Unlock
Definition
An unlock opens one listing on Indiemaker: the full monthly record, who the seller is, every link to the product, unlimited messages and the ability to make an offer. A single unlock costs $25 and never expires. It is held rather than spent: message the seller within 72 hours, and if they don't reply within 72 hours of your message it comes back to you.
An unlock opens one listing on Indiemaker, giving a buyer the full record and a direct line to the seller.
What an unlock opens
The unlock adds the full monthly record and expenses, who the seller is, every link to the product, unlimited messages, the right to make an offer, and the seller's data room. Nothing inside an unlocked listing is rationed.
Every account gets five unlocks a month, which reset on the first and don't roll over. A listing opened with one of them stays open for good. After that, a single unlock costs $25, and it too opens the listing for good. Premium, at $35 a month or $290 a year, adds ten a month on top of the free five. Listings opened with Premium's ten stay open while you subscribe.
Held, not spent
You have 72 hours from unlocking to message the seller; if you don't, the unlock is spent. Once you write, it is spent only when the seller replies in that listing's conversation within 72 hours of your first message. If they don't, the unlock comes back, usually within a day of the deadline, to use on another listing, and you keep access to the first one. The unlock returns, not the money. Nothing is refunded.
Where it bites
The unlock opens the data room, not every file in it. The first time you open or request a file you accept a short NDA for that listing. Files the seller has opened to unlocked buyers, and any walkthrough video, are yours straight away; sensitive files need the seller's approval one at a time, for 30 days by default. A buyer who expects the full P&L and the repository on the first click will find the seller still decides when sensitive material is shared.
Worked example
A buyer shortlists a micro-SaaS asking $96,000. They unlock it, read eight months of profit at around $2,900 a month, and message the seller that evening. No reply within 72 hours of the message. The unlock comes back and goes on a $74,000 newsletter whose seller answers the same afternoon. The first listing stays open if its seller surfaces a week later.
Why it matters when you acquire
A seller with a $100,000 business can't answer everyone who is idly curious. A buyer who has unlocked has committed something before the first message, and the seller reading it knows that.
Related: offer, reviewed, due-diligence, promoted-listing
See what a business at this level is listed at.
Everything on sale between $50,000 and $150,000, on the same fields.