Acquisitions Anonymous - #1 for business buying, selling and operating - 95% Margins in Crypto! Should You Buy This Business?

Episode Date: December 20, 2024

Explore the wild world of crypto as we review a cryptocurrency signal trading platform for sale and the ethics of anonymous trading communities.Business Listing - https://us.businessesforsale.com/us/leading-cryptocurrency-trading-signals-service.aspxThis episode is sponsored by:Connor’s Franchise Consulting - Take the first step towards owning a franchise. Sign up for Connor’s newsletter or attend his Gateway to Franchise Ownership workshop! Schedule a call with Connor and his team today https://connorgroce.com/.Holdco Conference 2025 - Learn how to manage multiple businesses at an all-inclusive mountain resort. Use code AIRPOD for 10% off your ticket! Visit HoldcoConference.com.In this episode, we dive into a cryptocurrency signal trading business listed for sale, exploring its meteoric rise, 95% profit margins, and ethical concerns about anonymous operations. We discuss the dynamics of crypto communities, the challenges of scaling paid memberships, and whether this kind of business is sustainable or just another “pump and dump.” Plus, our hosts share personal crypto mishaps and insights on how financial institutions perceive digital assets. A must-listen for anyone curious about the intersection of crypto and small business acquisitions!Key Highlights:- Overview of a crypto signal trading business with 95% net margins.- Ethical concerns surrounding anonymous trading communities.- The challenge of transitioning personal-brand businesses to new owners.- Crypto’s impact on personal financial statements and SBA loans.- Personal anecdotes on missed crypto opportunities and market dynamics.Subscribe to weekly our Newsletter and get curated deals in your inboxAdvertise with us by clicking here Do you love Acquanon and want to see our smiling faces? Subscribe to our Youtube channel. Do you enjoy our content? Rate our show! Follow us on Twitter @acquanon Learnings about small business acquisitions and operations. For inquiries or suggestions, email us at [e-mail]

The parallels between actual crypto and this business are a business version of pump and dump meme coin. Have you guys ever been in a group chat like these? It's basically what this is. This community is a group chat. And basically once a day, somebody will be like, hey, what do you guys think about XYZ coin? Is Huck to a coin going to go to the moon? Don't you love that on this type of listing to, they're like proof of funds required? The person who has $1.1 million is not shelling it.

out for this. Shouldn't the asking price not be in dollars though? Well, said Acquisitions Anonymous. Hello, another episode of Acquisitions Anonymous. We don't have 100% here. Hey, Michael here. Welcome to Acquisitions Anonymous. Internet's number one podcast about buying, selling, and investing in small businesses. Today, we dug into a deal that celebrates that Bitcoin broke $100,000 for the first time since it was started. And it is a cryptocurrency signals trading platform that we either hated or we loved or something in the middle. So, Stick around. We'll dig into it and tell us some funny stories about crypto as well. And you can figure out what we thought about it. There you go.

Hey, everybody. If you've listened to this show, you've probably heard us talk about franchises. While franchises can be a great path to business ownership for the right person, like there's a lot of pitfalls. And it's important to be really careful as there are certainly good franchises to be in and bad franchises that you don't want to be in. Connor gross is a friend of the pod and a resident expert on franchises. And Connor not only owns and operates his portfolio of multiple franchises, but he's also a franchise consultant and helps others work through while picking the right franchise for them. So as he's sponsoring today's episode, everyone should totally click in the show notes below to join

Connor's newsletter and attend one of his gateway to franchise ownership workshops. If you're ready to move and move quickly, schedule a call with Connor and his team today. Okay. Okay. Okay. Icebreaker. Who of the four hosts owns any Bitcoin at all? Uh, Heather.

Zero. Mills. Zero. 0.1 bitcoins. for me now Michael in the past yes but right now no

I own so much Bitcoin when it was $1,100 Oh no Yeah it was good times There is a text mess or a Twitter DM thread When I used to live in Denver This would have been in like 2012

One of my friends in Denver His name's Mark He does listen to the podcast Shout out Mark Sent me a Twitter DM is like, hey, we should do this Bitcoin thing. Like, we should get some miners. And like, I was like the techiest person he knew. So he texted me, I think. And he was like, let's do it. Like we could be partners. And I was like, nah, sounds stupid. Like what I texted about, I was

like, I don't think like it's already run up a lot. Like, I don't think, you know, this is worth getting into. And it's like the most painful thing. It's like this is the, the eight or nine figure text thread that I just totally with. It's just, I think. I look. I look back. I look. on all of my cryptocurrency experiments, like we were all sit at home during COVID and just like buying monkey JPEGs, you know. And I look back at it and I made a shit ton of money just buying Ethereum, Solana and Bitcoin and doing nothing. And I lost in everything that wasn't that. Like if I bought NFTs or I minted NFTs or, you know, signed up, there was that one platform where like you could like use cryptocurrency. to like give people kudos and like a copy of twitter i don't know if you guys remember that i put money

to that lost money but like i made so much money just buying cryptocurrency and doing nothing that was the whole strategy did you see the hawk to a girl just had that scam it's like 50 million dollars she came out with her own coin uh so i'm into dms about that that's crazy yeah so she pumped and dumped the whole thing or whoever is running her basically yeah running her pumped and dumped it like i think she genuinely i saw the thread on it i think she generally doesn't think that she pumped and dumped it but i also genuinely think she has no clue what people are doing in the background and i'm in some dm threads with like some people that don't necessarily wear 10 foil hats but they're maybe like aluminum foil and um and like they're they're

like yeah everything you see you should just assume hawk to a she was manufactured down to the original clip like it was all it was all orchestrated some somebody, you know, people using bots to get that first clip to go viral. You know, she very quickly had a podcast afterwards and like a merch store. Like it happened all so quickly. You're like, really. But yeah, so anyway, that's the whole, that's the whole thesis with the aluminum foil hat people is she, she, she's telling the truth. She didn't know she was rug pulling everybody for $50 million, but the people running her definitely knew they were doing it.

So I found my Bitcoin thread. Do you want to hear it? Yes. This is absolutely the most painful thing. I've ever read still. This is dated July 8th, 2013 from my friend Mark. Bill, side venture for you. I buy a Bitcoin miner. Miners in quotes. You run it and we split any profits. It may not make any money, but it will be a good story. Thoughts. I said, hmm, not sure Bitcoin mining is nearly as profitable as it used to be. The prices come down. Bitcoin price is now all the way down to

He goes, well, anyways, you were the only one with the tech wearerthal to make it worth it. I guess do you have any other ideas when we proceed to talk? That's July 2013. Then he texts me again, November 2013. Dude, I told you we should have gotten into Bitcoin. You were too worried about tangible products instead of imaginary currencies. And I said, damn, you were right. You sent me that at $60.

and now it's closer to 300. He replies to me, let that be a lesson for next time. And then both of us did nothing. There's an interesting, I don't know if you guys looked at it. One of the most successful venture funds of all time is like this 2014 or 2013 vintage founders fund. Vintage was like a $180 million fund. Basically all the guys did was raise money. They wrote two or three like little small checks as Peter Thiel's fund.

And then they just took the rest of the fund and they put it all into Bitcoin and they just did nothing. That was the whole fund. So anyway, I don't know the exact stories on that, but I thought that was just a good story. Maybe a lesson learned. Wow. So why are we talking about crypto? Oh, well, Bitcoin just reached $100,000. So you know what that means.

It's definitely a top. Like when you see people this excited, it's definitely a top. So if you could short Bitcoin right now, there's a $100,000. an invoice Bitcoin ETF, go buy that because it's definitely happening. Because we go through this hype cycle. It just goes like this on Bitcoin. It takes about 18 to 24 months for people to remember that Bitcoin reached all-time highs because it crashes.

They have to forget the crash afterwards. And then they buy again in the hype cycle like continues. So we're at the, we're at the height of one of those. So now's the time to short it. But because it reached $100,000, I brought a deal that is a cryptocurrency trading signal service that is for sale out of New York. So can I tell you about this? Yes.

Yes. Okay. So it is on Businesses for Sale.com and it is listed by Biak, B-I-A-C commercial, whatever that means. So it is a leading cryptocurrency trading signal service for sale from New York, United States. They're asking $1.1 million for it. Sales revenue is $250,000 to $500,000 a year, and it cash flows $250,000 to $500,000 a year.

The current owner started this business in September, September, 2021 from the ground up by himself. With no previous business or marketing experience being only a crypto trader, he has developed an incredibly successful business, which is crying out, crying out, they say, for a new ownership with marketing and business growth experience to take this to the next level. The business provides trade signals over telegram to a group of over 1,000 members. Subscription plans range in price from $50 per month to up to $750 for lifetime access. In addition to this, the owner has.

written an interactive trading course where members pay $995 for lifetime access. This continues to make sales consistently. Payments for all services are made either by crypto or card. Since the beginning, he has built up over 140,000 active Twitter followers, 14,000 on Instagram, and more than 30,000 in his free telegram group, which are great audiences to promote to. The business is considered an influencer in the crypto space and boasts one of the best success rates of the leading crypto signal service.

The owner has also coded a game-changing indicator, which has one of the highest, if not the highest win rate in all of the crypto markets. This is a high-profit business with negligible overheads giving a net profit in the region of 95% of turnover. Oh my God, Michael, there's so much I want to say. For those of you are longtime listeners, that is one of a net 95% net margin is one of one of Bill's love languages. He has more than the normal man. But anyway, okay, so there's three more paragraphs and then we should go. The current owner is an active trader and his main reason for sale is he is struggling to keep up with the promotion and admin side of this business. And he lacks the experience to take this to the next level.

He has decided to focus more on trading, which is what he does best. And he's grown the business from nothing up to a high six-figure turnover business during a crypto bear market. Of course, the business follows market cycles, but someone with a time and expertise to market the business further could easily make this $100,000 per month business. If you analyze historical market cycles, 2024, 25 will see the most likely see the next crypto bull run and is a perfect time for a new owner to market into this. The owner is not interested in giving shared ownership of the business and is looking for a full buyout. Proof of funds and completion of the NDA will be required. The owner is happy to stay on for agreed upon period to assist with the handover. This business can be run from home, Bill.

Businesses in quotes. Okay. Bill's head's about to explode. So let's all take a deep breath. Beth. Who wants to be this guy's exit liquidity? I mean,

this too, go, Bill. The parallels between actual crypto and this business are, this is like the pump and dump, the business version of pump and dump meme coin. I mean, he spends half the thing talking about

how this is like the best opportunity ever. And the other half of it talking about how he wants nothing more to do with it, requires a full buyout. And this is the best, like the best, time for you to buy it. Like he is dumping this on you. This is unbelievable. Yeah. For a million one, also some, can't someone like this, it seems like this would be a small amount for, you know, a million one, what is asking prices for someone that's so successful at trading crypto.

Also, like, why is that? If your indicator were this good, delete this web page and just trade crypto and make $100 million. Like, what are we doing here? Right. Right. There's something know about the content side of this that is really interesting to me though like this is probably catnip for this audience right 140,000 Twitter followers and 14,000 on Instagram and this telegram. Like I'm not saying there's any validity to the service offering or the content offering, but I bet it flies off the shelves like clockwork and it's highly correlated to just rapid changes in price, either up or down, right? As it goes down, people are like maybe I should buy. And then they, you know, they buy the course.

Have you guys ever been in a group chat like these? It's basically what this is. This community is a group chat. And basically once a day, somebody will be like, hey, what do you guys think about XYZ coin? Is Huck to a coin going to go to the moon? And then people will be like, yeah, no. And then you see like in real time, like the wisdom of the crowds being like,

it's going to the moon. Let's all go in. And that's basically what this guy is doing. Right. He's running this community, which like, is basically. basically like he comes up with these trade ideas and gets signals of trade ideas and then waits until he sees which ones like are getting momentum and then they buy in early and they pump it up like that's the whole thing like hey michael here i want to let you know that i'm

hosting a conference first time i've ever done it and it's called hold co-conference 2025 if you want to learn how to manage multiple businesses at once how to incubate new companies or how other whole co-owners and operators run their fleet of companies then should come to utah next spring we've got a ton of great speakers including walker diable who wrote buy-then build and founded acquisition Plus, we're hosting it at an all-inclusive mountain resort so you can hit the slopes at the end of the day. So please go to holdcoconference.com for your tickets and get 10% off with your discount A-A-Pod. That's holdcoconference.com and use code A-A-Pod for 10% off. Now, back to the show.

Yeah. You create the momentum. Yeah. Don't you love that on this type of listing too, they're like proof of funds required? The person who has $1.1 million is not shelling it out for this. No. But they want like a snapshot. a screenshot from your phone with a bank account that says at least $1.1 million, you know.

I mean, do we think, do we think like somebody's made a lot of money from crypto by something like this because they are passionate about it? I mean, money becomes pretty funny for two types of people, poker players and crypto people. They tend to have weird views of money. And to something I always thought it was because poker players deal in chips so much that the money doesn't feel real to them anymore, but I think crypto is the same way. Like Bitcoin isn't real dollars. You're kind of just like, well, I think it's worth X. That's what it's trading for. Yeah, I would normally say that a business like this is inherently not very sellable, but there is probably somebody who has a ton of liquidity because of cryptocurrency. And even just the allure of I can kind of buy extension

be a crypto influencer, I think I think somebody buys this thing. And shouldn't they? Shouldn't the asking price not be in dollars though yeah good point you believe in the product so much yeah right what i think guys december heather is my favorite heather because the year the year you know heather you're like super nice like you're such a kind person and like i think the banks finally broke you they do finally you're just from last week's episode and you're just like screw i'm going to let's have it today. There's an arbitrary reset on January 1st. Yeah, I'll be nice again.

I will. All the deadlines just fall away. So the other thing that freaks me out about this, right? Is the sheer lack of ethics in this. So this is what would be called in gambling a tout, somebody who like sells their picks, basically for like who's going to win, you know, on Sunday. But like, it says. that they've built up as an influencer in the space, but then they're just straight up willing

to sell it to you and, you know, of course, not disclose the sale. And there's all these people like gambling their own money based on the recommendations that are coming out of this influencer and you don't even know who's behind it. I mean, it's like, this is crazy. Don't gamble money on the internet, people. I did a YouTube video about kind of the origins of the stock market and they originally started in coffee houses where people were trading like slips of paper. around stuff and it kept resulting in people like getting into fights and stabbing each other because they didn't have any rules. It feels like the same kind of Wild Wild West stuff going on here. Because there were so many scams when people got started, right? And of course, the stock

market's gone the other way now where it's arguably overregulated. But yeah, this reminds me of that where people have just gone back and recreated the 1600s with less coffee and fewer Dutch people involved. But I think that fundamentally says why this business is succeeding. Maybe they're succeeding. It validates the need for something like this. There's so much information and so much noise in this space. So people look for an authority. And then if that authority tells them pay $750 for lifetime access, they're really willing to do it. And whether or not this person is giving good advice or bad advice. Like, I don't know anything about it. But I think there will always be demand for this type of authority in the midst of a bunch of noise. Can this business transition

from this person or persona to another owner? Not so sure. Is there really any evergreenness to this content? Or is it like, you know, prices change and the whole model changes or maybe technology changes, you know, from underneath it and now it's, you know, the old content is less relevant. Those would be some of my concerns. So I think the parallel here is what you see kind of in the, you know, personal finance, personal investing, retail trader kind of space, right? And our buddy Matt Balson, who has a jet, he has a jet and I don't think any of us do. So he's doing really well. But basically the whole business is, you know, creating and giving people information. and then selling, you know, ad space to people that want to sell touts, want to sell courses,

wants to sell stock trading ideas, want to sell conviction so they can go educate themselves to go make trades, right? And it's a great business. Like, it's been around for the past 50 years. It's going to keep going on. It survives the transition from paper to fax to where we are today with, you know, with purely digital. Like, I think the key thing there, Mills, is it has this underlying market where the people are

trying to find alpha and are trading. and looking for ideas and want to be told what to do. Like, I think that it's not going anywhere. Whether it looks like this in long term, I don't know. But crypto basically is just mirroring what we're seeing with people trading their own, their own book of stocks, you know? Yeah, I mean, it's a great business. I mean, it's 95% in that margin.

Like, people are selling people ways to get rich is a great business. I don't know if I want to be in that business. Yeah. Yeah. Well, you have two things going on. You have that aspect of it. And then there's just like the. I mean, there's just so many scumbags in crypto.

He's just horrible. Like, it just seems like it's attracted all of these folks. I mean, it's anonymized, unregulated gambling, right? And like, let me be clear. Like, I'm not like against crypto. Like Bitcoin is super cool. Ethereum is super cool. Like the whole concept of decentralized permissionless money is super cool.

The problem is that it is decentralized, anonymous, and a lot of really, really bad actors have thoroughly permeated the space. Absolutely. I'll never forget. We looked at a business to buy when I was with another firm. And they end this amazing business, a really, really amazing, like, municipal services business in California. It wasn't going anywhere.

Increased regulation. Guy built the business from the ground up. It was just awesome. And they were getting out of the business. It was like making, I think, five or six million dollars a year in EBIDA and they were getting out because they were focusing more on crypto and like in hindsight he was probably really smart you know this was like eight years ago um but it's just it's an interesting yeah there's some interesting dynamics there that make me

not want to touch it with a 10 foot pole i think the model here is really cool right like these these paid community businesses are are very interesting when they work um and i there's a lot of folks that are doing them they're hard to scale though right like you you look at somebody like this and I rarely feel like there are there are vibrant communities that get above this kind of thousand person threshold and most of them tend to stop smaller than that so like bill how big is e-commerce feel like how many people on that uh I think it's between a thousand and 1500 CEOs yeah and you and that's a great I mean it's a really good business yeah great business 10 out of 10 execution as well from what it looks like it's not not easy yes 10 out 10 execution i would

say that's different than this though because like the members of that community are engaged in building their own businesses which is a long-term endeavor right and you know people are using their real names which is critical andrew's really big on real names disclose what business you're actually in like you got to be who you are um that is the opposite of this business like this is anonymous this is you know you're not building relationships with the other cartoon apes in the, you know, in the group, right? You know, you're all just there trying to make money. People are probably washing out every day because they blow their bankroll, right? So the churn is probably way higher. Like, these are gamblers not for traders. Traders, by the way, is the nice word for gambler. So whenever you hear trader,

just insert for gambler. So these, these are traders and amateur ones at that because they're getting tips from a Twitter account. And so they're going out of business all the time. So the churn here is probably crazy. And that's why, by the way, he's selling lifetime memberships because he's got all the money. Versus ECF, like, it takes you a while. If you're going to churn, like you go out of business slowly, right? But if you stay in business, you're in business for a long time.

So the underlying dynamics of the membership here, I think, are very, very different. 100%. Okay, so I'm thumbs down. You guys hate this one, huh? All right, Heather, this is totally up your alley, right? You're very interesting. Thumbs down. I don't want to be near these people.

They scare me. We could finance it with an SBA loan, probably. No. Are the banks taking cryptocurrency as collateral these days? They are not. They are not. In fact, they make fun of people sometimes behind their backs when they show crypto on their personal financial statement. Hmm.

Little known fact. So that's interesting, as much as I've just been antagonistic. Oh, no. There's so on mine. Right. Like, that seems not fair. Like, like a major crypto like Bitcoin or Ethereum, like that's a real asset that can be liquidated. Much, I mean, how different is it than a penny stock or a small stock? I don't agree with it.

But I'm telling you, when people show it on their personal financial statement and it's a, you know, a reasonable amount of their total assets, you will get comments from the bankers kind of what kind of person is this, you know, is this serious entrepreneur? What are they doing? Or are they taking undue risk gambling? You know, it's almost like, you know, nobody wants to lend to someone who appears to have a gambling problem. It's almost a little bit of a yellow flag like that, you know. Whereas if you said I have half a million dollars worth of art or wine or something like that. They would say you're amazing. So sophisticated.

Or even, I mean, you're right, Mills, but even more directly, what if you had the same amount in a Bitcoin ETF in a brokerage account? They wouldn't even blank. They'd probably be okay with that. That's right. Yeah, because it's custody of Schwab. You know, or fidelity. I just see a Schwab statement. It's fine.

Yeah. Yep. So actually, interesting advice. If you are trying to buy a business and you own a fair bit of cryptocurrency, you might either sell it for cash before you send in that financial statement or you might, but if you still want the exposure, exchange it for ETF exposure during when you send that, when you're trying to close your deal. And then you can switch back to real crypto.

Yeah. Yeah. I mean, it will show better, whether fair or not, it will show better. it will show better if you don't show a lot of crypto on your financial statement, at least in this day and eight, like where we are right now, maybe a couple of years from now, it'll be different. But still, banks are pretty skeptical about someone who is trading, gambling, as you said. Interesting.

All right. All right. Well, that'll do it for today's episode. I also hated this deal. But it's kind of like looking at a shark. I'm not really interested in sharks, but I appreciate the, like, elegance of what this guy put together, but also like it's a short. So that's how I think about it. All right, cool. Well, thanks everybody for being here. Do us a favor. Go sign up for our newsletter. It's at

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