Technology companies are bought by three kinds of buyer who value entirely different things: a strategic acquirer buying customers or capability, a fund buying recurring revenue, and an individual buyer buying a job with an asset attached. Knowing which you are selling to changes what you prepare.
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What each buyer pays for
A strategic acquirer pays for customers, a product gap they would otherwise build, or a team. A fund pays for recurring revenue with good retention and a path to growth. An individual buyer pays for stable cash flow they can operate. The same company can be worth materially different amounts to each, which is the argument for approaching all three.
Preparation that changes the outcome
Clean intellectual property ownership with assignments from every contractor. Revenue that reconciles from the billing system to the bank. Retention measured properly by cohort. Documented architecture and a second person who can operate the system. Each of these is a finding a buyer would otherwise price, and each takes months rather than days.
Timing
Sell into a period of stable or growing revenue with retention holding, not after a churn spike you intend to fix. Buyers price the trailing twelve months and treat your plan as their own upside, so a year spent improving retention usually returns more than the same year spent adding revenue.
Questions people ask about sell my tech company
Do I need to be profitable?
Not necessarily. Growth, retention and gross margin can carry a sale, though a business consuming cash narrows the pool to buyers who can fund it.
Will I have to stay?
Usually for a handover, longer if the product or customer knowledge is concentrated in you. Reducing that concentration is preparation, not negotiation.
What kills these deals?
Intellectual property that is not cleanly owned, followed by revenue that cannot be reconciled to the bank.