Coconote · B2C · AI lecture note-taker
Hire a banker to run a buyout so the founders keep building
Sold to Quizlet; revenue roughly doubled during the process
Workedexit-ma
What they did
Took an inbound call from Quizlet a few months in; spoke with a handful of companies; once serious, hired investment bank Accretive Partners (Chris Park) to run the process so founders could stay on building. Kept it between the two founders (team and spouse not told) until close; talked to other founders who had been through M&A.
What happened
Sold to Quizlet (closed Dec 2025) while revenue roughly doubled during the process.
- Stage
- exit
In their words
Sub Club by RevenueCat · Bootstrapped to $6.7M ARR and an Exit to Quizlet in 2 Years – Brett Bauman & Zack Hargett, Coconote“if you're getting inbound and you're really weighing the options here of acquisition, I would say make sure you keep your eye on the ball”
“We worked with an investment bank. We worked with a partner named Chris Park at Accretive Partners”
“people on the team, our engineers, content creators, they didn't know about it until the day of close”
Related topics
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- When trial users cancel, offer them 7 more free daysKeeps 27% of cancellers in their trial; a smaller share later pay
- Build a novelty free tool (text to brainrot video) and push it on TikTok100-200M views and 3,000 trials in days, but only ~$25K revenue
- Post short videos that show the app solving a real student problemSeveral ~20M-view videos, ~99% organic, converting far better than viral novelty content
- Keep a small team of 10-12 part-time creators, led by a proven oneLead creator drove hundreds of millions of views; founders say it worked
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More from this episode
- Coconote: Launch a basic version fast and charge from day one$100K ARR in 45 days, $1M in 4 months
- Coconote: Hire creators with 5-10K followers, found via the Gmail in their bio3 of ~30 made a huge difference; main engine to $1M ARR
- Coconote: Have one hired creator run the brand's main video accountHundreds of millions of views
- Coconote: Tell creators to show the app as a fix or identity, not a noveltyConverted best, per the founders; no numbers
- pdftobrainrot.com: Launch a viral 'PDF to brain rot video' side site to funnel users~41M views on one video, but no paying users; shut down
- Coconote: Aim videos at the parent who pays, not just the studentMany viral Instagram videos used this angle; later scaled back
- Coconote: Ask customers to describe the app; put their words in the first screenshotFounders call it one of their best moves; no numbers
- Coconote: Charge students $99/year and push the annual plan~80% chose annual
- Coconote: Raise the annual price from $99 to $129More users and more revenue at the same time
- Coconote: Give one free note, then require a free trialCredited with early cash flow; no numbers
- Coconote: Run paid ads cut by an agency from creators' raw footageBeat boosting viral posts, but never profitable; stopped
- Coconote: Double onboarding to ~15 screens with more questions and social proof+16% trial starts
- Coconote: Ask people to log in after the paywall, not on the first screenBiggest onboarding win; removed ~10% drop-off
- Coconote: When people cancel, offer 7 more free days instead of a discountSaved 25% of cancellers; beat a 30% discount and a 3-month pause
- Coconote: Put in ~$10K each and reinvest revenue into creatorsCash-flow positive throughout; no outside funding