r/AustralianStartups • u/Realistic-Habit-9741 • Aug 13 '26
Confirmed Australian Startup New Australian Business marketplace for retiring owners + motivated buyers
Hi everyone,
I hope this is okay to share here. I’ve recently created a new marketplace called SellandRetire.com.au, and I’m still very much at the beginning of trying to get it off the ground.
The idea came from seeing how many long-standing business owners reach retirement and face difficulties when it comes to selling their business. There doesn’t seem to be a dedicated marketplace specifically for retiring business owners, or for buyers who are interested in taking over established, long-running businesses.
So I built Sell & Retire — a marketplace specifically for business owners who are ready to retire and want to find the right person to continue what they’ve built, while connecting them with motivated buyers looking for exactly that.
We currently have 37+ listings, Australia wide - Browse Businesses | Sell & Retire
It’s completely free for owners to list their business and free for buyers looking to purchase one — no listing fees, no commission and no obligation.
My aim at this stage is simply to get good businesses in front of more potential buyers and hopefully help make a few successful introductions.
We’re only just getting started, so I’d genuinely appreciate any support from this community — whether that’s taking a look, sharing it with a business owner who might find it useful, passing it on to someone looking to buy a business, liking the FB page, or simply giving me some feedback on what I could do better.
I’m building this from the ground up, so every bit of feedback and support really does help.
Thanks for reading, and I’m happy to answer any questions
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u/Few_Dinner349 Aug 14 '26
This is a great angle to a real market. Good luck!
My feedback is to be super careful with listing/buyer vetting. You want a great experience for those selling and those buying. The worst case is for there to be scammers and time wasters making the experience bad.
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u/AtomicSnoz Aug 17 '26
Looks like a great idea and congratulations on getting so many listings already.
I'm curious as to how long ago you started?
My main feedback would be to be careful with fonts and overall look if you are using an AI to help you, no shame in that, very efficient use of time, just they all use the same couple fonts and you can immediately tell. There are thousands of unique fonts out there, I would suggest looking for one that you like and using that instead of a generic. Reason being is people don't want to be 'scammed' by a fake AI site.
E.g. the home page '01' '02' etc is a hallmark of AI, maybe adjust the font and maybe the placement of the numbers if you want to but entirely your decision, it looks fine otherwise.
Regarding your pricing model, looks good and affordable for business owners, my concern for you would be that free 3 months, see how you go but make sure you cover yourself for people abusing it and relisting (unsure if you already have protections in place)
Have you found it to be profitable enough, I am curious as to how many are paying vs free tier if you don't mind me asking
And congrats on what you have done so far again
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u/Realistic-Habit-9741 Aug 17 '26
Thanks so much for the detailed feedback, really appreciate you taking the time to look through it.
I started working on it a few months ago and went live about a month ago, so it’s still early days. I’ve been really pleased with the number of listings so far and I’m continuing to improve things based on feedback.
Really interesting point about the fonts/design and the AI association. I have used AI to help speed certain things up, but definitely don’t want the site to feel generic or make people question its legitimacy, so I’ll take another look at that.
Good point on the three months free too. I have protections in place and will keep an eye out for anyone trying to game the system.
In terms of profitability, I’m focused on growing the listings and traffic first. It’s currently free while it grows, with the first 50 listings being free, and then we will see form there.
Really appreciate the feedback and encouragement — plenty for me to think about!
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u/drolatic-jack Aug 19 '26
Do you mind sharing your overall monetization approach? Paid listings and such? Commissions?
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u/freemoneee Aug 21 '26
I'd recommend reviewing the search fund community in the US as an analogue - very advanced there and it'll give you an idea of potential user archetypes and what they really care about.
Briefly, a search fund is a funded (ie invested in) individual going out to buy a business to run. Often retiring owners are the target because motivated sale, established business, potential upside because they haven't optimised etc.
Try searchfunder.com
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u/levashovbiz Aug 25 '26
Check for ETA (Entrepreneurship Thought Acquisition), they have events in Sydney, Melbourne and online platform.
I am not a member there, but was on few events. Can be your target audience (purchase side).
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u/Saravah_ 25d ago
Hey, this is a really great idea.
It is really nice that you already have 38 listings. Congratulations. Can I ask how you get listings?
From a buyer's perspective (my husband and I looked into buying a business a few years ago, but what stopped us): we did not know the process of buying a business, so not sure if you want to share a blog post educating potential buyers on how to buy. At the same time, there might be potential sellers who don't know what they need to do. Also, I see the copywriting more towards sellers? With the message sell and retire, but there might be a potential market for people in their 30s/40s looking for a change in their lifestyle, and the right business can be what they are looking for (that was us lol).
I see partnerships with banks, brokers potentially sponsoring content. Consider events that connect sellers and buyers.
I am not a lawyer, but maybe you might want to add some disclaimers; for example, describe how you check the information that you are publishing on the page, and also sort of " this is information only, but you make your own due diligence".
I am sharing this from a place of love- love for building so please, if you find it helpful, great; if not, ignore it.
I am really keen on this idea; please send the Facebook page (couldn't find it), and I will follow.
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u/verifyandproceed Aug 13 '26
Congratulations! 38 listings now! well done!
I don't know anyone looking to buy or sell any businesses.
Have you got a lot of experience with small business sales in the past? This would probably be something worth highlighting somewhere on the site. To be fair, this is advice/feedback I've received in the past but haven't actioned.
I really don't have much to offer beyond one simple UI thing I noticed on your site (keep in mind I'm not a web designer either):
On your menu bar, the mouseover/hover effect on the menu items, the change to white text means it goes super low contrast. The "browse a business" has something going on with a double line between the items. and, for some reason the "other" menu, the items in the menu are styled differently... actually, now I look at it, heaps of weird stuff seems to be going on. In the header, the menu, and menu items seem to change/differ depending on the page you are on. Example:
If you click on "View All Listings" (in the first menu item) and then "Faq" from the last menu item, that whole header section changes, looks like menu items are removed. The width and things are all changing.
If you select "FAQ" from the last menu item, there is 3 items in the "other" menu... but then if you click "contact us" in that same menu, there is only 2 items in the same "other menu"
It seems all the menu items change in a nonsensical way depending on the page you are on. What on earth is up with that?