Practitioner pattern · Josh Peleg (Buys apps for BlueThrone and invites listeners to sell to him)
Buy the company that owns the app, not just the app, to keep rankings
Avoids app transfers that can hurt keyword rankings; seller pays less tax
Workedexit-maaso
What they did
In a share deal the buyer acquires the seller's company with the app inside it, so the app stays in its developer account. In an asset deal the app must move from one developer account to another, which can disrupt keyword rankings and ASO. Works best for one-app companies; seller pays far less tax than in an asset deal. Buyers can still make deals work without a C-corp.
What happened
Guest calls it generally much safer for the buyer.
“because if you buy the asset, you have to move the asset from one developer account to another, which can really mess around with your keyword rankings and ASO and stuff”
“so it's generally much safer to to buy the company”
Related topics
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More from this episode
- BlueThrone: Sell off dozens of simple apps and focus on 3-5 deep onesGuest says far more effective; simple scanner apps had too few growth levers
- BlueThrone: Pay half at closing and guarantee the other half 12 months laterLets them offer a higher price because their risk is lower; no numbers
- Redesign the subscription offer and A/B test it hard after buying an appFree-to-paid conversion rose 'massively'; no exact figures
- Redo the store listing and launch in new countries after buying an appMonthly users grew from 200K to 5M, alongside other changes
- Add streaks, daily login rewards and game elements to the core appDay-7 retention rose from 18% to 34%, and is higher today
- Buy your first app through a broker instead of cold-emailing developersDirect outreach got no replies; the broker deal closed with a motivated seller
- Buy an app at about 3x yearly earnings with a loan its income coversJust closed: ~$350K, ~$5K/month payments vs ~$10K/month earnings
- Grow on App Store search and Apple Ads alone, one main keyword plus long-tailBuilt an app that sold for about $350K without paid social
- Show the paywall before asking people to sign upSales up 52%; swapping the order was the only change
- Make separate Google Play listings, each aimed at one keywordReached about $6-7K MRR on Android alone