Profits Down 75% After a Google Update — Still Sold for 7 Figures: Fin vs Fin's Damaged-Asset Exit
Wellness-product comparison site Fin vs Fin grew to $1M in annual revenue and $70K in monthly profit, only to see search traffic cut in half by Google's Helpful Content Update. Even so, armed with 300+ brand partnerships and hard revenue data, it collected 10 LOIs and sold for 7 figures at 3x annual profit — holding the price cut to just 15%.
This is a translation of the Japanese original. The Japanese version and cited primary sources are authoritative for all figures.
JPY figures in this article are rough estimates converted at ¥150/USD.
Timeline
| Period | Event |
|---|---|
| 2018 | Founded by Alex Goldberg, former head of growth at Houzz (with experience managing $8M+/year in ad spend) |
| Through 2022 | Grew on SEO. $1M annual revenue, $70K monthly profit, 300+ partner brands, a remote team of 5 contractors |
| From 2022 | Added paid acquisition via Google/Meta ads |
| Later | Google’s Helpful Content Update cut search traffic roughly 50% (80% of traffic depended on search; revenue fell 50%, profit fell 75%) |
| March 2024 | Sale closed via Quiet Light Brokerage. 10 LOIs in 3 weeks → 5 months of due diligence → 3x annual profit (EBITDA), 7 figures. Defended the price to a 15% reduction from the original offer |
How a “Damaged Asset” Got Sold
The value of this case lies in the practical work of closing a sale at the worst possible moment — right after taking a hit from the update.
- Bundled buyers through a broker: a competitive environment of 10 LOIs in 3 weeks supported the price even for a damaged asset
- Stopped the discount negotiation at 15%: buyers naturally hammer the price citing risk. He countered by presenting profit data and the 300 brand partnerships as “transferable assets”
- The reason for selling was also clear: a child had been born and he “wanted to reduce financial risk” — plus “the effort required to grow to 8 figures no longer excited me”
His own selling tips: (1) don’t sell in Q4 (the holiday slowdown), (2) require buyers to put down a non-refundable deposit to confirm they’re serious, (3) diversify your customers, revenue streams, traffic sources and geographies in advance.
What This Case Teaches
The price of 80% search dependence arrives non-linearly — as a 75% drop in profit. A 50% traffic decline becomes a 75% profit decline because fixed costs don’t change. Together with Tsuzuki’s traffic going to zero on a #1→#5 ranking drop and the fate of Investor Junkie’s buyer, it shows in hard numbers that the leverage of search-dependent media cuts both ways.
It still sold at 3x profit because the market prices off current profit. He secured the standard multiple of 3x on the post-damage profit of $X. Even after a decline, if you sell honestly on the post-decline numbers, you can still get the standard multiple — this is the large-scale overseas version of Onizawa’s sale of a declining media site.
When a paid-ads professional builds an affiliate site, it becomes a dual-wielder of SEO + paid. The experience of managing $8M at Houzz made the switch to paid acquisition possible after search slowed. Skills from a previous job matter not just for growth in normal times, but as the number of options you have in a crisis.
Related Cases
Sources
This article summarizes and analyzes the public sources above. Please refer to the primary sources for details.