Micro SaaS acquisitions are attractive because the businesses are simple, the code is (usually) small, and the deal size is manageable. The risk is that simplicity is an illusion — what looks like a clean product often has a spider web of informal dependencies that only the founder knows about.
A micro SaaS doing $3K MRR is not a small version of a VC-backed startup. It's a different animal entirely. The evaluation framework for large software acquisitions applies in principle but needs to be recalibrated for the realities of solo-founder products.
This guide covers what to look for specifically when the codebase was written by one person, operated by one person, and is about to be handed to someone entirely new.
The micro SaaS acquisition reality
Most micro SaaS products have:
- One developer who wrote everything
- No documentation except maybe a README
- Infrastructure managed through a console, not code
- Third-party services registered on personal accounts
- Billing, support, and marketing run by the same person
- Customers who expect to email the founder directly
All of these are handoff risks. None of them show up in the financial due diligence.
The bus factor problem
In micro SaaS, the bus factor is always 1. The question isn't whether it's a risk — it is — the question is whether the risk is transferable.
What you need to verify:
Can a new operator run this without the founder?
- Is there a runbook for common operational tasks? (restarting services, handling payment failures, dealing with outages)
- Can the buyer deploy an update without the founder's help?
- Are all credentials documented and transferable?
- Are there any automations running in the founder's personal accounts (Zapier, Make, Airtable) that the product depends on?
Spend at least half a day doing a simulated handoff — have the founder walk you through every operational task as if you're taking over tomorrow. What comes up that wasn't in the documentation?
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Infrastructure and vendor dependencies
Solo founders optimize for cost and convenience. This creates a specific set of risks:
| Common setup | Risk | What to check |
|---|---|---|
| Hosted on Vercel/Railway personal account | Access transfers when account transfers, but billing history may be lost | Confirm transfer process with vendor before close |
| Database on Supabase free tier | Free tier has limits and can be deleted if inactive | Check tier, usage, and upgrade path |
| Emails via personal Gmail SMTP | Not reliable at scale, tied to personal account | Check how transactional emails are sent |
| Domain registered personally | Transfer requires registrar process | Initiate before close, not after |
| API keys in environment variables | Fine if documented, risky if undocumented | List all third-party services and their purpose |
| Stripe in personal account | Transferable but requires Stripe support process | Start transfer process early |
The most dangerous dependency: a third-party integration that the founder has a personal relationship with — a beta API, a special rate, a vendor contact who handles issues informally. These evaporate at handoff.
Code quality expectations (adjusted for solo founders)
Don't apply enterprise-grade code quality standards to a solo-founder product. A micro SaaS that generates $5K MRR consistently is working. The bar is different:
What actually matters:
- Can a competent developer understand the codebase without the founder explaining everything?
- Are the critical paths (signup, billing, core feature) documented or at least readable?
- Is the database schema reasonable and are there migrations?
- Are secrets managed through environment variables (not hardcoded)?
- Does the deployment process work without tribal knowledge?
What you can tolerate:
- No tests (common and usually acceptable at this scale)
- No CI/CD (common — manual deploys are fine if documented)
- Mixed code styles (one person's project)
- Minimal error handling on non-critical paths
What you cannot tolerate:
- Billing logic that the founder can't fully explain
- Database with no backups
- A single point of failure with no recovery process
- Churn that the founder attributes to "users just leaving" but is actually being caused by bugs
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Churn investigation
Revenue figures in micro SaaS acquisitions are often presented as stable when the underlying churn is masked by new signups. The business looks flat but is actually churning through customers.
What to check:
- Monthly cohort retention for the last 12 months — not just aggregate MRR
- What percentage of churned users cited a specific complaint? (Check support emails, cancellation surveys)
- Are there known bugs or missing features that have been deferred because the founder was solo?
- Does the Stripe dashboard show the same MRR trend as what's been presented?
Ask for a full Stripe export or at least a cohort retention chart. This is non-negotiable.
If verifying the churn story, the vendor dependencies, and the handoff risk independently sounds like more than you want to take on alone before close,
here's how our pre-close review works →The handoff period
Every micro SaaS acquisition should include a structured handoff period — typically 30–90 days where the founder is available for questions. Negotiate this explicitly:
- How many hours per week is the founder available?
- What triggers extend the handoff period?
- Is there compensation for handoff support, or is it included in the deal?
- What constitutes "complete" handoff — what does the buyer need to be able to do independently?
Document the answers. Founders who say "I'll always be available" often aren't after the first month.
Valuation adjustments for technical findings
Micro SaaS deals are typically priced at 3–5x ARR. Technical findings should adjust this:
| Finding | Adjustment |
|---|---|
| No runbook, undocumented operations | 0.5–1x reduction |
| Critical vendor dependency (personal account) | Escrow holdback until transferred |
| Active churn-causing bugs | Quantify lost ARR and deduct |
| No database backups | ₹1L–₹3L remediation, deduct |
| Dependency on founder's personal integrations | Risk premium or seller-supported transition period |
| Clean, documented, transferable system | Pay full multiple |
The 48-hour micro SaaS checklist
- List every third-party service the product depends on. Verify each can be transferred.
- Do a simulated deploy. Can you deploy an update without the founder's help?
- Pull the Stripe cohort data. Verify MRR and retention figures independently.
- Run the app as a user. Find the rough edges. Note anything that feels broken.
- Review the support inbox. What are users actually complaining about?
- Check the database. Is there a backup? When was it last tested?
- Review the git log. How recently has it been updated? What's the commit frequency?
- Ask: "What would you fix first if you had another month?" Take that answer seriously.
Need this done for you?
Micro SaaS acquisitions look simple. Most aren't. Hunchbite does focused micro SaaS technical assessments in 1–2 days — transferability, infrastructure dependencies, churn risk signals baked into the code, and a written report before you close. Priced for the deal size.
→ Technical Due Diligence Service
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