Show HN: Venturu – Zillow for the market of local businesses (opens in new tab)

We actually have that level of financial detail for many of our listings from our broker partners. The challenge has been figuring out the best way to present it. putting raw financials out publicly isn't the right move for the sellers.

So our next big build is a secure data room. The goal is to use that verified data to create richer, dynamic visualizations and financial summaries that a seller or broker can share securely with a qualified buyer. it's a big priority for us.

Great feedback, it's exactly where our heads are at.

The buyer landscape is more diverse than most poeple think. It's really a mix of a few key groups:

- There's the classic one, the person who's climbed the corporate ladder, has some capital, and wants to buy back control of their own time.

- Then you have the employee who's ready to be the owner. Think of the head cook who wants to buy a restaurant after working at one for 10 years.

- There's also a new wave, partly driven by social media, of people looking for a "low maintenance" business like a laundromat to create cash flow. They quickly find out that even a 'passive' business is a real job, but it's a growing trend.

And on the more sophisticated end, you have roll-up funds and private equity groups who see the massive opportunity in that $10 trillion wealth transfer and are looking to professionalize this space.

To us, it’s honestly a mind-bending cross-section of the economy. Thanks for asking!

Right now, it's a mix. we do basic "I'm a human" verification with e-mails and phoone numbers, and our team manually reviews inquiries to filter out the obvious noise before it hits a broker's inbox.

Longer term, we're exploring a concept we're calling a 'Venturu Passport.' It would be an optional one-time-thing-setup for a serious buyer to verify their funds, experience and readiness upfront, so a seller knows they're talking to someone credible.

It's just an idea for now, but we are very much obsessed with solving this. Would love to hear your thoughts on an approach like that.

You're right, the two are often tied together. For now, we're laser-focused on the operating business, the brand, the customers, the cash flow, presence, etc.

We made a conscious decision that if we tried to solve both the business sale and the commercial real estate piece at the same time, we'd do an "okay" job at both.

Our goal for now is to be the absolute best in the world at our part of the puzzle first.

But never say never! We'll keep this in mind, thanks again for the feedback.

the real difference though is the monumental effort happening behind the scenes. We're building direct partnerships with brokerages, one by one, to sync their entire inventory onto Venturu.

For many of them, it's the first time they can put all their listings online without getting hit by massive per-listing fees. It might not sound like a huge deal, but we believe this will eventually reveal the true size of this hidden market.

It's a world still built on handshakes and business cards, and we're just trying to help pave the way.

we do use some generative models for mundane things like headlines to make that free discoverability possible, but our core tech, like the valuation tool, is "old school".

My cofounder, Luis, built that model over years in a spreadsheet from his experience buying businesses. My job was to turn it into code and supercharge it with historical data and location-specific variables.

Fun fact, the model was actually born first, Venturu came later

That is true but these are two really distinct parts of the ecosystem.

A realtor is fantastic for the 'where' the lease and the physical space. We're all about the 'what' the actual operating business with its brand and cash flow. It's the difference between taking over a location and buying an income stream.

And yes, big franchises are their own walled gardens but our world / approach is the millions of independent businesses, the local coffee shop, the family-owned auto repair that make up the vast majority of the market.

That's the massive slice that's been left behind by modern tech.

That said, a long-term dream of ours is to explore ways to let people co-invest in businesses in their own communities. It's a ways off, but it's part of the bigger vision.

on sales, it's still a bit early for us to know the final number of closed deals. The average business takes 6-12 months to sell, and we've only been seeing a real flow of leads for the last 4 months (we've been live for 6). what we can say is we've generated 182 qualified leads for sellers and their brokers.

You've actually hit on one of the core problems we're trying to solve. Right now, deals go offline into private systems and the data gets lost. Our long-term goal is to build the rails for the entire transaction.

As for how we make money, our model is basically zillow's. It's completely free for an owner to list their business and for buyers to search. We make money by connecting sellers with our network of professional brokers. Brokers can then choose to pay for more visibility in their local zip codes.

It lets us keep the marketplace itself open and free for everyone.

however local businesses transactions have their own specific challenges, state dependent regulation, messier financials, emotional rollercoasters, a lot of secrecy, distrust, longer timeframes. It's really inaccessible for most people right now, and that's what we're trying to change.

I think the main difference is our core philosophy on what should be free.

Their model is built around monetizing the buyer's access, with things like "locked deals" and daily inquiry limits on the free plan.

Our whole bet is that this market only gets unlocked if discovery is completely open and frictionless for everyone, buyers, sellers, and brokers.

So on Venturu, there are no locked deals, no paywalls to see listings, and no limits on inquiries.

We give all that away for free and will build our business by helping our broker partners succeed, similar to the Zillow model