I was offered approx. 4X SDE for my SaaS by a competitor but thought it was too low.<p>I felt they should pay even more to get rid of their primary competitor.<p>I also know what they&#x27;re up to and their recent strategy benefits their other business but also benefits mine.<p>I have a hard to acquire customer but have found a way to connect with consistent sources to replace most of the churn with a zero cost of acquisition.<p>4x was too low for me to pull the trigger. I needed about 8x. Why sell a business at 4x when it&#x27;s hard to compete with because the customer acquisition and churn is a challenge?<p>The growth fundamentals aren&#x27;t as good as other businesses but the risk is much lower. I don&#x27;t think that is valued enough. Everyone wants to roll the dice on huge growth when 25-50% annual returns are out there, nearly guaranteed for small, auto-pilot SaaS companies.<p>If I sold at 4x and then said, where can I put that money and get a nearly guaranteed 25% return, I don&#x27;t think I could find that. That would be risky.<p>So while 4X may be the upper limit for SaaS valuation metrics like the article states - it&#x27;s not going to get the deal done for many SaaS companies. And I&#x27;m fine with that.