Luca Restagno
@ikoichi43K followers
Software engineer turned solopreneur behind BlackTwist and Shipped.club
BlackTwist, Shipped.club, Latentcam +3$2.5K/mo
exit story · 2023 · saas founders
How Luca Restagno Sold Hivoe to Hypefury (2023)
Hivoe was built by Luca Restagno and sold to Hypefury in 2023. At the time of the sale it made ~$3K MRR (self-reported).
Key facts
- Buyer
- Hypefury ↗
- Year
- 2023
- Price
- Undisclosed
- Revenue at sale
- ~$3K MRR (self-reported)
- Years operated
- —
- Channel
- Direct sale
Why they sold: Twitter's new API pricing made the business unviable almost overnight, so Luca Restagno sold it rather than shut it down.
The story of Hivoe
Hivoe was one of two Twitter-related micro-SaaS products, together with Inboxs, that Luca Restagno built after becoming active on Twitter in 2021 and spotting pain points in managing DMs. He says the products were growing well, reaching up to about $4K in MRR between them.
In 2023 Twitter's API pricing changed drastically, and Restagno had to sell both products quickly. He sold Hivoe and Inboxs to Hypefury, a Twitter growth tool, instead of shutting them down. Price was not disclosed.
He called it his second and third exits, after an earlier pre-revenue sale of iterspace in 2021. In 2024 he went on to sell another product, Userdesk, through Acquire.com.
Lessons Luca Restagno shared
- 1.Platform risk is real; he plans to diversify or avoid depending on a single platform in the future.
- 2.Setting up each product with dedicated accounts and emails makes the handover to a buyer almost instant.
Paraphrased from the maker's public posts and interviews (see sources).
The maker
See the Hivoe product page or Luca Restagno's full profile for everything they have built since.
Other exits by Luca Restagno
Userdesk
buyer undisclosed · 2024
Luca felt little founder-product fit: the product's audience barely overlapped with his own developer following, its positioning was unclear in a crowded market, and he preferred working on his Next.js boilerplate Shipped.club.
by Luca Restagno
Inboxs
→ Hypefury · 2023
Twitter's new API pricing made the product unviable to run independently, so Luca Restagno sold rather than shut it down.
by Luca Restagno
Related exit stories
Same buyer, category or sale channel as Hivoe.
Twitter's new API pricing, said to start at $42K a month, made the business unviable overnight and access could be cut at any moment. Dinh concluded that selling was the only responsible way to keep the product alive for customers.
by Tony Dinh
Zero BS CRM (Jetpack CRM)
→ Automattic · 2019
by Woody Hayday
Docparser
→ SureSwift Capital · 2018
Moritz Dausinger said his personal situation had changed and the risk grew as the business got bigger, and he had long seen a sale of a small-to-medium SaaS as an ideal outcome.
by Moritz Dausinger
Storemapper
→ SureSwift Capital · 2017
Tyler Tringas wanted to diversify his income away from a single business, lock in a win, and focus full-time on his next project.
by Tyler Tringas
Sources
- solopreneurtofreedom.com — solopreneurtofreedom.com/p/i-sold-my-4th-saas-product-how-and
- x.com — x.com/ikoichi
Facts are taken from the maker's and buyer's public statements and press coverage. Prices and revenue are shown only when publicly stated; self-reported figures are not independently verified.
Keep exploring
Hivoe acquisition FAQ
Who bought Hivoe?
Hivoe was acquired by Hypefury in 2023 from Luca Restagno.
How much did Hivoe sell for?
The price was not publicly disclosed. At the time of the sale Hivoe made ~$3K MRR (self-reported).
Why did Luca Restagno sell Hivoe?
Twitter's new API pricing made the business unviable almost overnight, so Luca Restagno sold it rather than shut it down.
How was Hivoe sold?
Hivoe was a direct sale: sold directly to a buyer, often a competitor, customer or acquirer that reached out.
What did Luca Restagno learn from selling Hivoe?
Platform risk is real; he plans to diversify or avoid depending on a single platform in the future. Setting up each product with dedicated accounts and emails makes the handover to a buyer almost instant.