Questions to ask
- How much time do you want to spend on this project from here?
- What would matter to you when handing it over?
- What terms would make a sale worth considering?
Fictional learning example. All figures are exercise assumptions.
Start with the owner’s priorities
Exercise scenario. The owner says: “The project is making money, but I’m already working on a new idea. I don’t want to sell it cheaply.”
Your task is to understand their priorities and open a conversation about a possible sale.
Connect a sale to their goal
“If you want to focus on your new idea, a sale could be one option. We could discuss the terms that matter to you and the information we would need to assess that option.”
The proposal responds to the owner’s stated goal. It makes no promise about price and offers a clear next step.
Practice and self-check
Write your own reply and propose a next step. Check that it responds to the owner’s priorities, asks about terms and leaves room to discuss concerns.
The assumptions
Suppose the seller asks for USD 96,000. The project receives USD 12,000 per month and incurs USD 8,000 in ongoing cash costs. Receipts in this example are already net of platform fees; costs include current operational work and support. We have not verified a seller’s accounts: these are inputs to the exercise.
| Measure | Base scenario | Receipts fall by 25% |
|---|---|---|
| Monthly receipts | USD 12,000 | USD 9,000 |
| Monthly costs | USD 8,000 | USD 8,000 |
| Surplus before excluded costs | USD 4,000 | USD 1,000 |
| Price / monthly surplus | 24 months | 96 months |
The calculation is 96,000 ÷ (12,000 − 8,000) = 24. With receipts of 9,000, it becomes 96,000 ÷ (9,000 − 8,000) = 96. Both scenarios assume a constant monthly surplus.
The model excludes tax, financing, transaction and transfer costs, further investment, working-capital changes and the time value of money. The result is therefore not a promise of actual payback. A zero or negative surplus gives no finite payback period in this model.
Prepare for the owner conversation
- Where do the receipts come from? Request evidence across several periods and reconcile units, fees, refunds and dates. A one-off spike cannot simply be projected into every future month.
- Are all costs included? The owner’s work, support, updates and paid traffic do not become free after a transfer.
- What would be transferred? Establish the rights to code and assets, necessary agreements and access. Relevant specialists need to perform legal and technical checks.
- What could deteriorate? Examine dependence on a traffic source, platform, key person and updates. For a game, also compare retention and monetisation across consistent periods.
A careful conclusion
“The assumptions give a simple payback of 24 months. A 25% fall in receipts increases that to 96 months. Before recommending an acquisition, we need to verify receipts and costs, assess the transfer and investigate the durability of demand.”
This conclusion separates arithmetic from evidence and identifies information that could change the decision. That is the skill the learning case is designed to practise.
For Roblox, do not treat revenue reported in Robux as USD cash receipts. Establish a consistent basis first. Roblox documentation helps distinguish monetisation metrics; it does not set an acquisition price for a game.
From calculation to conversation
With the same USD 8,000 costs and USD 10,000 monthly receipts, the surplus is USD 2,000 and simple payback is 48 months. Which additional costs could extend it? Prepare three questions to understand the owner’s plans, then make the case for considering a sale and suggest a next step.