$100k–$500k asking prices, $3k+ MRR, seller-certified margin of 30% or higher. TrustMRR-verified revenue. The band where solo searchers and self-funded ETA buyers close most of their deals — and where formal M&A rarely publishes anything.
Search funders spend most of their time filtering out deals that don't reconcile. This page pre-filters for the three checks that kill most candidates: real MRR (TrustMRR-verified from Stripe / Paddle / RevenueCat), real margin (seller-certified, not our 80% default), and a ticket you can actually close with your equity + SBA capacity.
Startup Index doesn't run escrow, provide financing, negotiate on your behalf, or vet code and traffic. You reach the seller directly, verify what you need to verify, and use Escrow.com or your closing attorney for the transaction. The value we add is speed of first-pass screening — not a substitute for diligence.
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Because you can screen 40 deals in 20 minutes. Every listing shows asking price, TrustMRR-verified MRR, seller-certified margin, ROI %, and payback months on the card. No NDA required to reach the numbers that decide whether a deal is worth an LOI. Brokers still have deeper mid-market inventory — Startup Index sits underneath, in the $100k–$500k band where formal M&A rarely publishes anything.
Asking price between $100,000 and $500,000, with $3,000+ MRR and a seller-certified margin of 30% or higher. That produces roughly $10,000–$35,000 in annual SDE — the low end of a traditional single-searcher target and inside the range self-funded searchers close every quarter.
Sellers connect Stripe, Paddle, or RevenueCat through TrustMRR, and MRR is pulled live from the payment processor. It's not a screenshot and not a seller-typed number — it's the same number their processor would show on a 15-minute diligence call. Traffic, churn, and code quality are still on you to verify directly with the seller.
SearchFunder is closed to non-searchers and mostly surfaces off-market pipeline from other searchers, brokers, and intermediaries. Startup Index is open, indexed by Google, and every listing publishes numbers upfront. Use SearchFunder for community and proprietary sourcing; use this page to widen the funnel with published deals that already have verified MRR.
Yes — SBA 7(a) loans commonly finance software acquisitions from $150,000 upward. Lenders usually require 2–3 years of tax returns from the target, verifiable owner-benefit, and 10–15% buyer equity. Some SaaS at this size lack clean tax history, so ask the seller for their P&L and Schedule C early — if those don't reconcile with the TrustMRR MRR, the SBA path is blocked.
Seller's Discretionary Earnings = net profit + owner's salary + non-essential add-backs. On a $200k asking-price SaaS with $5k MRR and 40% margin, SDE is roughly $24k/year — a 3.3x SDE multiple. Startup Index shows monthly net profit and revenue multiple; multiply the monthly figure by 12 and ask the seller for their add-backs list to reconstruct SDE.
Yes. The LOI process on sub-$500k SaaS runs 2–4 weeks: verbal alignment, written LOI with 30-day exclusivity, diligence (financials, code review, customer sample), asset purchase agreement, close. Most solo-founder sellers won't sign a long exclusivity — 21 days is a reasonable maximum ask.
30% seller-certified margin is the floor on this page; 40–60% is the sweet spot. Below 30% usually means either contractor bloat you can trim, or a business built for growth rather than cashflow — riskier when your investors want distributions in year one. Above 70% at this size often means the seller isn't paying themselves, so re-underwrite the deal with a $60k operator salary added to costs.
Two to five weeks for a solo searcher. Week 1: verify MRR and 12-month revenue history against Stripe. Week 2: reconstruct margin from hosting + tooling + contractor invoices. Week 3: technical review (code compiles, tests exist, no critical third-party lock-in). Week 4: customer sample calls (5–10 users). Week 5: legal + APA drafting. Faster is possible but risky at this ticket.
Buyer wires funds to Escrow.com (or directly for smaller deals under $50k). Seller transfers the domain, GitHub repo, Stripe account (Stripe supports ownership transfer), any AWS/Vercel/DB accounts, and emails customers about the change. Escrow releases funds once the buyer confirms operational handover, typically 3–7 days after transfer. Startup Index doesn't run escrow itself — that's between the two parties.
Occasionally, but the primary index sits below $500k. For $1M+ deals, mid-market brokerages like FE International, Quiet Light, and Empire Flippers have deeper pipelines. Use Startup Index for the sub-$500k tier where those brokers rarely list anything and searchers spend most of their time.