How to sell a side project with no revenue

Most side projects end the same way. You get busy, the hosting bill keeps coming, and the code slowly stops working with the latest versions of everything. If you've already stopped working on it, sell it while it still runs. A broken project is much harder to sell than a quiet one.

There's another reason to sell. If people use it, even a few, selling keeps it alive for them. Shutting it down just leaves them stuck.

But if you still open the code on Sunday nights because you want to, keep it. Selling something you still care about usually ends with regret.

Usually it's another builder. A developer or a small studio would rather pay a few thousand dollars than spend six months building the same app. An agency might want it because its clients keep asking for that exact tool. Now and then it's someone who had your idea last year and never started, or one of your own users.

When Richie McIlroy listed Recover, a side project that had never earned anything, he spoke to more than 20 potential buyers. They ranged from big payment companies to small software studios. It sold for $4,500.¹

Write down everything that goes with it, before you talk to anyone. A buyer will ask anyway.

Start with the app itself, which should still let people sign up and do the main job. Then the code, and whether it sits in a GitHub repo you can transfer. The domain, and how long it's paid up for. Any social accounts. If you have users, a waitlist or even a small email list, count them, because buyers will. Figma files and anything you wrote for the site count too.

And your notes. Who asked for which feature. What you'd build next if you had the time, and what you tried that flopped. Builders tend to forget this part, but buyers value it. Hazel Lim, who writes about small online businesses, says that to the right buyer a pre-revenue project is a business someone already built, with the builder telling them exactly how to grow it.²

No revenue means buyers look for other signs. How many people signed up, and how many came back a second time? Did anyone message you asking for a feature, or say they'd pay, and how much?³

Screenshots help a little. Read-only access to your analytics is better, since nobody can fake a live dashboard while a buyer watches.

Acquire.com only takes pre-revenue products that are live and working. Sign-up and log-in have to work, and so do the core features. No placeholder pages, and you must be able to transfer everything.⁴

Use that bar wherever you sell. Delete the page that's said “coming soon” for a year. Test the sign-up on your own phone. Then record a two-minute video of the app doing its main job, because Acquire says a demo makes approval more likely, and buyers like it too.⁴

What does it do, who is it for, and why are you letting it go? “I started a new job and haven't opened it since March” is a perfectly good reason. A plain answer reads as honest. A vague one makes buyers wonder what's wrong.

After that, list what's included and give only the numbers you can prove, with where each one comes from. Leave out any talk of money it hasn't made. If you really think it could earn, say how you'd do it, and let the buyer decide whether they agree.

Acquire.com's help page says most pre-revenue listings there ask under $25,000.⁴ Recover went for $4,500.¹ So price it on what exists today, not on what it might earn in two years. Our guide to valuing a project with no revenue walks through the sum.

Small deals fall through late, often for reasons that have nothing to do with you.² Someone's budget changes, or a cofounder says no. Keep a second buyer interested until the money has actually moved.

The highest offer isn't always the one to take, either. McIlroy went with the buyer who had a clear plan to grow the product.¹

Agree the deal in writing first. What's being sold, for how much, and how the handover works. Then use escrow, so a third party holds the money until the buyer has everything, which protects you as much as them. Hand over the code, the domain and each account one by one, and get the buyer to confirm each piece as it lands. Our handover guide has the full list.

On Prow: Posting your project on Prow is free. When you're ready to sell, an Early-stage listing is for projects with no revenue yet and costs ₦10,000, once. Buyers can sign your NDA, ask questions in private and make offers, and the money is held in escrow with EscrowPay until they confirm they have everything. When it sells, you and the buyer each pay Prow 1.5% of the price, at least ₦5,000 each. EscrowPay's own fee is split between you.

• You've decided you'd rather sell it than keep it.
• It still works, and people can sign up and use it.
• You've listed everything that's included, notes too.
• You can show proof people want it, even without revenue.
• The price is modest, and you're talking to more than one buyer.
• The deal is in writing, and the money goes through escrow.