A short companion to the acquisition announcement.

Imogen Holloway: Why now?

Bohdan Hlushko: Because focus is the most expensive resource we have. We have eight apps. Two of them deserve a much bigger budget than we are willing to spend on them. The honest move is to find an operator who will give them that budget.

IH: People will read this and assume the apps you are selling are the bad ones. Are they?

BH: No. The apps on the table are healthy. They are profitable. They have good ratings. They are loved. They are simply ones where we have hit the ceiling of what a small team can do for them. The next phase is paid marketing, partnerships, content — work that is not our strength and that we do not want to invest in learning.

IH: Why not raise money instead?

BH: I have thought about this seriously. If we raised, we would have to put that capital somewhere. We would have to grow into the round. That changes the company. We do not want a different company. We want this one.

Selling lets us fund the next two apps and one client engagement out of cash, with no outside money. We stay small, we stay nimble, we stay profitable.

IH: What does the right buyer look like?

BH: Somebody who has done this before, with this category. Not a fund that wants to flip in 18 months. Not a private equity rollup that will fire the support team. An operator who will treat the users with respect and ship better updates than we do.

We will say no to the wrong buyer even if the price is right. The users matter.

IH: What is the process from here?

BH: A serious buyer writes us. We sign an NDA. We share a one-page memo per app: revenue, retention, churn, COGS, the cap on what we have done with it. They ask questions. We answer. If there is fit, we move to a letter of intent and then to diligence.

We will be transparent. We will not negotiate aggressively. The price we ask is the price the math supports.

IH: And the apps you are not selling?

BH: They keep getting our attention. Two of them are about to get the best release of the year. One of them is the entire next quarter. The forge stays hot.

IH: Last thing. Anything you want to say to people who think indie studios should never sell?

BH: The same thing I would say to people who think indie studios should always raise. You do what is right for the company, the users, and the team. Ideology is not a strategy.

Bohdan Hlushko is the founder of Tappa. Inquiries about acquisition can be sent to bohdan@tappa.tech.