Startup Acquisition Stories With Luke Sheppard, Founder of Revive Ratings

Startup Acquisition Stories With Luke Sheppard, Founder of Revive Ratings

Author: Acquire.com March 26, 2024 Duration: 39:26

Luke Sheppard recently finished his bachelor’s degree at BYU with a little more spending money and work experience than most grads. He just sold his startup at 23 years old.


While attending university to study business, Luke launched a company called Revive Ratings. It was a marketing SaaS targeted at insurance agencies. He sold it in just over two years on Acquire.com.


To successfully launch his business, Luke took some big risks, like buying a one year $50,000 white-labeled software license while still pre-revenue.


But Luke also had lots of help along the way. His professors and even his competitors were happy to take a young college student under their wing as he learned the ropes.


After years of hard work and the help of the Acquire team, Luke managed to secure his dream exit and pave the road to many more to come. He’s already in the process of acquiring his next business on Acquire.


Post acquisition, listen to a jam-packed new episode of Startup Acquisition Stories Podcast as Luke and Andrew discuss:

  • The unfair advantage of launching a startup while in university
  • Why insurance agencies make great sales targets
  • How Andrew first discovered the idea behind his first successful startup, Bizness Apps
  • The potential timeline delays from SBA Loan buyers
  • Andrew’s college days as a young entrepreneur
  • What Andrew Gazdecki would be doing right now if he wasn’t running Acquire

Luke is just getting started and you can follow along on his journey here:

▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬ Be sure to subscribe to see the newest acquisition stories every Tuesday and gain the knowledge to buy or sell your own online business → https://youtube.com/@acquiredotcom?sub_confirmation=1 Want more stories? Access the past 50+ acquisition stories here → https://blog.acquire.com/tag/startup-acquisition-stories-podcast/ Thinking about selling your own startup? The number one question is always 'how much can I sell for' and we've got the answers in our biannual valuation multiples reports here → https://blog.acquire.com/tag/acquire-coms-acquisition-multiples-report/ Thinking about buying a startup? Sign up for a free buyer account and browse all the live listings. Upgrade only when you find the right one that fits your acquisition criteria to engage. Get Started → https://acquire.com/buyers/ ▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬ Follow the Guest: Luke Sheppard


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▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬ About Acquire.com: Acquire.com is the largest and most active acquisition marketplace for buying and selling online businesses. Acquire.com is the highest rated platform for both ease and quickness to match buyers and sellers. We cater to all types of online, revenue-generating businesses while producing the highest success rates for SaaS businesses in the M&A industry. Join over 500,000 entrepreneurs making life-changing connections and deals everyday.


Behind every successful startup acquisition, there's a story-a complex mix of strategy, emotion, and paperwork that rarely gets discussed openly. Startup Acquisition Stories, from the team at Acquire.com, pulls back the curtain on those real-world transactions. Each episode features founders and entrepreneurs who have personally navigated the process of selling or buying a business through their platform. You'll hear them recount the nuanced decisions that don't make it into press releases: the challenging conversations around valuation, the subtle art of vetting the opposite party, and the critical, often overlooked, steps after the handshake. This podcast digs into the practicalities of due diligence, structuring terms, and managing the transfer of assets, all the way through to escrow and the crucial post-deal transition. It’s a grounded, detail-oriented look at the mechanics of a business exit or expansion, straight from the people who’ve lived it. For anyone curious about the actual path to a deal, beyond the theory, this series offers a rare archive of lived experience and hard-won advice.
Author: Language: English Episodes: 100

Startup Acquisition Stories
Podcast Episodes
How To Sell a Bootstrapped SaaS in 7 Days With No Earn-Out [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 14:29
Omar Zouhair didn’t build PageCrafter to flip it. He built it to fix a bottleneck in his own team. But once it worked, he listed it on Acquire.com with no expectations.Seven days later, the deal was done. All cash. No ea…
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Built a Profitable Startup and Got Acquired at Just 18 [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 19:26
At just 18 years old, Siyabend Özdemir bootstrapped and sold Gen PPT, an AI-powered presentation generator used by students, marketers, and solopreneurs across the globe.What started as a school-night experiment turned i…
From Side Hustle to Clean Exit in 30 Days [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 43:03
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Duration: 16:11
What started as a side project during business school became a profitable, product-led SaaS used by finance teams, and was successfully acquired through Acquire.com.In this episode, Trevor Lee, founder of Genius Sheets,…
Zero Funding, One Buyer, and a Clean SaaS Exit [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 33:54
If Christopher Lier could give three key pieces of advice to SaaS founders planning an exit, they would be:Build a focused product that solves a specific problemBe fully transparent during the acquisition processNever se…
Inside a Bootstrapped Exit: How Johann Sold Jars on Acquire.com [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 12:45
If Johann Sathianathen could give two key pieces of advice to founders who want to sell a startup fast, he’d say:Build and sell early—even while working full-timeReinvest stable income to accelerate your startup runwayJo…
Bootstrapped, Built, Sold: Luka’s Micro-SaaS Exit [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 16:05
If Luka Pecavar could give three pieces of advice to founders building and selling micro-SaaS products, he’d say:Build simple tools that solve a specific problemListen to user feedback early and oftenEven small apps can…
Built. Sold. Free. A Startup Exit in Just 9 Months [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 9:25
When Abdulla Abdurazzoqov Reflects on Selling His SaaS Startup, He Offers These Takeaways:Build organic traffic early with free toolsChoose peace of mind over uncertaintyA strong Product Hunt launch can drive your first…