178: Patrick Campbell — Life After a $200mil Exit

The Bootstrapped Founder

Today, I’m talking to Patrick Campbell, founder of ProfitWell, a bootstrapped business that recently got acquired by Paddle for a whopping 200 million dollars.

I talked to Patrick about getting acquired for 9 figures, finding your footing as a founder after such an incredible exit, where the online payment industry is heading, and how mental health challenges follow us wherever we go.

00:00:00 Introduction
00:01:04 Patrick's entrepreneurial journey
00:03:10 A different approach to marketing
00:06:23 Help Sells: providing free value and then selling
00:13:53 Dealing with a $200mil exit
00:15:55 Filming a documentary while exiting
00:19:03 Keeping the company running during the sale
00:24:42 Anxiety during the sale
00:28:08 Anxiety AFTER the sale
00:34:12 Jumping right back into work
00:37:28 Building trust with your team
00:41:49 Defining your role in a deal
00:45:05 Will Patrick ever take a vacation?
00:49:38 It never ends: mental health for founders
00:54:05 The future of the payment industry

- Life After a $200mil Exit with Patrick Campbell
- Find your Following, my Twitter course — now with Find your Following Essentials, the 7-day Twitter crash course
- Zero to Sold & The Embedded Entrepreneur, my books on entrepreneurship

This episode is sponsored by MicroAcquire.

You can also watch this episode as a video on YouTube.