A conversation with Andrew Gazdecki

Most people think selling a startup is a big, exciting event. Andrew Gazdecki will tell you it's usually slow, opaque, and weirdly stuck in the past. He sold his first SaaS company, went through the whole painful process, and decided to build the platform he wished existed. That became Acquire.com.

I've been watching since the MicroAcquire days and through the rebrand to Acquire. It's one of those companies that's genuinely nice to see grow because it's giving founders a real path to building something sustainable and actually being able to sell it when the time comes. We work with them on all sides of the table, as buyers, sellers, and brokers, so we've seen firsthand how it works.

In this conversation, Andrew talks about why more money doesn't solve more problems, what actually makes a company sellable, how saying no became his biggest growth lever, and why his son naming the cat "Combo" might be the most grounding thing in his life right now.

What's your story in 30 seconds?

I’m a repeat founder who started, scaled, and sold a SaaS company, then built Acquire.com to help other founders do the same. I’ve raised venture, bootstrapped, had wins, taken hits, and learned that execution beats everything. Today I run Acquire profitably with a small team, focused on helping founders exit on their terms. I believe in moving fast, keeping things simple, and building real businesses that solve real problems.

What does your company do and why does it need to exist?

Acquire.com is a marketplace for buying and selling startups. We help founders sell their companies without brokers, crazy fees, or months of back and forth. And we help serious buyers find vetted, revenue-generating businesses in one place. It needs to exist because most founders have no clear path to liquidity. You can build something real, get profitable, and still have no idea how to sell it. The traditional M&A world is built for big companies, not bootstrapped founders doing $500K to $5M a year. We make exits accessible. Simple process. Transparent data. Direct founder-to-buyer conversations. Build something great. Then have a real option to sell it.

What moment made you decide to actually start it?

When I sold my first SaaS company. The process was opaque, slow, and controlled by gatekeepers. Brokers wanted huge fees. Buyers were hard to find. There was no simple place online where you could list a real software company and connect directly with serious acquirers. It felt crazy. We can spin up a company in a weekend. Launch globally. Process payments instantly. But selling a startup? That felt stuck in 1995. So I built the platform I wish existed when I was selling. Something simple. Transparent. Founder-first. That was the moment.

What's something about your industry that outsiders don't understand?

Most outsiders think startup acquisitions are big, flashy, headline deals. They’re not. The majority of exits are quiet. Profitable. $500K to $5M a year in revenue. Built by small teams. Sometimes solo founders. No press release. No TechCrunch article.

They also don’t realize how emotional it is. Selling a company isn’t just a financial transaction. It’s years of your life. Your identity. Your stress. Your wins and losses. And finally, most people think exits are rare lottery events. They’re not. If you build something real, solve a painful problem, and keep your numbers clean, there are buyers. Every day. It’s less about hype. More about fundamentals.

What's the worst advice you received that you're glad you ignored?

“Raise as much venture capital as you can. As fast as you can.” I did raise venture before. And I’m grateful for the experience. But the idea that more money automatically equals more success? That’s dangerous. It creates pressure to grow at all costs. To chase vanity metrics. To hire too fast. To spend before you’ve earned the right to. When I rebuilt Acquire, I focused on profitability. Real revenue. Small team. Tight expenses. Build a business that works without outside oxygen. That decision changed everything. Capital is a tool. Not a strategy.

What's something you were completely confident about a few years ago that turned out to be wrong?

A few years ago I was convinced that growth solved everything. More traffic fixes product issues. More hires fix execution gaps. More revenue fixes culture. It doesn’t. Growth amplifies what’s already there. If your product is messy, growth makes the cracks bigger. If your team is misaligned, growth creates chaos. If your margins are thin, growth just burns cash faster. What I’ve learned is that fundamentals matter more than momentum. Clean product. Clear positioning. Strong margins. Small, focused team. Then grow. Not the other way around.

What's working right now that you're excited about?

I’m really excited about the shift toward profitable, founder-first exits. For years the narrative was “grow at all costs and hope someone buys you.” Now I’m seeing founders build real businesses—profitable, sustainable, customer-led—and choose to sell them on their own terms. That changes everything. No hype. No vanity metrics. No “next billion-dollar outcome.” Just real companies solving real problems with real revenue—and buyers lined up because the economics actually make sense. That’s where the smartest founders are focusing right now, and it’s a huge upside for the whole ecosystem.

What's a small change you made recently that had a big impact?

We started saying “no” faster. Faster to features that don’t directly drive revenue. Faster to partnerships that look good but don’t convert. Faster to customers who aren’t a fit. That one shift created focus. The product got simpler. The roadmap got cleaner. The team stopped context switching. Revenue improved because we concentrated on what actually moves the needle: serious buyers and qualified sellers. Small change. Big leverage. Focus compounds.

What's something you're obsessed with outside of work?

My son. Nothing resets your perspective like a five-year-old asking you why the sky is blue or if a computer is just an Xbox for adults. Kids don’t care about ARR. They care about building Lego worlds and naming the cat something ridiculous like “Combo.” It forces me to zoom out. Build the company. Yes. Win. Yes. But don’t miss the small stuff. That’s the real long game.

What's a question you wish people would ask you?

I wish more people asked: “How do you actually build something that gives you options?” Not just how to raise. Not just how to grow fast. But how to build a company that’s profitable, simple, and attractive to buyers. Because that changes how you operate from day one. You focus on real customers. You care about margins. You document everything. You don’t build a mess you can’t sell. An exit isn’t something you think about at the end. You design for it from the start.

What would you be working on if this company didn't exist?

Probably another simple, profitable SaaS company. Something boring. Painful. Unsexy. A tool founders actually need and will pay for. Metrics. Churn. Maybe something in the AI workflow space that saves time and makes money immediately. I’m not wired to sit still. I like finding friction, building a clean solution, getting the first paying customer, and growing it without drama. At the end of the day I just like building. Acquire is the vehicle right now. If it didn’t exist, I’d still be building something.

What's one book, tool, or person you'd recommend?

Book: The Almanack of Naval Ravikant. It’s not a startup playbook. It’s a thinking playbook.

That's it. You can find Andrew @agazdecki on Twitter/X or LinkedIn.