How Fernando Rivero Achieved a Milestone With His Six-Figure Exit

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There are many different reasons for selling an online business. Sometimes cashing out may be the main reason. In other cases, the exit could be motivated by the need to free up time or the desire to move on to another project. For Fernando Rivero, the main reason for selling his online business was to achieve the milestone of a six-figure exit.

When Fernando sold XmartClock for $250,000 in 2021, it marked a significant achievement in his career. Many creators and indie hackers will relate to this inspirational story of a solo project that turned into a major success.

From Idea to Profit

Fernando Rivero, who lives in Uruguay, is a software engineer with more than 15 years of experience. He’s been involved in several startups, some of which were funded through venture capital. In addition to working on other people’s projects, he’s also launched a few of his own.

In 2017, Fernando got the idea to create a time clock system for remote employees. While some similar solutions were already available, most targeted the American or European markets.

“While I saw tons of competitors doing the same,” Fernando said, “I identified an opportunity to do it specifically for the Latin market where the leading competitor at that moment was not offering a solution that was 100% SaaS, including a trial period. They were focusing more on meetings even before trying the solution.”

Fernando put his skills to work, and XmartClock was born in late 2017.

Fernando initially tried paid ads to grow XmartClock’s user base, but the ad campaigns weren’t profitable. “After realizing that paid ads were not yielding the desired results,” he said, “I shifted my focus to organic SEO strategies.”

To build organic search traffic, Fernando optimized the website content for specific keywords, built inbound links, and leveraged content marketing. These efforts proved to be far more successful than the paid ads, and XmartClock began to grow.

Fernando’s decision to target the Latin market was an excellent choice as he faced much less competition than if he’d targeted American users.

The Exit

After running the business for more than three years, Fernando decided to sell it in 2021. XmartClock was performing well (generating $7,000 in monthly recurring revenue), and the sale wasn’t about the money. Fernando’s motivation to sell came from the desire to achieve the milestone of selling a business. “I was happy to see how the business was growing without employees, no investors, no paid ads, and no time required from my end since it was automated,” he said. “However, I wanted to sell a business.”

Although Fernando wanted to sell the business, he didn’t know how to find a buyer. After looking around at several options, Fernando decided to list the business for sale on Acquire.com (it was called “MicroAcquire” at that time). He didn’t have high expectations and wasn’t really expecting it to sell, but he was pleasantly surprised by the process.

Fernando started receiving inquiries and questions from potential buyers within a few days of listing the business for sale. He declined two or three low offers before receiving an offer from the eventual buyer. In total, the process took about two months from the time the listing went live until the completion of the sale for $250,000 (roughly 3x annual revenue).

Speaking about the experience of selling XmartClock on Acquire.com, Fernando said, “It was impressive how easy it was.”

Working Toward the Next Exit

After the sale, Fernando initially planned to use some of the money to purchase an existing online business. However, his love for creating new businesses and products led him to pass on those opportunities in favor of building from scratch. “Since I’m a product maker by heart,” he said, “I never bought a business and instead invested my own capital in developing new products.”

Today, Fernando is focused on two businesses that he’s grown from the ground up. Xenio, founded in 2017, is a software development company that focuses exclusively on WhatsApp. “At Xenio,” he said, “we are Meta Tech Providers and are developing WhatsApp solutions for companies worldwide.” Fernando has no plans to sell Xenio, as it’s a long-term project.

His other current project is Callendar, a startup that began in 2023. Callendar is an appointment solution that runs inside WhatsApp and is powered by OpenAI using the new WhatsApp flows. Fernando hopes to sell Callendar on Acquire.com in the near future.

For Fernando, the most rewarding part of growing and selling an online business is “seeing a need for a product where nobody else sees it and coming to the market with the product a short time later.” With one successful exit under his belt and another one likely coming in the near future, Fernando’s approach is clearly working.

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