# Growing Ventures > Lessons from buying, building and growing software ventures. Public Ghost content for AI and LLM tooling. This file includes a bounded export of public pages first, then recent public posts. Append `.md` to any post or page URL to get the content in Markdown (for example, `/example-post.md`). ## Pages ### About this site URL: https://www.hauser.io/about/ Last updated: 2026-07-05T10:15:58.000Z Bernhard Hauser is an independent publication launched in May 2025 by Bernhard Hauser. If you subscribe today, you'll get full access to the website as well as email newsletters about new content when it's available. Your subscription makes this site possible, and allows Bernhard Hauser to continue to exist. Thank you! ### Access all areas By signing up, you'll get access to the full archive of everything that's been published before and everything that's still to come. Your very own private library. ### Fresh content, delivered Stay up to date with new content sent straight to your inbox! No more worrying about whether you missed something because of a pesky algorithm or news feed. ### Meet people like you Join a community of other subscribers who share the same interests. --- ### Start your own thing Enjoying the experience? Get started for free and set up your very own subscription business using [Ghost](https://ghost.org/?ref=hauser.io), the same platform that powers this website. ### About Bernhard Hauser URL: https://www.hauser.io/about-me/ Last updated: 2026-07-07T20:56:29.000Z I'm the founder and CEO of [Waterglass](https://www.waterglass.ai/?ref=hauser.io), where we focus on AI strategy, AI agents and our venture studio, along with the business acquisitions we have made since 2024. Previously, - I incorporated and managed a corporate venture with €3.8M in total funding - I launched Facebook's first startup accelerator in Germany - I organized an international technology conference in Vienna (Austria) with speakers from Facebook, Microsoft, Google and more – twice - I bootstrapped a company to €20k+ MRR and worked with globals brands including Uber, Danone and the UN on business messaging with our in-house WhatsApp Business API which processes 13.5M messages in total - I co-founded an NGO in 2012 that supports students in starting their startup career Connect with me on [LinkedIn](https://www.linkedin.com/in/bernhardhauser/?ref=hauser.io) or message me via [bernhard@hauser.io](mailto:bernhard@hauser.io). --- ## Waterglass ### AI Strategy, Agents & Venture Studio **Founder & CEO** • 2024 – ongoing • Vienna (Austria) ![](https://www.hauser.io/content/images/2026/07/wg-ai.png) Waterglass We work with clients across media, logistics, HR, consulting and finance - setting the AI strategy that moves the business, then building and operating the agents that do the work. Alongside the client work, we acquire niche B2B software and rebuild it around AI agents, such as [Pxl](https://www.pxl.to/?ref=hauser.io) (2024, 100M interactions) and [Notehouse](https://www.getnotehouse.com/?ref=hauser.io) (2025, 250+ organizations). In 2026 we merged the two sides - the software acquisitions (formerly Waterglass.io) and the service business (formerly Waterglass.ai) - into a single brand, Waterglass, [a Vienna-based AI agency](https://www.waterglass.ai/de/ki-agentur-wien/?ref=hauser.io) where our team focuses on AI strategy, AI agents, and an AI-focused venture studio. ### Software acquisitions **Founder & CEO** • 2024 – 2026 (merged with Waterglass.ai) • Vienna (Austria) ![](https://www.hauser.io/content/images/2024/02/waterglass-io-1.png) Waterglass (2024) Waterglass is a 'micro PE' fund that builds a self-sustaining portfolio of cash flow optimized B2B SaaS businesses. The goal is to acquire niche businesses that solve relevant problems for business customers. One of the main reasons why I’m building Waterglass is to challenge the conventional startup narrative of rapid, investor-fueled growth at the expense of sustainability and long-term value creation. The cost of starting and running software businesses has significantly decreased, and AI further supports the lean and cost-effective operation of digital businesses. In my opinion, there has never been a better time to strategically buy, operate and scale software businesses for independent entrepreneurs than now. ## Heylog ### Reach your drivers reliably on the road **Founder and CEO** • 2022 – 2023 • Vienna (Austria) and Berlin (Germany) ![](https://www.hauser.io/content/images/2023/11/Heylog-1.png) Heylog.com ![](https://www.hauser.io/content/images/2023/11/Team-Heylog.jpg) Team Heylog (November 2022) Heylog is a communication solution for modern logistics that connects all relevant stakeholders along the supply chain – with a special focus on driver communication over WhatsApp. The company originated as a corporate venture of Schmitz Cargobull AG (Germany), LKW WALTER (Austria) and 9.5 Ventures (Belgium) with a total funding of €3.8M. I was hired in 2021 to support the founding process of the new company especially in the product and business case context. After a positive investment decision has been made, I stepped in to become the founder and CEO of the new venture. ![](https://www.hauser.io/content/images/2023/11/Heylog-ui.png) app.heylog.com Throughout my time at Heylog, I drafted and executed the product, sales & marketing and business development as well as operational and HR strategies respecitvely. The team grew to eleven members across Vienna (Austria) and Berlin (Germany). At its core, Heylog closes the communication gap between all relevant stakeholders along the supply chain. We specifically focused on the communication with drivers on the road. Both, freight forwarders and carriers are considered the target audience of Heylog. Close to my second year in the company, I decided to take on a new role after bringing the company from formation to first revenue in less than 12 months. 💡 ****My takeaway:** Starting a corporate venture from scratch allows the founding team to pair their existing experience with that of the corporate partner. ## Hauser ### Product Management & Business Development **Founder** • 2018 – 2022 • Vienna (Austria) and Berlin (Germany) ![](https://www.hauser.io/content/images/2020/06/hauserio.png) Hauser.io From 2018 until 2022, I was working with a diverse set of clients on consulting projects to support with challenges around product and business development. Clients I worked with included (in no particular order) - VOGEL Communications Group (Germany) - Müller Medien (Germany) - YND Berlin (Germany) - Erste Bank (Austria) - Österreichische Post (Austrian Postal Services) - Deutsche Post/DHL (Germany) - atms Customer Dialogues (Austria) - The Ventury (Austria) ...and many more startup clients 💡 ****My takeaway:** Consulting offers a unique chance to collaborate with a varied clientele, applying your skills to tackle different challenges in different indutries. This experience has also supported the development of enduring business relationships that extend beyond the boundaries of individual projects. ## Facebook (Meta) **Program Manager** • 2018 – 2019 • Berlin (Germany) ![sgp-cover](https://www.hauser.io/content/images/2019/10/sgp-cover.jpg) Facebook Startup Growth Program As Program Manager at Facebook Berlin, I was working on Facebook’s *Startup Growth Program* (now: *Facebook Accelerator*) in Germany aligning with global cross-functional teams in Menlo Park, London, Paris, Lagos and Tel Aviv to deliver a customized experience to growth stage startups. I drafted and executed Facebook's very first acceleration program in Germany in partnership with the local investor [APX](https://apx.ac/?ref=hauser.io) to support consumer-oriented growth stage startups on their way to become leaders within their industry. ![](https://www.hauser.io/content/images/2023/11/mark.jpg) Mark Zuckerberg visiting the Berlin team The first batch of the program has been carried out from May until September 2019 with nine startups of different B2C industries, ranging from crypto to ecommerce. We worked together with amazing mentors and experts from Facebook and APX to deliver relevant workshops, mentoring sessions and individual support to help the startups grow their businesses. More infos: [Facebook Newsroom announcement](https://about.fb.com/de/news/2019/10/id8-startup-growth-program/?ref=hauser.io) (German) 💡 ****My takeaway:** Collaborating with startups has consistently been a key focus for me and leveraging Facebook's resources enabled me to develop a program specifically designed for growth stage startups. This role also allowed me to engage in cross-functional collaboration with Facebook teams in product, marketing, and sales as well as with the WhatsApp team. ## oratio ### Connecting Businesses and Customers on Messengers **Co-founder and CEO** • 2015 – 2018 • Vienna (Austria) ![oratio](https://www.hauser.io/content/images/2017/11/oratio-cover-1.png) orat.io ![Team oratio](https://www.hauser.io/content/images/2017/11/Team-oratio.jpg) Team oratio (Spring 2018) My co-founder and I started workin on oratio in early 2015 after we discovered that messaging services such as WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger and Telegram were increasingly used by business to stay in touch with their customers. Soon after we built an MVP, we started workin on an unofficial custom-made WhatsApp API to access WhatsApp for our customers. By early 2016, we were able to offer the most robust and flexible WhatsApp API on the market and scaled the company to: - €20k MRR - €25ok total revenue, and - 13.5M processed messages At its peak, oratio enabled businesses to connect with their customers on messaging services such as WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, Twitter, Viber, Telegram and Kik. oratio supported individual users as well as teams, a wide range of messaging networks and enabled businesses to either connect *personally* with their customers or with help from *smart chatbots.* We worked with companies like Uber, Danone, Pretty Little Thing/Boohoo, the United Nations and many more companies around the world. ![oratio screenshot](https://www.hauser.io/content/images/2017/11/oratio-screenshot-1.png) app.orat.io Seedcamp, a London-based early stage fund, invested in oratio in early 2016 followed by the Vienna Business Agency in 2017. 💡 ****My takeaway:** oratio was an exceptionally ambitious venture that we established from scratch with limited resources. This journey taught us the importance of prioritizing effectively and adapting swiftly. Read more about oratio in my article [Ending oratio](https://www.hauser.io/ending-oratio/) ## ChatbotConf **Organizer** • 2016 – 2017 • Vienna (Austria) ![ChatbotConf2017](https://www.hauser.io/content/images/2017/11/ChatbotConf2017-1.jpg) ChatbotConf 2017 Through oratio we started our first international conference on everything messaging, AI and chatbots in October 2016. The latest edition *ChatbotConf 2017* was hosted at *Erste Campus* in Vienna on 2nd and 3rd October 2017 and featured more than 26 international speakers from Facebook, Google, Twitter, Slack, Microsoft, Amazon and many more relevant startups from the messaging and chatbots industry. In total, we attracted more than 1,000 guests over the course of two years of ChatbotConf. In 2017, we set out to extend the event to cover two full day: the first day, 'Community Day', featured events all over Vienna organized by and for the community. The second day, 'Conference Day', was dedicated to talks and discussions from industry experts. We made all talks and panels available online! Watch talks from the [Main Stage](https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLr5y%5FRG76yDejRTs6bu9hrtNjWxPfCoYQ&ref=hauser.io) and the [Master Classes](https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLr5y%5FRG76yDdGGyuaf0i%5FXgIvpcnDfDYF&ref=hauser.io) for free on YouTube. ChatbotConf 2016 aftermovie ChatbotConf 2017 💡 ****My takeaway:** For me, connecting people has always been a personal priority. Leading a technology conference provided an avenue not just to evolve the company, but also to carve out our niche as thought leaders in the industry. ## sharedspaces.at ### Workplaces for Creatives **Co-founder** • 2014 • Vienna (Austria) ![sharedspaces](https://www.hauser.io/content/images/2017/11/sharedspaces.png) sharedspaces.at What started as a side project quickly became Austria's most important platform for coworking spaces, office spaces and more. *sharedspaces.at* was initially a proof-of-concept to learn more about bootstrapping a two-sided marketplaces. We initally faced the problem of neither having spaces on the platform, nor having any visitors because of the inital problem of not having any content. To overcome this problem we started to source spaces ourselves and put them on the platform on behalf of the owners. Once we put an initial \~20 spaces online, the platform became self-sustaining in a way that more users became interested in finding spaces which led to more owners wanting to be listed on sharedspaces themselves. SEO was the most important driver of traffic. sharedspaces is still online and run by David Pichsenmeister, having close to 500 listed spaces from all across the country. ## orat.io ### Re-thinking online discussions **Co-founder and CEO** • 2012 – 2014 • Vienna (Austria) and Berlin (Germany) ![oratio-discuss](https://www.hauser.io/content/images/2017/11/oratio-discuss.png) orat.io The very first project – and later the first company I founded – was also named oratio. It all started during my studies at the University of Graz when I started to teach myself coding PHP, MySQL, HTML and CSS in my free time. Instead of running coding examples over and over, I wanted to work on an actual project. My idea was that online discussion could be much easier structured if questions ('Statements') and reactions to them would be displayed side by side, either on Pro or Con. In 2014, Berlin-based accelerator Axel Springer Plug and Play invested in the company which allowed us to start working full-time on it. After some iterations we eventually decided to not continue working on the idea, but with that project we laid the foundation for every future venture I have been working on ever since. ## IdeenTriebwerk Graz **Co-founder** • 2012 – 2014 • Graz (Austria) ![IdeenTriebwerk Graz](https://www.hauser.io/content/images/2019/10/10474814_728257443926073_7290480786530697138_o.jpg) IdeenTriebwerk.com While I was studying at the Univserity of Graz, I co-founded the non-profit organization [IdeenTriebwerk Graz](http://ideentriebwerkgraz.com/?ref=hauser.io) with three other friends. Its goal is to attract more students to consider startups as a viable career option. We organized events of different sizes – from informal monthly meetups to weekend-long hackathons – to make it easy for everyone to dive into everything related tech and startups. IdeenTriebwerk Graz is now run by a team of 25+ members (and an 80% female board!) and is still going strong as ever. I'm delighted to see what a bunch of ambitious youngsters was and still is able to pull off. Through my work at Ideentriebwerk Graz, I was able to start working as a Project Manager for the nation-wide initiative [AustrianStartups](http://austrianstartups.com/?ref=hauser.io) after moving to Vienna. ### 📫 Subscribe for free URL: https://www.hauser.io/subscribe/ Last updated: 2024-07-02T06:45:32.000Z ![](https://www.hauser.io/content/images/2024/07/Bernhard-Hauser3.jpg) ## New issues every 14 days. Get behind the scenes insights from 🐋 [Waterglass](https://www.waterglass.io/?ref=hauser.io), where I buy and scale niche software businesses • Learn how to buy and operate profitable software businesses for long-term success. Subscribe Email sent! Check your inbox to complete your signup. No spam. Unsubscribe anytime. ## Posts ### Good Pricing Grows With the Value You Deliver URL: https://www.hauser.io/good-pricing-grows-with-the-value-you-deliver/ Last updated: 2026-06-13T09:00:13.000Z ![audio-thumbnail](https://www.hauser.io/content/media/2026/06/Good-Pricing-Grows-With-the-Value-You-Deliver_thumb.jpg) Read by Bernhard Hauser (not AI) 0:00 /205.139625 1× At our portfolio company [Notehouse](https://www.getnotehouse.com/?ref=hauser.io), AI agents run our recurring BI check-ins, do SEO research and manage parts of our outbound campaigns. This kind of work gets done every week, with some initial time investment upfront and regular check-ins since then. If you think this through, you will notice that it breaks the oldest assumption in how software and services are priced: that value scales with human time. Agencies and consultants bill hours, because hours were the best available proxy for value. SaaS companies did the same thing, except they would typically charge per seat. Yet both models share the same hidden assumption: that value grows with headcount. But AI decoupled the two. For a seat-based software business, that's a strange position to be in: your customer gets *more* value out of your product while paying you *less*, because they need fewer seats. Your pricing now punishes you for your customer's productivity. I call this the *efficiency penalty*. The same squeeze hits anyone selling time. If an AI agent drafts the contract, the audit report or the campaign in minutes, billing by the hour stops making sense to the customer. They don't care how long it took. They care more that the deliverable exists and is correct. ## The right pricing strategy grows your business I think pricing will shift toward two models: **Outcomes.** You pay for the thing you actually wanted: a finished document, a resolved support ticket, a qualified lead. This is the cleanest alignment possible. The customer's cost tracks the customer's value, and the vendor is incentivized to deliver results, not to maximize usage or seats. **Consumption.** You pay for what you use: tokens, runs, tasks. This works, but it carries a trap I've written about before. If your price tracks your compute cost too closely, you're not running a software business anymore, but reselling compute with a markup. Overall, I think, as founders and operators, these are the next steps we should be looking at to adapt our software businesses: 1. **Understand where value is created.** Ask what your customer is actually buying from you. If the honest answer is "results" but your invoice says "hours" or "seats", the gap will become wider. 2. **Test new pricing models on new customers.** You don't have to migrate your existing base. Onboard new customers on an outcome or consumption plan and compare. 3. **Pricing is never done.** A good pricing strategy is never static, but changes over time and adapts to your business. The shift won't happen overnight, but the businesses that course-correct first will have an easier conversation with customers who just cut their team in half and doubled their output. When did you run your last pricing test? ### Does your pricing survive AI? Step 1 of 3 ### How much does one customer pay you per month? Your average monthly revenue per customer, across all seats or hours billed. $ Continue Step 2 of 3 ### What does it cost you to serve that customer per month? Hosting, compute, support, third-party services – everything that scales with customers. $ Continue Step 3 of 3 ### How much of that cost scales with usage? Compute, AI tokens, API calls – the part of your costs that grows when your customer does more. Barely any, mostly fixed costs (\~10%) Some (\~30%) A lot (\~60%) Almost all, I mostly pay for compute (\~90%) Your comparison ### The same customer, one year into AI adoption Scenario from this post: your customer halves their team and doubles their output. Your usage-based costs double with their output, your fixed costs stay flat. Start over with different numbers ### My New Coworker Is an AI Agent With Its Own Computer URL: https://www.hauser.io/i-gave-an-ai-agent-its-own-computer-and-it-changed-how-i-see-the-future-of-saas/ Last updated: 2026-06-08T07:04:31.000Z ![audio-thumbnail](https://www.hauser.io/content/media/2026/06/I-Gave-an-AI-Agent-Its-Own-Computer-and-It-Changed-How-I-See-the-Future-of-SaaS_thumb.png) Read by Bernhard Hauser (not AI) 0:00 /293.067792 1× *Note: The title of this post has been updated.* A few weeks ago I came across [a post on Reddit](https://www.reddit.com/r/ClaudeCode/comments/1sjqsgg/how%5Fto%5Fget%5F80%5Fof%5Fopenclaw%5Ffeatures%5Fusing%5Fnative/?ref=hauser.io) that explained how to set up a fully autonomous AI agent that simply links to your existing Claude subscription. No paid orchestrator, no new platform to learn. Just a Claude Code instance running 24/7 on its own virtual machine, remote-controlled from your phone. I set it up the same evening in under 30 minutes and I have been refining it ever since. At our portfolio company [Notehouse](https://www.getnotehouse.com/?ref=hauser.io), it now runs regular BI check-ins, so I get a read on the numbers without opening our dashboards. It also researches new SEO opportunities and manages our outbound campaigns to report back to me, the kind of recurring work that is easy to glance over. Here is how you can get this up and running in under 30 minutes and get a glimpse into what might be the future of SaaS. ## The setup, step by step The whole idea rests on one decision: give the AI agent its own machine with full access, then describe the outcome you want in as much detail as needed. Because it has full access to that machine, it does not wait for you to wire up an integration. If it needs a tool to finish a task, it will build the tool itself. 💡 Copy the detailed instructions at the end of this post and share them with Claude for a guided setup. 1. **Spin up a small cloud server.** I went with a €10 / mo Hetzner virtual machine, but any small VM works. Keep it separate from anything important, because you are about to give your agent full control of it. 2. **Log in and install Claude Code.** Now it's time to install Claude Code on your remote virtual machine and connect it with your existing subscription. Once done, you can then remote control it from your Claude desktop or mobile app. 3. **Create a shared knowledge base.** This is the important step for sharing knowledge with your AI agent. Markdown files are perfect for this: A shared [Obsidian](https://obsidian.md/?ref=hauser.io) vault that syncs over Obsidian Git (free) or Obsidian Sync ($4 / mo) is a great fit. The vault should hold context about your business and how you like things done. The agent is instructed to regularly sync updates both ways. 4. **Ready! Give it its first task to work on.** Now that the setup is ready, I gave it access to the tools we are using at [Waterglass](https://www.waterglass.io/?ref=hauser.io) to manage our business. Now that it has full context through the knowledge base and the right set of tools to work with, it's ready to work on its first task. That is the whole system. A small virtual server, your existing Claude Code subscription, a shared knowledge base and 30 minutes of your time. That is all you need to get started. ## A glimpse of what comes after SaaS There is a lot of writing right now about AI agents and what they will do to the broader SaaS market. Most of it is speculation, but one thing is absolutely certain by now: SaaS is changing and autonomous agents that can work independently on tasks for their users will shape the future of the software industry. Only 30 minutes of setup showed me where the industry might be heading. As a founder and operator, this is what I would do next: 1. **Build for headless.** Agents will interact with your software business differently. They don't need a well-designed user interface, but rather a command-line tool or an MCP server to make interaction easier. 2. **Your software business's moat is going to be data, compliance and deep integration.** Easy-to-replicate software will become harder to defend against AI agents with clear instructions, a virtual machine with full access and lots of resources to build it from scratch. 3. **Focus on distribution.** When software becomes a commodity, your real lever is the distribution you build around it. This can take many forms: brand, content, SEO... you name it. While the setup above still carries some complexity, I'm convinced that creating personalized AI agents to help us run our businesses will only get easier from here – and maybe change it for the better. What recurring task in your business will you hand to your AI agent first? Guided Setup ### Let Claude walk you through it Copy the instructions below, paste them into a new chat with Claude and it will guide you through the whole setup, one step at a time. Copy instructions for Claude ### Productized Services Are Back URL: https://www.hauser.io/productized-services-are-back/ Last updated: 2026-06-01T12:51:43.000Z ![audio-thumbnail](https://www.hauser.io/content/media/2026/05/Productized-Services-Are-Back_thumb.png) Read by Bernhard Hauser (not AI) 0:00 /266.945333 1× Do you remember when everyone online was talking about productized services? Just two years ago, productized services were everywhere. Many founders I knew who were doing consulting work on the side were packaging up their work into fixed-scope offers. When I started Waterglass, I didn't have portfolio revenue yet. I needed cashflow before I could focus on acquisitions. So I did what worked at the time - I started consulting work and productized my services from day 1. Since then, a lot has changed and it's becoming increasingly clear that we are headed toward an agentic future. And most people assumed productized services would shrink, but the opposite is true. ## Sell a service that scales My first productized service at the time was helping businesses implement AI chat assistants, since most of them had no exposure to them before. I packaged the work into two offers: - Package 1 was an implementation with a fixed scope, fixed price and a small variable range for the complexity of the integration. - Package 2 was a retainer for ongoing improvements after the assistant was live. It worked pretty well, not because the service was sophisticated, but because the value proposition was clear. Clients knew what they were buying and I knew what I was selling. That service work gave me room to focus on our acquisitions [Pxl](https://www.pxl.to/?ref=hauser.io) and later [Notehouse](https://www.getnotehouse.com/?ref=hauser.io) without financial pressure. I've moved past it now, but it was the bridge that got me started. ## The next wave of productized services will be agentic Most businesses still don't know how to effectively integrate AI into their workflows. We see it inside our own portfolio. Both Pxl and Notehouse have customer requests that an agent could handle, but actually building it and keeping it reliable is hard work. That is the new gap and it's wider than the chat assistant gap was two years ago. Agentic work is a strange hybrid: it's part SaaS, because you are reusing the same underlying tooling across clients, and it's part custom work, because every business has its own data, its own quirks, its own definition of what "done" looks like. That hybrid is exactly what productized services were designed for. The difference now is that the execution layer is increasingly automated. You don't need to write every integration by hand. You don't need to draft every email response. The founder's job shifts to the parts that don't automate well, figuring out what the client actually needs, framing the offer and staying close to the customer. ## How to get started offering productized services If you are starting out today and looking for a way to generate cashflow that funds the real thing you want to build, this is a good moment to look at productized *agentic* services. A few things I would do if I were starting again: 1. **Find the gap, not the trend.** Look for operators in industries you understand who want agents, but don't know where to begin. Listen for the workflows they describe with frustration. That is your offer. 2. **Standardize before you scale.** Pick one offer, one outcome, one delivery process. Resist the urge to customize for every client until you have run the same package at least 5 times. 3. **Use agents for execution, not for thinking.** The repetitive parts of delivery (research, drafting, integration setup, follow-ups) are where agents create real leverage. Keep yourself in the creative and client-facing work. The old playbook still works: Standardize the offer, charge a fixed price - and repeat. Agents just change who or what does the work. If you are thinking about starting something while building toward a bigger goal, productized services are still a great answer. I would argue a better one than two years ago. What is the productized service you would start today? --- COPY A PROMPT ### Take this to your AI Two prompts. Pick one, copy it, paste it into Claude or ChatGPT. Works best if your AI remembers past conversations with you. 1 Find the gap 2 Rate an idea Based on what you know about me from our past conversations – my work, the industries I've mentioned, the workflows I've described, the skills I've shared – propose three productized agentic services I could realistically start in the next 30 days. For each one, give me: - The specific customer (industry, role, company size) - The standardized offer (one outcome, fixed scope) - What the agent handles, what I handle - A rough fixed price for the package - Why this is a real gap, not just a trend Be specific. Use what you actually remember about me. If you don't know enough yet, ask me one targeted question first. I'm considering a productized agentic service. Help me rate it honestly. My idea: \[describe the customer, the offer, what the agent does, what I do\] Score it 1 to 5 on each: - Standardization. Can the same delivery process repeat across customers without heavy customization? - Market gap. Do businesses actually want this and not know how to build it themselves? - Agent leverage. Is the execution work something an agent can do reliably today? - Cashflow speed. Can it generate meaningful revenue within 60 to 90 days? Then tell me the biggest weakness and one concrete change that would make the offer stronger. Be direct. Don't soften things. Copy prompt ### Today, Distribution Is Built Before The Product URL: https://www.hauser.io/today-distribution-is-built-before-the-product/ Last updated: 2026-05-23T09:00:41.000Z ![audio-thumbnail](https://www.hauser.io/content/media/2026/05/Today-Distribution-Is-Built-Before-The-Product_thumb.png) Read by Bernhard Hauser (not AI) 0:00 /228.911042 1× After publishing last week's story on everyone being a media company now, I had lunch with Thomas, a content creator who has 50,000+ followers on [TikTok](https://www.tiktok.com/@sourcetms?ref=hauser.io) and 24,000+ on [Instagram](https://www.instagram.com/sourcetms/?ref=hauser.io). He started creating video content about 1.5 years ago across different platforms - well before he began working on his new product, a [local AI voice space.](https://sourcetms.com/?ref=hauser.io) Thomas knew early on that he needed to build an audience first and a product to sell second. After we sat down for lunch, he shared a few learnings. ## Audience first. Product second. He builds a *compounding media engine*. Each video adds to the next, helps him build a reputation and brings new subscribers everyday. Along the way, he shares updates about his product and by the time the product is ready, the distribution is already there. What I learned was this: - Starting out is tough as most people ignore you until you connect with something relatable. For him, that hook was helping folks who wanted to build software, but didn’t know how. Picking a niche is important. - His view is that video is still the best way to build real reach and real connection with an audience. - TikTok and Instagram are growth engines, but the mother of video is still YouTube. - It's crazy what 20-year-olds are pulling off today: immense speed and creativity paired with a "move fast & break things" attitude. - His audience absolutely dislikes any kind of AI-generated content. They smell it from 10 kilometers away; even when just the script is AI-generated. In a world racing to produce AI-generated everything, he's going the opposite direction by being human on purpose. ## What this means for founders and operators The industry where AI really achieved product-market-fit is the software industry. It happened in such a quick way that most software is becoming cheap to build. At the same time, distribution channels are getting more crowded than ever. Humans are not only competing with each other, but with AI-generated content at the same time. Yet once you find a way to get attention, you can build trust and shape the perception people have of your business. That's what a media company owns and that is the asset Thomas is building alongside his product. Three things from our lunch stuck with me: 1. **The order matters.** Building the *audience* first means the product launches into demand that already exists. Building the *product* first means hoping someone notices after the fact. One compounds, while the other does not. 2. **Be human on purpose.** AI is now the cheapest input in the system. That makes the human parts - the voice, the face, the real perspective - the scarce thing. Being deliberately human is a positioning strategy on its own. 3. **You either own distribution or you rent it.** Audiences you build belong to you if done right. Audiences you buy through reach on other platforms are expensive and they typically disappear the moment you stop paying. As ad costs rise and channels saturate, owned distribution will only get more valuable. Most builders I know are still treating distribution as something you figure out along the way or after the product is ready, but the next generation of founders and operators is doing it the other way around. And I think they're right. What do you think? --- Compounding Media Engine ### What audience-first actually adds up to Pick a posting cadence. Slide the launch date. See what audience you launch with. Posting cadence 1 / week 3 / week Daily Months of audience-building: 12 0 launch-day audience Implied growth - Month: **12** - New subscribers per video: **\~0** - New subscribers per month: **\~0** Each month you delay launch and keep showing up, the curve climbs faster. That's the compounding part. Illustrative model. ### Everyone Is a Media Company Now. Most Just Don't Know It Yet. URL: https://www.hauser.io/everyone-is-a-media-company-now-most-just-dont-know-it-yet/ Last updated: 2026-05-20T15:10:42.000Z ![audio-thumbnail](https://www.hauser.io/content/media/2026/05/Everyone-Is-a-Media-Company-Now-Most-Just-Don-t-Know-It-Yet_thumb.png) Read by Bernhard Hauser (not AI) 0:00 /251.219625 1× a16z, one of the most renowned venture firms in the world, has its own content division. They produce podcasts, write essays, hire editors and run newsletters. They treat content as a core part of their business, not a side project. That is not an accident. For a long time, the moat of a software business was mostly the product. Build something hard, defend it with network effects or speed of execution, and you owned a market for years, but AI is changing this equation as we speak. Most software products are becoming cheap to build, while distribution channels are getting more crowded every quarter. The previously defensible part – the product itself – is increasingly becoming the easy part now. What stays defensible (but is also the hardest to get) is attention. It's the audience that trusts you and has a perception of your business, which is exactly what a media business owns. And the software businesses that take this seriously start acting like media businesses on their own: OpenAI bought TBPN, Hubspot bought The Hustle. The line between operating a software business and a media business is blurring on purpose. And this same logic not only applies to businesses, but to people as well. ## Building a personal brand Many founders and operators are building a personal brand and treat this is a core distribution channel. Pieter Levels ([866k followers on X](https://x.com/levelsio?ref=hauser.io)), Tibo ([190k followers on X](https://x.com/tibo%5Fmaker?ref=hauser.io)) or Marc Lou ([42k newsletter subscribers](https://newsletter.marclou.com/?ref=hauser.io)) are just a few builders from the community who early on realized that building a personal brand can become a real moat. My own experience is no different. But make not mistake, building a personal brand is real work and comes down to creating high-quality content on a strict cadence. My primary channel is LinkedIn ([11.6k followers](https://www.linkedin.com/in/bernhardhauser/?ref=hauser.io)) where I try to stick to two posts per week, plus this weekly newsletter. Yet even on this scale, it started to pay off: - Four customers proactively reached out, because they read something I wrote and it resonated with them - My business partner Nem found me through my content. Today, we run businesses together - I been recognized on the street twice (which still feels strange) In a world of increasing inauthenticity, where AI content is created at zero cost and flooding channels, being authentic will only become a stronger case for founders and operators alike. ### Takeaways from building a personal brand Below are a few things that helped me get started and what I would suggest to founders and operators. 1. **Pick a format and a cadence you can sustain.** I write because writing forces me to think clearly. I committed to two LinkedIn posts a week and the blog for more structured takeaways. The format matters less than whether you actually publish on a schedule you can defend. 2. **Be relatable with what you create.** Every post I have published is tied to a real decision, a first-hand insight or a real mistake that I made. I don't publish opinions on things I'm not in the middle of. 3. **Niche beats a broad, generic approach every time.** You can find your audience online even when it only represents a small niche. Don't be afraid of creating niche content. You can keep your work invisible and hope someone notices, but that is going to get harder every year. Ultimately, you can either own your distribution or you can rent it from someone who does. Which side do you want to be on? --- 01 · CHANNEL OWNERSHIP ### Where do most of your new customers find you? A platform I do not control (LinkedIn, X, YouTube, marketplaces, paid ads) Search or referrals – the platform decides who sees it My own list, community or direct outreach 02 · DIVERSIFICATION ### How many channels each bring you at least 20 percent of your new customers? Just one Two Three or more 03 · OWNED AUDIENCE ### When did you last send something directly to your audience – an email, SMS or community message? I do not have an owned audience yet More than a month ago Within the last 30 days 04 · PUBLISHING CADENCE ### How many posts, newsletters or podcast episodes did you publish on channels you control in the last 30 days? Zero One to three Four or more 05 · INBOUND PROOF ### In the last 90 days, how many people contacted you because of something you wrote or said publicly? Nobody One or two Several or more ← Back 0 / 10 ### Verdict Description Renting your distributionOwning your distribution START HERE Next step ↻ Re-take quiz ### AI Made Software Easier to Build But Harder to Price URL: https://www.hauser.io/ai-made-software-easier-to-build-but-harder-to-price/ Last updated: 2026-05-09T09:28:17.000Z ![audio-thumbnail](https://www.hauser.io/content/media/2026/05/AI-Made-Software-Easier-to-Build-But-Harder-to-Price_thumb.png) Read by Bernhard Hauser (not AI) 0:00 /262.060417 1× Not too long ago, I worked with a client on a new AI-native software product that helped their users create personal branding content for social media. Their main business, however, is a hands-off service where they produce personal branding content for their customers, yet some customers wanted to be more hands-on themselves. This product was for them. What was interesting though is not the product that we built, but the pricing model and the value proposition that we applied. They charged a four-figure fee per month for access to both their AI-native software and personalized consulting from their team. What they really sell – on top of the AI-native software product – was expertise, which I think is a genius way to avoid the trap many founders and operators currently fall into: reselling tokens with a markup. ## How SaaS used to work For years, the Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) playbook was simple: Build software once, then charge per seat and cash in gross margins of sometimes up to 85%. The concept behind these unit economics is called "(almost) zero marginal costs". You build out your software business once with higher costs upfront, then have customers pay for it. It eventually does not make much of a difference if you serve 1,000 users or 10,000 users through your software product. Costs would not scale linearly with revenue. But that playbook is about to change. ## AI-native businesses are built on different unit economics Let's take the AI app builder Lovable as an example. Their business revolves around using other companies' foundation models – think OpenAI, Anthropic or Google – wrapping them in a well-designed user experience and charging a markup on the tokens. They are in the *reselling* tokens business. Every prompt their customers generate costs them money: real, variable, per-customer money. These are not classic SaaS economics anymore, but closer to running a hosting service with a brand on top. But what is the alternative for AI-native businesses? ## Your cost structure and value creation are your pricing moat Seat-based pricing is also breaking. Take companies like Intercom, Sierra and Zendesk for example who have moved to per-resolution pricing, because the seat model penalizes them every time their AI gets better. Salesforce now runs three pricing models in parallel, because it cannot fully replace seat revenue without cannibalizing itself. I think founders who are still pricing their AI-native businesses per seat are working from an outdated map. The math of SaaS is being rewritten and the pricing models needs to follow cost structure and value creation, not the other way around. ## What I'd suggest to founders and operators The business fundamentals are changing and you need to adapt your business accordingly. 1. **Tailor your pricing strategy:** Decide early whether your gross margin looks more like SaaS or more like infrastructure. If you are simply wrapping an AI model, consider adding value add on top: services, community, deep workflow integration, moats around proprietary data and more. 2. **Watch where pricing is moving in your category:** Outcome pricing is real, but only works when your unit economics support it. 3. **Ask yourself where your real value sits:** If the next foundation model upgrade can replicate what you do, you are not building a software business – you are building a feature. I'm still figuring out how this refines our acquisition strategy and how our portfolio businesses will need to adapt in an AI-native future, but one thing is certain: this future is coming sooner than we might expect. How are you adapting to it? ### Build a Boring Business URL: https://www.hauser.io/build-a-boring-business/ Last updated: 2026-05-09T10:09:47.000Z ![audio-thumbnail](https://www.hauser.io/content/media/2026/04/Build-a-Boring-Business_thumb.png) Read by Bernhard Hauser (not AI) 0:00 /232.437583 1× I've been working in tech for close to 15 years and have founded several businesses during that time. Some were successful, but most were not. Regardless of that, I was fortunate to build a network of founders and operators who I truly admire. Many went on to build immensely successful businesses and among them, I have not once seen an overnight success, only years of grind. If you read the news lately – or check out LinkedIn for that matter – the public consensus is that in the age of AI, everything we know about building software businesses needs to be thrown out the window, because everything gets reinvented from the ground up. While every founder looks like they're moving faster, building smarter, winning bigger than you, I must remind you: that's not reality. It may be true for some, but it's definitely wrong for many. ## An overnight success 9 months in the making ![](https://www.hauser.io/content/images/2026/04/oratio.jpeg) oratio co-founders David (right) and I (left) in Dublin preparing for Web Summit (2015) While my first company oratio took nine months to find product-market fit before we could scale it to $20k MRR, most other businesses I founded *never* reached that point. Our portfolio company [**Notehouse**](https://www.getnotehouse.com/?ref=hauser.io) took six years to reach $100k ARR. That's six full years of shipping features, talking to users, adjusting positioning and genuinely not knowing whether you are on the right track. Day in, day out. Every single company I worked on or acquired took years to be built. For those who made it, we felt that at some point something shifted and suddenly people were approaching us instead of us chasing them. That's what product-market fit actually feels like: not a headline, just the quiet moment when the market starts pulling. In the case of oratio, the biggest influences on its success were hard work (that *was* under our control) and market timing (that *was hardly* under our control). We were lucky to build a product that eventually resonated well with the market. ## Your work only compounds if you show up every day The founders you see celebrated on LinkedIn didn't figure it out faster than you. They just kept iterating until something caught. The stories that aren't told are the many years of grinding before anyone was paying attention. If you're in year 1, year 3 or year 5 and it still feels like a grind, that's not a sign you're on the wrong path – that *is* the path. What persists in the long run are not the flashy, but the boring businesses and founders and operators who show up every day to deliver work that quietly compounds to an "overnight success": The customer support emails, the tickets on your product roadmap, the conversations with customers, the chargebacks from your Stripe account, the employee who didn't fit the team – all this is part of the journey. It's true, AI has introduced profound changes to how we build software businesses, opening new possibilities for incumbents and startups alike. But don't get fooled, it raises the bar for everyone. Now, if everyone builds with AI, it's those who show up consistently and deliver their best work who will make it in the long run. And more often than not, this just sounds outright boring. So, what are you working on tomorrow? ### Building Software Businesses for an AI Future URL: https://www.hauser.io/building-software-businesses-for-an-ai-future/ Last updated: 2026-04-25T09:00:36.000Z ![audio-thumbnail](https://www.hauser.io/content/media/2026/04/Building-Software-Businesses-for-an-AI-Future-1_thumb.png) Read by Bernhard Hauser (not AI) 0:00 /324.571458 1× Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) has been the darling of investors and founders alike: build once, charge forever, watch margins expand as revenue scales faster than cost. But once AI has entered the market and found product-market-fit with software development, SaaS valuations have fallen off a cliff. My take is, they will not recover. Many AI enthusiasts are proclaiming the death of software as we know it, because agents will take over everything and make SaaS obsolete. Personally, I don't buy it. But I also don't think things stay the same. In fact, we have seen this first-hand with [our portfolio company Pxl](https://www.pxl.to/?ref=hauser.io). ## What Pxl taught us about hitting a ceiling When we acquired [Pxl](https://www.pxl.to/?ref=hauser.io) in 2024, it positioned itself as a short link platform, QR code generator and landing page builder sitting at $340 MRR. Over the course of the following year, we grew it to $1,600 MRR mostly through performance marketing and SEO. Then, by the end of 2025, we hit a wall. We realized the already crowded space of short link platforms and QR code builders got even more crowded and performance marketing stopped delivering. I talked to Nem, my business partner at Waterglass, and we decided to go back to the drawing board. But this time we were not looking to test another acquisition channel, but to rethink the very product itself. ## Building for an agentic future What we landed on is that Pxl will be rebuilt to focus on two interfaces going forward: one for humans, the way landing pages have always worked, and one for agents, for discovery and interaction through AI. But what matters now is what forced this rethink in the first place: what will SaaS look like a few years from now? What types of software businesses will come out stronger, which ones are going to disappear? ## Agents won't kill SaaS, they'll use it The mistake I see most people make in such conversations is to see "agents will replace SaaS" as a binary outcome: (1) either software survives untouched or (2) it gets vaporized. I think *simple* SaaS businesses with low switching costs are going to gradually disappear, but for complex software, neither is what's happening. If you look at what the biggest AI labs are actually building, you'll notice something interesting: Anthropic didn't build their own PowerPoint or Excel replacement. Instead, they built agents that *use* PowerPoint and Excel. That tells me something important: the people with the most skin in this game, the AI labs with hundreds of billions at stake, don't seem to believe SaaS is going away any time soon. They believe the user layer is just changing fundamentally. Replacing vertically integrated software from scratch is actually pretty hard. The data models, the compliance, the integrations, the complex workflows that took months to get right – none of that disappears just because a language model got good. What's easier, however, is abstracting away the interface. The buttons, the forms, the dashboards, the onboarding flows. That layer is where agents are moving in. So the question for anyone building or buying right now isn't "will SaaS survive." It's whether the value in your product is just the interface or whether it sits underneath, defensible and hard to replicate. ## What this means for founders and operators We updated our acquisition thesis at Waterglass to reflect this. Three categories now sit at the top of our list: 1. **Businesses with proprietary data.** If the data isn't replicable, the product isn't replaceable. An agent can wrap a better user interface around your product, but it can't reproduce your dataset out of thin air. 2. **Businesses in regulated industries.** Compliance is a slow moat, but a real one. HIPAA, GDPR, financial regulations – these don't get disrupted on an AI lab's quarterly roadmap, because there are people's lives and money at stake. 3. **Businesses with deep integrations.** The kind of software that is wired into twenty other systems. This includes digital infrastructure. The question I keep coming back to is this: If you stripped the interface off your product tomorrow, what value would be left? ### In a World of Software Abundance, Focus On Distribution URL: https://www.hauser.io/in-a-world-of-software-abundance-focus-on-distribution/ Last updated: 2026-04-18T10:06:53.000Z ![audio-thumbnail](https://www.hauser.io/content/media/2026/04/In-a-World-of-Software-Abundance-Focus-On-Distribution---15.04.26--17.30_thumb.png) Read by Bernhard Hauser (not AI) 0:00 /279.954292 1× When [we acquired Notehouse](https://www.hauser.io/the-second-acquisition-notehouse/) in summer 2025, it looked like a straightforward software deal on paper. A HIPAA compliant CRM for social workers and nonprofit leaders with $100k in annual recurring revenue, 250+ customers and a 4.7 star Capterra rating. But within weeks of closing, we threw away the entire software and rebuilt it from scratch. So what exactly did we buy then? What we bought was access to an audience. And in the age of AI and the commoditization of software development, this will matter more than ever. ## What we actually acquired ![](https://www.hauser.io/content/images/2026/04/Screenshot-2025-09-03-at-15.23.02.png) The founder of Notehouse and me, raising our water glasses to the deal we just closed The founder of Notehouse was an immigration counselor from the US who had spent six years building something her users genuinely loved by scratching her own itch. She understood their world, because she lived in it. That deep understanding translated into a product that attracted a loyal customer base. The codebase was a different story. Multiple agencies had worked on it over the years and the result was layers of technical debt piled on top of itself, including a week long outage in December ~~2025~~ 2024. During due diligence, I sat with this tension for a while. On one side was broken code that would need to be completely redone. On the other were 250+ customers paying every month who genuinely relied on the product for their day-to-day work. We decided to move forward with the deal, because what I learned was that code can always be replaced. An audience that trusts you cannot, because distribution is the hard part now – and software is not. We rebuilt the entire application over the course of six months while still leaving the legacy software in place, which made it more difficult, yet still doable. When we flipped the switch in January 2026, not a single customer left. I mean, think about it: we had replaced the entire code and retained 100% of the audience, because... the real asset was never the code anyway. ## Software is becoming a commodity, but distribution is not This shift isn't new. Distribution has always mattered more than most founders want to admit, but AI is accelerating it to a point where ignoring it becomes genuinely dangerous. AI-assisted software development now lets small teams ship at a speed that would have required a full engineering team just *a few months ago*. The barrier to building a functional product keeps dropping and it won't stop. This by extension means the software itself is becoming less and less of a differentiator, especially when there is not other moat around it. The true question is, when everyone can build software, who can build distribution? ## What this means for founders and operators If you are a founder or an operator, here is what I would tell you: 1. **First time founders are obsessed with product. Second time founders are obsessed with distribution.** This quote from Justin Kahn has been true in the pre-AI era and will become only more important as we move towards a world of software abundance. 2. **Build your audience with the same energy you build your product.** The founders I admire most today aren't shipping code first. They are writing, posting and building communities around a specific problem alongside their product. 3. **If you don't know where to go from here, go niche.** Fewer competition means more eyeballs for products that stand out by being focused on a specific use case rather than a broad one. There are countless ways to build distribution. From my experience, picking one or two channels and going deep on them beats spreading yourself thin every time. Let me give you an example: Notehouse's focus is on **word-of-mouth** (hard to replicate and a real moat), **SEO** (especially with mini tools – more on that soon) and **short-form video** (not sure yet, we are still experimenting with this) So here's my question to you: if you had one hour today to either build your product or build distribution, which one would you pick? ### AI Changed What We Build. Then It Changed Who We Hire. URL: https://www.hauser.io/ai-changed-what-we-build-then-it-changed-who-we-hire/ Last updated: 2026-04-13T15:55:39.000Z ![audio-thumbnail](https://www.hauser.io/content/media/2026/04/AI-Changed-What-We-Build-Then-It-Changed-Who-We-Hire-1_thumb.png) Read by Bernhard Hauser (not AI) 0:00 /234.866958 1× I recently worked with a person on a client's venture project who was shipping faster and with better judgment than people with twice their experience. They weren't a senior product manager nor were they a full-stack engineer – and I couldn't tell you what to call their role. At Waterglass, AI has changed how we acquire, build and grow ventures. That's not news anymore. But what caught me off guard is just how much it has changed the kind of people we want to work with. For years, the hiring playbook was simple: You needed a product manager? You looked for someone with ten years of product management experience. A software engineer with deep expertise in one stack? The roles were clearly defined, the titles were familiar and the more senior the hire, the better. You found someone who fit the box on the org chart and moved on, but that playbook no longer holds. ## What I saw on a recent project with a client We recently finalized a venture building collaboration with one of our clients. On their side was a young, AI-native person with a growing sense of engineering and a sharp feel for how to get the most out of AI tools. Not classically senior in any discipline. But genuinely fluent across several, because AI extended their reach into areas that would have previously required separate specialists. And here's the thing that stuck with me: they were outperforming people who, on paper, should have been miles ahead. Not because they were smarter. Because they knew how to leverage AI as a multiplier across product thinking, engineering, and execution – all at once. I had not seen this profile before. Not like this. ## The profile that actually matters The person who thrives right now is genuinely hard to describe in a job posting. It looks something like this: - Fluent in AI and aware of its limits, - Strong product instincts paired with engineering literacy - Not a specialist in one domain, but effective across several (because AI extends their reach) You can't filter for this kind of talent on LinkedIn. You recognize it when you see it in action, in the speed of their output, the quality of their judgment calls and how naturally they move between disciplines. I think founders who are still hiring strictly for "Senior PM" or "Full-Stack Engineer" are working from an outdated map. Those titles made sense when each role required years of deep, isolated expertise to be effective, but AI has compressed that curve dramatically. The hard part isn't convincing yourself this is real. It's figuring out how to find these people when they don't fit any standard job title. ## What I'd suggest - Stop screening for years of experience in a single discipline. Instead, screen for range and AI fluency instead - Pay attention to how someone uses AI in their workflow during the interview process – and maybe even restructure your interview process altogether - Consider younger, non-traditional profiles who grew up building with AI tools rather than without them - If you see someone who moves fluidly between product, engineering and AI, don't let them go Find someone at the intersection of product sense, engineering literacy and AI fluency and your team becomes almost unstoppable. I'm still figuring out what to call this role, but I know I want more of them around. ### Six Months to Ship a Full Rebuild URL: https://www.hauser.io/and-we-are-live-the-new-notehouse-has-officially-launched/ Last updated: 2026-04-08T09:54:03.000Z After exactly 6 months, we released the rebuild of Notehouse, [our latest acquisition](https://www.hauser.io/the-second-acquisition-notehouse/) at Waterglass. When we acquired Notehouse in Summer 2025, we knew that we would need to rebuild the full application. The codebase had been passed through multiple agencies over the years, and the technical debt had piled up to a point where patching things up simply wasn't an option anymore. Read more about it at [How Our Latest Acquisition Is Rebuilt From Scratch](https://www.hauser.io/how-our-latest-acquisition-is-rebuilt-from-scratch/) It's not our goal to acquire businesses and then rebuild them from scratch, but rather improve what is there, fix what needs to be fixed and double down on what works. [Notehouse](https://www.getnotehouse.com/?ref=hauser.io) was clearly the exception in this case. ![](https://www.hauser.io/content/images/2026/01/notehouse-2025.png) The Legacy landing page [![](https://www.hauser.io/content/images/2026/01/notehouse-2026-landing-page.png)](https://www.getnotehouse.com/?ref=hauser.io) The landing page for **Notehouse 2026* (our internal code name) Given that this was our second acquisition – again without external funding – this clearly was a trade-off between what we could get at this price tag and how much work is needed to get the business back on track. We weighed the risks, ran the numbers, and ultimately decided that the investment was justified by strong customer base low churn justified the investment. ![](https://www.hauser.io/content/images/2026/01/Screenshot-2025-11-28-at-14.53.50.png) The Legacy core application ![](https://www.hauser.io/content/images/2026/01/notehouse-2026-app.png) The 2026 core application The challenge for Notehouse specifically was to build a new application on top of the existing infrastructure, using modern technology, so that customers can switch seamlessly during the transition period. This allows them to go back and forth between the Rebuild and the Legacy app, which in turn allows us to gradually roll out the application, fix bugs and add finishing touches. No big bang migration – just a smooth handover. One core aspect of the now fully rebuilt application is *data security*. ## Data security at its core Since HIPAA compliance was more of an afterthought in the previous implementation and GDPR compliance non-existent, we had a clean start here and were able to build everything from scratch with data security front and center. I must say, we are proud of what was achieved, with an experienced senior engineer in the lead, supported by AI coding assistants along the way. It was a team effort that came together exactly as planned both in terms of budget and roadmap (with the occasional all-nighters in between). The feedback was incredibly positive right after the relaunch – it immediately brought us more 5-star reviews on Capterra! – especially given that the legacy application was full of bugs. We also had to clean up a lot of Stripe misconfigurations along the way, which caused customers – and us, too – to become frustrated with incorrect billings. These are the things you only discover once you're deep in the weeds of the integration of an acquired business. ## The future of CRUD applications in the age of AI Notehouse is, at the end of the day, a somewhat simple CRUD (Create Read Update Delete) application. This made me think: > What happens if a customer would simply start vibe coding their dream case management software into existence? Our view on case management software in the age of AI is this: because it handles protected health information (PHI), using software built by non-engineers to manage sensitive data still carries significant risk. Data security is at the core of Notehouse, which means vibe-coded applications will not be deemed safe enough to be trusted with patient data for the foreseeable future. And frankly, would you trust your client records to an app someone prompted together over a weekend? Given Notehouse’s positioning as an entry-level product, [Notehouse is priced well below its competition](https://www.getnotehouse.com/pricing?ref=hauser.io), with many competitors charging roughly three times as much for a similar – or even more limited – feature set. > Your margin is my opportunity. > – Jeff Bezos (^ This quote can't be missed, for obvious reasons) This is a signal to us that we have room to grow into a higher price range over the following months while still remaining aggressive on entering the market now with a product that is on par – and beyond – the competition. ## What's next for Notehouse – and Waterglass Since we have established feature parity with Notehouse Legacy, we are now executing on our roadmap to add requested features. This process will be heavily driven by AI-assisted software engineering to maintain both velocity and cost effectiveness for the months (and years) to come. ![](https://www.hauser.io/content/images/2026/01/image-1.png) After establishing feature parity, we continue on improving the business With [Notehouse](https://www.getnotehouse.com/?ref=hauser.io) now being in great shape and [Pxl](https://www.pxl.to/?ref=hauser.io) performing well, we have officially started looking for the next acquisition target and kicked off a grand new internal project, with the promise to increase the efficiency of our operating software businesses across the portfolio by significantly lowering OPEX. I'll share more details in the next article – but let's just say it's something we've been thinking about since 2024. *PS: Meet me at the* [*Serial Acquirers Summit*](https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/rollupeurope-presents-serial-acquirers-summit-tickets-1979863310458?utm%5Fsource=rollupeurope.com&utm%5Fmedium=referral) *on 26th February in London!* ### Rebuilding a Product Without Losing Customers URL: https://www.hauser.io/how-our-latest-acquisition-is-rebuilt-from-scratch/ Last updated: 2026-04-08T09:54:44.000Z In Summer this year, we made our second acquisition. You can read more about it at [The Second Acquisition: Notehouse](https://www.hauser.io/the-second-acquisition-notehouse/). However, during the due diligence process, it became increasingly clear that the product’s foundation needed to be rebuilt from scratch. The application had been passed between several external engineering partners over the years, which typically results in technical debt building up to an unmanageable level. We typically don’t do full rebuilds of our acquisitions, but in this case, we reached an agreement with the seller to account for this additional expense and ultimately decided to move ahead with the deal. Now, a few weeks into the rebuilding process, I wanted to share some updates on our progress, the approach we’ve taken and what’s next for [Notehouse](https://www.getnotehouse.com/?ref=hauser.io). ## Migrating a business As with our first acquisition, [Pxl](https://www.hauser.io/the-first-acquisition-pixel/), we opted for an asset deal this time as well. Unlike a share deal, where a majority stake in a company is acquired, an asset deal involves transferring assets and all associated IP from one company to another. This approach simplifies many aspects — it’s typically faster, cheaper and involves minimal legal fees. (However, the larger the acquisition, the more likely a share deal becomes) However, there is one clear downside of asset deals for SaaS businesses: the vendor’s identity changes for existing customers. This has downstream effects most notably on the payment provider — which is often Stripe. ![](https://www.hauser.io/content/images/2025/11/rebuild-video-call.png) The Stripe migration was one of the most challenging parts We had already migrated Stripe for Pxl, so we had a solid understanding of how the process would need to work for Notehouse. Still, no two migrations are the same. We encountered a few minor challenges but ultimately completed everything smoothly after one or two late-night sessions. In addition to migrating the company’s intangible assets, we also acquired a small team based in the US and Colombia who continue to support us with operations, customer support and IT maintenance of the current product. ## Rewriting a software product Rebuilding an application already daily used by hundreds of businesses and users is no easy task. Beyond changes in software architecture and the overall stack, the most critical component is user experience. From working with the Notehouse team, we know the existing customer base is not particularly tech-savvy, so we must take extra care to avoid confusing them when launching the new application. **The general rules we follow:** - Keep the new design as close to it's original design as possible - Maintain familiar workflows and navigation patterns - Don't move buttons!! (this has become kind of a running gag already) If I were to sum it up, I’d advise not getting too creative when doing a rebuild. Beyond these UX challenges, we chose a modern stack based on TypeScript and React — not only because the old stack was outdated, but also because we integrated coding agents at the very core of the rebuilding process and these agents perform best with modern frameworks. ### Coding agents As a first step of the rebuild, we assessed the existing codebase and mapped out its features. We used Claude Code for this, and it worked really well. Next, we mapped out all features as tickets in Notion and reviewed each one with the Notehouse team. The goal for every feature was to decide whether to keep it as is, remove it or improve it right away. For developing the new codebase, we use Claude Code together with GitHub Issues as our preferred setup, connected through MCP and led by an experienced senior software engineer. ![](https://www.hauser.io/content/images/2025/11/image-1.png) The agentic coding setup We haven’t yet implemented full auto-coding – where an issue is sent directly to Claude Code via GitHub and it generates a pull request – but that’s likely the next logical step for us to explore. > Realistically, without today’s coding agents dramatically improving development speed, we wouldn’t have moved forward with this deal. The $200/month Claude Max subscription paid off right away — it’s basically a no-brainer for us, especially considering the time saved, the simpler tasks it handles with solid quality and the reduced need for back-and-forth between developers. ## The new landing pages We’re not only rebuilding the application but also redesigning the landing pages. From a UX perspective, this is where we can be more creative and focus on conversion optimization, which hadn’t been a major priority before. ![](https://www.hauser.io/content/images/2025/11/notehouse-2025-1.png) The current landing page at [GetNotehouse.com](https://www.getnotehouse.com/?ref=hauser.io) It’s not just me, the entire Notehouse team was excited to see the visual changes take shape. Overall I think the new design makes the product feel more refined and mature. ![](https://www.hauser.io/content/images/2025/11/notehouse-2026.png) The new landing page – with placeholders ## Going live in Q1 2026 At the time of writing this update, the whole team is fully focused on development. Our goal is to launch an internal test version by the end of 2025, followed by a public rollout in early Q1 2026. Will these be my famous last words? I’ll keep you posted on the progress. ### Buying a Business With a Broken Codebase URL: https://www.hauser.io/the-second-acquisition-notehouse/ Last updated: 2026-04-08T09:55:11.000Z I'm excited to announce that over July and August, we closed the second acquisition in Waterglass's history. Notehouse ([getNotehouse.com](https://www.getnotehouse.com/?ref=hauser.io)), which originated as note-taking software that eventually transformed into a lightweight, HIPAA-compliant CRM for nonprofit leaders, social workers and counselors, is a $100k ARR business that has been growing steadily over the past six years and has carved out its own niche in the market, based in Massachusetts, USA. ![](https://www.hauser.io/content/images/2025/09/Screenshot-2025-09-03-at-15.23.02.png) The founder of Notehouse and me, raising our water glasses The founder of Notehouse, a US immigration counselor, started it with a simple idea: let's keep note-taking simple and easy, especially for non-tech-savvy users. And that idea has paid off. ![](https://www.hauser.io/content/images/2025/09/capterra.png) Notehouse's [Capterra ratings](https://www.capterra.com/p/182626/Notehouse/?ref=hauser.io) With 100+ reviews on Capterra, a solid 4.7-star rating, and awards received for “Best Ease of Use” and “Best Value” in 2023, we realized it struck a strong chord with its customers. That's no coincidence. Our first acquisition – [Pxl](https://www.hauser.io/the-first-acquisition-pixel/) – had similar positive ratings which serve as a strong indicator of customer satisfaction. ## Three weeks to get to an initial conversation After more than six years of building Notehouse as a non-technical founder, she made the strategic decision to find the right partners who could take the product to the next level. We initially came across Notehouse on a marketplace. However, the initial price of $375k was above what we were looking for at the time. Nonetheless, Notehouse ticked a lot of boxes on our list: - Founder-led B2B SaaS niche business - Serving 250+ customers - In a niche that – at least we think – we will be able to fully comprehend However, getting the founder's attention took three weeks of persistence, because on the surface, we didn't look like the perfect fit at first. What eventually got things going was an intro video about myself and Waterglass that I recorded and sent over. I've always supported female-led initiatives and she wanted her creation in the right hands. ![](https://www.hauser.io/content/images/2025/09/Hi-Lauren.png) Hi\_Lauren.mp4 ## But due diligence revealed a big risk The due diligence process took another three weeks and revealed a risk we hadn’t accounted for: the codebase was in really bad shape. Throughout the process, we learned that the web application – owing to the fact that several IT agencies had worked on it over many years – had become a wild mosaic of workarounds and fixes. And not only that: back in December, a *week-long* outage shook the very foundations of Notehouse, ultimately marking the starting point for the founder’s decision to sell it. It was clear that, if we were to make the deal, we would need to rebuild the application from scratch. ## Turning a threat into an opportunity So why did we move forward? At Waterglass, we focus on acquiring software businesses that have a solid customer base and distribution as well as product figured out. However, what excited us about Notehouse is that despite the many challenges the product has on the technical side, customer love it. Not only that, churn is and always has been low, which is another sign of strong product-market fit. Our hypothesis is that if we carefully rebuild Notehouse with our in-house engineering talent, we will not only be able to bring a delightful user experience to customers, but also build the very foundation to improve on top of it, especially in the context of AI-enablement. Products don't survive 6+ years (almost) on autopilot unless they truly solve a problem and have people who truly care. The founder created something so valuable, it thrived by itself. Now, it’s our turn to give Notehouse the technical and distribution attention it deserves. More about this in the upcoming issue. ### Finding a Partner by Building in Public URL: https://www.hauser.io/a-new-partner-at-waterglass/ Last updated: 2026-04-08T09:55:41.000Z I'm excited to share that Nemanja Zarkovic and I are now official partners at [Waterglass.io](https://www.waterglass.io/?ref=hauser.io). Here's how we connected and what's coming next. ## Buy, not build I started Waterglass in January 2024 with a simple idea: instead of building software from scratch and hustling/hoping/praying for product-market fit, I chose to skip the 0 → 1 stage and focus on unlocking the full potential of existing businesses instead. Not long after Waterglass was founded, I acquired the first software business [Pxl](https://www.hauser.io/the-first-acquisition-pixel/) with my own cash in April 2024. ## How to grow a software business Over the following months, I improved the product, doubled down on its distribution, and along the way made a few mistakes I was able to learn from. But trust me, it was tough, because Pxl was deliberately an early-stage acquisition, which meant its cash flow couldn’t yet cover significant investments. My background is in product with experience in building product-led growth motions, yet I was missing a partner with broader growth and finance expertise. ## "I came across your profile while looking back at Pxl" What I didn’t know at this time was that Nemanja was also preparing to acquire Pxl, but it was my offer that ultimately closed the deal. A few months later, on October 6th, he checked in to see how Pxl had progressed – only to find that a lot had changed. What helped was that I had been documenting the journey [on this blog](https://www.hauser.io/) and [on LinkedIn](https://www.linkedin.com/in/bernhardhauser?ref=hauser.io). *Funny enough, a day earlier I had hidden a small job posting on the website footer saying I was looking for a partner. I wasn't even sure I should put it out there.* Nemanja’s background is in finance, with experience in New York and London before moving to Austria. He came across my posts, realized I had acquired the company he wanted and decided to reach out. We met for coffee in Vienna only a few days later for coffee and immediately clicked. Within an hour, it was clear we had the same vision: - Build a fund that acquires profitable, niche companies that solve real problems - Improve them operationally and grow them ## Let's just get started ![](https://www.hauser.io/content/images/2025/08/IMG_3684.JPG) Instead of overthinking roles and details, we decided to simply jump in and start working on Waterglass together. Since October, we’ve been meeting every week for long afternoon sessions – spending time on deal analysis, refining our investment criteria and mapping out a clear strategy. By December, we made it official and became equal partners. And not only that, just a few weeks ago, we completed our very first acquisition together. This is a big milestone for both of us and for Waterglass as a whole, but more on that soon. I’m excited to have an equal partner by my side as we work toward our shared dream of building a fund that acquires niche software businesses solving real problems. Here’s to many more years of building together. ### 187 Signups, Zero Retained Users URL: https://www.hauser.io/why-the-responder-cx-experiment-failed-and-why-im-not-surprised/ Last updated: 2026-04-08T09:56:16.000Z Do you happen to run a business and handle customer support requests through email? Four months ago, we created an internal tool called Reply•AI to manage customer support emails for our portfolio company [Pxl](https://www.pxl.to/?ref=hauser.io). Reply•AI was soon renamed to [Responder.cx](https://www.responder.cx/?ref=hauser.io) and launched to the public. We got 187 waitlist signups and a (little bit of a) viral launch – only to find out, no one wanted to use the product beyond the hype. ![](https://www.hauser.io/content/images/2025/07/rspndr.png) Responder.cx, formerly known as Reply•AI This is a lesson in why we continue to double down on Waterglass’s acquisition hypothesis rather than building products from zero. But let's start at the very beginning. ## An AI workflow that helps us save hours of work > I need help. > Did you read the help section on our website? > No. A conversation all too familiar. We receive customer emails like this quite frequently and at one point thought: there has to be a better solution to this. Over the following week, we built an agentic workflow to manage customer support requests for our portfolio company [Pxl](https://www.pxl.to/?ref=hauser.io). The goal was to build an agent with company-specific knowledge that would connect to Gmail and continuously improve by learning from new email responses. This way, AI would handle common customer support requests and save us hours of manual work. And guess what, it worked really! Naturally, we thought: > Why not release this internal tool to the public? I put together a quick video showcasing how the workflow worked and shared it on LinkedIn as well as [on this blog](https://www.hauser.io/the-ai-agent-we-use-to-handle-support-requests-in-gmail/). [I built an AI agent \*inside\* Gmail that can easily handle 50% of the support requests at our portfolio company Pxl. | Bernhard HauserI built an AI agent \*inside\* Gmail that can easily handle 50% of the support requests at our portfolio company Pxl. Intercom charges for a similar setup $60+ / mo. Why pay big dollars when our little agents can do the work as well? Let me show you how I built it: 1\. It continuously checks for new support emails in Gmail 2\. When a new email is received, it starts analyzing it: What is the language? What is the question? 3\. It then autonomously visits the Pxl help section and extracts information \*on its own\* from relevant support articles 4\. Next, it generates a response and evaluates its own confidence (!) 5\. Finally, only when the agent is at least 70% certain about its response, it sends the email. If unsure, I'll get a draft for review. That's it. I have been looking forward to building this agent for a long time – and now it's here. I'm convinced that everyone who does \*not\* use AI agents in their business is falling behind already, especially when it comes to boring tasks such as handlig email support requests. PS: I'm sharing this setup for free (video + JSON file). Comment "agent" to get the link via DM 📩 (must be connected on LinkedIn) PPS: For anyone who wants to use this agent \*without\* building it themselves should sign up at replyai.waterglass.io 👈 first signups get 30% lifetime discount | 1,949 comments on LinkedIn![](https://www.hauser.io/content/images/icon/al2o9zrvru7aqj8e1x2rzsrca-7)LinkedInBrendan Christie![](https://www.hauser.io/content/images/thumbnail/1741626502340-7)](https://www.linkedin.com/posts/bernhardhauser%5Fi-built-an-ai-agent-inside-gmail-that-can-activity-7305132878802120704-3e34?utm%5Fsource=share&utm%5Fmedium=member%5Fdesktop&rcm=ACoAABTDWQsB8UtLa%5F9vLqdDRXJ0ECFxxJB7Sz8) The LinkedIn post Within 48 hours, over **187 people** had joined the waitlist. I thought we were on to something. Right? ## From internal tool to public beta ![](https://www.hauser.io/content/images/2025/07/1749629896049.gif) With real people now interested in our workflow, it was time to turn it into a real product users could sign up for. I knew we had to move fast to keep the momentum going. After about a week, we were ready to onboard the first users from the waitlist. But once everything went live and the invites to Responder.cx were sent out, the numbers told a very different story: 187 waitlist signups → 8 responses after launch → 0 users beyond week 2 ## What went wrong? In my view, building digital products has become less and less of a challenge – the real challenge is and always has been *distribution*. And in the age of AI, getting distribution has become even harder. Early on, we made a clear decision at [Waterglass](https://www.waterglass.io/?ref=hauser.io) that instead of building businesses from scratch like incubators or company builders do, we would rather focus on acquiring businesses with proven distribution, established revenue, and product-market fit. If anything, Responder.cx was a reminder that in 2025 – when AI products are launching left and right – the very same lessons are true: - **Solving distribution first is important:** Think hard about how you'll reach your users before putting your product out there. - **We are in competition for attention:** Users lose interest fast and expectations on new products are high. Our timelines are full of product launches. - **Niche is king:** A generic “AI agent for Gmail” is interesting, but not compelling enough for specific set of users. Could we have pushed harder? Sure. Could we have iterated over different distribution channels? Absolutely. But at the end of the day, we concluded our small 0 → 1 experiment to double down on what we do best. ## Waterglass' hypothesis – confirmed It's tempting to build new products, but I feel it has become increasingly hard in the last few months to get something off the ground. Do you feel the same? Our goal with Waterglass is to strategically build a portfolio of profitable niche B2B SaaS businesses and use AI to streamline operations and product development. Responder.cx just reconfirmed why this approach makes sense. In any case, we'll keep refining it internally to further improve operations across our portfolio businesses. But when it comes to building businesses from scratch instead of buying, sometimes the best lesson from building something is knowing when *not* to build it in the first place. ### When AI Changes What's Worth Buying URL: https://www.hauser.io/how-has-ai-changed-our-acquisition-strategy-2/ Last updated: 2026-04-08T09:56:33.000Z If you've been following my journey with [Waterglass](https://www.waterglass.io/?ref=hauser.io), you know we focus on acquiring and scaling niche software businesses with the help of AI. One of our guiding principles, however, was that AI not only helps to run businesses more efficiently, but that we will be able to fulfil [our mission](https://www.waterglass.io/about/?ref=hauser.io) of running them fully autonomously in the future. It's a simple playbook: find undervalued SaaS products, improve their distribution and operational efficiency, and grow them systematically. Today, I want to share how we've – over time – rethought our acquisition strategy in the age of Generative AI, and why the old rules no longer apply for SaaS. Let's dive in 👇 ## The pre-AI playbook At Waterglass, agentic workflows have been part of our operational toolkit for some time now, especially in the context of - customer support - content generation (blog posts, support articles, ad copies) - market research - coding assistance Our traditional evaluation process for SaaS businesses focused on a set of questions, including: - Has the business achieved product-market fit? - What distribution channels are unique to the business? And are they defensible? - How have MRR, CAC, and churn developed over the past year(s)? - Where is the lowest hanging fruit for immediate growth? 💡 Read more: [55 Questions I Ask Before I Buy A Business](https://www.hauser.io/55-questions-i-ask-before-i-buy-a-business/) But we also looked for businesses where we could apply AI to create efficiency gains post-acquisition. The underlying belief is simple: solid distribution channels combined with operational efficiency enables us to build strong, lasting businesses. This approach served us well. We acquired [Pxl](https://www.pxl.to/?ref=hauser.io), applied AI enhancements where possible, scaled it up, and generated solid returns (4x'd MRR since acquisition). ## The AI overhang The democratization of AI capabilities through foundation models has fundamentally shifted how products and services are built. So much so that AI wrapper startups started popping up left and right. For context, AI wrapper startups are often little more than UX layers over existing LLMs, making them easy to launch but hard to defend or scale in the long run. ## The video-editing SaaS that got disrupted ![](https://www.hauser.io/content/images/2025/06/image.png) Dragons' Den, the British version of Shark Tank Three weeks ago, we were evaluating a promising video-editing SaaS targeting content creators. The product was simple yet elegant: you upload a video, and it automatically cuts, transcribes, and adds subtitles, optimizing them for platforms like Instagram and TikTok. The metrics looked great: - Growing user base with >$10k MRR - Strong engagement and retention - Clear market need (every content creator struggles with this) - Experienced founders with relevant background (who even pitched their business on Dragons' Den!) Under our old evaluation framework, this would have been a slam dunk. Good product, clear value proposition, scalable distribution opportunities. But we passed. Why? The AI risk was too high. The core functionality – understanding video content and reformatting it – was exactly the type of task that AI models are already today pretty good at. Turns out, validation came faster than expected. Just one week after we decided not to move forward with the acquisition, both Google and OpenAI released updates to their video generation models that are now almost able to perform the same task – with better quality and faster processing times. ## AI as both threat and opportunity We assess every acquisition target through this opportunity-first lens: > How can AI 10x this product's value proposition? What new capabilities could AI unlock for existing users? Could AI help us reach markets this product couldn't access before? The framework is simple: we look for products where AI enhancement creates exponentially more value than AI disruption destroys. Yes, AI can disrupt. But it can also supercharge. Today, AI helps us operate more efficiently. Tomorrow, it might handle entire business operations end-to-end. When we evaluate acquisitions now, we ask: Could this business run itself with minimal human intervention in 3-5 years? If the answer is yes, that's not a threat to our model – it's the ultimate scale opportunity. ## Evolving our sourcing strategy > Being frosty. We’ve passed on many businesses we previously would have jumped at. > > — Andrew Wilkinson (@awilkinson) [May 21, 2025](https://twitter.com/awilkinson/status/1925034688114205028?ref%5Fsrc=twsrc%5Etfw&ref=hauser.io) Andrew Wilkinson ([Tiny](https://www.tiny.com/?ref=hauser.io)) Finding truly defensible businesses has become significantly harder, but not impossible. We've refined our sourcing approach to focus on: - Niche markets with fewer competitors and slower-moving dynamics - Industry-specific tools that require domain expertise - Workflow-heavy products where AI augmentation makes sense - Data-rich applications where proprietary datasets provide data moats The key is looking for products where AI becomes a feature, not a replacement. ## What's next Our mindset has evolved. AI hasn't killed the acquisition game; it's forced us to be sharper and more strategic about what we pursue. We're actively looking for products that foundation models can't easily replace—the overlooked niche gems that solve specific problems for specific people in ways that generic AI tools simply can't match. The AI revolution isn't slowing down, and neither are we. If done well, spotting the diamonds can make (or break) your acquisition strategy – but that’s always been true, regardless of AI. ****Open invitation:** If you're building a product in a niche market, we're always interested in having a conversation. Drop us a line below: [hi@waterglass.io ](mailto:hi@waterglass.io) ### Growing SaaS With Mini Tools and Directories URL: https://www.hauser.io/how-i-build-pxls-seo-strategy-with-mini-tools-and-directories/ Last updated: 2026-04-08T09:56:55.000Z The first couple of months [after I acquired Pxl in May](https://www.hauser.io/the-first-acquisition-pixel/), I spent most of my time talking to existing customers understanding how happy they are with the product and what they are still missing. I'm happy to say that Pxl is growing and has been growing steadily especially after the acquisition, although I haven't fully figured out the **1\~2 key channels** that deliver consistent growth yet. My hypothesis is that SEO will become an important growth driver, as I consider Pxl a search-driven product rather than a discovery-driven product. And most importantly, SEO can be seen as a moat, since it's hard to replicate and takes time to materialize. For my long-term SEO strategy, I'm focusing on two core pillars, **mini tools** and **directories**. Let's see why they are important, but first let's talk about the elephant in the room. ## What will the future of search be in the context of LLMs? I don't think Google as we know it will disappear, but many users will start their multimodal searches with LLMs for more specific queries like "What TV should I buy?" or "How do I fix this issue?" and attach a photo to it. LLMs are great at retrieving and summarizing information quickly, so SEO will need to adapt. Simple information retrieval will be handled more easily by LLMs, which means content needs to be structured in a way they can access and synthesize efficiently, if you want to be found. However, for more complex tasks – like using interactive tools to get something done — LLMs won’t always offer the best user experience, because chat interfaces offer a limited user experience and halucination is still a relevant problem. As SEO evolves, balancing optimization for LLM-based searches with maintaining traditional tools for complex tasks will be key, especially optimizing further down the funnel: > Contrary to popular belief, AI and large language models (LLMs) have transformed SEO, not rendered it obsolete. AI now dominates the start of the search process—top-of-funnel—but SEO remains vital in mid-funnel search, where users seek various options. – Eli Schwartz on [Lenny's Podcast](https://substack.com/redirect/b75b2c5a-806f-4bb0-aed5-760d3e576297?j=eyJ1IjoieTR0biJ9.RmbGMCc9HKpXtRwnnOu3lkRzirY4mh2wkgCSqtSvHvQ&ref=hauser.io) ## Mini tools are the future of SEO Have you ever searched online for a quick way to count words or to convert an image from one format to another? Bingo, you searched for mini tools. Those tools are immensly useful for one specific task, are free to use and deliver value with little friction. To me, they are ideal to attract potential customers, way better than a 20 minutes blog article on how to increase your LinkedIn following ([btw are we connected yet?](https://www.linkedin.com/in/bernhardhauser/?ref=hauser.io)) My approach to creating mini tools is 1. Understanding what my ideal customer is searching for online 2. Creating something of immense value for them 3. Getting them interested in Pxl, the main product behind the mini tool Before I start creating a tool, I check how hard it will be to rank for the keywords I aim for and how much monthly traffic they will attract. ![](https://www.hauser.io/content/images/2024/09/keyword-difficulty-qr-code-gen.png) The ahrefs Keyword Difficulty Checker Once I identified an interesting oportunity, I start building, but... what you have to know is that I'm not a software engineer. I actually let Claude and ChatGPT do the coding for me and this has been working exceptionally well, as you can see below: [Free Website Screenshot GeneratorFree, simple, and easy way to capture a full website screenshot of any web page online![](https://www.pxl.to/favicon.ico)Pxl![](https://www.pxl.to/images/screenshot-generator-og.png)](https://www.pxl.to/tools/website-screenshot?ref=hauser.io) Created by the previous owner of Pxl [Free Google Ad Copy GeneratorGenerate high-converting AI-generated Google Ads in seconds with the free Google Ad Copy Generator by Pxl.to. Create custom headlines and descriptions optimized for your keywords. Download your ad copy instantly and enhance your campaigns with ease![](https://www.pxl.to/favicon.ico)Pxl![](https://www.pxl.to/images/google-ad-copy-gen-og.png)](https://www.pxl.to/tools/google-ad-copy-generator?ref=hauser.io) Created within 1 day [Free ChatGPT Website Ranking CheckerOptimize your ranking on LLMs (Large Language Models) like ChatGPT by using LLMO (Large Language Model Optimization) and check the ranking of your website or brand.![](https://www.pxl.to/favicon.ico)Pxl![](https://www.pxl.to/images/chatgpt-ranking-tool.png)](https://www.pxl.to/tools/chatgpt-website-ranking-checker?ref=hauser.io) Created within 1 day [Free WiFi QR Code GeneratorGenerate QR codes for your WiFi networks easily. Create custom QR codes that allow quick and secure connections to your WiFi. Download your QR code instantly as PNG or PDF.![](https://www.pxl.to/favicon.ico)Pxl![](https://www.pxl.to/images/wifi-qr-code-og.png)](https://www.pxl.to/tools/wifi-qr-code-generator?ref=hauser.io) Created within 3 hours [Free vCard QR Code GeneratorGenerate QR codes for your contact information easily. Create custom vCard QR codes that allow quick and secure sharing of your details. Download your QR code instantly as PNG or PDF.![](https://www.pxl.to/favicon.ico)Pxl![](https://www.pxl.to/images/vcard-qr-code-og.png)](https://www.pxl.to/tools/vcard-qr-code-generator?ref=hauser.io) Created within 1.5 hours [Free URL Unshortener ToolUnshorten URLs quickly and safely with our free tool. Reveal the full destination of shortened links from various services to enhance your online safety, improve SEO, and optimize your digital marketing efforts.![](https://www.pxl.to/favicon.ico)Pxl![](https://www.pxl.to/images/url-unshortener-og.png)](https://www.pxl.to/tools/url-unshortener?ref=hauser.io) Created within 1 hour [Free Open Graph DebuggerInspect and optimize Open Graph tags with AI for any URL with the free Open Graph Debugger by Pxl.to. Visualize og:image, improve your tags with AI suggestions, and enhance your website’s social media presence.![](https://www.pxl.to/favicon.ico)Pxl![](https://www.pxl.to/images/og-debugger-og.png)](https://www.pxl.to/tools/open-graph-debugger?ref=hauser.io) Created within 1 hour [Free PDF Hosting with AnalyticsUpload, share, and track your PDF documents for free. Get analytics on every click and easily distribute your content with our secure PDF hosting service.![](https://www.pxl.to/favicon.ico)Pxl![](https://www.pxl.to/images/pdf-hosting-upload-og.png)](https://www.pxl.to/tools/pdf-hosting-with-analytics?ref=hauser.io) Created within 1.5 days Some of the tools I created are simple LLM wrappers, which oftentimes is the very point of it: LLMs make it easy to deliver value with less effort. You can find an overview of all free Pxl mini tools at [www.pxl.to/tools](https://www.pxl.to/tools?ref=hauser.io) (more to come) ## A directory of the best 49 URL shorteners Besides mini tools, you should know that I have a thing for directories. They are relatively easy to create and maintain, serve one purpose very well and, if done right, are indexed by Google within just a few weeks. A couple of years ago I started working on a Ruby script which, at the time, was already 3\~4 years old and not maintained anymore. I think by now it must be close to 8 years old, but I managed to continuosly improve it: - It generates generate static HTML sites and interlinks them (perfect for SEO) - It only uses a simple CSV file as database (easy to work with) - It's user interface is based on Bootstrap (basic design works best) When I was doing domain research, I discovered that [URL-Shortener.io](https://www.url-shortener.io/?ref=hauser.io) was available again. I checked archive.org and while it seems that previously an actual URL shortener was built on top of it, it was now for sale. That was perfect, since it already had backlinks and some reputation in the space. I quickly bought it and with the help of LLMs and freelancers from Fiverr, it took me about two weeks to get the new directory live: ![](https://www.hauser.io/content/images/2024/09/url-shortener.png) [url-shortener.io](https://url-shortener.io/?ref=hauser.io) ![](https://www.hauser.io/content/images/2024/09/lightouse.png) Excellent Google Lighthouse score for [Pxl's profile on URL-SHORTENER.IO](https://url-shortener.io/details/pxl/?ref=hauser.io) Today, it has over **2,300 automatically** **generated pages** and it attracted about 200 clicks from Google in the first four weeks alone just by putting the directory online – nothing else. ![](https://www.hauser.io/content/images/2024/09/url-shortener-io-pages.png) 2,305 pages were created programmatically with relevant content The total cost to date was $200, including domain, Fiverr freelancers and LLM subscriptions. There are no ongoing costs, as the hosting is covered by Netlify's free plan and the database is simply a Google Sheet. 💡 If you are interested in the script, drop me a line at [bernhard@hauser.io](mailto:bernhard@hauser.io?subject=Directory) ### Edit (24.09.24) Added [Free Url Unshortener](https://www.pxl.to/tools/url-unshortener?ref=hauser.io) (01.10.24) Added [Free Open Graph Debugger](https://www.pxl.to/tools/open-graph-debugger?ref=hauser.io) (08.10.24) Added [Free PDF Hosting with Analytics](https://www.pxl.to/tools/pdf-hosting-with-analytics?ref=hauser.io) ### A Billion Requests in Four Days URL: https://www.hauser.io/1-billion-requests-the-attack-on-pxl/ Last updated: 2026-04-08T09:57:16.000Z Last weekend, Pxl was attacked through a series of high-traffic requests. We are still not entirely sure whether this was a targeted DDoS attack on some of the links of a specific Pxl team or whether it was *actual* traffic. ![](https://www.hauser.io/content/images/2024/08/cloudfront-requests.png) 1 billion requests over the course of four days, most of which were filtered downstream by Pxl In any case, what we do know is that the mind-blowing number of 1 billion requests was managed by Pxl’s infrastructure in just a couple of hours, with downstream effects only on (i) our server bill and (ii) my ability to sleep. ## The attack Of course, it happened in summer when we were least expecting it. Of course, it happened over the weekend. Of course, it happened when I was offline for just two days, because I attended a small event in the Hungarian woods. (Spoiler: *I’m never offline.*) Luckily – or should I say expectedly? – the majority of incoming requests were blocked by measures we put in place earlier, but by the nature of a link shortener like Pxl, we need to process requests we think are real visits. ![](https://www.hauser.io/content/images/2024/07/ddos.png) Pxl's Analytics showing incoming traffic of 8M+ visits through just one short link In total, over 8M visits were generated in about 5 minutes. For context, Pxl would typically process about 1,000\~2,000 requests across all teams in such a timeframe. The cherry on top was the monthly server bill of **2,466 USD**. And not only that, most other services started sending alerts for increased billings, too. ![](https://www.hauser.io/content/images/2024/07/internal-chat-vercel.png) It was Sunday 13:42 when I realized something was off While still out in the woods, I grabbed my phone and started realizing what was happening. We immediately connected over team chat and began investigating to find the cause of this unusual behavior. The most severe attack occurred on Sunday, with some minor incidents in the following days. By then, however, we had already implemented all measures to mitigate this and any future attacks. First thing Monday morning, I contacted support to explain the situation and ask (= beg) a bill reduction. Just one day later, they lowered the bill back to Pxl's usual monthly amount after we confirmed that we had taken precautions to be prepared if such an attack happens again. ## What we learned However, what I'm most happy about is something else: Pxl's infrastructure handled everything extremely well. Some parts were only briefly offline when we had to refine the firewall rules, but other than that, the hwole infrastructure held steady like an oak tree in a storm... of requests. There is just no way to be *fully* prepared for this when you are running a service whose very job is to process and redirect requests, but for the next time, we have measures in place. 🛡️ ### What 71 Customers Told Us After the Deal URL: https://www.hauser.io/pxl-the-privacy-friendly-bitly-alternative/ Last updated: 2026-04-08T09:57:42.000Z Have you been thinking about acquiring an early-stage business? Or are you running one yourself right now? Chances are high that you are working on your product's USP, growth channels, and ideal customer segment then. Let's say, the basics. In my opinion, there is a general rule: **the earlier the (acquired) business, the more groundwork has to be done.** [Pxl](https://www.pxl.to/?ref=hauser.io) is a good example of this. Since it was acquired about three months ago, I have focused my attention mostly on understanding and improving product-related aspects rather than going all in on growth yet. However, since I'm still rather new to this product, I ran a survey among the users to understand and prioritize what improvements and new features are needed. In total, 71 responded. Beyond understanding and implementing product enhancements, it's market positioning that is crucial, especially in the mature market of link shorteners. And it was during market and user research when I discovered a potential angle for positioning Pxl against its competitors. ### Privacy-friendliness, the new kid on the block It turns out, the previous owner created Pxl's core foundation in a pretty privacy-friendly way. For example, instead of storing visitors’ IP addresses, which are considered personally identifiable information (PII) according to GDPR and other data privacy regulations, he chose to hash them. Hashing involves running a non-reversible mathematical calculation, making the data not personally identifiable anymore, especially when aggregated. A good example is [Plausible Analytics](https://www.plausible.io/?ref=hauser.io) which uses exactly this technique to offer a privacy-friendly Google Analytics alternative. Could this mean Pxl could become the "Plausible" of link shorteners? Before we dive deeper, let's explore the results from the survey I sent out two weeks ago to help me understand what product improvements and features to focus on. ## "Make short URL links and track them :)" As a user, whenever I receive a survey from a business asking for my opinion or feedback, chances are high that I either fill it in because I’m super happy with their product or the exact opposite... if I fill it in at all. I dislike long questionnaires and forms, which is why I focused Pxl's survey on asking only three required questions, with another three optional questions as a backup. It turns out, 71 users responded. Below are the aggregated results grouped by topics and ranked by priority to the 3+3 open questions: ### 1) What is the primary reason you use Pxl? - Short links - Link management - Personalized URLs ### 2) Which features do you find most valuable and why? - Link tracking and analytics - QR code generation - Custom domains ### 3) What additional features or improvements would you like to see in Pxl? - Enhanced link tracking and analytics - Improved link management features - Microsite creation and customization ![Forms response chart. Question title: How likely are you to recommend Pxl to a friend or colleague? . Number of responses: 71 responses.](https://www.hauser.io/content/images/2024/07/data-src-image-7b701f48-6621-48d7-a513-762323e98e4b.png) The good ol' NPS should not be missed Unsurprisingly, users really appreciate link shortening, custom domains, and the robust tracking and analytics that Pxl offers. However, the desire for increased privacy-friendliness was also mentioned, which led me dig a little deeper... ## Pxl's new positioning as privacy-friendly Bitly alternative? Personally, I value data privacy, but I also see it pragmatically as a means to an end from both a personal and business perspective. For business models that don't rely on harvesting data and selling advertisements, I think there's no need to collect excessive data in the first place (except of couse if your are training an AI model). Pxl's business model definitely doesn't depend on harvesting data, so why not minimize data collection altogether and use this advantage to set itself apart from the competition then? ![](https://www.hauser.io/content/images/2024/07/pxl-landing-page-copy.png) Version A of the new landing page copy Let's give it a try: Over the next few weeks, I will be testing these landing page copies to see how they resonate. And of course, in good old David vs Goliath fashion, I will be testing positioning Pxl against Bitly, the market leader in the space. ![](https://www.hauser.io/content/images/2024/07/pxl-landing-page-copy-bitly.png) Version of the landing page copy I mean, with me both version A and version B resonate quite well, with a slight preference for the latter. On a product-level, we will continue to work on transparently communicating what data we use and for what purpose, further refining Pxl's GDPR compliance and stance for privacy. *By the way, did I mention that I'm about to become a certified data protection officer? Speaking of a fondness for privacy.* ## The new pricing is now live Oh and before I forget, the new pricing went live last week. You of course remember that, because [I shared my thoughts about pricing earlier in June](https://www.hauser.io/how-pxls-saas-pricing-strategy-is-evolving/). We have been working on this for almost three weeks end to end, including extensive research on common pricing strategies and conversations with other SaaS founders. ![](https://www.hauser.io/content/images/2024/07/pxl-pricing.png) The new Pxl pricing is now live While I initially considered trying something completely new, such as introducing a dirt-cheap $3 base plan with lots of customization options to upgrade, I eventually decided on the proven Freemium pricing model. Why? Because Bitly is the industry standard, and everyone, including us, will be measured against them. Therefore, Pxl's pricing needs to be easy to compare so customers can understand that they get a better deal with Pxl. Remember: *Less friction, more conviction.* After all, pricing is never really done anyway. My rule of thumb is to adjust it every 6-9 months to accommodate feature changes and market conditions. ## The Pxl journey so far I think after almost three months, it’s a good time to take a step back and review the changes that have been made since the acquisition: - (April) Acquisition of Pxl ([read the issue](https://www.hauser.io/the-first-acquisition-pixel/)) - (May) Work on top 3 improvements ([read the issue](https://www.hauser.io/3-things-i-started-working-on-right-after-the-pixel-acquisition/)) - (June) Experiment with AI-supported features ([read the issue](https://www.hauser.io/add-an-ai-feature-and-they-will-come/)) - (June & July) Rework the pricing strategy ([read the issue](https://www.hauser.io/how-pxls-saas-pricing-strategy-is-evolving/)) - (July) Do customer research by creating case studies and collecting feedback ([read the case studies](https://www.pxl.to/case-studies?ref=hauser.io)) - (July) Refine Pxl's positioning \[ ongoing \] - (July & August) Test strategies for customer acquisition \[ next \] Overall, I'm happy with the progress, and revenue is indeed growing, at least moderately. However, now comes the hard part: I'm convinced there is much more that can be done to discover Pxl's growth channels. This will be our next focus going forward. [Did you already check out Pxl's new pricing?](https://www.pxl.to/pricing?ref=hauser.io) ## Read more [How one Indie Hacker sold his business to another Indie Hacker to start a collaboration togetherThis the story of how two Indie Hackers joined forces through the acquisition of a marketing tool called Pxl to build something greater together. \*\*The…![](https://www.indiehackers.com/images/favicons/favicon--192x192.png)Indie HackersBernhard Hauser![](https://storage.googleapis.com/indie-hackers.appspot.com/shareable-images/posts/30bd31d8eb)](https://www.indiehackers.com/post/how-one-indie-hacker-sold-his-product-to-another-indie-hacker-to-start-a-collaboration-together-30bd31d8eb?ref=hauser.io) We got featured on Indie Hackers! ### Add an AI Feature and They Will Come URL: https://www.hauser.io/add-an-ai-feature-and-they-will-come/ Last updated: 2026-04-08T09:31:57.000Z As you probably know by now, Pxl is all about helping you become a better marketer. We do that by providing you with short links, dynamic QR codes, and Microsites (‘micro websites’ or link-in-bio pages). Our users especially like Microsites, but when I looked closer at the overall UX and usage metrics, I saw room for improvement. For context, Microsites help you design small landing pages with just a few clicks and up until now, to get started, you would either choose a template or an empty page. Both options were not ideal, as templates do not always reflect the design a user has in mind, and an empty page quickly leads to Blank Canvas Paralysis. As Van Gogh once said: > You don’t know how paralyzing that is, that stare of a blank canvas, which says to the painter, ‘You can’t do a thing’. (You didn't expect a Van Gogh quote in this issue, did you?) In order to overcome this problem and have more users create Microsites, we introduced four more professional templates a couple of weeks back. However, I figured we could go a step further to create personliazed experiences. So, we launched [Microsites with AI](https://pxl.to/microsites-bhio?ref=hauser.io) ✨. ![](https://www.hauser.io/content/images/2024/07/microsites-with-ai-landing-page.png) Ah yes, the AI hype train has stopped at Pxl Central and is not going to leave anytime soon. To build this feature, we added an integration with OpenAI's API, which allows users to prompt designs. For example: - *A microsite for a digital marketing agency with professional design*, or - *A link-in-bio page for a fashion influencer on Instagram with 3 buttons* The returned response is then translated into a custom Microsite design using the streaming component, which creates this step-by-step effect you can see in the video below. 0:00 /0:17 1× Microsites with AI in action The feature went live on 27\. June 2024 and below is what we learned a week after the launch. ## The impact of 'Microsites with AI' one week after launch Within the first 3 days after launch: - 85 Microsites were AI-generated - 27 new Microsites were published ![](https://www.hauser.io/content/images/2024/07/Screenshot-2024-07-04-at-15.48.20.png) Generated Microsites (note: the chart was not reset to zero before launch) For context, the launch was only marketed to existing users by sending them one email announcement. Given this, I’m quite happy with the result and I can see that without the AI-supported generation, less Microsites would have been created. Every user received an allowance of 10 credits per month and they were required to get in touch with me if they wanted more credits, which some of them did. ![](https://www.hauser.io/content/images/2024/07/Screenshot-2024-07-04-at-15.47.36.png) You can clearly see the spike in published Microsites after the announcement. Going forward, I’m planning to improve on the initial feedback and start taking measures to attract new customers outside the existing user base, as the first internal validation was successful. ## Sign up for free. New issue every 2 weeks. Behind the scenes insights from 🐋 Waterglass, where I buy and scale niche software businesses • Micro PE Subscribe Email sent! Check your inbox to complete your signup. No spam. Unsubscribe anytime. ## How to think about adding 'AI' to your product As a product manager, I’m torn about adding AI to an existing product just for... the sake of adding AI to an existing product. However, what I see in the market is that customers clearly want AI-supported features. Even much so that a few months back, I received feedback from Pxl customers that they were somewhat disappointed because Pxl had not yet incorporated AI into its product. ![](https://www.hauser.io/content/images/2024/07/commandbar-quote.png) via [Lenny's Newsletter](https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/?ref=hauser.io) And I'm not alone: > A recent [survey](https://docsend.com/view/pi629vaxy57u9qvb?ref=hauser.io) by Emergence Capital found that 60% of companies have already integrated generative AI into their products, and another 24% have it on their roadmap. AI is quickly eating the world. ([Source](https://substack.com/@lenny?ref=hauser.io)) In my opinion, one caveat, especially with hyped technologies, is the Tourist Problem. It describes a high signup rate, but an almost equally high churn rate paired with low retention. People are interested to learn more and do not want to miss out, but more often than not, 'AI'-supported features do not live up to their expectations. In any case, I think it’s important to experiment. ‘AI’ is a tool, but eventually, it comes down to who solves relevant problems the best, regardless if you call it 'AI-supported' or 'AI-assisted' or not. ## My take-away I’m happy with the first week after the launch of Microsites with AI. Whether or not ‘AI’ can assist in solving problems, people want solutions, and calling it ‘AI’ really does give you a boost. 'Microsites with AI' is now ready to be marketed beyond the existing user base and based on the learnings from this launch, more AI-supported features will be introduced to Pxl, making the product stand out against its competitors. But first, [Pxl's new pricing](https://www.hauser.io/how-pxls-saas-pricing-strategy-is-evolving/) will go live soon. *Stay tuned!* [Check out Microsites with AI ✨](https://pxl.to/microsites-bhio?ref=hauser.io) ### Rethinking SaaS Pricing After an Acquisition URL: https://www.hauser.io/how-pxls-saas-pricing-strategy-is-evolving/ Last updated: 2026-04-08T09:58:06.000Z Lately, I have been thinking a lot about pricing strategies for Pxl, [the first acquisition](https://www.hauser.io/the-first-acquisition-pixel/) in the [Waterglass portfolio](https://www.waterglass.io/portfolio/?ref=hauser.io) I made earlier this year. Throughout the last 1.5 years, a few pricing experiments have been conducted by the previous owner, mostly around custom packages and lifetime deals. These experiments serve as a basis for further refinement of Pxl's pricing. Getting pricing right is key in building a differentiator in an established industry, especially for marketing tools like Pxl that offer marketers the ability to create short links, QR codes, and microsites (link-in-bio pages). ![](https://www.hauser.io/content/images/2024/06/top-pages.png) Did you know? The [pricing page](https://www.pxl.to/pricing?ref=hauser.io) is Pxl's 3rd most visited site Lately, growth for SaaS businesses, in general, has been hard to come by, and I think a well-planned pricing strategy can help adapt to this new situation. ![](https://www.hauser.io/content/images/2024/06/pixel-pricing-2023.png) The current Pxl pricing plans When comparing the current pricing plans above to the industry leader's plans below, it's clear that I want to remain Pxl competitive. But the question is, does Pxl's competitiveness come from being cheaper or offering more features–or by coming up with a completely new pricing strategy altogether that better aligns with how customers perceive value from using the product? ![](https://www.hauser.io/content/images/2024/06/bitly-pricing.png) The competitor's annual pricing broken down into (fictional) monthly payments ## Pricing strategies I'm thinking about Below are 3 pricing strategies that I'm currently exploring for Pxl. ### 1) Lifetime deals Long gone are the days when you would pay for software once and use it almost forever, but lifetime deals remain high on the list of preferred pricing models for many customers. However, since Amazon didn't become one of the most valuable companies in the world by renting out their servers for free, lifetime deals don't make much sense for SaaS businesses as they lead to margin compression quickly. But that doesn't mean lifetime deals can't be useful. Especially for bootstrapped founders, such deals can be a great funding model. You get cash in from early customers and use that cash to pay for product development. But that's precisely the point: it's a funding model, not a pricing model. Nevertheless, I like the idea nonetheless. By the way, Jason Fried, CEO of 37 signals, the company behind Basecamp and Hey.com, also started a new offering called [ONCE](https://www.once.com/?ref=hauser.io). At its core, you pay for their software once and run it *on your own infrastructure*. No subscriptions. No fees. #### Further thoughts *What about a Pxl lifetime deal with updates and new features for a limited time, say one year, to incentivize annual renewals?* ### 2) Subscription paired with usage-based pricing Another direction I'm exploring is offering a low-priced Pxl subscription that acts as an entry point. Customers could then extend their experience by adding usage-based add-ons. For example: | Base plan ($5 / mo.) | Add-ons ($10 / mo. each) | | -------------------- | ------------------------ | | 50 short links | 100 short links | | 10 QR codes | 50 QR codes | | 5 Microsites | 10 Microsites | | | 5 Workspaces | | | Analytics | | | API access | In theory, this should make the purchase decision for Pxl easy and clear the biggest hurdle, getting the customer's initial payment. It also aligns well with value creation, as frequent users pay more for the value they receive. The downside, however, is that the next month's billing cycle can become somewhat unpredictable. Another negative aspect to avoid is making pricing too complex. It's essential to ensure that users do not have to think too much about it under any circumstances. Signing up for a Pxl plan should be as straightforward as paying €3.70 for a flat white with oat milk at my favorite barista in Berlin (*you know who you are!*) #### Further thoughts *Could this hybrid model be paired with an incentive to spread the word about Pxl, such as offering a free add-on if someone signs up through a referral link?* ### 3) Fully modular pricing Modular pricing is similar to the previous hybrid model, but it takes it even further. What if you could build Pxl just the way you want it? Compared to traditional SaaS, this would be a totally different approach, allowing each customer to fully customize their experience and how much they are willing to pay for it. This could be achieved through a modular pricing strategy that includes a certain number of modules in each tier. For example: - $15 / mo. for 3 modules - $25 / mo. for 5 modules - $45 / mo. for 10 modules Modules in different sizes could then include: - Short links - QR codes - Microsites - Workspaces - Analytics - API access - ...and much more The future of pricing, I'm convinced, lies in customization. If you take a step back and look at the broader picture, I believe AI will enable fully personalized experiences tailored to each user, and this customization will extend beyond pricing. #### Further thoughts *What if a customer starts using Pxl the way they want by simply adding a credit card, and after 2-4 weeks of continued usage, Pxl makes a tailored offer—fully customized and fully automated?* ## ****Sign up for free.** New insights every 14 days. Behind the scenes insights from 🐋 Waterglass, where I buy and scale niche software businesses • Micro PE Subscribe Email sent! Check your inbox to complete your signup. No spam. Unsubscribe anytime. ## What about a free plan? I haven't made up my mind about free plans yet, although generally speaking, I'm not a big fan of them. Yet, to be honest, the definitive answer needs to be more nuanced. Most of Pxl's competitors offer a free plan, so I'm inclined to do the same. One positive aspect of free plans is that, if done right, free users promote the product by using it. through i.e. branded assets. ![](https://www.hauser.io/content/images/2024/06/pxl-microsite-branding.png) A branded [Pxl Microsite](https://pxl.to/darken?ref=hauser.io) Viewed through this lens, free plans can offer a significant benefit, but they should be considered a marketing strategy rather than a pricing strategy. --- While there are still plenty of other pricing strategies, such as transactional and pay-as-you-go, I’m not considering them for Pxl at this point. What is clear though is that I want to try something new with Pxl's pricing that closely aligns with the value customers get from using the product. Ideally, this approach will also make people talk about it, as pricing can and should be part of a branding strategy, too. ### 55 Questions Before Buying a Business URL: https://www.hauser.io/55-questions-i-ask-before-i-buy-a-business/ Last updated: 2026-04-08T09:59:11.000Z When evaluating a new acquisition opportunity at [Waterglass](https://www.waterglass.io/?ref=hauser.io), I follow a simple process: asking lots of questions. First, when I check out a listing like the one in the video below, I try to ask myself high-level questions about the business, such as... - What is the opportunity with this business? - For how long has it already been neglected, and how quickly can it be turned around? - Do I have the skills to make this happen? Once I decide to dig deeper into a potential early stage acquisition opportunity, I go through a list of questions that I have collected over time, and today I want to share it with you. Keep in mind that the questions below are specifically designed for small, early stage acquisitions. Also, they are not exhaustive. I usually add or rephrase 1-2 questions every other week to get a clearer picture of the opportunity in front of me. In my experience, asking these questions during a 30-45 minute call is often more important than listening to the answers. It's really about reading between the lines when you are in a conversation with the seller. **A quick guide on how to read the questions below:** - They are designed for a quick temperature check to help decide whether to proceed further with this acquisition opportunity or not. - They are split into two categories: *Questions I ask the seller* and *Questions I ask myself*. - Not all 55 questions are required to get a first impression, but questions in **bold** I try to get answered immediately. - Keep in mind that every topic below should be explored in depth when both parties decide to enter the due diligence process. PS: Bookmark this website to come back later ## Questions I ask the seller ### Founder(s) - **Why did you choose to build this product?** - **Why are you selling?** - How long have you been working on this? - Who else worked on this? Internal/external? - According to you, how dependent is the business on you? - Which assets are included in the price? Which aren't? - **If you would not sell now, what would be the most important topic to work on next?** - **What is the price, and why?** ### Business Model & Financials - **Is the business based on one-off or recurring revenues? Are there any other revenue streams, such as services?** - **What is the current MRR?** - **What is the TTM (trailing twelve months) revenue?** - What is the ratio between monthly and annual subscriptions? - Have monthly subscriptions been renewed yet? - What is the churn rate? - What are the COGS? - What are the CAC and LTV? - Can you send me a Stripe export? ### Customers - **How many customers does the business have?** - **How were they acquired?** - Where are the customers based? - What acquisition measures have been taken to date? What worked? What didn't? - Can I speak to 2+ of your customers? - How many customers are in the pipeline? What is their closing probability? - Did customers churn? Why did they churn? - Did your customers sign a contract? If so, can I see it? ### Product - **Can we do a demo?** - **What are the top 3 customer support requests?** - **Who are the competitors? How does your business differentiate?** - What KPIs are you optimizing for? How do you track them? - Can you send me a website analytics export? ### Technology - **What is the tech stack? Why did you decide for this stack?** - **Can you send me a software architecture diagram?** - Where is it hosted? - What is your test coverage? - What external dependencies exist? - Can we go through the code in a call? - Did you check for legal compliance, especially around data privacy and IP? ## Questions I ask myself ### General - **How dependent is the business on the founder(s)?** - **Do we have an understanding of the industry?** - **Who can we talk to who is familiar with this industry?** - Is the SOM (serviceable obtainable market) large enough? - How fierce is coompetition in this space? - **How could the business be expaned within 1-3 months?** ### Portfolio - **Are there synergies with existing portfolio businesses?** - Are there synergies with existing portfolio customers? ### Growth - **Where is the lowest hanging fruit for immediate growth: distribution, business model, user experience, technology?** ([more infos in this issue](https://www.hauser.io/the-basics-of-micro-pe-the-right-price-and-the-right-terms/)) - What customer acquisition techniques are required to scale the business? DO we have them? - Does the business scale with outbound sales? - How many backlinks point to the business's website, and what are their sources? ### Technology & Product - **Does the product use generative AI? If not, can it be enhanced or replaced by it?** - Does the tech stack fit our skills? - Is the code well maintained? - What is the site speed? - Who was taking care of product management before, if anyone? - How can the product be further differentiated from competition? --- *P.S. I also help other acquirers make the right decision when buying a business to avoid expensive mistakes. Find out how to get support for your due diligence process below:* [Services – WaterglassDue Diligence We help our clients to explore potential M&A opportunities by supporting the management presentation and due diligence process. This includes a thorough review and evaluation of the business’s performance, outlook, and growth opportunities specifically in the context of B2B SaaS and ma…![](https://www.waterglass.io/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/cropped-waterglass-whale-logo-270x270.png)Waterglass![](https://www.waterglass.io/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/waterglass-open-graph.png)](https://www.waterglass.io/services/?ref=hauser.io) ### Three Quick Wins After Buying a Business URL: https://www.hauser.io/3-things-i-started-working-on-right-after-the-pixel-acquisition/ Last updated: 2026-04-08T09:59:33.000Z After [the Pixel acquisition](https://www.hauser.io/the-first-acquisition-pixel/) was finalized about two weeks ago, I started working on what I deemed the three most important tasks. Generally speaking, for founders who work on a business for many years, it’s easy to develop tunnel vision when it comes to the product they are building. When someone not related to their business now looks at the product with fresh eyes, new ideas and improvements immediately come up. In my experience, this holds true whether I evaluate a business for [Waterglass](https://www.waterglass.io/?ref=hauser.io) or as a service to other funds. With this in mind, let’s take a look at the three things I immediately started working on in the first two weeks after I acquired Pixel. ## 1\. Fix the 404 page While going through the documents during the due diligence process, I discovered a small detail in the referrer section of the user metrics. A pretty relevant number of visitors were landing on the 404 page. In fact, close to **25% of all visitors** encountered a 404 page when visiting pxl.to and more than **10% of all signups** can be attributed to it. For a link builder like Pixel, encountering 404 errors is fairly normal: old links may have been taken offline, free users who created and distributed links might not have signed up, or visitors could have mistyped a link. After I understood the importance of the 404 page for Pixel, I started thinking how it could be improved. ![](https://www.hauser.io/content/images/2024/05/404-old.png) I would say that's a pretty regular 404 page to me Since Pixel is built using popular design frameworks, it was pretty straight forward to update the design and add a clear call-to-action (CTA) to the 404 page. ![](https://www.hauser.io/content/images/2024/05/404.png) Some design magic ✨ has been applied Once the button was tracked as a goal conversion (`404Button`), it immediately started showing up in the analytics. ![](https://www.hauser.io/content/images/2024/05/analytics.png) That's a whole lot of `404Button` clicks I think the new 404 page can still be further improved and tested, but as a first step and quick win, it will do the trick. ## 2\. Create an admin dashboard In my previous businesses, working on anything related to internal dashboards was consistently pushed back by the team to yet another week. Every. Single. Time. We would never start working on it, but instead focus on anything that delivered immediate value to users. When it comes to metrics, we would just write and execute SQL queries for basic operations. ![](https://www.hauser.io/content/images/2024/05/dashboard.png) User signups from the admin dashboard The reality is that you are flying blind if you don’t know what’s happening inside your product, and I can't stress enough how important it is to have data easily accessible. This is why I decided to implement a proper admin dashboard right from the start. While version one is still simple, it already serves an important purpose. For example, I now understand that we have double-digit signups daily, but the conversion rate is not where I would like it to be. Or that Pixel has *hundreds of thousands of interactions* on a daily basis. With this in mind, the first goal is to fully understand how users are interacting with the product. Getting new users to an 'Aha!' moment as soon as possible is among my next priorities to increase the signup-to-paid conversion rate (CVR). ## 3\. Add social proof *like there is no tomorrow* We are social animals. We actively seek for information from our peers to make the right decision day in and day out, especially when it comes to buying new products and services. Pixel is in the fortunate position to already have thousands of users who really, really like the product. So it's time to let the world now. Especially the Microsite feature has been perceived very well, with close to 1k being created to date (now guess where I got this number from). [Microsite](https://www.pxl.to/microsites?ref=hauser.io) is short for *micro website* and as the name suggests, it's a drag'n'drop website builder to show visitors information, capture data, or link to other websites. Below are quotes from Pixel users: > I made a **microsite** and QR, it's really awesome, I can customize it as I want, it looks cool, I'm impressed. > This is the best **bio link** \[microsite\] I've ever tried. Even though there are few templates, I can customize it myself. I hope that in the future professional and cool templates will be added , and also e-commerce templates. > **Microsite**: Simple and easy to add to your subdomain when you are working on pxl. This feedback is also reflected on Capterra, Product Hunt and Trustpilot, leading to great ratings across the board. ![](https://www.hauser.io/content/images/2024/05/social-proof.png) Will you be the 5,001st user who loves Pixel? [Get started for free](https://app.pxl.to/auth/register?ref=header) Adding even more social proof by showing publicly available avatars is a great way to confirm that real people are using the product and get value from it. To be honest, I add social proof everywhere I can. On landing pages. On signup pages. In most of the emails. Hell, I'm even thinking about adding social proof to invoices: > I love paying for Pixel! 10/10 will do again. Will not churn. Pinky promise! (just kidding) To sum it up, there is no stronger signal than real people having real opinions about what you are building. If they are positive, let everyone know. If not, start fixing the underyling problems. ## What's coming next The next tasks will be a bit more complex to work on. Overall, the goal is to double down on what’s working, understand what’s needed, and ship it. One of these ideas the team and I started working on is related to AI and Microsites. It will be spun out as a standalone lead magnet under its own domain, but remain closely related to Pixel. Can you guess what it will be? --- *PS: I'm doing weekly deal reviews where I analyze businesses based on data they provide in for sale listings. Videos are typically 4-6 minutes long. I post them* [*on LinkedIn*](https://www.linkedin.com/in/bernhardhauser/?ref=hauser.io) *and on this publication tagged as* [*Waterglass Deal Reviews*](https://www.hauser.io/tag/waterglass-deal-review/)*.* [![](https://www.hauser.io/content/images/2024/05/wdr.png)](https://www.hauser.io/tag/waterglass-deal-review/) ### The First Acquisition Took Seven Weeks to Close URL: https://www.hauser.io/the-first-acquisition-pixel/ Last updated: 2026-04-08T10:00:17.000Z It's done. The first acquisition has been finalized this week! I'm very excited to welcome Pixel ([pxl.to](https://www.pxl.to/?ref=hauser.io)) to the Waterglass portfolio. Pixel is a leading short link, QR code and microsite builder for marketers, based in Great Britain (UK). The founder of Pixel will remain on board as an independent engineer who will support me in bringing the product to its full potential under Waterglass' leadership. ![](https://www.hauser.io/content/images/2024/05/happy-faces.jpg) Cheers! I will share more specifics over the course of the next few weeks, but below are a few deal insights: - The total purchase price was slightly below $50k, including a seller financing model - The business has over 2,000 customers who account for one-time transactions (most) as well as recurring revenue (some) - The business processed 30 million short link visits, QR code scans, and microsite visits to date - The product shows positive signs for product-led growth (PLG) which makes me, a product-focused builder, especially happy What I specifically like about Pixel is that it's active within an established product category that still offers plenty of room for innovation. The [microsites feature](https://www.pxl.to/microsites?ref=hauser.io), which launched just a few months ago, has been well received by customers. ![](https://www.hauser.io/content/images/2024/05/pxl-reviews.png) Reviews for Pixel ([pxl.to](https://pxl.to/?ref=hauser.io)) ## From discovery to completed acquisition in 7 weeks I discovered the listing on Acquire and while the whole acquisition was not especially quick – sometimes businesses sell in as little as one week – I believe the overall process was very smooth. The due diligence process was a breeze as the code quality was better than expected, all relevant documents were in place from the beginning and detailed down to the last comma. If anything was missing, it was made available within a day. The tricky part, however, was determining a purchase price based on TTM (trailing twelve months) profits, especially since the revenue consists of a mix of one-time transactions and recurring revenue. [As you learned in the last issue](https://www.hauser.io/the-basics-of-micro-pe-the-right-price-and-the-right-terms/), the most recent figures show that TTM profit multiples for acquisitions under $100k sit at 4.11x, but this multiple applies to *recurring revenue*. Nevertheless, the founder and I got along very well from the start and we quickly realized that we share a similar work ethos, which made the entire process easy from the beginning. We eventually settled for an [Extra Income Model](https://www.hauser.io/the-basics-of-micro-pe-the-right-price-and-the-right-terms/#the-extra-income-model) with cash upfront and additional, ongoing revenue for the seller. The reason the founder wanted to sell was due to a new project he started working on into which he plans to invest more time and capital. ## Why I chose Pixel as the first acquisition target As the attentive reader that you are, you'll remember that I was specifically looking for opportunities where I can immediately improve one or more of the following areas: > • Broken distribution > • Broken business model > • Broken user experience > • Broken technology Regarding Pixel, I see an opportunity for growth in **distribution**, which is currently in the process of establishing growth channels and hence offers lots of room for expansion. Additionally, refining the pricing strategy could further enhance the **business model** and support revenue growth. Besides metrics such as CAC, LTV, ARPU, MRR, ABC, Churn Rate and Gross Margin (*okay... I made up one metric here – can you guess which one?*) I try to ask myself the following the following high-level questions when evaluating an opportunity: 1. **Does the product solve a relevant problem?** 2. Do I understand the market and target audience well enough? If not, how quickly can I pick it up? 3. Are there already indicators for future growth opportunities? What is the main growth driver right now? 4. Do customers like the product? Do they see it as a [vitamin or a pain killer](https://medium.com/strategy-dynamics/painkillers-vs-vitamins-d3bdc76ddd31?ref=hauser.io)? 5. Why decided the founder to build this product? Why did they decide to sell? 6. What is the competitive landscape? 7. Does the product have technological advantages or intellectual property? Based on the findings above, I already drafted an outline of a product roadmap for the next 6-9 months. Overall, the immediate actions I plan to implement over the coming months are: - Narrowing down the product strategy, mostly based on customer feedback - Investing in SEO, sponsorships and collaborations - Reworking the pricing strategy - Automation of ongoing operations (which by the way reflects a core principle of Waterglass) Also, another small detail caught my eye. During the due diligence process, I uncovered a small yet easy-to-implement growth hack that could easily increase sign ups with less than an one hour of work. More about this little hack, and what's next for Pixel, in the upcoming issue. --- [Waterglass acquires PixelWe are very excited to announce the acquisition of Pixel (pxl.to), a leading short link, QR code and microsite builder for marketers, based in Great Britain (UK). Pixel, established in 2022, currently serves over 5,000 users and has processed more than 30M visits through short links, QR code scans,…![](https://www.waterglass.io/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/waterglass-whale.png)Waterglassbernhard![](https://www.waterglass.io/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/pxl-acquisition.jpg)](https://www.waterglass.io/news/waterglass-acquires-pixel/?ref=hauser.io) The official announcement on Waterglass.io ### Getting the Price and Terms Right URL: https://www.hauser.io/the-basics-of-micro-pe-the-right-price-and-the-right-terms/ Last updated: 2026-04-08T10:02:02.000Z The market is a wonderful imaginary thing, especially when you are about to buy a business. I mean, any deal is about finding the right price for which the seller is willing to sell and the buyer is willing to buy. But between these two prices lies a pretty broad area in which the *terms* of a deal can be at least as important as the price itself, because a deal is more than just the price: it's the conditions under which the price is paid, to whom, when and under what terms. In this edition, I will share some insights from finding the right price by benchmarking against industry multiples and provide a handful of examples of deal structures that are at least equally important to bring a deal to close. ## Finding the right price As a general rule, the less mature the asset, the less historical data is available to make an informed decision. This means less revenue data to read trends, less customer feedback to understand product maturity, and so on. When looking at a potential acquisition target in micro PE, you would typically look for businesses that are not operating at their full potential. This involves understanding where they may be falling short, such as: - Broken distribution - Broken business model - Broken user experience - Broken technology Once the areas for improvement have been identified, it's about finding a fair price for the business. Generally speaking, there are two common approaches to valuing a SaaS business: - Revenue multiples (typically ARR) - Profit multiples (typically TTM) Since the focus of most micro PE funds is less on high-growth, VC-funded rocket ships, and more on slowly but steadily growing, profit-oriented businesses, profit multiples have become the de-facto standard for this type of investment. Especially when debt is used to finance a transaction, known as a leveraged buy-out (LBO), profits tend to matter more than just revenue. The most popular marketplace, Acquire, publishes a biannual report on profit multiples of deals that have been facilitated through their platform. It's worth reading, as it captures macro economic trends quite well and provides transparency for buyers and sellers like. Let's dive in. ![](https://www.hauser.io/content/images/2024/04/acquire-profit-multiple.png) Confirmed Purchase Price Profit Multiples from the [Acquire Biannual Acquisition Multiples Report](https://blog.acquire.com/acquire-biannual-acquisition-multiples-report-2024/?ref=hauser.io) (Jan 2024) The latest report, published in January 2024, highlights that on average, SaaS businesses were acquired at a 4.3x Trailing Twelve Months (TTM) profit multiple. Some businesses were acquired for as little as 0.63x, while others fetched as much as 34x TTM profit (where TTM profit > $1,000). This broad price spectrum suggests that price alone is not the only factor that determines the success of a deal. ![](https://www.hauser.io/content/images/2024/04/acquire-previous-saas-multiples.png) 2022 vs 2023 Confirmed SaaS Profit Multiples from the [Acquire Biannual Acquisition Multiples Report](https://blog.acquire.com/acquire-biannual-acquisition-multiples-report-2024/?ref=hauser.io) (Jan 2024) Another interesting aspect is how prices fluctuate over time. In 2022, the average confirmed TTM profit multiple was at 5.4x, while only a year later it dropped to 4.3x. ## Finding the right terms The goal for any buyer is to leverage the cash at hand as much as possible. Hence finding the perfect terms can make or break a deal. Upfront cash payments are the easiest deals to conduct, though there is a spectrum of possibilities in terms of how much cash is provided upfront, at a later point and under what conditions. ![](https://www.hauser.io/content/images/2024/04/price-over-time.png) "A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush" (visualized) Generally speaking, the total payment increases if cash payments are delayed into the future. Let's look at a few examples by considering a hypothetical B2B SaaS application that is for sale: 💬 ****Mime Messenger** A team collaboration tool that enables silent, pantomime-based communication between distributed employees. Perfect for introvert-friendly teams! ****➡️ MRR: $3.2k • TTM Profit: $32.5k • Price: $140k** ![](https://www.hauser.io/content/images/2024/04/mime-messenger.jpg) Oh oh... your boss mime'd you © Wikimedia Commons ### The Upfront Model This is the easiest deal structure for both sides, especially when the buyer has cash available. Depending on the preference of the seller, this usually is the quickest form of transaction, too. - Total payment: $140,000 - Expected earnings for seller: $140,000 - Upfront payment: $140,000 - Remaining payment: None - Revenue Share: None ### The Extra Income Model In this model, the seller stays involved, but usually has little to no decision power over the course of the business. - Total payment: $150,000 + revenue share - Expected earnings for seller: \~$165,000+ - Upfront payment: $30,000 - Remaining payment: $120,000 (see below) - Revenue share: 10% (see below) **Remaining payout** - Year 1: $30,000 /year or $2,500 /month - Year 2: $30,000 /year or $2,500 /month - Year 3: $30,000 /year or $2,500 /month - Year 4: $30,000 /year or $2,500 /month **Revenue share** - Year 1-4: 10 % of monthly revenue after crossing $2,500/mo. ### The Growth Model This model allows the seller to participate in the future growth of the business with a stronger involvement post transaction if compared to the Extra Income Model. - Total payment: $160,000 + revenue share - Expected earnings for seller: \~$177.000+ - Upfront payment: $10,000 - Remaining payment: $150,000 (see below) - Revenue share: 10-20% (see below) **Remaining payout** - Year 1: $30,000 /year or $2,500 /month - Year 2: $30,000 /year or $2,500 /month - Year 3: $30,000 /year or $2,500 /month - Year 4: $30,000 /year or $2,500 /month - Year 5: $30,000 /year or $2,500 /month **Revenue share** - Year 1 & 2: 10% of revenue crossing $2,500/month - Year 3 & 4: 15% of revenue crossing $2,500/month - Year 5: 20% of revenue crossing $2,500/month ### The Partner Model This deal structure does not include any upfront payment and has the highest involvement post transaction for the seller. The total payment is highest in this model, but payments are stretched over a multi-year period. - Total payment: $180,000 + revenue share - Expected earnings for seller: \~$229.000+ - Upfront payment: $0 - Remaining payment: $180,000 (see below) - Revenue share: 50-10% (see below) **Remaining payout** - Year 1-5: $36,000 / year or $3,000 /month **Revenue share** - Year 1: 50% of revenue crossing $3,000/month - Year 2: 30% of revenue crossing $3,000/month - Year 3: 20% of revenue crossing $3,000/month - Year 4: 20% of revenue crossing $3,000/month - Year 5: 10% of revenue crossing $3,000/month ## Be ready to get creative See the deal terms above more as food for thought, as no single transaction is the same. The good news is that the more creative the buyer can be, the more likely a deal is to close as long as both sides stay incentivized. Every deal is different and the key is finding the right balance between the buyer's and seller's interests to reach an agreement both sides benefit from. Ultimately, a successful deal comes down to understanding the nuances of each situation and being willing to explore alternative structures beyond just the upfront price. ### Knowing Where and What to Buy URL: https://www.hauser.io/the-basics-of-micro-pe-where-and-what-to-buy/ Last updated: 2026-04-08T10:02:16.000Z In this edition, you will learn where a micro PE fund looks for opportunities and what criteria they have to meet. I will also dive deeper into some of your most frequent questions, such as: - Who would even sell a company so early? - What do you really get for such a price? - Can this really be a business? And you will learn about *venture zero* of the Waterglass portfolio, Mailpengu. ![](https://www.hauser.io/content/images/2024/04/schuberthard-playing.jpg) The look on my face sending this edition to 71 readers. Did you subscribe yet? ## Where to find opportunities The easiest and most straight forward way to find relevant acquisition targets is to use marketplaces specialized in buying and selling startups. There are a handful that focus on matching sellers with buyers in this space and the most well-known are probably [Acquire](https://www.acquire.com/?ref=hauser.io) and [Flippa](https://flippa.com/?ref=hauser.io), next to newcomers like [Microns](https://www.microns.io/?ref=hauser.io) and a few independent mailing lists. [![](https://www.hauser.io/content/images/2024/03/acquire-dot-com.png)](https://www.acquire.com/?ref=hauser.io) An example listing from Acquire.com [![](https://www.hauser.io/content/images/2024/03/microns-io.png)](https://www.microns.io/?ref=hauser.io) An example listing from Microns.io Especially deals below $50k are snatched up very quickly when the valuation is fair, which means you have to be fast to get the creme de la creme of opportunities. Other, oftentimes overlooked off market channels for discovering relevant assets are Twitter (X) or communities like Indie Hackers or Product Hunt. Why? Because asking for a sell is oftentimes easier than being among many buyers to compete for an asset once the founder decided to actually sell. The downside is, you have to get in touch with many builders to find the one who is selling their business that matches your profile. It's a numbers game, really. But some are even selling their business pro actively on Twitter (X), as seen in the example below by Marc Kohlbrugge. The MRR to price ratio is debateable, but the traction is impressive nonetheless: ![](https://www.hauser.io/content/images/2024/03/marc.png) [Source](https://twitter.com/marckohlbrugge/status/1768215778166534144?ref=hauser.io) Communities like [Indie Hackers](https://www.indiehackers.com/?ref=hauser.io) and [Product Hunt](https://www.producthunt.com/?ref=hauser.io) are another treasure chest of side projects that have launched a while ago, gained some traction and were then put on auto pilot to merely exist in the endless void of what we used to call the 'cyberspace.' ![](https://www.hauser.io/content/images/2024/03/producthunt.png) Previous submissions to Product Hunt A lot of opportunities await there for people who know what to look out for. However, building trust and relationships is key when approaching founders pro actively on such communities. ## What to acquire The focus of [Waterglass](https://www.waterglass.io/?ref=hauser.io) is to acquire assets early on, especially once they show first signs of traction: [![](https://www.hauser.io/content/images/2024/03/waterglass-acquisition-profile.png)](https://www.waterglass.io/?ref=hauser.io) The beauty of SaaS summed up in five bullet points For bootstrapped founders, growing a business from o → 1 is hard by itself, but taking it from 1 → 10 usually means hiring team members, dividing responsibilities and getting started with actual marketing and sales beyond just shitposting on Twitter (X). This quickly grows beyond the capacity and skills of the solo founder who started the business in the first place. Which means, this is the ideal time to acquire. The acquisition profile you see above will grow over time, especially the minimum MRR requirements, which are oftentimes closely connected the sales price. 💡 Speaking of prices, you will learn more about multiples and deal examples in the next edition. The goal in [Waterglass' year one](https://www.waterglass.io/news/year-one/?ref=hauser.io) is to acquire up to three assets and then grow them to '[ramen profitability](https://paulgraham.com/ramenprofitable.html?ref=hauser.io)' by initially investing my own capital. By the end of the first year, I plan to grow the portfolio on this foundation by niching down and ideally build synergies across the portfolio, possibly with external capital at some point. ## Your most frequently asked questions #### **The deal size is so small, how can this be a business?** In simple terms, a business is a function of revenue, expenditures and profits. Since the only fixed cost in the beginning is my moderately sized ego, this gives me flexibility to shape the fund as needed. Over time, deal sizes will grow which means more cash flow will be reinvested in further growth, team and future deals. #### Who would even sell a business so early? What many underestimate is just how many projects are up for sale and fall under the acquisition profile above, because the founders have two or more side projects and want to focus on either of them. Once it's about hiring people and growing a team to keep the momentum up, many solo founders consider selling their businesses, because they want to stay independent. The cash they get from the sale is then oftentimes reinvested another venture of their portfolio. #### What do you really get for such a price? Realistically, if you purchase an asset below $50k, what you will get is a slightly more advanced MVP. However – and this is a big *however* – this business has already made some progress towards Product-Market-Fit by acquiring customers and generating revenue, which means it reduced the overall risk of success. Once this far, it's about executing clever strategies to continue the path towards PMF to grow a profitable business under the portfolio. #### Do you have a team in place? Yes, while on one side I can cover a broad range of tasks myself and use automation to my advantage, it's engineering support that I get from the agency I co-run and partner with: [MVP.AG – We bring your MVP to Market, on Time and in Budget.Bring your business ideas into reality with our AI-driven development services. Specializing in creating custom MVPs quickly and cost-effectively, we offer fixed-price packages designed for web applications across devices. From CRM systems to AI-supported tools, start your project in just 8 weeks an…![](https://www.mvp.ag/lib_OUDQbUngjeKFFQmn/uof3ibjs50y1i4p4.svg)![](https://www.mvp.ag/lib_OUDQbUngjeKFFQmn/kj98gu00dkqeq3qz.png?w=1200&h=630&fit=crop)](https://www.mvp.ag/?ref=hauser.io) This allows me to manage costs quite agile while being able to double down on growing the portfolio. Speaking of which: ## Welcome to the portfolio, Mailpengu 0:00 /1:31 1× A quick toour of Mailpengu. Did you see the dancing penguin? A couple of weeks ago I started testing how LLMs can be used to create products – and I was blown away by the results. I'm convinced that the future of product development will heavily rely on co-pilots that engineers work alongside with, similar to how we work at [MVP.AG](https://www.mvp.ag/?ref=hauser.io). What I managed to do within just a week was: - Create a Python-based Flask application that analyzes online presentations - Write a Javascript-based Chrome Extenstion that hooks into Gmail and interacts across different server environments - Deploy everything on Google Cloud Platform It's truly crazy times we live in. Mailpengu will be rolled over into the portfolio as *venture zero* which means it's technically not the a real acquisition as it was built internally and is pre-revenue, but I see a potential fit with the rest of the upcoming portfolio that I have in mind. You can sign up on the website to get onboarded by me. I also added a small easter egg. Do you want to see a penguin dance? [Visit Mailpengu.com →](https://www.mailpengu.com/?ref=hauser.io) --- [The Independent ‘Micro PE’ EntrepreneurFor the past 10+ years, I have been working with startups, and B2B SaaS in particular, across different settings: I bootstrapped a startup, At Meta I started and operated a startup accelerator in Berlin, I ‘corporate ventured’ a startup and I consulted companies in Germany & Austria. With all that…![](https://www.hauser.io/content/images/size/w256h256/format/jpeg/2024/01/BH-2022.jpg)Bernhard HauserBernhard Hauser![](https://www.hauser.io/content/images/2024/02/bernhard-on-cam.jpg)](https://www.hauser.io/the-independent-micro-pe-entrepreneur/) ← In case you missed the previous edition ### Why I Buy Instead of Build URL: https://www.hauser.io/the-independent-micro-pe-entrepreneur/ Last updated: 2026-04-08T10:02:51.000Z For the past 10+ years, I have been working with startups, and B2B SaaS in particular, across different settings: [I bootstrapped a startup](https://www.hauser.io/about-me/#oratio), [At Meta I started and operated a startup accelerator in Berlin](https://www.hauser.io/about-me/#facebook-meta-), [I 'corporate ventured' a startup](https://www.hauser.io/about-me/#heylog) and I consulted companies in Germany & Austria. With all that experience, I decided to start something close to my primal instinct of creating and operating digital products: a 'micro PE' fund named 🐋 [Waterglass](https://www.waterglass.io/?ref=hauser.io). Waterglass is somewhat the sum of everything I learned in my career and honestly, it's a new territory that I'm pretty excited to enter. ## AI, automation and significantly reduced costs in business operation With advancements of AI and automation over the past years, a new chapter of creating and operating niche businesses has been opened. Remember the times when vast sums of initial capital were needed to buy or rent a server farm to run your favorite brokkoli lasagna website? Or when a large team of highly skilled software engineers was required to even get a crappy Beta version of a product live? ![](https://www.hauser.io/content/images/2024/02/bernie-server.jpg) Me in my UNIVAC server room writing this publication for you (1951, colorized • [source](https://wallpapers.com/wallpapers/old-computer-server-room-d6nw6kebgyko5oji.html?ref=hauser.io)) Fast forward to 2024, the skill of *producing* code has become almost ubiquitous, yet *what to produce* has become even more important, along with – and I can't stress this enough – *distribution* to bring it to market. This favors a new type of entrepreneurship, one where generalists with a broad skill set can build portfolios of niche businesses and operate them efficiently with only small teams and sometimes no teams at all. ## A shorter path to Product-Market-Fit Another core principle of Waterglass is to go for businesses that have at least a handful of paying customers and, with that, recurring revenue. In my experience, this means less risk when optimizing for Product-Market-Fit since some headway has already been made in the right direction. Personally, turning an idea from 0 → 1 demands significantly more effort and experimentation than scaling it from 1 → 10. ## A portfolio of Waterglass ventures... and a service business Where will the *funds* for the *fund* come from, you ask. Well, especially in the beginning I will bankroll the first small acquisitions myself with both some savings and by liquidating my crypto assets (*I guess* [*thank you SEC?*](https://www.wsj.com/finance/currencies/bitcoin-etfs-ether-investing-cryptocurrency-8d2f4d55?ref=hauser.io)). The first Waterglass venture will be rolled over from a side project I have been working on over the past few weeks that solves a problem I have encountered myself over and over again. It's about the automated customization of sales and company presentations. While still being pre-revenue, it adds nicely to the overall portfolio I have in mind and has the potential to add synergies to future ventures. Anyway, more about that in the next publication. The long-term strategy for Waterglass is to fund new acquisitions through portfolio revenue and at some point, with external capital. Until these acquisitions beyond my initial capital injection are financially possible, a service business will complement the portfolio and provide working capital. Therefore I started working with selected business clients on Waterglass.ai, where we help business scale with AI, similar to the work we do with our portfolio companies. [Waterglass.ai - We help businesses scale with AI solutionsAt Waterglass.ai, we help your business run more efficiently and reduce costs with safe, reliable AI. We build custom AI workflows, agents, and training that deliver real results from day one.![](https://www.waterglass.ai/waterglass-icon.png)Waterglass.ai![](https://www.waterglass.ai/WG-OG-ai.png)](https://www.waterglass.ai/?ref=hauser.io) ## Join me behind the scenes? My goal is to make the whole process of building and operating Waterglass transparent, including its ups and downs and learnings along the way. With your free subscription, you will get: - 1 article every 2\~4 weeks - Less than 10 minutes reading time - First row insights into buying and scaling niche software businesses --- [Year One – WaterglassThe What: A Self-Sustaining ‘Micro PE’ Fund In the first year of building and operating Waterglass, a micro PE fund that aims to build a portfolio of cash-flow optimized software businesses, the goal is about setting the fund’s groundwork by acquiring the initial assets. AI and automation have opene…![](https://www.waterglass.io/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/cropped-waterglass-whale-logo-270x270.png)Waterglassbernhard![](https://www.waterglass.io/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/water-and-sky-small-2024-1.jpg)](https://www.waterglass.io/news/year-one/?ref=hauser.io) The official announcement on Waterglass.io [About me\* I started Waterglass, a ‘micro PE’ fund that focuses on niche software businesses \* I incorporated and managed a corporate venture with €3.8M in total funding \* I launched Facebook’s first startup accelerator in Germany \* I organized an international technology conference in Vienna (Austria) wi…![](https://www.hauser.io/content/images/size/w256h256/format/jpeg/2024/01/BH-2022.jpg)Bernhard HauserBernhard Hauser![](https://www.hauser.io/content/images/2023/11/BH-wide-2.jpg)](https://www.hauser.io/about-me/) About Bernhard Hauser ### The Independent Technology Business Manfesto URL: https://www.hauser.io/the-independent-technology-business-manfesto/ Last updated: 2026-04-08T09:32:44.000Z We often hear stories that technology companies "must fundraise" in order to capture relevant market share and become leaders in their industry. This thinking originates from a time where technology companies needed large sums to get started, and then create a business that can scale at little marginal costs. In the past few decades, however, the cost of starting an IT company has gone down significantly. Depending on the type of business, it's no longer necessary to invest large sums of capital to get a startup off the ground. I advocate for abandoning the conventional thinking that starting a technology company can only be done with external investors; can only be done in a team; can only be done with exponential growth and a "move fast and break things" mindset. To date, I have founded over four businesses in various categories from consulting to marketplaces, to SaaS across different countries. These experiences have led me to the realization that ultimately, what really makes me as a founder happy at heart, is a company with profound, long-term impact in the field it's active in, and the freedom to act in the best interest of both customers and the organization while being funded through cash flow. Find below a list of eight core principles that I think are crucial for this type of business. They are not exhaustive and will be adapted over time after the initial release of this manifesto, just as markets, customer demands, and founder preferences adapt. ### Core Principles 1. **Customer Focus**: Prioritize customer needs in all decisions. 2. **Self-Funded Growth**: Bootstrap to keep decision-making power. 3. **Founder-Led Decision-Making**: Preserve the company's vision through founder-driven choices without external influence from VCs or other investors. 4. **Long-Term Strategy over Short-Term Gains**: Prioritize sustainable growth over quick profits except if the company's survival is at risk. 5. **Quality Over Quantity**: Focus on delivering exceptional value. 6. **Financial Discipline**: Operate within your means, avoid unnecessary debt. 7. **Minimal Bureaucracy**: Keep operations lean for quick decision-making. 8. **Personal Development**: Invest in continuous learning for yourself and your team.