2025.02.08 - Online Biz Acquisition Opps

973k SDE Military Media Site with 60% Paid Subscribers.

Happy Saturday peeps! Today we’ve got 2 small growth opps, and 1 solid large business! Followed by a bit about my testing this past week with some AI video ads.

Special Needs Educational Marketplace – SDE $50K – Asking $121K – 2.4x

Listing Type (?): Small Growth Opp

This niche online marketplace specializes in educational resources for health, safety, and relationship educators, with a focus on special needs education. Marketplace businesses are notoriously difficult to gain traction in, but once established, they tend to be resilient.

The model is reminiscent of Teachers Pay Teachers, a highly successful educator marketplace. While small, this business operates in a highly specialized niche, which can provide defensibility if network effects continue to build.

Military News Media Company – SDE $973K – Asking $4.1M – 4.2x

Listing Type (?): Solid!

This 20-year-old media company stands out from the typical content site. Unlike most media businesses that rely heavily on displaying advertising, this one generates 60% of its revenue from recurring subscriptions, with ads making up only 35%. That kind of revenue mix is rare and signals a highly engaged, loyal audience.

The business attracts 50 million visitors annually and boasts 680,000 subscribers, giving it a strong foundation for continued growth. A full content team is in place, ensuring smooth operations and consistent output.

At a 4.2x multiple, it's not cheap, but the combination of a diversified revenue model, an established audience, and a well-built team makes this a high-quality media business. For a buyer with experience in subscription-based media, this could be a strong acquisition.

Remote Healthcare Job Board – SDE $37K – Asking $65K – 1.8x

Listing Type (?): Small Growth Opp

This niche job board connects healthcare professionals with remote and telehealth job opportunities, offering a proven product-market fit in an evergreen industry with deep capital. At a 1.8x multiple, the valuation is fair given its traction and revenue history.

While growth as a job board is solid, the real potential lies in expanding into content and e-learning. A strong content strategy could increase organic traffic, while educational offerings for healthcare workers could create additional revenue streams beyond job postings.

For a buyer who understands content-driven platforms or online education, this could be a smart acquisition with room for meaningful growth.

In my own online businesses….

Trials with AI video ads.

A couple weeks ago I was introduced to Pictory.ai which is a software that takes your script, and creates a voice-over stock footage video for it. Essentially a faceless video that could be for advertisement or narrative. I’ve done quite well with faceless video ads on both Youtube and Meta using a real voice and professional editors that cost about $500 all in.

Working with an AI software is obviously cheaper and allows high volume, quick creation so I decided to try it out. I used the same script that one of my best performing video ads used and fired it up on Youtube Ads. The results over the last 7 days… are a colossal failure. It performs abysmally; basically no leads and very poor metrics by every other measure.

While the software does make a decent narration and video, the AI voices lack some kind of real human warmth. I’ve also tested those AI actors programs like Arcads.io and found the same thing. High performing scripts relayed by a fake person just squander.

Are you having success with AI generated ads (or seen anyone who is)? Let me know if you are or have seen anyone that is.

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