I sold two startups in two weeks.

Indie Worldwide and Bot Eat Brain have been acquired.

Apr 30, 2024

Startup Number 1: Indie Worldwide

Indie Worldwide is a community business for bootstrapped startup founders. They join the group to make friends and get advice. It took me over five years to build it.

The group grew organically out of events I was already hosting.

Hundreds of founders joined and we hosted dozens of events around the world.

In 2022 I quit my freelance job to work on the community full-time.

Startup Number 2: Bot Eat Brain

Bot Eat Brain is a newsletter that turns the deluge of AI news into a fun morning read.

I also spent more than a year working on it. We grew to 22,000+ readers and published over 200 articles.

My friend Dan bought 20% of the business for $10,000 last year. I convinced him to help me edit despite joining as a “silent” partner.

This month I sold both ventures within two weeks of each other.

Screenshots from the announcements on the website formerly known as Twitter.

Both businesses need energy and motivation to grow, but I’m not motivated or energized.

The thing about community, and newsletters too, is that they need to keep growing.

Communities in particular need a constant source of new energy. Otherwise, they grow stale, and your customers churn.

Last year I started to feel unmotivated. I didn't want to host any more events. I didn't want to post long threads on Twitter about AI news. I couldn't find the motivation to do it anymore.

I got burned out. That’s when I made up my mind to sell.

One perfect buyer for each business.

Selling Indie Worldwide:

If I write down a list of the people I love, there will be a lot of Indie Worldwide members on it. Although I haven't met many of them in real life, Indie Worldwide is full of my friends.

We had in-person meetups in India, Portugal, USA, Mexico, France, as well as dozens of online events every year.

It was important for me to find a continuation for the group that didn’t make people feel let-down or rug-pulled.

Many communities fizzle out over time, and that’s not something I wanted to happen to my community.

People spent hundreds of dollars to be a part of this group. They bought lifetime memberships. They donated their time and energy to make the group a great place for others.

Ramen Club was the perfect match. Their community culture is very similar and they offer the same services as we do. I went to their in-person meetups in London and met the founder, Charlie Ward, more than once.

He was the first person I called once I decided to sell.

You can read the official announcement here.

Selling Bot Eat Brain:

I started Bot Eat Brain with more emotional detachment. It was always built to sell.

Last last year I listed it on some marketplace sites (Acquire, Duuce, Microns), but I got cold feet and took it down.

Yet, I had one perfect buyer in mind there too: our head writer, Michael.

Michael has produced the newsletter for months, and at this point I rarely give editing notes. I focus on sales and operations, he writes.

So he was likewise my first choice buyer.

Trading ease of doing business for valuation.

I sold each business for approximately 1x annual revenue.

It was more important to me to find a great home and move fast than it was to make the most possible money.

We’re not talking about million-dollar transactions here. These are businesses in the 5-figure range.

I expect my next venture to be even bigger. So I prioritized a quick and easy transition most of all.

Every project I’ve sold has been bigger than the last.

Steal my contract, steal my cheat-sheet.

I got my contract from Juro. We used a version of this asset-sale agreement for both businesses. Also checkout Common Paper for more free contract templates.

I also created a “Run of Show” spreadsheet to keep track of everything that needed to happen, who needed to do it, and when.

I made a template you can steal.

This run of show document made the handover much easier to manage.

What assets exactly did I sell?

Indie Worldwide: email list, Slack group, paid memberships, domain and other brand assets.

Bot Eat Brain: email list, content backlog, domain, and other brand assets.

Do less, better.

What have I learned from these two startups that I’ll take into the next one?

Grow a big email list through organic channels. Make a product that creates an immediate emotional response. Focus. Do less, better.

What’s next for me.

I was feeling stuck for awhile, with too many options and not enough focus to pursue any of them. I felt like I'd lost my momentum and focus. Now I'm moving again.

The table is cleared.

Halfway through a run in Barcelona, March 2024

I’m currently looking for a consulting gig or job with a high-growth startup. I want to sharpen the sword a bit learning from others before I launch my next thing, whatever it is.

And I’m planning a move to New York City, which is expensive.

This newsletter will still go out with occasional updates about what I’m working on. I'm writing two posts now that cover: