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My First MillionHow To Bootstrap A SaaS Company From $0 to $200M | ProfitWell Founder Patrick Campbell
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CHAPTERS
- 0:07 – 5:40
From Price Intelligently to ProfitWell and the Paddle Sale
Patrick Campbell explains the company's path from Price Intelligently to ProfitWell and its sale to Paddle for over $200 million. He covers owning the company outright, sharing equity widely, and what the product does. The hosts also tease his move to Puerto Rico.
- •Started as Price Intelligently, a pricing service, before becoming the ProfitWell metrics tool
- •Bootstrapped and sold to Paddle for over $200M, with 13 millionaires and about 120 people receiving some payout
- •Pitch: run and grow subscription businesses automatically, with free metrics plus churn reduction and pricing optimization
- •Found a pre-IPO client was miscalculating MRR and churn, which led to the metrics product
- •Over 30 competitors appeared and the free route was chosen; he says they should have raised money then
- 5:40 – 7:36
Wisconsin Roots and Hidden Industries in Subscription Data
Shaan explains why Patrick reached out with a list of topics, and Patrick starts on hidden industries visible in ProfitWell's subscription data. He describes how the data helps VCs and shows fast-growing apps like the Amazon seller tools breaking their QA scripts.
- •Patrick grew up in Wisconsin, then worked in US intelligence and Boston tech
- •He sent a short list of bullet points, which Shaan praised as the right way to pitch
- •ProfitWell sees $20–30B of annual recurring revenue in aggregate
- •Data trains churn-reduction algorithms and feeds published benchmarks
- •Fast-growing Amazon-related apps would break their QA scripts
- 7:36 – 16:55
Quilting and Crafts: A Surprising Subscription Boom
Patrick describes quilting and crafts as a fast-growing subscription space. He explains how quilts get made, the Block of the Month clubs, and the Facebook-heavy community. Sam looks up the nine-figure players, and Shaan lays out why the hobby stacks several strong trends.
- •Quilting is about a $4.5B industry with the average quilter spending $8–9K a year
- •Block of the Month clubs, quilt retreats and shows drive community and recurring revenue
- •Customers are highly targetable on Facebook groups, with fewer Instagram pages
- •Nine-figure subscription companies exist in the space
- •Shaan says the hobby stacks DIY, oddly satisfying, community and nostalgia
- 16:55 – 18:32
Selling to Older, Niche Customers and Starting Premium
The conversation turns to why consumers in middle America have the best loyalty and lowest churn. Patrick says premium or niche audiences retain better and recommends bootstrappers start high and come down on price.
- •Sam says women in middle America aged 30–60 show high loyalty and low churn
- •Patrick agrees older audiences retain at higher rates, though they are harder to convert
- •Premium or niche products have better churn, citing ButcherBox and Whoop
- •Patrick recommends starting high and coming down rather than the reverse, unless running freemium
- 18:32 – 24:29
Chili's, Applebee's and Selling to Simple People
Sam tells a story about Applebee's and its "Jim Bob" customer. Shaan argues that selling a cool thing to cool people is hard mode, and that entrepreneurs should leave their bubble. Patrick adds that unsexy, long-lasting businesses avoid fads.
- •Sam's friend in Applebee's advertising described the core customer as an older, somewhat well-off "Jim Bob"
- •Shaan says that if you're selling a cool thing to a cool person, you're playing the game wrong
- •His friend said a Facebook-ads business must appeal to an overworked mom in Texas to scale
- •Patrick says quilting is unsexy but has lasted, unlike fad businesses
- •Shaan suggests innovating on just one thing while leaving the rest unchanged
- 24:29 – 27:25
Trades Roll-Ups and Products for Kids of Old People
Patrick lists other niches: rolling up plumbing, HVAC and electrician companies, products aimed at the adult children of aging parents, and the funeral industry. He mentions Nanograms and the concentrated ownership of funeral services.
- •Trades are skilled enough to have a moat but not too skilled to roll up, and owners want to retire
- •Nanograms sends postcards to a nana from an email or Instagram post
- •Multiples on old folks' homes and hospice care are increasing
- •Four or five companies own much of the funeral industry, making it hard to enter
- •Dave Balter's memory-through-Alexa idea is an example of an attempt
- 27:25 – 35:10
Using NSA Training for Competitive Intelligence
Shaan asks about the NSA background, and Patrick explains his competitive intel program built around tracking competitors over time. He describes using moles and mass data, and sending surveys to competitors' customers.
- •Patrick worked as an intel analyst at the NSA and calls it a start in first-principles thinking
- •Intel must be collected over time to build a profile of a target
- •Two sources: moles (former employees, friendly customers) and mass data
- •Competitor customer lists come from logos, case studies and BuiltWith-type tools
- •Short surveys (NPS plus feature questions) go out from a neutral research-style domain
- 35:10 – 39:34
Turning Competitive Intel into Marketing, Red Team Docs and Killed Rounds
Patrick explains why intel should feed marketing rather than product teams, using the accuracy-focused messaging that came from competitor research. He describes red team docs and how showing slides to investors helped kill a competitor's round. Sam says it showed him new levels to reach.
- •Competitive-based product teams work badly, while competitive marketing teams see better retention and lower CAC (correlative)
- •Moles surfaced complaints about competitor accuracy, which became the core marketing message
- •Red team docs list every thought that could hurt the company, with prepared responses
- •Showing data to investors considering a competitor helped kill at least one round
- •A competitive program is worth it mainly when the market gets crowded
- 39:34 – 42:45
Building a Business Around Competitive Intelligence
Hosts and Patrick discuss whether collecting competitor data could be a business, covering NPS data, quarterly reports and Glassdoor or ad-manager signals. Patrick warns that most customers may not act on the data, though a long retention could still make it work.
- •Patrick says a quarterly competitor-reviews and NPS report could replace Forrester-style reports
- •Sam and Shaan previously brainstormed a spying newsletter idea
- •Glassdoor, LinkedIn and Facebook Ads Manager are sources of signals
- •Only about 15% of people actually do customer research work
- •Patrick would take a 36-month customer and sees the data as a vitamin
- 42:45 – 47:36
Buying Debt, Reinvesting and Post-Paddle Goals
Patrick explains his interest in buying debt for pennies on the dollar to learn the market and forgive some of it. He says he plans to reinvest the sale proceeds and names debt, money in politics and defense as areas he cares about.
- •He hasn't yet bought debt and is still exploring a shadowy market
- •A friend from the debt business said about 20% of the market is very bad and the rest negotiates settlements
- •Part of the sale was in stock and he plans to reinvest it
- •Debt, money in politics and defense are the three areas he thinks about
- •He mentions Palmer Luckey and Aaron Swartz as inspirations
- 47:36 – 52:55
Getting Rich Young, The Strenuous Life and Debate Background
Sam asks how it feels to have a large sum at 33, and Patrick says money amplifies who you already are. He cites Teddy Roosevelt's The Strenuous Life and explains why he sold to Paddle. He talks about a hard childhood and his debate career and the skills it built.
- •Money amplifies both the best and worst in you
- •Roosevelt's Strenuous Life speech says that after an exit you should go be strenuous again
- •He sold to Paddle partly to see a company going toward a public offering
- •He describes a rough Midwest childhood and channeling anxiety into work
- •As a national champion debater, he spent 40 hours a week synthesizing information, which helped his writing-based marketing
- 52:55 – 1:04:01
Hostile Takeover of a Publicly Traded Person
Patrick explains Mike Merrill's project, where shareholders vote on his life decisions, and how he bought about 1,930 shares to attempt a takeover. They walk through the shareholder meeting, the loose power structure and the site's voting history.
- •Merrill sold shares in himself in 2008 and shareholders vote on decisions large and small
- •Patrick bought roughly 1,930 shares in an auction for about $13K, with about 5,000 shares voting on a typical vote
- •He pitched shareholders at their meeting and told Merrill his intentions beforehand
- •Merrill has never gone against a vote in 13 years, but nothing legally compels him
- •Patrick says he is treating it as learning rather than a good investment
- 1:04:01 – 1:11:03
Wrapping Up: Guest Tips, Michael Saylor and a Hamptons Story
The hosts thank Patrick and discuss what makes a good guest. Conversation drifts to Michael Saylor's episode and Sam's story about a Hamptons party where he chatted with limo drivers. They close with jokes.
- •Sam asks Patrick to send the competitive research structure
- •Good guests already know the show's vibe and come with bullet points
- •Patrick recalls Michael Saylor's comment about not liking things you can't run at max speed
- •Sam tells of meeting limo drivers at Michael Rubin's party
- •The episode ends with banter and thanks
