Episode 611 | Bootstrapping ProfitWell to a $200M Exit (with Patrick Campbell)

In episode 611, join Rob Walling as he chats with Patrick Campbell, the cofounder of ProfitWell, on how he and his co-founders bootstrapped ProfitWell to a $200 million exit.

Profitwell was acquired by Paddle earlier this year. We dive into a bunch of topics you have not heard elsewhere, including details about the actual transaction, what was the stock vs. cash split, the revenue breakdown of consulting versus SaaS when they sold as well as talking through his thought process as they were deciding whether to sell.

Topics we cover: 

[3:53] Using their consulting business to fund and grow Profitwell in the early days 

[8:23] The split between cash and stock in Profitwell’s acquisition 

[9:49] The percentage of Profitwell’s revenue from consulting vs. SaaS

[13:39] The conversations that Patrick and his cofounders had from the get-go about their end goals and how much to reinvest in the business 

[15:02] The ownership split between all of the cofounders 

[17:08] How he made sure his employees were taken care of in the acquisition  

[19:05] Did Patrick ever consider taking funding? 

[26:14] How long it took to sell the business from the first contact with Paddle  

[31:55] Why should SaaS founders take money off the table once they hit certain milestones? 

[36:01] Patrick’s feelings about competing with Stripe 

[42:15] Why Patrick moved to Puerto Rico 

Links from the Show:

Patrick Campbell (@Patticus) I Twitter 

Profitwell 

Paddle

If you have questions about starting or scaling a software business that you’d like for us to cover, please submit your question for an upcoming episode. We’d love to hear from you.

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