Autoklose
👤 Shawn Finder (Sold an email-database firm (ExchangeLeads) at 28, so he built Autoklose around the data a strategic buyer would want.)🌐 siteshawnfinder.com𝕏LinkedIn
Bootstrapped to $1M in 18 months, then held firm from a 2x offer to a 5x exit — the database was the prize.
Will it work? · our read
Data, not code. A crowded cold-email tool became a clean 5x exit because Autoklose owned a revalidated 40M-contact database — the one piece VanillaSoft could not quickly rebuild.
01How the money moves
Reps buy seats to run outbound
→
Tool auto-sends sequences, serves 40M-contact database
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Monthly per-seat subscriptions recur
02The numbers
About $1M revenueStatedrevenue at 2020 exit
2020
Autoklose bootstrapped to about $1M revenue in 18 months, then sold at 5x.
About $1M revenue at exit; sold at 5x (7-figure) to VanillaSoft in 2020.
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See a full teardown, free → ImportYetiSourcesSources last checked 20 August 2026
They Got Acquired — the $1M revenue, 5x multiple, 40M contacts, about 3,000 customers.Mixergy — Finder interview: bootstrapped and sold in 2 years.Built to Sell Radio ep 288 — Finder on bridging the valuation gap.VanillaSoft — acquisition announcement.shawnfinder.com — founder profile.
Revenue is the founder's own figure: Shawn Finder told They Got Acquired revenue had 'just crossed $1 million' at the 2020 sale, and the 5x multiple, 7-figure price, 40M-contact database and about 3,000 customers are from that same interview (STATED, not a filing). The initial offer was about 2x; Finder walked, and VanillaSoft returned at 5x. VanillaSoft is private and the exact price was not disclosed; 5x of about $1M implies roughly $5M. Cross-checked against VanillaSoft's own acquisition announcement plus Mixergy and Built to Sell interviews. First-party but not audited. We never score you.