Baton flipped from selling to buyers to referring vendors — revenue grew 15x
Baton's Zillow-for-small-businesses couldn't give valuations away, so it asked owners what they needed and took a 10% referral fee — revenue grew 15x, per Inc.
What was changed
In 2020, former Zillow executive Chat Joglekar heard a friend pursuing entrepreneurship through acquisition say: 'What's missing in this space is the Zillow for small business.' Buyers struggled to make offers because owners had no idea what their companies were worth — like knocking on doors to price houses before Zillow's free valuations existed. Five days later Joglekar called back, and by late 2021 he had co-founded Baton in New York with Dylan Gans, Jamie Roth and Koda Wang.
The first product served buyers. Buyer Concierge found eligible businesses that might sell — say, a landscaping company looking to expand into the next county — offered their owners free valuations, and sold the results to prospective buyers for about $1,000 a month. Nearly 10 buyers paid, but owners wouldn't sign up for the free valuations. Joglekar's diagnosis: 'It's in some ways harder to sell free than it is to sell something for a cost.'
So Baton flipped sides. Instead of leading with valuations, it asked owners what they actually needed help with — accounting, digital marketing — and introduced them to vendors in those areas, taking a 10 percent referral fee. Owners, Joglekar says, understood the value proposition once Baton had something to sell them, and the velocity of valuations increased. Inc reports the flip grew revenue 15x.
Why it worked
Owners ignored valuations because they answered a question nobody had asked; vendor referrals answered needs owners already felt.
The referral fee monetized the owner side directly, so valuations no longer had to be subsidized as a sales tool for buyers.
Serving owners first reversed the flow: warm owner relationships made the buyer marketplace's inventory easier to build.
What can be applied
When one side of a marketplace won't bite, stop selling to it and start serving it: the free thing makes sense only once a paid thing sits beside it.
Aftermath
The Inc piece does not give absolute revenue, headcount, or the exact date of the pivot; the 10 percent referral fee and the faster valuation velocity are the stated state of play as of February 2026.