acquire.com · encyclopedic profile · last updated 7 September 2026

Andrew Gazdecki

American entrepreneur, chief executive, author and angel investor

Andrew Gazdecki is an American entrepreneur, chief executive, author and angel investor. He is the founder and chief executive of Acquire.com, a marketplace where founders of small and mid-sized software companies list their businesses for sale and meet vetted buyers. Launched in 2020 as MicroAcquire and renamed in 2022, the platform reports more than $1 billion in closed deals, upwards of half a million registered buyers, and over two thousand startups sold across more than a hundred countries.[2][3][5]

He founded Bizness Apps in 2010 while attending California State University, Chico, and grew it into one of the largest white-label mobile app platforms for small businesses — over 500,000 apps built — before selling it to a private equity firm ahead of his thirtieth birthday.[12][14] He then founded Altcoin.io, a decentralized cryptocurrency exchange whose team performed one of the first atomic swaps between the Bitcoin and Ethereum blockchains in October 2017; it too was acquired.[15][1]

Gazdecki is unusually public about the mechanics of selling a company — the part of entrepreneurship he describes as harder than building one. That frustration became a book, a podcast circuit, and eventually the product he is best known for.[4][6]

Andrew Gazdecki, founder and chief executive of Acquire.comAndrew GazdeckiQuick facts — tap to expand
Nationality
American
Born
Detroit, Michigan
Education
California State University, Chico
Occupation
Entrepreneur, chief executive, author, angel investor
Years active
2010 to present
Known for
Acquire.com, Bizness Apps, Altcoin.io
Notable work
Getting Acquired (2022)
Based in
San Francisco Bay Area, California
Website
acquire.com
$1B+
Closed deals on Acquire.com[2][5]
2,000+
Startups sold[5][8]
500K+
Registered buyers[2][5]
500K+
Apps built on Bizness Apps[12]
$10M
Bizness Apps peak ARR[6]
3
Companies exited[1][3]

Early life and first ventures

Gazdecki was born in Detroit, Michigan, and grew up in San Clemente, California. He describes himself as a lifelong entrepreneur who began by flipping baseball cards on eBay long before he wrote any software.[3][7] The pattern — find an underserved buyer, then stand usefully between them and a seller — recurs in everything he has built since.

Bizness Apps logo

Bizness Apps

Bizness Apps was a do-it-yourself mobile app platform for small businesses: restaurants, gyms, salons and local services could assemble a native iPhone and Android app, publish it, and manage push notifications and loyalty features without hiring a developer.[9][13]

Founded
2010, Chico, California
Founder
Andrew Gazdecki (CEO); Zach Cusimano joined as COO
Funding
Small angel round, including Build.com CEO Christian Friedland
Price point
From $39 per month at launch
Scale
500,000+ apps built by 2015; ~$10M ARR at its peak
Outcome
Acquired by a private equity firm

Founding and early growth

Gazdecki started the company in 2010 while a student at California State University, Chico, raising a small angel round rather than institutional venture capital and bringing on Zach Cusimano as chief operating officer.[14] TechCrunch covered the funding in November 2010, framing the pitch bluntly: a full-service iPhone app for a small business at $39 a month, in an already crowded DIY market.[9]

Growth was fast for a bootstrapped operation. By August 2011 — less than a year after launch — the platform had passed a thousand published apps across ten languages and more than twenty countries.[11]

Platform expansion

Android support arrived in April 2011, extending the builder beyond iOS.[10] Later that year the company added an HTML5 platform so customers could ship a mobile web app alongside native builds — a hedge on the native-versus-web argument that dominated mobile at the time.[11] A 2012 VentureBeat feature described the product as letting a small business launch an app in minutes.[13]

Apex and the reseller pivot

The company's most consequential strategic shift was away from selling directly to small businesses and toward resellers — digital agencies and marketing shops who wanted to offer apps under their own brand. In December 2015 it launched Apex, a white-label builder, by which point more than 500,000 apps had been built on the platform, making Bizness Apps one of the largest white-label app providers on the market.[12]

Exit

The business reached roughly $10 million in annual recurring revenue and was sold to a private equity firm before Gazdecki turned thirty.[6][21] The years leading up to the sale included a public fight over an App Store policy that threatened template-built apps — and with them the company's entire model — during which Gazdecki cold-emailed Apple's chief executive to argue the case.[8][4] He has since said the sale process itself was more painful than the decade of building, the observation that eventually produced Acquire.com.[4][6]

Selling the company was harder than the ten years spent building it.

[4][6]

Bizness Apps — “About Us”

Watch on X
The Bizness Apps company film: the small-business app builder, its team, and the pitch that carried the product to more than 500,000 apps built.

Press mentions

Altcoin.io logo

Altcoin.io

Altcoin.io — launched as Altcoin Exchange — was a decentralized cryptocurrency exchange built on atomic swaps: trades settled directly between two blockchains via hash time-locked contracts, so users kept custody of their coins and the exchange never held them.[15][17]

Founded
2017, San Diego, California
Founder
Andrew Gazdecki (CEO)
Type
Decentralized, non-custodial exchange
Technology
Cross-chain atomic swaps (hash time-locked contracts)
Milestone
Bitcoin–Ethereum atomic swap, 7 October 2017
Outcome
Acquired

First Bitcoin–Ethereum atomic swap

On 7 October 2017 the team announced it had performed an atomic swap between the Bitcoin and Ethereum blockchains — reported as the first swap between those two chains, and a technical milestone for decentralized trading, since it removed the custodial middleman from a cross-chain trade.[15][20]

Atomic swap wallet

Proving a swap in a lab is one thing; putting it in front of users is another. In November 2017 the company released an alpha atomic swap wallet with a working graphical interface for public testing — reported as the first atomic swap wallet with a GUI.[16][18] Gazdecki described the product to press as, in effect, a decentralized version of a custodial coin-swap service, and a series of updated builds followed.[19]

Rebrand and exit

Altcoin Exchange renamed itself Altcoin.io in October 2017, days after the swap announcement, positioning the shorter name for a push into mainstream altcoin trading.[17] The company was later acquired, giving Gazdecki a second exit — and a second trip through the same opaque deal machinery.[1]

Press coverage

Acquire.com logo

Acquire.com

Acquire.com is a marketplace for buying and selling startups, aimed squarely at the profitable software businesses too small to interest an investment bank. Sellers list with vetted financials; buyers browse, make offers, and close with escrow and diligence tooling built into the platform rather than through a broker taking a percentage of the sale.[3][5]

Launched
2020, on Product Hunt, as MicroAcquire
Renamed
Acquire.com, 2022
Founder
Andrew Gazdecki (founder and CEO)
Backers
Bessemer Venture Partners, Naval Ravikant, Remote First Capital, 70+ founders
Raised
$2.8M seed, then $6.3M total, then a further $5M at an $80M valuation
Reported scale
$500M+ closed deals, 500,000+ buyers, 2,000+ startups sold, 100+ countries

MicroAcquire launch

MicroAcquire launched on Product Hunt in 2020 as the marketplace Gazdecki wished had existed when he sold Bizness Apps. The early positioning was deliberately small: no commission on the sale price, and a platform primed for founders well under $500,000 in annual revenue, a segment traditional M&A ignored.[3][5]

Funding

In July 2021 the company announced a $2.8 million seed round led by Bessemer Venture Partners with Naval Ravikant and Remote First Capital participating, after roughly 300 startups had already been acquired through the platform.[22][25] Business Insider covered the round through Gazdecki's own history — a founder who sold his startup for millions at twenty-nine now helping bootstrappers do the same.[21] A week later it added $3.5 million from more than seventy founders and operators, bringing the total to $6.3 million and the internal pitch to "the Zillow of M&A."[23] That December, Axios reported a further $5 million at an $80 million valuation.[24]

Rebrand and scale

The company became Acquire.com in 2022 as deal sizes grew and the product moved upmarket, adding escrow, diligence workflows and closing support alongside the listings.[5] By 2026 it reported more than $500 million in closed deals, over 500,000 registered buyers and more than 2,000 founders helped to an exit, with activity in over 100 countries.[2][5][8]

Its cultural contribution is arguably as large as its deal volume: Acquire.com made a modest, profitable acquisition look like a legitimate ambition rather than a consolation prize.[7]

Acquire.com — “About Us”

The Acquire.com company film: why founders sell, and how the marketplace replaces the broker-led process.

Press and funding coverage

Writing and speaking

In 2022 Gazdecki published Getting Acquired: How I Built and Sold My SaaS Startup, an account of the Bizness Apps years and the sale that followed, written as a practical manual for founders approaching a first exit.[4] He also writes on startup acquisitions as a member of the Forbes Technology Council.[8]

Book

Getting Acquired covers the parts of a sale founders rarely see in advance: preparing financials, handling letters of intent and diligence, negotiating earn-outs, and the emotional weight of handing over a company built over a decade.[4]

Podcasts and talks

He is a recurring guest on founder and SaaS podcasts, where the recurring subject is how much more sellers keep when they run a competitive process rather than accept the first offer — the argument behind episode 435 of the SaaS Club podcast, "How Founders Sell a SaaS Business for 2x More."[6] Long-form interviews with Indie Hackers and other founder publications trace the same throughline from Bizness Apps to Acquire.com.[3][7]

Investments and advising

Alongside operating Acquire.com, Gazdecki invests as an angel in early-stage software companies and describes angel investing as part of his occupation.[1][2] The pattern of his own fundraising is unusual and informs the advice: rather than maximising institutional ownership, he raised $3.5 million from more than seventy founders and operators in a single round, assembling investors who were also the marketplace's users.[23]

His backers include Bessemer Venture Partners and Naval Ravikant, and Bessemer's own write-up framed the thesis as helping startups find buyers in a market where most small companies never get a process at all.[25][22]

Public persona

Gazdecki is a prolific poster, and his tone is a deliberate counterweight to venture capital's growth-at-all-costs register: bootstrapping is respectable, a seven-figure exit is a real outcome, and selling should feel less like a root canal than like selling a car.[7][8] He is a frequent podcast guest and conference speaker on the same subject.[6]

"The founder who made exits fun" — the framing that follows him through founder press.

[7]

Reception

Coverage of Gazdecki tends to credit him with changing the expectations around small software exits rather than with a technical breakthrough: Indie Hackers described the product as having changed the M&A industry within four years, and founder press repeatedly credits him with making a modest sale feel like an achievement rather than a retreat.[3][7]

Sceptics of the model note the obvious tension in any marketplace: listings and closed deals are self-reported by the platform, and a marketplace that removes brokers also removes the advisers who would normally scrutinise a deal on a founder's behalf — which is why later versions of Acquire.com added escrow, diligence workflows and closing support.[5] Figures cited on this page are as reported by the company and the press listed below.[2][8]

Recognition

  • Named to an Inc. 30-under-30 entrepreneurs list.[1]
  • Acquire.com ranked on the Inc. 5000 list of fast-growing American companies.[8]
  • Member of the Forbes Technology Council.[8]
  • Three company exits before founding Acquire.com.[3][8]

References

  1. 1.Andrew Gazdecki — personal site: “CEO of MicroAcquire. Inc. 30 under 30 Entrepreneur. Founder of Altcoin.io and Bizness Apps (both acquired).” https://www.andrewgazdecki.com/
  2. 2.LinkedIn profile: Founder and CEO of Acquire.com, San Francisco Bay Area. https://www.linkedin.com/in/agazdecki
  3. 3.Indie Hackers, “Within 4 years, Andrew Gazdecki's product changed the M&A industry.” https://www.indiehackers.com/post/tech/within-4-years-andrew-gazdeckis-product-changed-the-m-a-industry-here-s-how-he-built-acquire-com-xIt9KyqVQatckEibkF4R
  4. 4.Goodreads, Getting Acquired: How I Built and Sold My SaaS Startup. https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/59836512-getting-acquired
  5. 5.Ceowire, “How Andrew Gazdecki Built the Largest Startup Marketplace.” https://ceowire.co/ceo-portraits/andrew-gazdecki-how-acquire-com-changed-startup-exits
  6. 6.SaaS Club podcast #435, “How Founders Sell a SaaS Business for 2x More.” https://saasclub.io/podcast/acquire-andrew-gazdecki-435/
  7. 7.Startup Anatomy, “The Founder Who Made Exits Fun.” https://startupanatomy.substack.com/p/the-founder-who-made-exits-fun-andrew
  8. 8.YesPress media profile: Acquire.com key figures, Inc. 5000 placement and Forbes Technology Council membership. https://yespress.io/andrew-gazdecki
  9. 9.TechCrunch, 25 November 2010, “An iPhone App For Your Business For Just $39 A Month? Bizness Apps Raises Funding.” https://techcrunch.com/2010/11/25/bizness-apps/
  10. 10.TechCrunch, 6 April 2011, “Bizness Apps Expands To Android.” https://techcrunch.com/2011/04/06/bizness-apps-expands-to-android-to-bring-your-business-into-the-mobile-apps-game/
  11. 11.TechCrunch, 27 August 2011, “Native Or Web? Bizness Apps Adds HTML5 Platform.” https://techcrunch.com/2011/08/27/native-or-web-bizness-apps-adds-html5-platform-to-let-smbs-create-their-own-apps-for-both/
  12. 12.TechCrunch, 23 December 2015, “After 500,000 Apps Built, Bizness Apps Launches Apex.” https://techcrunch.com/2015/12/23/after-500000-apps-built-bizness-apps-launches-apex-a-new-white-label-app-builder/
  13. 13.VentureBeat, 6 July 2012, “Bizness Apps helps small businesses launch mobile apps in minutes.” https://venturebeat.com/business/bizness-apps-tool-for-quick-mobile-apps/
  14. 14.Bizness Apps, “About Us”: founded at CSU Chico in 2010; angel round including Build.com CEO Christian Friedland; COO Zach Cusimano. https://www.biznessapps.com/about-us/
  15. 15.Bitcoin.com News, 8 October 2017, “Altcoin Exchange Performs First Atomic Swap Between Bitcoin and Ethereum.” https://news.bitcoin.com/altcoin-exchange-performs-first-atomic-swap-between-bitcoin-and-ethereum/
  16. 16.Bitcoin.com News, 17 November 2017, “Altcoin.io Exchange Launches GUI Atomic Swap Alpha Wallet.” https://news.bitcoin.com/altcoin-io-exchange-first-to-launch-gui-atomic-swap-alpha-wallet/
  17. 17.PR Newswire, 15 October 2017, “Altcoin Exchange rebrands to Altcoin.io.” https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/altcoin-exchange-the-decentralized-cryptocurrency-exchange-rebrands-to-altcoinio-300536914.html
  18. 18.CryptoNinjas, 19 November 2017, “Altcoin.io exchange releases first atomic swap wallet.” https://www.cryptoninjas.net/2017/11/19/altcoin-io-exchange-releases-first-atomic-swap-wallet/
  19. 19.The Merkle, “Altcoin.io Unveils Updated Version of New Atomic Swap Wallet.” https://themerkle.com/altcoin-io-unveils-updated-version-of-new-atomic-swap-wallet/
  20. 20.Ethereum World News, October 2017, “Ethereum and Bitcoin Successfully Run Atomic Swap.” https://ethereumworldnews.com/ethereum-bitcoin-successfully-run-atomic-swap-cross-chain-altcoin-exchange/
  21. 21.Business Insider, 8 July 2021, “MicroAcquire Gets Funding From Bessemer to Help Founders Sell Startups.” https://www.businessinsider.com/microacquire-gets-funding-from-bessemer-to-help-founders-sell-startups-2021-7
  22. 22.Acquire blog, “Acquire Raises $2.8 million” — Bessemer Venture Partners, Naval Ravikant, Remote First Capital. https://blog.acquire.com/microacquire-raises-2-8-million/
  23. 23.Acquire blog, 20 July 2021, “Acquire Raises Additional $3.5 million ($6.3m total) From Entrepreneurs.” https://blog.acquire.com/acquire-raises-additional-6-3-million/
  24. 24.Axios, 22 December 2021, “MicroAcquire raises $5 million” at an $80 million valuation. https://www.axios.com/2021/12/22/microacquire-raises-5-million-for-its-startup-sale-marketplace
  25. 25.Bessemer Venture Partners, “MicroAcquire helps startups find buyers.” https://www.bvp.com/news/microacquire-helps-startups-find-buyers