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

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?

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