Link Moser·November 27, 2024

Micro-Acquiring to $300k SDE on 5 Hours Per Week | Link Moser Interview

Link Moser is a New Hampshire-based entrepreneur who started building websites and reselling web hosting in 1995, discovering early that hosting reseller margins created low-effort recurring revenue. After a years-long detour into residential real estate that let his web business atrophy to just $18k/year in hosting fees, a failed real estate partnership pushed him back to his digital roots around 2017. Rather than rebuild organically, he pioneered a micro-acquisition strategy: sending hand-signed personal letters to small one- or two-person digital agencies and web design shops across New England, then buying their client bases via seller-financed earnouts tied to gross hosting revenue collected — typically $4k-$60k down with 12-24 month earnouts. Over five deals spanning 2017-2023, he assembled a portfolio that by late 2024 generates roughly $413k in gross revenue and ~$226k in SDE (projected ~$295k once the final earnout clears), all while working approximately one to two hours per day with an all-contractor remote team. Key lessons include the unreliability of project-based revenue (only ~10% of trailing revenue materializes forward), the critical importance of seller involvement in client transitions, and the dangers of acquiring businesses with homegrown CMS systems. Despite the impressive financial outcome, Link candidly shares that solo semi-passive operation from a rural area has left him feeling isolated and unfulfilled, and he is now considering buying a traditional brick-and-mortar business or partnering with someone to take his digital portfolio to the next level.

Deal facts

sde ebitda: SDE ~$226k current (projected ~$295k once earnout payments end); SDE $124k at end of 2018
revenue: $413k gross projected for 2024
financing structure: Seller financing via earnout structures; minimal cash down per deal (e.g., $4k down on first deal, $30k down on second, $60k down on fifth); no SBA
notes: Five micro-acquisitions in total. Deal 1 (~2017): ~$35k gross revenue, $4k down, 18-month earnout at 50% of recurring hosting revenue and 30-35% of project revenue. Deal 2 (~2017, CT): ~$80-100k gross, $30k down, 12-month earnout. Deal 3 (~2017-18, Upstate NY): terms not specified but similarly structured. Deal 4: details not given. Deal 5 (~2023, Upstate NY): ~$80k recurring + ~$80-100k project revenue, $60k down, 24-month earnout at 50% recurring / 35% project. Earnout on deal 5 runs through end of 2025.

Why this business

Link started building websites and reselling web hosting in 1995, discovering early the power of recurring revenue from hosting reseller margins. After a detour into real estate, he returned to his hosting/web-agency model and realized he could grow it faster through inorganic acquisition of small one- or two-person agencies than through organic means. He specifically valued the high-margin, low-touch, recurring nature of hosting revenue and targeted micro-agencies that were natural fits — 'apples to apples' — for his existing model.

What's working

Web hosting reseller model generates near-100% margin recurring revenue with minimal ongoing work — the guest describes it as utility-like: low-cost, essential, never cut by clients
Proprietary direct outreach via personal signed letters to small digital agency owners has consistently generated a 10-12% response rate and yielded acquisition leads where email would not
Earnout deal structure based on gross hosting revenue collected each month keeps deals transparent, aligns seller incentives for smooth client transitions, and protects the buyer against attrition risk
All-contractor, fully-remote team (global freelancers for graphic design, tech support, etc.) keeps operating costs low and the business portable
By 2024 the business runs on roughly one to two hours per day with only occasional small fires, producing ~$226k SDE currently and projected ~$295k once final earnout payments clear

What's hard

Project-based revenue from acquired agencies proved far less durable than expected — on one acquisition, only about 10% of trailing-12-month project revenue materialized in the forward 12 months
Client transitions are delicate because these are personal relationships with solo operators; poor seller handoff (e.g., a mailed letter no one received) caused confusion and damaged trust
One seller (Deal 3, Upstate NY) disappeared after closing, leaving open client projects with paid deposits that Link had to resolve without any seller cooperation or documentation
Homegrown proprietary CMS systems acquired with businesses created ongoing maintenance complexity and required retaining the seller as a subcontractor
Market valuations for anything tech-related inflated significantly pre- and during-pandemic, making it hard to find deals at acceptable multiples from roughly 2018-2022
Operating a semi-passive solo business from a rural area has created an unexpected sense of isolation — no team, no co-workers, no entrepreneurial community — which Link finds emotionally deflating despite the strong financials

Notable quotes

My early introduction to recurring revenue at the ripe old age of 20 — hey, I've got you this website, we've got to put it somewhere. For 20, 30, 40 bucks a month, whatever it was, we can keep it online for you. And I quickly learned it didn't take a ton of work to keep that revenue coming in.

I can spend all this effort trying to get one new client or I can spend similar effort to get 50 and roll those in. And that has really helped me grow where I was getting frustrated with organic growth.

Web hosting is that beautiful sweet spot that private equity looks for — low ticket, need-to-have, essential. It's not something that is discretionary. If somebody wants to have a website they've got to pay for hosting. And it's not a big fee, so it's not something that they're going to try to negotiate you down on, and they're never going to cut it.

The earnout lets me stay in a place of comfort from a risk standpoint. You're not usually acquiring any kind of growth engine — when you plop them out of that mix you're taking over a client base that is naturally shedding.