
Mobile app that scans food & tracks nutrition
Asking Price: $230,000
TTM Revenue: $51,000
TTM Profit: $45,000
Health has always been a profitable niche and something that people are always looking out for. In recent years I noticed a rise in people specifically paying attention to the food they eat.
The business for sale is a diet/fitness mobile app that scans food and tracks nutrition, similar to MyFitnessPal.
The app boasts an impressive resume. It has over 130,000 users, received a Davod Digital Business award in 2021, and has appeared in the Apple App Store Top 10 charts in 5 countries.
It would be interesting to further grow this idea, and add features similar to Yuka - a mobile app that scans food and gives them a health rating based on ingredients, calories, etc.
There is also a strong opportunity for influencer marketing, with health content being some of the most popular content on social media. Partnering with Instagram health influencers is a great way to grow the user base, IMO.
Despite the impressive resume, 130,000 active users, and extremely popular market, it seems like this business is struggling to monetize. $51,000 TTM revenue seems low for me, especially with a user base that high. I think it is worth exploring the reason for these low revenue numbers.
Some competitors include MyFitnessPal, Yazio, Lifesum, and GetFit.
Car tracking and security solution
Asking Price: $3.2 million
TTM Revenue: $270,000
TTM Profit: $66,000
While this isn’t specifically an “online business “, it is still in the tech sphere so I thought it was worth covering.
The business for sale is a car tracking and security solution. The company offers a real-time GPS tracking and alert system for vehicles. The listing also mentions that there are various features such as alerts for suspicious activity, trip tracking, and car health.
The business has over 1,000 customers. What I find interesting is that this can be sold to businesses and consumers. I would assume the B2B side would generate more revenue since potential customers like rental car businesses would order these in bulk.
There are a couple of drawbacks to running a business like this. Firstly, I believe the owner should be well-versed in the space. It is valuable to have connections, know the technology you are selling, etc (these are all things that I have zero experience with). Secondly, since this isn’t strictly an “online business“ the profit margins are pretty low.
Online test prep platform
Asking Price: $6 million
TTM Revenue: $818,944
TTM Profit: $701,952
The education niche is right up there with health as one of the most popular and profitable niches.
The business listed for sale is an online test prep platform for students taking the GRE and TOEFL exams. It seems like most of the users access the platform for their GRE prep content, which includes study plans, practice problems, quizzes, etc.
This platform specifically focuses on providing affordable test prep for its users. Many GRE prep platforms are expensive, costing $1,500 for 3-4 months. GRE tutors can also cost $200-$500 per hour. The idea of this business is to help students accomplish their professional goals without having to break the bank.
The initial marketing driver for this business was Reddit. The owner would visit test discussion groups on Reddit and comment about test prep and this affordable alternative.
Cast your vote
Which business in this week's edition would you acquire?Cast your vote below and tell us why: |
Last week’s poll:
Results:
🥇 [44%]: 👨💻 Website building platform for rental businesses
🥇 [44%]: 📧 WordPress lead gen and email marketing plugin
🥈 [11%]: 🏪 Analytics platform for franchise site selection
Subscriber feedback:
“With a well-defined niche in the rental market, there is potential to fill a need for landlords and property managers.“
That’s all for this week. Forward this email to a friend if you enjoyed it. Till next week 👋