In a clear sign of India’s growing presence in the global digital economy, Blake Hutchison, CEO of Flippa, revealed that 1,470 Indian founders successfully exited their businesses through the Flippa platform in the past 12 months.
Speaking to Kshitij Anand of ETMarkets, Hutchison highlighted India as one of Flippa’s fastest-growing markets, with entrepreneurs increasingly tapping global buyers for online businesses ranging from e-commerce stores and SaaS platforms to mobile apps.
He emphasized that many Indian founders are building global-first businesses targeting US and European customers, making them highly attractive acquisition targets for international buyers.
Edited Excerpts –
Kshitij Anand: Why do you think the topic of exit readiness is still not widely discussed among Indian founders?
Blake Hutchison: Yes, that’s a really critical question. The major reason is that founders are busy doing what they do best—building great businesses. They don’t necessarily give much thought to the end game. They don’t think much about what comes after they’ve run these good businesses. Instead, they wake up every day focused on serving as many customers as they can, generating revenue, ultimately generating profit, and putting a roof over their heads. So, that’s probably the biggest reason. But it would be good to see far more founders around the world a little more educated about what that process looks like, and ultimately help them think about it.
Kshitij Anand: I think this is the most important question for Indian startups—how can Indian startups leverage Flippa to attract international buyers?
Blake Hutchison: We’ve represented quite a few Indian entrepreneurs. Obviously, we’re a global platform. 1470 Indian Founders successfully exited with Flippa within the last 12 months.
Recently, we sold a Slack app plugin based out of Bangalore for $270,000. There’s also a deal going through right now for just over a million dollars for an Android app being sold to a US-based app aggregator. So, we have a solid track record of working with Indian entrepreneurs. They’re using Flippa to capitalize on Flippa’s global buyer base.
The way we think about Flippa’s value—and the way we encourage entrepreneurs to think about Flippa—is that we are a truly cross-border M&A marketplace.
The reality is there are buyers around the world willing to pay a premium for good quality online businesses, regardless of where they’re based.
We find that our Indian entrepreneurs are some of the most successful on our platform, and the reason for that is they think global-first.
A lot of Indian entrepreneurs build for a European and/or American audience, and as a result, they open themselves up to more European and North American buyers. That’s a good pathway to getting a deal done—because the Americans have the money.
Kshitij Anand: Could you also highlight what the early indicators are that a startup is on the path to being exit-ready?
Blake Hutchison: The first thing I’d say is that it’s about building a good-quality, predictable business—something that acquirers find interesting and can imagine running long after the original founders have moved on. What we encourage founders to do is think about exit readiness from the start. That really means getting their finances in order, ensuring they have standard operating procedures well documented, and ultimately ensuring that the business continues to grow in a sustainable and stable manner, in a way that will attract many buyers over the long term.
Kshitij Anand: From your experience, what makes an online business attractive to potential buyers?
Blake Hutchison: It really comes down to whether the ultimate acquirer has a strategic interest in the business. That strategic interest could be because the business is a good fit for their existing portfolio, providing accretive or incremental growth opportunities.
Alternatively, they might believe they can run it better and more efficiently than you have as the founder. Both are strategic reasons—one is more financial than the other.
Strategic buyers typically look for something they can bolt on to complement an existing business, while more financially focused buyers—like traditional private equity firms—look for efficiencies: areas where they can add value, remove costs, or even add costs to accelerate revenue.
Ultimately, it depends on the buyer’s needs—whether it’s about complementing something they already have, or building something better from what you’ve built.
Kshitij Anand: And the one thing that’s most important in any business is cash flow. My other question, which is somewhat related, is how important are recurring revenues, traffic diversity, or automation in influencing buyer interest?
Blake Hutchison: Obviously, recurring revenues are very interesting to buyers. I guess it depends on the recurring nature of the revenue—whether it’s monthly, quarterly, or annual recurring revenue. Is some part of the business generating recurring revenue?
And how stable and consistent have those recurring revenues been over a long period of time? Recurring revenues are really exciting to investors, but it's more about the predictability of revenue, and ultimately, it comes down to profit and the ongoing stability of the business within its current operating environment.
What people often forget is that it's one thing to look for recurring revenues and, therefore, look to acquire a SaaS business—but SaaS businesses are actually quite complex. So, sometimes, it’s not just about how you generate revenue; it’s about the category, the business model, and the stability of that revenue over a longer period.
Kshitij Anand: One good point you highlighted is the predictability of revenues. Are there any examples you'd like to share with viewers?
Blake Hutchison: If you're running an e-commerce business and you've run that business for a two-year period, and it has shown a very consistent repeat user base—while that revenue is not technically recurring, the reality is you’ve built some kind of brand loyalty among your community of followers.
That community is buying from you regularly, and as a result, a potential buyer can make some assumptions about how predictable that revenue will be going forward.
Advertising, as a business model, is also relatively predictable. Of course, this doesn’t take into account the impact of AI and how fearful people are about AI-generated content and its effect on traffic generation.
But let’s say, for argument’s sake, you’re consistently generating the same amount of traffic each month. In that case, it would be reasonable to expect that your advertising revenue would be equally as predictable as that traffic.
So, while these revenues may not be recurring in nature, they are consistent and stable. Those would be examples of predictable revenue streams. What a buyer wouldn’t like to see is revenue that’s lumpy—where it’s unclear how the business is generating revenue from month to month or quarter to quarter.
That’s the opposite of predictable revenue. That’s not to say that such a business isn't sellable; it's just that it’s not as easily understood by a potential buyer.
Kshitij Anand: Could you also highlight any red flags that buyers usually avoid?
Blake Hutchison: Customer concentration is one red flag. If you're generating the vast majority of your revenue from one or a few customers, that’s generally considered a risk, and buyers will want to understand that further.
In addition, if you’ve had supply chain issues where it’s unclear whether you can consistently get orders from your supplier through to your warehouse and ultimately to the end customer, that would also be considered a red flag.
If, for instance, you're generating the majority of your revenue through advertising—meaning you're paying to acquire customers rather than building a brand with loyal followers or benefiting from SEO and free traffic—that can be seen as a risk. As the cost of advertising goes up, your operational costs could increase, which raises concerns.
Another red flag is key man risk—if your business relies heavily on just a few people, and those people are at risk of leaving, buyers will view that as a potential problem.
Generally speaking, what buyers want to understand is: if they acquire your business for X dollars, how likely is it that the business will continue to operate in exactly the same way as it has over the trailing twelve months? If they can gain confidence in that, they'll then start thinking about how they can optimize your business for better growth.
But initially, it's very much about understanding how the business currently works and gaining some sense of whether it can consistently operate the same way moving forward.
Kshitij Anand: And if you could also highlight, what are the common mistakes founders make while structuring their business for sale?
Blake Hutchison: Well, the first one is asking for too much. Many business owners overvalue their business. We can talk about valuation in a minute, but that would be one way to lower the likelihood of achieving a successful exit, mostly because buyers are less likely to engage with a seller who is unreasonable about market and/or price expectations.
The second issue would be what we might call “dirty financials.” If there isn’t a clear paper trail showing how you’ve generated revenue, or if there isn’t clarity about your inflows and outflows, those things will inevitably scare off a buyer because it’s just unclear to them how the business operates.
Sellers often make the mistake of thinking that buyers should expect to dig in to understand the business. In fact, what you should be doing is giving buyers absolutely everything they want on a platter.
Another common mistake sellers make is not factoring in different types of deal structures. Every founder and entrepreneur wants all cash upfront, but that’s a pretty risky way of thinking about a deal structure. So, we encourage founders to think about earnouts, seller financing, and any other way in which they can achieve the ultimate exit.
Kshitij Anand: Let me also get your perspective on valuation, since you mentioned that’s something founders should be really careful about. How is the valuation of an online business typically calculated on a platform like Flippa?
Blake Hutchison: We use market comparison. We’re in a fortunate position in that we handle just over seven thousand transactions annually. As a result, we have access to a large dataset, which enables us to provide very accurate indicative valuations for founders looking to understand the value of their business.
Generally speaking, what a buyer will do—beyond what Flippa provides—is consider valuation in a few different ways. They might look at revenue multiples, basically evaluating what an average SaaS business, marketplace, e-commerce store, YouTube channel, or app is valued at based on revenue.
They may also look at EBITDA multiples—earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization—and assess what companies with similar EBITDA performance typically get valued at. Buyers might also use discounted cash flows (DCF), where they project future cash flows and discount them back to the present value.
Finally, they may consider precedent transactions, comparing your business to recent similar sales, which is very similar to the market comparables approach that Flippa uses.
Kshitij Anand: And how does Flippa help democratize the buying and selling of businesses globally?
Blake Hutchison: First and foremost, we do more deals than anyone else. As a result, we have the dataset to help business owners understand what they’re worth and how their business should be valued. The second thing is, we use AI matching.
We conduct around 425,000 weekly AI buyer matches. That means if you’re a founder looking to exit your business, there’s no place on earth with as many buyers as we have, combined with the precision matching we offer.
And then lastly, it’s end-to-end. Our platform allows founders to communicate and work with an M&A advisor or business broker. We enable negotiation within the platform itself. And, of course, we facilitate payments—buyers pay entrepreneurs directly within our platform to ensure secure and safe transactions.
In that context, Flippa offers a complete M&A infrastructure, giving buyers and sellers everything they need to get deals done. As a result, we’re truly democratizing exit opportunities, and we’re very proud of our ability to help thousands of entrepreneurs each year.
Kshitij Anand: So, we’ve talked about the red flags. Let’s also discuss: what are some common patterns you’ve noticed among startups that achieve high-value exits?
Blake Hutchison: Yes, so the first thing I’d point out is that the founder is usually quite keen to help the buyer understand how their business works. One of the critical things we often tell sellers throughout the process is to make sure they are operating with a great degree of transparency.
If you can show a buyer that you’re trustworthy and provide them with the transparency they need to make an informed decision, you’ll find that not only is the deal-making process easier, but it’s also quicker. And a quick deal is a good deal—that’s ultimately what most entrepreneurs are after, and that comes down to transparency.
The second thing we’d point out is the importance of having an asset register. What is the universal list of things that encompass your entire business? That register is exactly what a buyer needs to understand to ensure they’re making an informed decision about what they’re going to get once the transaction is concluded.
And then finally, we come back to the point about flexibility. The most successful founders on Flippa use market comparables from Flippa, are flexible around negotiation, and understand that good quality deal structuring helps them get a deal done.
Speaking to Kshitij Anand of ETMarkets, Hutchison highlighted India as one of Flippa’s fastest-growing markets, with entrepreneurs increasingly tapping global buyers for online businesses ranging from e-commerce stores and SaaS platforms to mobile apps.
He emphasized that many Indian founders are building global-first businesses targeting US and European customers, making them highly attractive acquisition targets for international buyers.
How to Sell Your Startup: Flippa CEO on Exit Readiness for Indian Founders
Join host Kshitij Anand, Editor – Markets and Finance, ET Online, as he sits down with Blake Hutchison, CEO of Flippa, one of the world’s leading marketplaces for buying and selling online businesses. In this exclusive interview, discover why Indian founders often overlook exit planning and learn the early indicators that signal exit readiness. From recurring revenues to traffic diversity, Hutchison shares insider insights on what makes online businesses attractive to buyers while revealing common red flags that turn buyers away. Whether you’re building your first startup or scaling your fifth, this conversation provides a roadmap for structuring your business for profitability.
Kshitij Anand: Why do you think the topic of exit readiness is still not widely discussed among Indian founders?
Blake Hutchison: Yes, that’s a really critical question. The major reason is that founders are busy doing what they do best—building great businesses. They don’t necessarily give much thought to the end game. They don’t think much about what comes after they’ve run these good businesses. Instead, they wake up every day focused on serving as many customers as they can, generating revenue, ultimately generating profit, and putting a roof over their heads. So, that’s probably the biggest reason. But it would be good to see far more founders around the world a little more educated about what that process looks like, and ultimately help them think about it.
Kshitij Anand: I think this is the most important question for Indian startups—how can Indian startups leverage Flippa to attract international buyers?
Blake Hutchison: We’ve represented quite a few Indian entrepreneurs. Obviously, we’re a global platform. 1470 Indian Founders successfully exited with Flippa within the last 12 months.
Recently, we sold a Slack app plugin based out of Bangalore for $270,000. There’s also a deal going through right now for just over a million dollars for an Android app being sold to a US-based app aggregator. So, we have a solid track record of working with Indian entrepreneurs. They’re using Flippa to capitalize on Flippa’s global buyer base.
The way we think about Flippa’s value—and the way we encourage entrepreneurs to think about Flippa—is that we are a truly cross-border M&A marketplace.
The reality is there are buyers around the world willing to pay a premium for good quality online businesses, regardless of where they’re based.
We find that our Indian entrepreneurs are some of the most successful on our platform, and the reason for that is they think global-first.
A lot of Indian entrepreneurs build for a European and/or American audience, and as a result, they open themselves up to more European and North American buyers. That’s a good pathway to getting a deal done—because the Americans have the money.
Kshitij Anand: Could you also highlight what the early indicators are that a startup is on the path to being exit-ready?
Blake Hutchison: The first thing I’d say is that it’s about building a good-quality, predictable business—something that acquirers find interesting and can imagine running long after the original founders have moved on. What we encourage founders to do is think about exit readiness from the start. That really means getting their finances in order, ensuring they have standard operating procedures well documented, and ultimately ensuring that the business continues to grow in a sustainable and stable manner, in a way that will attract many buyers over the long term.
Kshitij Anand: From your experience, what makes an online business attractive to potential buyers?
Blake Hutchison: It really comes down to whether the ultimate acquirer has a strategic interest in the business. That strategic interest could be because the business is a good fit for their existing portfolio, providing accretive or incremental growth opportunities.
Alternatively, they might believe they can run it better and more efficiently than you have as the founder. Both are strategic reasons—one is more financial than the other.
Strategic buyers typically look for something they can bolt on to complement an existing business, while more financially focused buyers—like traditional private equity firms—look for efficiencies: areas where they can add value, remove costs, or even add costs to accelerate revenue.
Ultimately, it depends on the buyer’s needs—whether it’s about complementing something they already have, or building something better from what you’ve built.
Kshitij Anand: And the one thing that’s most important in any business is cash flow. My other question, which is somewhat related, is how important are recurring revenues, traffic diversity, or automation in influencing buyer interest?
Blake Hutchison: Obviously, recurring revenues are very interesting to buyers. I guess it depends on the recurring nature of the revenue—whether it’s monthly, quarterly, or annual recurring revenue. Is some part of the business generating recurring revenue?
And how stable and consistent have those recurring revenues been over a long period of time? Recurring revenues are really exciting to investors, but it's more about the predictability of revenue, and ultimately, it comes down to profit and the ongoing stability of the business within its current operating environment.
What people often forget is that it's one thing to look for recurring revenues and, therefore, look to acquire a SaaS business—but SaaS businesses are actually quite complex. So, sometimes, it’s not just about how you generate revenue; it’s about the category, the business model, and the stability of that revenue over a longer period.
Kshitij Anand: One good point you highlighted is the predictability of revenues. Are there any examples you'd like to share with viewers?
Blake Hutchison: If you're running an e-commerce business and you've run that business for a two-year period, and it has shown a very consistent repeat user base—while that revenue is not technically recurring, the reality is you’ve built some kind of brand loyalty among your community of followers.
That community is buying from you regularly, and as a result, a potential buyer can make some assumptions about how predictable that revenue will be going forward.
Advertising, as a business model, is also relatively predictable. Of course, this doesn’t take into account the impact of AI and how fearful people are about AI-generated content and its effect on traffic generation.
But let’s say, for argument’s sake, you’re consistently generating the same amount of traffic each month. In that case, it would be reasonable to expect that your advertising revenue would be equally as predictable as that traffic.
So, while these revenues may not be recurring in nature, they are consistent and stable. Those would be examples of predictable revenue streams. What a buyer wouldn’t like to see is revenue that’s lumpy—where it’s unclear how the business is generating revenue from month to month or quarter to quarter.
That’s the opposite of predictable revenue. That’s not to say that such a business isn't sellable; it's just that it’s not as easily understood by a potential buyer.
Kshitij Anand: Could you also highlight any red flags that buyers usually avoid?
Blake Hutchison: Customer concentration is one red flag. If you're generating the vast majority of your revenue from one or a few customers, that’s generally considered a risk, and buyers will want to understand that further.
In addition, if you’ve had supply chain issues where it’s unclear whether you can consistently get orders from your supplier through to your warehouse and ultimately to the end customer, that would also be considered a red flag.
If, for instance, you're generating the majority of your revenue through advertising—meaning you're paying to acquire customers rather than building a brand with loyal followers or benefiting from SEO and free traffic—that can be seen as a risk. As the cost of advertising goes up, your operational costs could increase, which raises concerns.
Another red flag is key man risk—if your business relies heavily on just a few people, and those people are at risk of leaving, buyers will view that as a potential problem.
Generally speaking, what buyers want to understand is: if they acquire your business for X dollars, how likely is it that the business will continue to operate in exactly the same way as it has over the trailing twelve months? If they can gain confidence in that, they'll then start thinking about how they can optimize your business for better growth.
But initially, it's very much about understanding how the business currently works and gaining some sense of whether it can consistently operate the same way moving forward.
Kshitij Anand: And if you could also highlight, what are the common mistakes founders make while structuring their business for sale?
Blake Hutchison: Well, the first one is asking for too much. Many business owners overvalue their business. We can talk about valuation in a minute, but that would be one way to lower the likelihood of achieving a successful exit, mostly because buyers are less likely to engage with a seller who is unreasonable about market and/or price expectations.
The second issue would be what we might call “dirty financials.” If there isn’t a clear paper trail showing how you’ve generated revenue, or if there isn’t clarity about your inflows and outflows, those things will inevitably scare off a buyer because it’s just unclear to them how the business operates.
Sellers often make the mistake of thinking that buyers should expect to dig in to understand the business. In fact, what you should be doing is giving buyers absolutely everything they want on a platter.
Another common mistake sellers make is not factoring in different types of deal structures. Every founder and entrepreneur wants all cash upfront, but that’s a pretty risky way of thinking about a deal structure. So, we encourage founders to think about earnouts, seller financing, and any other way in which they can achieve the ultimate exit.
How to Sell Your Startup: Flippa CEO on Exit Readiness for Indian Founders
Join host Kshitij Anand, Editor – Markets and Finance, ET Online, as he sits down with Blake Hutchison, CEO of Flippa, one of the world’s leading marketplaces for buying and selling online businesses. In this exclusive interview, discover why Indian founders often overlook exit planning and learn the early indicators that signal exit readiness. From recurring revenues to traffic diversity, Hutchison shares insider insights on what makes online businesses attractive to buyers while revealing common red flags that turn buyers away. Whether you’re building your first startup or scaling your fifth, this conversation provides a roadmap for structuring your business for profitability.
Blake Hutchison: We use market comparison. We’re in a fortunate position in that we handle just over seven thousand transactions annually. As a result, we have access to a large dataset, which enables us to provide very accurate indicative valuations for founders looking to understand the value of their business.
Generally speaking, what a buyer will do—beyond what Flippa provides—is consider valuation in a few different ways. They might look at revenue multiples, basically evaluating what an average SaaS business, marketplace, e-commerce store, YouTube channel, or app is valued at based on revenue.
They may also look at EBITDA multiples—earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization—and assess what companies with similar EBITDA performance typically get valued at. Buyers might also use discounted cash flows (DCF), where they project future cash flows and discount them back to the present value.
Finally, they may consider precedent transactions, comparing your business to recent similar sales, which is very similar to the market comparables approach that Flippa uses.
Kshitij Anand: And how does Flippa help democratize the buying and selling of businesses globally?
Blake Hutchison: First and foremost, we do more deals than anyone else. As a result, we have the dataset to help business owners understand what they’re worth and how their business should be valued. The second thing is, we use AI matching.
We conduct around 425,000 weekly AI buyer matches. That means if you’re a founder looking to exit your business, there’s no place on earth with as many buyers as we have, combined with the precision matching we offer.
And then lastly, it’s end-to-end. Our platform allows founders to communicate and work with an M&A advisor or business broker. We enable negotiation within the platform itself. And, of course, we facilitate payments—buyers pay entrepreneurs directly within our platform to ensure secure and safe transactions.
In that context, Flippa offers a complete M&A infrastructure, giving buyers and sellers everything they need to get deals done. As a result, we’re truly democratizing exit opportunities, and we’re very proud of our ability to help thousands of entrepreneurs each year.
Kshitij Anand: So, we’ve talked about the red flags. Let’s also discuss: what are some common patterns you’ve noticed among startups that achieve high-value exits?
Blake Hutchison: Yes, so the first thing I’d point out is that the founder is usually quite keen to help the buyer understand how their business works. One of the critical things we often tell sellers throughout the process is to make sure they are operating with a great degree of transparency.
If you can show a buyer that you’re trustworthy and provide them with the transparency they need to make an informed decision, you’ll find that not only is the deal-making process easier, but it’s also quicker. And a quick deal is a good deal—that’s ultimately what most entrepreneurs are after, and that comes down to transparency.
The second thing we’d point out is the importance of having an asset register. What is the universal list of things that encompass your entire business? That register is exactly what a buyer needs to understand to ensure they’re making an informed decision about what they’re going to get once the transaction is concluded.
And then finally, we come back to the point about flexibility. The most successful founders on Flippa use market comparables from Flippa, are flexible around negotiation, and understand that good quality deal structuring helps them get a deal done.
In Video:
How to Sell Your Startup: Flippa CEO on Exit Readiness for Indian Founders
(This article is generated and published by ET Spotlight team. You can get in touch with them on etspotlight@timesinternet.in)
