“If it's an app that provides good value to users, almost everything else falls in place: they rate it well, they have affinity for it, organics are sustainable. It sounds boring but it gets back to the core.”

Acquire apps that already provide genuine utility — almost everything else follows

After 37 acquisitions, Michael's primary acquisition filter is simple: is the app genuinely useful? Apps with real utility self-generate good ratings, organic growth, and retention. He's not trying to engineer those outcomes — he's looking for products where they already exist as a natural consequence of value. The M&A screen is a product-quality filter as much as a financial one.