Patrick Campbell: why ProfitWell sold to Paddle for $200M

May 31, 2022 / 01:09:39/E139

Competing with ChartMogul and Baremetrics, whether you should "go big," and why the market is important

Patrick Campbell just sold his startup, ProfitWell, to Paddle for $200 million.

Highlights (go straight to 🔥 for the best stuff):

0:00 – "My problem is I'm always curious if other people are living a better dream than me."
1:30 – The major downside to bootstrapping is the lack of network
2:20 – Selling ProfitWell to Paddle, and integrating the two teams.
4:15 – How ProfitWell got started (2012)
6:00 – Initially three co-founders (Crunchbase)
7:20 – Patrick's background (what he did before ProfitWell)
10:10 – What did bootstrapping ProfitWell look like? (How much did each founder invest?)
14:15 – Do you want to be a lifestyle company or a "big ass company?" 🔥
15:55 – What salary did Patrick pay himself? (Tweet) 🔥
18:25 – Differences between Patrick (ProfitWell) and Josh Pigford (Baremetrics) 🔥
21:45 – Should bootstrapped companies go freemium and try to "win the market?" 🔥
26:40 – The characteristics of your market determine most of your outcomes 🔥🔥
29:24 – "Don't underestimate the velocity and size of your market." 🔥
34:35 – What doe the average SaaS company spend on sales and marketing? 🔥
37:39 – Pricing your SaaS discussion 🔥
42:45 – Why competitors entering a new market can be better for your company. 🔥
47:10 – Should bootstrapped companies try to "own the market?" 🔥
52:10 – "We're in the second phase of SaaS: here's what's coming next." 🔥
61:53 – Did ProfitWell employees have equity?

What should we talk about next?

Want to start a podcast on Transistor? Justin has a special coupon for you: get 15% off your first year of hosting: transistor.fm/justin