It’s 2025, and AI agents and ‘vibe coding’ have made it easy for even non-technical folks to build and deploy web and mobile apps. So your question may be, “Should I buy a micro-startup or just build one?” Well, let’s discuss that.

Building a product isn’t the issue. Acquiring customers is. 

Google, with some of the best technical teams, has discontinued over 100 products over the years. However, they bought YouTube when they could’ve just coded a video platform. Facebook bought Instagram and WhatsApp when they could’ve just made a clone. 

If you’re like most entrepreneurs, your reason for investing in a micro-startup is to build products people are willing to pay for. In that case, you’re buying a pre-validated idea.

And there are many more benefits to buying a micro-business. So let’s see if buying one is the right move for you.

READ: Best micro-startup ideas

Benefits of Buying A Micro-startup

Is buying a micro-startup a smart move when you can build one with AI? I’ll show you reasons why acquiring a micro-startup may be the best thing you’ll do in 2025.

Pre-validated business idea

Many founders waste months to years building the startup they feel will change the world, only to find out no one needs their product. That is time, money, energy, and resources invested in nothing.

When you buy a micro-business, you already have pre-existing customers (both paid and non-paying ones) on day one: no second-guessing if anyone’s interested in your business. All you have to think about is converting non-paying users, creating more monetization channels, growing the userbaser, and expanding the business.

Develop entrepreneurial skills

Most people are paralysed by the logistics of starting a business. They’ll think about the idea, product roadmap, execution, and getting your first set of customers. This can be overwhelming. So most people never start.

Buying a micro-business lowers the barrier to entry. Buy the business, continue from where the seller stopped, and start making the tough decisions. You don’t need years of experience to do that. 

Also, micro-startups are very affordable, with some costing as little as $900 on the Microns.io marketplace. So buy one and start learning. Being in the driver's seat will serve you way better than any book, podcast, or education.

Low-risk investment

Compared to traditional brick-and-mortar businesses, investing in a micro-startup isn’t capital-intensive. It doesn’t require much of your time and resources. Many micro-businesses were started as side projects by students, entrepreneurs, marketers, and software developers with businesses or 9-5 jobs.

As stated earlier, micro-businesses already have users: you just have to figure out how to grow the user base and convert more users to paying customers. Should the business not succeed, the experience will be a big boost for your CV/portfolio.

Growth potential

Another reason buying a micro-startup is a great idea is that you’re investing in a business you’re confident has growth potential, and you have the skill to scale. Most buyers do market research and analyse their skills to be sure they can grow the business.

READ: How to evaluate a micro-SaaS startup

What Types of Micro-businesses Can You Buy?

There’s no limit to the kind of business you can buy.

Micro-SaaS startups are just one of many profitable micro-businesses you can buy. You can acquire;

• Email newsletters
• Content websites
• Blogs
• Directories
• Mobile apps
• Web apps
• Ecommerce stores
• Shopify apps
• Info products
• ‍SaaS
• AI-based startups and much more.

Where Can You Buy Micro-startups? 

The best place to buy a micro-startup is through an online marketplace for businesses like Microns.io. Online marketplaces have a wide variety of listings from interested sellers. They make it easier to bid on businesses.

Also, these platforms have developed all the tools to make the exchange of businesses seamless. For example, on Microns.io, most acquisition deals are completed within a month (with some even finalised in a day), whereas the traditional method of buying a business can take around 3 - 6 months. 

READ: Best marketplaces for buying and selling businesses. 

Microns.io: This is our very own marketplace, and one of the best. What makes us unique is that we facilitate the sale of profitable businesses that cost between $1000 and $3,000,000. None of the other renowned marketplaces support the sale of such small online businesses: this makes us great for both first-time and established founders with little budget. We also ensure that project sellers offer buyers a free one-month post-sale support.

Flippa: Flippa is one of the oldest marketplaces with thousands of listings across various categories. One of their standout features is their paid concierge service, where buyers can get exclusive professional information 1:1 consultation about business acquisition.

READ: Microns vs Flippa

Acquire: Acquire is one of the largest online marketplaces with a decent number of completed acquisitions. They have a valuation calculator and a directory where you can hire the services of M&A professionals like accountants, lawyers, etc. 

READ: Microns vs Acquire

Empire Flippers: Empire Flippers has been around since 2013 and facilitates the sale of businesses with a minimum value of $100,000. So it may not be the best platform for first-time buyers with little cash.

READ: Microns vs Empire Flippers

FE International: As opposed to the other marketplaces, FE International is a broker that provides advisory services and deals in large acquisition deals.

Steps for Buying A Micro-SaaS Startup as A First-time or Non-technical Founder

While online marketplaces have made it easy to buy profitable micro-SaaS products, a lot of consideration goes into the process. First, how can you determine if the company will be profitable? How do you handle customer feedback and fix bugs if you’re non-technical? We’ll answer these and more in this article.

Step 1: Why are you buying a micro-SaaS company?

Aside from profitability, one of the most important things to consider before buying a software company as a non-technical founder is your “WHY”.

What problem(s) are you looking to solve?

If you already own a company or agency/consultancy service, could the tool help you deliver better results for your clients? Can it automate some of your tasks and streamline your process? Are you looking for a more intuitive and user-friendly solution with improved features? Or do you just want to test the entrepreneurship waters?

When you begin with why you’re buying a micro-business, you’ll set yourself up for success.

Step 2: Finding a micro-SaaS product and knowing how it works

After establishing your reason for buying a micro-business despite your lack of experience and tech skills, the next thing is to find suitable products that tie with the solutions you seek to create.

In doing so, your priority should be to know the product’s features and how it works before brainstorming ideas to improve them. The listings on Microns.io contain key information about the product’s features and functionality.

Also, there are many moving parts in a cloud-based software solution. On our startup marketplace, you’ll get help from the sellers on how to use the tech stack. Being a non-technical founder doesn’t mean you shouldn’t be interested in the programming language(s) and technology stack that the product runs on. As a beginner, we recommend you buy a no-code project as they're easier to understand and run.

Gather information about the third-party services, dependencies, or software licenses that the web or mobile application runs on. You also need to consider the cost implications of these services and how they’ll impact the financial health of your new business.

READ: Best profitable mobile app ideas

Step 3: Knowing the value the product brings to the user

This CBInsights survey shows that the number one reason for startup failure is a lack of market need. Regardless of how exciting a startup idea seems, it may not be useful to your ideal customers: hence, no market for it. So validate the software before investing in a startup.

The first question to ask is what target group the product will serve. Is it targeting developers, marketers, fashion designers, etc.? Are there many similar products? If yes, there’s a market and a need for your prospective product.

The next consideration should be the benefits and value it brings the user in the form of the problem it solves. Users only pay for products that bring massive ROI. So be sure the product you’re interested in buying can deliver on its promises, keep up with demand, and is scalable. And a great way to do it is by speaking with existing customers.

READ: Asset purchase agreement 

Step 4: Speak with customers

A great way to validate the product you want to acquire is to talk with existing customers. And as a non-technical founder, this should be quite easy for you.

After checking the product’s features and looking within the company, you need to look outside to see how it’s performing. And the first place to look at is the user base. Speaking with at least three (paying) customers to get their feedback is a nice place to start.

Discuss their experiences using the product and ask about the features they’d like improved or changed. When you ask these questions, try to know how much value they’ll get from these new features and if they’re worth paying for.

This stage is very important and should be done before the acquisition phase. With these insights, you’ll have sufficient data to know if your micro-SaaS product of interest is profitable and can be improved upon to solve your customers’ pain points.

Step 5: Research the competition

Researching the competition is a crucial aspect of validating the software.

Are you buying a more privacy-friendly analytics tool than Google Analytics or an email marketing tool with features focused on a specific audience than MailChimp?

Secondly, what are the top desirable features of the competitors, and what are they doing to acquire customers? What’s their marketing strategy? Are they going hard on ads or creating content to educate and engage their audiences?

As a non-technical founder, you should arm yourself with these pieces of competitor information before making a purchasing decision and find unique angles to get a slice of the market share.

Step 6: Understand the micro-SaaS business model

If you’ve run an eCommerce store or agency business, you may be surprised to discover that SaaS business models differ from these other categories.

There are different types of SaaS business models – flat rate pricing, per-user pricing, usage-based pricing, tiered pricing, etc. You need to consider this before investing in a micro-SaaS startup as the pricing model could be what could make or break the business.

Step 7: Set a deadline

There’s something like analysis paralysis where you overanalyze a situation and become paralyzed to take action.

Sometimes, we tend to pussyfoot or procrastinate taking an action because we want to be sure everything is perfect. Most times, neither the situation nor the SaaS product will be perfect. This could result in us giving up on the process in general.

So one of the best ways to stay motivated all through the buying process is to set a deadline for buying the micro-SaaS startup. Even if you don’t meet the deadline, it’ll give you something to work toward.

Setting a deadline should come earlier on in the buying journey.

Step 8: Learn how to calculate a SaaS business’s value

Do not make the mistake of believing and relying on the financials provided by the developer as the valuation of some of the listings on the marketplace may not be accurate. Hence, you need to do your due diligence.

So after gathering information about the startup, and you’re convinced it’s a viable venture, you need to consider how much the business is worth. You can begin by reviewing its revenue, expenses, and financial projections. These will help you value the business and know more about its profitability.

Keep in mind that some of the micro-SaaS startups listed on our marketplace have no pre-revenue as they’re either new or the developer/creator hasn’t done enough marketing.

Valuing and marketing an online business are some of the tasks you can undertake easily as a non-technical founder.

Step 9: Network and seek guidance

Many technical and other non-technical founders like you have built or bought SaaS or micro-SaaS startups. You can read their books, subscribe to their blogs or newsletters, and listen to their podcasts to learn how to start and grow a software company from them.

You could also join Facebook groups, our Discord group where buyers share valuable information, and forums such as Hackernoon. There are also niche influencers that you can follow on Twitter, and network with them to get access to valuable resources. This way, you’ll become more acquainted with terms and key metrics to track your new startup’s growth.

Another important thing to consider when buying a micro startup is learning how to be safe online to avoid scams and downloading malware.

Step 10: Consider having a technical co-founder

Now you’ve done your due diligence and are about to buy the micro-SaaS startup. But you remember you have no technical skills to run a software company, and your first thought could be to get a technical co-founder.

Having a co-founder will help you understand and improve your product better and faster. However, your lack of technical and programming skills shouldn’t be a deterrent to building a tech startup. Regardless, you may be able to take user feedback and make changes to the product by yourself.

You will save a ton of money by doing most of the work yourself and postponing hiring a technical co-founder.

Due Diligence Checklist

While we do our due diligence to ensure the listings on our marketplace are not fraudulent, you, as the buyer, need to be sure the business is right for you. 

Here are some things to do, questions to ask, and research to undertake to ascertain that buying the micro-business is the right move for you;

1. Assess the risk of buying the business: Can you find opportunities/channels to grow the business? Do you have the relevant skills and resources to scale the business? Who are the major competitors in the niche?
2. Review the website domain: Verify the website domain’s ownership and check if it’s transferable. Also find out what kind of content has been published on the site in the past.
3. Connect with the seller: Establish a relationship with the seller as this can make the sales process go smoother.
4. Business analytics: Request access to the site’s analytics and learn about its traffic, top keywords, top pages, backlinks, etc. Also, do some financial analysis to determine the cost of running the business and its revenue. Then there’s commercial and technical analyses to determine the customer acquisition strategies, pricing models, competitors, and the business’ tech stacks.

Here’s a more in-depth guide on how to conduct due diligence.

Conclusion

Buying a software company as a non-technical or first-time founder doesn’t have to be so difficult. We have highlighted a roadmap of the things you can do as a non-technical founder to acquire a SaaS or micro-SaaS company.

While it’s important you learn a programming language, you may not have the time and patience for that. But some important skills you must have as a non-technical founder are project management, sales, marketing, and leadership skills.

That said, we have built a marketplace where you can find lots of profitable software businesses on sale from verified sellers. The sellers will also provide you with a month of free support and guide through every facet of the business. Sign up today for our free newsletter to get the most profitable micro startups sent to you.