This Founder Sold His Startup, Bought it Back for Pennies, and Resold it on Acquire.com for 5 Figures

This Founder Sold His Startup, Bought it Back for Pennies, and Resold it on Acquire.com for 5 Figures

Author: Acquire.com March 5, 2024 Duration: 31:50

If someone told you they did what you just read in this title, you’d probably think they’d committed a crime.


But Qayyum Rajan’s good fortune was a surprise twist of fate.


Early in 2023, Qayyum sold his business, ESG Analytics, to a private equity firm. But, his acquirer ran out of money and offered the business back to him for next to nothing a few months later.


Qayyum got back in the driver's seat of his startup, spent $10,000 to redesign its website, and then listed it on Acquire.com for another sale.


ESG Analytics was popular with buyers. Its clients were mid-level private equity firms and portfolio managers who needed to evaluate environmental social good (ESG) performance across large numbers of businesses.


No other tool provided affordable ESG industry reports at the time. Within days of listing on Acquire, Qayyam was pitting a handful of small PE buyers against each other in a bidding war.


He finally sold for five figures, spent 20 percent on a vacation for himself and his wife, and set the other 80 percent aside for savings.


Post-acquisition, listen to Qayyum’s Startup Acquisition Stories Podcast episode with Andrew as they discuss:

  • The huge ESG industry problem Qayyum capitalized on
  • The advantages of selling a business multiple times
  • What founders need to do to increase their sale valuation
  • Why future sellers need to be extra careful when applying for a business credit card


Qayyum is just getting started and you can follow him on his journey here:


▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬


Follow the Guest: Qayyum Raja

Follow the Host: Andrew Gazdecki -

Follow Acquire.com


▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬

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 and eCommerce/DTC businesses in the M&A industry. Join over 350,000 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 Your Startup for a Life-Changing Payout [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 22:23
What does it take to sell a music software startup and walk away with a life-changing payout?Emmett Cooke says it comes down to four things:1. Leveraging existing relationships to acquire your first customers2. Building…
Are You Selling an Asset or Selling a Job? [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 19:40
If Ian Fourie could give two pieces of advice to founders selling their SaaS startups, he’d say: Register your business in only one country Start pushing founder responsibilities to employees as soon as you canIan sold h…
How Gabby Rosen Flipped a Newsletter for 18x in Under a Year [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 16:12
What does it take to sell a startup for almost 20 times what you paid for it?Gabriella (Gabby) Rosen says it comes down to three things:Having an unfair advantage when you buyListing on Acquire.com for slightly less than…
Want to Build an Agency Worth Buying? Spend a Decade Saying Yes [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 29:23
While working full-time as a pharmaceutical sales rep, Bobby Dimovski noticed that medical professionals were: Always looking for new ways to grow their business. Usually 10 years behind on marketing trends. Hard to acce…
Look For This When Acquiring Startups, It Could Triple the Resale [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 12:07
After building and selling one of the first ChatGPT plagiarism checkers on the market in 2024, Tomer Tarsky decided to search Acquire.com for another project in the edtech AI space. He found a promising business, grew it…
Turning Your Weakest Skill into an Acquire’d Startup [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 16:58
Are you a developer who’s bad at email marketing? Ironically, you may be in a great position to build the next big email marketing tool. Onur Genes wanted to promote his software development agency but couldn’t write goo…