How to sell a Data Business

The Initial Data Offering (IDO) community is a place for data enthusiasts to discover new datasets daily.

The mission is to build a community of data enthusiasts and curate high-quality, unique datasets for businesses, researchers, and organizations worldwide.

How do you sell a data business? This is something I have been thinking about a lot. There aren’t bankers for small businesses in general and for a small data business, there aren’t a lot of experts to help you sell.

Bizbuysell & Acquire are great sites for selling a business whether it’s a nail salon, restaurant, or a website. But they aren’t focused on a specific vertical. If you search these sites, it is very hard, if not impossible to find a data company for sale. That being said, there are a lot of great data businesses that are making $200k-$5m+ in revenue annually but don’t have an exit in sight.

If you are in the data & information services world, or you swim in the alternative data world, you know tons of small data companies that you have likely been a client of. The reality is, that S&P, Factset, Bloomberg, and the other large data companies aren’t knocking on their door to acquire them. Maybe they sell fundamental data, sentiment, surveys, or insights on a niche vertical like storage units or a specific commodity. These companies if they are going to find an exit are going to sell to a competitor, find someone in their network, or go through a long process of trying to network at one of the big data companies, exchanges, etc. to find a buyer.

This process should be easier! I personally hear from all types of companies that are looking to acquire data companies or data assets. Both private and public. I also know dozens of people who are personally looking to leave their corporate jobs and would like to buy a data business as the next step in their career.

On the flip side, I have seen over the years, dozens of companies trying to find buyers. People who have had their business for years and are ready to retire, move on to something new or just find some liquidity. The problem they typically run into is they aren’t big enough, they aren’t growing fast enough, or they don’t have a real sense of what the business is worth. They are looking for a buyer passively, but go on for years hoping it just lands in their inbox.

At InitialDataOffering.com we made it easier to find new datasets coming to market and for the vendors, it is a great way to get free leads. It’s a no-brainer to list on IDO because the community is some of the largest buyers in the world from hedge funds, financial institutions, consultants, data vendors, and corporations.

Now is the time to make it easier to sell your data business as well. If you are thinking of selling and have been contemplating how to get in front of the right community of buyers that will understand your business, InitialDataOffering is the place to do this. In the coming weeks, we will launch a place for you to “Sell Your Data Business.” This will be a simple form, similar to BizBuySell where it will ask for some information about your business and what you are looking for. We will then make these businesses viewable to those in the community who are actively looking to make acquisitions.

Selling your data business shouldn’t be difficult. If you have a small data business and are looking for a way to get in front of the right sophisticated buyers, the InitialDataOffering community is the place to go. Bankers aren’t a viable solution. BizBuySell & Acquire.com are great but aren’t focused on the data industry. Let’s help data business owners find their next owner.