Business exits and small M&A case studies — 2/9
Exit and acquisition cases
25–48 of 203
The Wirecutter: $30M+ From The New York Times, 5 Bootstrapped Years by an Ex-Gizmodo Editor
Review site The Wirecutter was sold to The New York Times in October 2016. Reports put the payment at over $30M including retention bonuses. Former Gizmodo editor Brian Lam founded it in 2011 with his own money and grew it to $150M in e-commerce transactions via affiliate links in 2015.
The Hustle: $17.2M in Cash, in the Buyer's SEC Filing — the Price the Founder Never Named
Business newsletter The Hustle was sold to HubSpot in February 2021. Founder Sam Parr never disclosed the price, but HubSpot's 10-K filed with the SEC records a cash purchase price of $17.2M. We read the sale through public documents, including the gap with the ~$27M valuation reported by Axios.
Morning Brew: $500 in Revenue in Its First Two Years — Then a Majority Sale in All Cash at a $75M Valuation Five Years On
Business newsletter Morning Brew sold a majority stake to Insider Inc. in October 2020, all cash. Per Axios reporting, the deal valued the company around $75M. Started by two University of Michigan students in 2015, it made just $500 in its first two years; in the sale year it projected $20M revenue, $6M profit, and 3M+ subscribers.
Wufoo: The Form-Builder SaaS That Raised Only $118K in Angel Money and Sold for $35M Five Years Later
Form-builder SaaS Wufoo was sold to SurveyMonkey in April 2011. According to TechCrunch, the price was $35M in cash and stock. A 2006 Y Combinator company, it raised only $118,000 from angels — and in five years without another round, over $100M in payments flowed through its forms.
280blocker: The Solo-Built Ad Blocker That Sold for ¥377M — 14x Its Operating Profit — When Its Developer Fell Ill
iOS ad blocker 280blocker was sold to listed company Tobila Systems for ¥377 million in August 2021. Its disclosed financials showed ¥38M revenue and ¥27M operating profit, putting the price at roughly 14x annual profit. The app had topped Japan's App Store paid rankings three years running — and changed hands when its solo developer fell ill.
PlentyOfFish: Sold for $575M in All Cash with Zero VC and 100% Ownership — 12 Years of the Man Who Coded a Dating Site Alone
Canadian dating site PlentyOfFish was sold to Match Group in 2015 for $575M in all cash. Founder Markus Frind ran it for 12 years with zero VC funding and 100% ownership. By his own account, in 2008 the site netted about $10M a year while he worked 10 hours a week. It had 75 employees at the time of sale.
55% margins, a ¥35.3M price: the supplement subscription nobody bought at ¥80M
A supplement subscription EC business asked roughly ¥80M, found no buyer, and closed at ¥35.3M (about ¥40M including the 10% brokerage fee). Monthly operating profit was about ¥1.3M on a 55% margin, repeat rate 90%, zero complaints in five years. Of roughly ten deals the buyer approached, one survived.
The Penny Hoarder: From Personal Blog to $50M Revenue in 10 Years — and a $102.5M All-Cash Exit at About 2x Sales
Personal finance media The Penny Hoarder sold to Sykes Enterprises for $102.5M in cash in December 2020. Per local press reports, trailing-twelve-month revenue was $50M, putting the price at about 2x sales. Kyle Taylor started it as a personal blog in 2010 and reached these numbers in 10 years with no outside funding.
TreeHugger: The 3-Year-Old Green Blog Discovery Bought for $10M in 2007, on 1.4M Monthly Uniques
Environmental blog TreeHugger sold to Discovery Communications for $10M in August 2007. Per TechCrunch, it was founded in 2004 and drew 1.4M monthly unique visitors, ranking in Technorati's global Top 20. A pioneering case of big media buying a niche blog in an era when "green doesn't make money."
Bankaholic: A 2-Year-Old One-Man Finance Blog Bankrate Bought for Up to $15M
In 2008, US finance blog Bankaholic sold to Bankrate for $12.4M upfront plus an earnout of up to $2.5M — up to $15M total. Owner Johns Wu was the sole owner and sole worker of a roughly two-year-old WordPress blog. The buyer's CEO cited organic search rankings for deposit and credit card keywords as the reason.
TinyPilot: A $598K Exit Disclosed Down to the $610,147.83 Wire Transfer — Four Years of a $1M/Year Raspberry Pi KVM Business
TinyPilot, the Raspberry Pi-based remote KVM started in 2020 by ex-Google engineer Michael Lynch, sold for $598,000 in 2024 on trailing revenue of $1,022,090 and profit of $207,816. Broker fee $88,900, legal $18,297, wire on closing day $610,147.83 — a rare exit documented to the dollar.
Ruki: Selling a Personal Blog for ¥2.8M — a Seller's Full Walkthrough of a Brokered Site M&A in Japan
Most personal-blog sales in Japan never disclose price or process. In 2023, blogger Ruki sold her blog for ¥2.8 million through the brokerage Saitoma and published the entire journey: the appraisal form, interviews with three buyer candidates, the price negotiation, and the payout arriving the day after final inspection.
Fomo: a $10,000 MRR widget bought on seller financing, a best month of $154,000, and a seven-figure sale to Relay Commerce six years later
Ryan Kulp bought the social proof widget Notify at roughly $10,000 MRR in 2016, relaunched it as Fomo, and ran 39 consecutive months of growth to a best month of $154,000. Revenue at the 2022 sale to Relay Commerce was $107,200 a month. Both the purchase price and the sale price stay undisclosed.
Tenshoku Antenna: A One-Person Media Site, ¥700M Plus a ¥300M Earnout from Listed Company Logly
Tenshoku Antenna, a Japanese job-change media site run by moto (Shunsuke Totsuka) as a one-person company, became a 100% subsidiary of listed adtech firm Logly in April 2021. The founder disclosed the price himself: ¥700M plus an earnout of up to ¥300M. Negotiations took about six months, and his director compensation exceeded ¥100M a year — one of the largest disclosed exits for an individual-run media site in Japan.
Cal AI: The Calorie-Counting App Two 17-Year-Olds Built to $30M a Year and 15M Downloads, Sold to MyFitnessPal — a Year of Talks, Price Undisclosed
Cal AI, a calorie-tracking app built by two high schoolers in May 2024, reached 15M downloads and $30M+ in annual revenue in under two years and was sold to MyFitnessPal in December 2025 (price undisclosed). Growth ran on TikTok influencer marketing; the negotiations took about a year.
Starter Story: The $91.7K/Month Startup Case-Study Media Acquired by HubSpot — Months After the Founder Tweeted "HubSpot Should Acquire Starter Story"
Starter Story, the startup case-study media, was acquired by HubSpot in February 2026 while self-disclosing $91.7K/month and $1.1M/year in revenue with 1.6M monthly visits. Founder Pat Walls had tweeted "HubSpot should acquire Starter Story" just months earlier. The price is undisclosed.
Feather: The "Write in Notion, Publish as a Blog" SaaS Sold for $250K Two Years In — the Buyer Was Tibo, Who Exited Tweet Hunter
Bhanu Teja P built Feather in public on X, reaching $50K ARR 9.5 months after launch. In June 2024 it sold for $250K at $6K MRR — roughly 3.5x annual revenue. The buyer was Tibo, known for exiting Tweet Hunter. A rare look at how peer-to-peer micro-M&A gets priced.
Skeb: The "Personal Hobby Service" That Sold All Its Shares for ¥1 Billion — Settling the Risk of One Person Holding ¥200 Million a Month in Transactions
Skeb, which its founder called a "personal hobby service," reached 1 million registered users and roughly ¥200 million in monthly transaction volume in just over two years, then became a subsidiary of Jitsugyo no Nihon Sha in February 2021 for ¥1 billion. The top reason for selling was not stalled growth but payment-settlement risk.
Base44: Six Months Old, Eight Employees, an $80M All-Cash Sale — but $25M of It Was Retention Pay
Base44, the AI app-building platform started by one person, sold to Wix for $80M in cash about six months after founding. But $25M of that is retention compensation for its eight employees — the headline number cannot be read as the founder's take.
Abbey Road: He Sold His Own Assets to Take Over a 20-Year Rakuten Watchband Store
Katsuhito Saiki, who worked at a seafood trading company, took over "Abbey Road," a watchband shop that had run for 20+ years on Rakuten Market. He'd once passed on the listing because it exceeded his budget, but returned to it; when a loan from the Japan Finance Corporation was rejected, he sold off his own assets to raise funds. Negotiations spanned about 1 year and 8 months.
Daily Lodging Report: A $450/Year Husband-and-Wife Hotel Newsletter Sells to Skift
The Daily Lodging Report, a daily newsletter covering the hotel and lodging industry, was run by Alan Woinski and his wife, who sold annual subscriptions at $450 to thousands of readers before selling the business to travel-industry media company Skift in 2021. The endpoint of a business built simply on summarizing the industry, every single day.
Puzzle Ready: 99% Amazon FBA, $3M/Year — a Single-Product Puzzle-Table Brand Shaped Into What Buyers Want, Sold at 6x Profit
Puzzle Ready, a puzzle-table e-commerce brand, kept 99% of sales on Amazon FBA and still reached $3M/year, selling to eBrands in December 2021 at 6x profit (3.5x upfront + 2.5x earnout). The turning point was a design choice: pick an aggregator as the target buyer and refuse to diversify.
Employee-Referral Hiring Platform EmployUs, at $700K ARR, Sold to HR Giant Hireology: A Sale That Chose to Become "a Feature"
EmployUs, which systematizes employee referral hiring, was sold to hiring-management SaaS Hireology at the $700K ARR stage (about ¥100M). Too small to fight alone, strong as a feature — a real case study in the decision to "become part of a suite."
Courier: An Entrepreneur-Focused Print Magazine Sold to Mailchimp — a Contrarian Exit for Paper in the Digital Age
Courier, a UK print magazine covering small-business and entrepreneurial culture, was acquired by email giant Mailchimp. In an era when anyone can start a newsletter, a media brand built deliberately on paper was bought as a brand vehicle for a digital company.