Nine months of runway. No investors. No safety net. Patrick Campbell cashed out his 401k to build a bootstrapped SaaS that would eventually sell for $200 million. In this episode, founders will learn how Patrick beat venture-backed competitors with a counterintuitive free product strategy.

Patrick Campbell shares why he made ProfitWell's analytics product free while Baremetrics and ChartMogul raised millions, how services revenue funded two years of product development, and why bringing on part-time co-founders created four years of conflict and distrust.

ProfitWell was acquired by Paddle for $200 million in 2022. Patrick Campbell grew the bootstrapped SaaS to 8-figures ARR and nearly 90 employees, capturing 30,000 companies—all without raising venture capital.

🔑 Key Lessons

💰 Bootstrapped SaaS can beat venture-backed competitors: By focusing on accuracy over features and making ProfitWell free, Patrick captured 30,000 companies while competitors raised millions.
🎯 Freemium only works if free is better than paid: Patrick's philosophy: if your free product isn't at parity with paid competition, freemium won't work.
⚠️ Never bring on part-time co-founders: Patrick spent four years in conflict with co-founders who never fully committed. Fix equity conversations early and directly.
📉 Use services revenue to fund product development: Price Intelligently's consulting margins funded two years of building the free analytics product.
🛠️ Build automatic products requiring zero configuration: ProfitWell's Retain handles payment failures without users becoming experts.
🚀 Video content transforms brand recognition: Adding video to blog posts changed ProfitWell from a content company to a recognized brand.

Chapters

Introduction and ProfitWell overview
Company size and Paddle acquisition details
How the $200M acquisition came about
Patrick Campbell's origin story and cashing out his 401k
Price Intelligently vs ProfitWell naming
Building the first version of the product
The 9-month personal runway challenge
Competing against venture-backed competitors
How the free product generated revenue
The part-time co-founder mistake
Did co-founders ever come on full-time?
Learning to let go of resentment
Being diagnosed with cancer twice
The founder's way of handling adversity
Key growth drivers over the last 5 years
Why bootstrapped SaaS people challenges differ from funded startups
What's next at Paddle
Lightning round

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