Starter Story · 2026-02-23

I sold my company

Vlog-style solo episode in which Pat Walls announces that Starter Story, the founder-interview media business he started about 8 years earlier, was acquired by HubSpot. He retraces building it as a side project in 2 hours of deep work each morning before his developer job, quitting with about $12K in savings, and slowly compounding content, interviews and code until he could hire (first hire: his sister). He says he chose HubSpot for alignment over price, keeps team and mission, and declines to share the price. Almost no tactics or numbers.

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2 tactics

Starter Story · B2C · founder interview media business

Work 2 hours every morning before your job until it earns, then quit

Reached a few hundred dollars in revenue; quit with ~$12K saved

Kept a six-figure developer job and spent 2 hours of deep work every morning at a Starbucks before work: writing, coding, sending emails and interviewing founders for the site. Did this for about a year while revenue on Stripe went from zero to a couple hundred dollars, then quit and went all in with about $12K in savings. After quitting kept shipping daily (content, interviews, code); growth accumulated slowly rather than spiking, then first hire was his sister.

Workedvalidationcontent

Starter Story · 2026-02-23

Starter Story · B2C · founder interview media business

Sell to a buyer that keeps your team and mission and adds resources

Sold for a 'life-changing' undisclosed sum; team and mission kept

After publicly saying he would never sell, the founder received an offer from HubSpot. In talks he weighted alignment over the numbers: HubSpot committed to keeping the same team and mission and adding resources (bigger interviews, more shows, better production, more tools). Reframed the sale as letting the company grow beyond him. Deal details deferred to a separate workshop.

Workedexit-ma

Starter Story · 2026-02-23

Numbers mentioned

Who	Metric	Value	Context	When
personPat Walls, founder of Starter Story	cost	USD 12K/one-time approximate	Personal savings when he quit his job to go full time on Starter Story	3:31
Starter Story	revenue	a couple hundred bucks approximate	Early Stripe revenue during the side-project phase	2:46
Starter Story	exit price	life-changing (undisclosed) approximate	HubSpot acquisition price, withheld	9:22