MBA2143 Extended Interview: Patrick Campbell – Building & Selling a $200 Million Business

Create it. Grow it. Cash out. That’s the goal of many entrepreneurs: to build a business that’ll sell for enough money to fund whatever comes next — even if nothing comes next, business-wise. So what does that journey look like? How do you get there? And just as importantly, what happens after? Patrick Campbell created ProfitWell and bootstrapped it into a successful startup. Selling it wasn’t exactly the goal, but when Paddle came along with an offer that made sense, Campbell let his baby go — for a cool $200 million. What now? In this extended interview, Patrick shares the journey from startup to acquisition, and explores an important (but often overlooked) aspect of entrepreneurship: what do you do once you’ve “made it”?