The money quote: “it became clear that operating the acquired businesses took much more work than attracting capital”. 
Of course it does! Why did these businesses think brands were selling out?!
And not just Thrasio, either. This article discusses several Amazon Aggregators in similar circumstances:
And this one stood out…
File under
Barnum was right!!!
“Hi Team”
I mean they could be offering you $1!
Profit is dead for these guys, buying stores via post cards for major $ is dead
Wouldn’t know because we never respond to these things. The only one we are selling out to is a known CPG company.
We did respond to one a couple years ago. The offer was about 1.5X our annual sales at the time. I personally think our IP is worth more than that…
Not sad, Glad to see this market is dead. I put them lower then RA/OA people
There are a lot of people that made a lot of money off these losers when this was hot.
When this first started, they were bidding 5-7X rev for an Amazon account, which as we all know, is really dumb and very risky…
That’s why it fell apart.
I don’t flat these people
Bingo!
Me neither… It’s not very difficult to get to $1M on Amazon. Profitability on that is another story.
Imagine building an Amazon store doing $1M a year @ 10pts EBITDA and walking away with $7M? Sounds good to me.
There’s nothing wrong with taking full advantage of scumbags.
In essence I agree, but I still feel dirty doing it.
In my experience, as long as they think they smell EBITDA profitability, the Cash McCall’s of the world will never stop contacting you.
Business is dirty by nature. I got over that like 25 years ago.
I’m no dummy. Our business is worthless at the moment without the cost advantages we have due to the manufacturing. That would go away for any new owner that wasn’t a manufacturer themselves.
Marketplace selling is weird… LOL
Not our focus anymore.
It’s funny… I was perusing the shelves at my local supermarket. Big brand names selling the same product for 45% more than they do on Amazon. Retailer buyers / category managers used to lose their 
over that. Now they don’t hold any of the cards. Wild…
Quiet Light is good for average multiples sans IP/Brand power. Back then multiples were at least4-5x adjusted Ebitda. I would always hedge 5-10 guys and hedge them against each other and then have your lawyer read over fine print and make sure everything is immediate PV and not some weird FV of money. But preaching to the choir.
Isn’t part of your competitive advantage the fact that you have a sweetheart deal with the contract manufacturer?
If you sell it to them then they’re not going to get the same deal (maybe the sale comes with an agreement that the manufacturer won’t raise prices for a year or two, but after that good luck to them), and meanwhile you can start another brand while keeping the favorable deal.
Somehow I doubt my business partner, who owns the manufacturing is going to sell products for what they cost to make to someone else under any conditions…
It’s OK though because we have no plans to sell for a few years. 27/28 is the target so I an retire.
I’ve already worked the equivalent of 50 years in 27 so that’s enough.
Gotta be poolside by 55. 
I will need to learn how to swim though. True story
That’s what I mean, he’s only working for free because he has equity in the company. If the “aggregator” buys out the company, they aren’t getting that pricing going forward so their margins will go to crap.