Hacker Bits, April 2016

It all started with an email I
wrote last November:
I’m a Spanish Bible salesman.
Kind of.
The goal was just to pay
our rent, but instead the
Spanish Bible app I made
turned into a successful
6-figure business.
That was sent to Gimlet Media
November 12, 2014 pitching
my Bible app story for their
podcast, Startup.
12 days later I was being
interviewed by Alex Blumberg.
Gimlet Media published that
episode on January 5. My interview
ended up being half of the
episode and I thought it went
great. I’m a huge This American
Life and Startup fan so just being
interviewed by Alex was fun,
let alone being on the show.
I got a few “congrats!” on
Twitter/Facebook etc. and I
thought that was the end of it.
Until Business Insider found
it.
The first email
About a month later in February,
Business Insider published
a post that summarized the
interview.
This would end up changing
my life.
Business Insider’s reach is
incredible, and as a result of
that post:
• The story was written about
on over 1,000 other websites
• It was shared over 4,000
times from Fox News’ Facebook
page
• They discussed it multiple
times on the the Fox News
morning show
• I was a guest on the Huffington
Post’s morning show
• I was interviewed by a bunch
of other smaller media sites
And of course the kicker:
the following email landed in my
inbox on February 6th:
Trevor,
Great to meet you. I work
for Salem Media and I read
the story about your Bible
App. Sounds like you have
really created something
that is doing very well. I
would like to talk with you
because we are interested
in buying the app
from you if you have any
interest. You can check
out me on LinkedIn if you
want and we can set up a
quick call just to say hello
and see if there is anything
there…
(Emphasis mine)
I instantly recognized the
company and knew this was a
very real offer.
Salem Media
Back in 2012 when my apps
started really picking up steam I
dug into and learned a ton about
the Christian media industry.
(For example, I learned that
the #1 selling English Bible, the
NIV, is owned by Rupert Murdoch
and News Corp.)
In my research I found a
public company called Salem
Media, worth $160 million as I
write this. They got started in
the 80’s as a radio company.
I pored through their
10-K/10-Q filings, in particular
their acquisition sections.
I found things like:
“On May 15, 2012, we purchased
Churchangel.com
and rchurch.com for $0.2
million. “
“On August 30, 2012, we
acquired SermonSpice.com
for $3.0 million.”
“On October 1, 2012, we
completed the acquisition
of Godvine.com for $4.2
million.”
The joy of doing business
with public companies; all this
info about previous acquisitions,
prices, dates… available to anyone.
Even back in 2012 it was apparent
very quickly that they buy
digital properties all the time.
Websites, apps, Facebook
pages, domains… you name it.
Back in 2012 I had no way of
getting their interest. But when
that first email from them landed
in my inbox in 2015, I knew
it was real instantly, and that it
was game on.
I didn’t respond until 24
hours later. The negotiations
had already begun.
The whole process ended up
taking 7 months, and basically
played out as follow:
1. Agree on price
2. Due diligence
3. Asset Purchase Agreement
term negotiations
4. Closing
1. Agree on price
After we each signed an NDA we
got on the phone. My contact for
this entire process was a nice
guy named David. It’s his job to
be nice and get good terms from
hacker bits
31