What exactly is a micro-acquisition?
A micro-acquisition typically refers to the purchase of a small business, often in the range of $50,000 to $500,000. These deals usually involve solo founders or very small teams and are often bootstrapped businesses. You'll find them in SaaS, ecommerce, media, digital services and even niche B2B verticals.
Unlike larger deals that require complex due diligence and outside investors, micro-acquisitions can often be done quickly and creatively financed, sometimes even with seller financing or revenue-based payments.
A great place to browse real-world examples is MicroAcquire (recently rebranded as Acquire.com), which has become the go-to marketplace for buying and selling small internet businesses.
Why micro-acquisitions make strategic sense
When you build a business, you're investing time and money into acquiring customers, building a product and refining operations. But when you buy a business, even a small one, you skip ahead in the game.
Here's what a micro-acquisition can instantly provide:
- Revenue: You're buying cash flow from day one.
- Customers: You inherit a base of users or clients without the CAC (customer acquisition cost).
- Product or tech: If you're in software, buying a product that's already functional saves months of development time.
- Team: Even one or two experienced people onboard can supercharge your capacity.
- SEO/traffic: Media sites or content businesses often come with valuable search rankings.
This is why seasoned entrepreneurs often say, “Build if you have to. Buy if you can.“
How to find the right micro-acquisition target
The key to smart acquisitions is alignment with your goals, capabilities and existing infrastructure. Here are three practical ways to uncover acquisition targets:
- Marketplaces: Acquire.com, Flippa and Tiny Acquisitions all list small online businesses for sale. You can filter by size, revenue, industry and growth.
- Your own network: Many small business owners would sell if they knew someone they could trust. Put out feelers in your LinkedIn network, communities and industry groups.
- Inbound interest: Once people know you're open to acquiring, founders may reach out directly. It happens more often than you think, especially if you're known in your niche.
Look for businesses where you can add unique value. Maybe you have distribution they don't have or operational strengths that could increase margins.
How to fund a micro-acquisition without VC money
You don't need to raise millions — or anything, in some cases. Micro-acquisitions can be financed in surprisingly flexible ways:
- Seller financing: The seller agrees to let you pay a portion up front and the rest over time. It's common in smaller deals and shows the seller's confidence in the business continuing to perform.
- Revenue-based financing: Platforms like Pipe or Capchase let you borrow against predictable revenue, especially for SaaS.
- Cash flow from your existing business: If you already run a profitable company, you may be able to acquire a smaller one with internal cash flow.
- Partnership or joint acquisition: You can co-acquire a business with a partner who brings cash, skills or time.
Because these are small deals, you don't need to be a finance wizard. Just ensure that the business you're buying can at least cover its own debt payments and ideally contribute profit from month one.
What to look out for before you buy
Not all micro-acquisitions are worth it. Some look good on the surface but are hiding churn, tech debt or founder-driven sales. Here are red flags to watch:
- No clear documentation: If the financials are murky or inconsistent, move with caution.
- Customer churn: In SaaS or subscription businesses, ask for cohort data. A leaky bucket is hard to fix.
- Overdependence on the founder: If the owner is also the top salesperson, developer and customer support agent, you'll have a lot to replace.
- Platform risk: Is all their revenue coming from a single ad platform or one ecommerce channel?
Do your due diligence, even if it's light.
Post acquisition: Make the first 90 days count
Buying the business is only the start. The value is in what you do after the deal closes. Here's how to make your acquisition pay off:
- Stabilize: Keep existing operations running smoothly and avoid major changes immediately.
- Communicate: Let existing customers and any team members know what's changing (and what isn't).
- Integrate: Plug the acquired business into your existing stack, whether it's tools, processes or branding.
- Optimize: Use your strengths to unlock growth. Can you improve pricing, add new marketing channels or reduce overhead?
Think of your acquisition as a new product line or revenue stream and manage it like you would any core part of your business.
If you're running a business, you already know how hard it is to build. Buying a business, even a small one, can be one of the smartest, most leveraged moves you make. Micro-acquisitions put growth within reach without the dilution, risk or grind of raising capital. You get to skip the messy zero-to-one phase and jump into something with traction.
As more platforms and tools emerge to make small business deals accessible, this strategy is only going to get more popular. The earlier you start learning the playbook, the further ahead you'll be.
Today's Biggest Companies Are Acting Like VCs. Here's Why Startup Founders Need to Pay Attention.
From internal growth arms to venture-style capital deployment, big companies are moving fast — and founders should take notice.
By Bhaskar Ahuja | April 29, 2025
A few years ago, if you asked a founder what they thought about corporate capital, the answer would've been simple: slow, bureaucratic and not worth the effort unless they're trying to acquire you. But that's not how it works anymore.
We're now seeing a shift that, frankly, would've seemed strange a decade ago — large corporations acting like VCs. They're not just launching “innovation labs” for show, but building full-blown venture arms, growth studios and capital teams that operate with the same urgency and risk appetite you'd find inside a fund.
The reason? Growth pressure. Traditional business units aren't delivering returns the way they used to. Meanwhile, startups are moving fast, taking market share and rewriting what “scale” looks like. So the big players are borrowing a page — or several — from the VC playbook.
The shift starts with how capital is used inside
A lot of companies used to treat internal innovation as a budgeting exercise. You'd get a yearly plan, a fixed line item and a few people running experiments with no clear ownership.
Now? Some of the smarter firms are setting up internal “venture funds” — actual capital pools, managed like a portfolio. Projects have to pitch for funding. Milestones matter. If a team doesn't hit targets, the money dries up. If they do, they get more.
This model changes how internal teams behave. When you fund ideas like a VC, the people behind those ideas start acting like founders. They think about efficiency, traction and customer validation. It's no longer about checking boxes on a slide — it's about showing something that works.
Some of these teams even get equity-like upside. If the initiative scales or gets spun out, there's real skin in the game. That's not innovation theater — that's alignment.
Corporate venture is getting sharper, faster and more disciplined
Outside the building, corporates are rethinking how they invest in startups, too. Corporate VC isn't new, but it used to be slow-moving and focused mostly on strategic tie-ins.
That's changed. Now, you've got corporates participating in secondaries, co-leading rounds with top-tier funds and following through in later stages. They're building out full investment teams with former operators and ex-VCs running point.
And they're not just writing checks — they're helping companies grow. They come with distribution channels, brand power and domain knowledge. When aligned properly, that support can be worth more than the capital itself.
A CB Insights report showed that corporate VC activity rebounded after a dip, with more of these groups stepping into later-stage rounds and structuring deals like growth investors. They're not chasing shiny trends. They're playing the long game — and doing it with more sophistication than ever.
Founders need to adjust their expectations
If you're building a company right now, you might be overlooking corporate capital entirely or assuming it's too rigid. That's a miss.
Today's best corporates are moving faster than some traditional VCs. They've got dry powder, they're not tied to LP pressure, and they're actively looking for ways to partner with startups that can move the needle. They care about financial returns, not just strategic “synergies.”
But here's the flip side: They're expecting more, too.
Founders need to be prepared to speak the same language. That means understanding your financials. Be clear about your customer economics. Know your roadmap, and be honest about what you still haven't figured out.
Corporate investors aren't giving you a pass because you're early-stage. They're looking at your business like any smart growth investor would.
