Thoughts From Two Founders Who Recently Sold Their WordPress Businesses

Last month, WP Engine acquired StudioPress. Brian Gardner, founder of StudioPress, recently shared his thoughts on why he didn’t want to sell the business, but did.

Making a decision that not only affects your livelihood, the livelihood of your partners and employees, and the livelihood of an entire community isn’t for the faint of heart. It certainly wasn’t a responsibility I took lightly and spent quite a bit of time wrestling with.

The fact of the matter is this: When you make a decision that affects thousands of people, you have to wrestle with it. And then wrestle with it some more.
Brian Gardner

I appreciate Gardner’s down-to-earth perspective on how he reached the decision to sell.

Ryan Sullivan, founder of WP Site Care, sold his WordPress maintenance and support business to Southern Web. On his personal site, Sullivan describes what it has been like to run a business the last seven years and drifting away from the reason he created the business in the first place.

As the team grew, I slowly moved further and further away from the reason I started my business in the first place. It’s a trend that’s talked about extensively in the E-Myth.

People start a business because they love what they do, but then the growth of the business, management of people, and demands of administrivia become too much, and the person who started the business finds themselves in a totally foreign land with no roadmap for how to get back to the thing they once loved.
Ryan Sullivan

Merging with Southern Web allows Sullivan to get back to what he enjoys doing most, helping people and businesses with their sites. Sullivan also shared a great piece of advice, “Ask for help before you think you need it.”

Both articles are great reads and provide insight into the tough decisions founders inevitably have to make.