How Laura Roeder sold MeetEdgar in a self-run seven-figure exit

Executive overview

When a bootstrapped SaaS plateaus, founders face a choice: maintenance mode or exit. Laura Roeder tried maintenance mode, hated it, and decided to sell instead.

She ran the entire sale herself — no broker — by researching acquirers, targeting micro PE firms, and setting a clear internal price floor before any outreach. The deal closed in roughly two months from first email to signed LOI, with 30-day due diligence and no price changes.

Running a self-directed sale is viable if you educate yourself first and enter with a clear, defensible number.

Deciding to sell

• MeetEdgar had reached a few million in annual recurring revenue but growth had flatlined.
• Laura cut almost the entire team and put the business in maintenance mode.
• Maintenance mode felt frustrating — she wanted to be building, not collecting.
• That dissatisfaction became the direct trigger for selling.

Preparing for the sale

• Read The Art of Selling Your Business by John Warlow and Before the Exit by Dan Andrews.
• Listened to as many episodes as possible of the Built to Sell podcast.
• Identified the acquisition type early: financial sale (not strategic) — no inbound partner interest existed.
• Researched micro PE firms that actively buy small SaaS businesses to build a targeted outreach list.
• Decided to run the process herself once she had the buyer list — with a broker as fallback if it failed.

Setting the price

• Set an internal floor number on the low side, not a wishful high number.
• Factored in taxes: capital gains on a sale was roughly half the rate of ordinary income from the business.
• Modelled the maintenance mode alternative — estimated revenue declining to zero over time — to anchor a fair value.
• Goal: a number she was confident she could achieve, with any excess as upside.

Running the outreach and negotiation

• Sent cold emails to her targeted list of micro PE acquirers; most responded.
• Held roughly 10 initial calls with interested buyers.
• Psychologically prepared by focusing on the business's strengths — buyers will chip away at value throughout the process.
• When buyers raised concerns (e.g., tech debt, required specialists), her consistent response: "Do the math — make sure the deal makes sense for you at this price." No defending, no arguing.
• Agreed LOI with SureSwift Capital approximately two months after first outreach.
• Before signing, called founders of other SureSwift acquisitions to verify the price held from LOI to close — several confirmed it had.

Due diligence

• SureSwift ran a 30-day due diligence — unusually fast, enabled by their high acquisition volume (40+ SaaS companies bought).
• MeetEdgar's financial simplicity helped: 100% of revenue through Stripe, clean bookkeeping, no special deals.
• Diligence consisted of direct access to Stripe, Google Analytics, and bookkeeping records — no forensic accounting required.
• Final price matched the LOI exactly.

Mindset and stress

• Most stressful part: uncertainty that any of the 10 buyers would actually close, not the negotiation itself.
• Biggest surprise: she enjoyed the process — particularly the back-and-forth of negotiation.
• The moment funds landed felt like closing a book, not a peak of excitement — the negotiation had been the high point.