I’ve published a lot of content for you over the years, but this post is the hardest, so I’ll just say it:

ProfitWell has merged with Paddle (a billing and payments company based in the UK). 

We went from bootstrapped to selling for over $200M.

Day to day nothing is changing and we’re going to support every billing system in the market (we’re building more!). The one thing that will change is, if you ever wanted to see what ProfitWell could do with funding, then strap in for a fun ride because the team and I aren’t going anywhere.

Why’d we do it?

Frankly, because this industry pisses me off. 

I know that sounds crass and of course this is founder arrogance, but the market is getting extremely difficult for all of us. It’s getting harder and harder to focus on the things that matter—your team, product, and customers. Instead, you get bogged down by needing to become an expert in taxes, credit cards, currencies, payment infrastructure, and so many functions that have nothing to do with momentum. 

Those feelings stink, right? Well, how do you think our industry answered this pain? 

Instead of eliminating the pain, we got tools that make “becoming an expert in billing easier” or “billing your engineers will love.” 

I don’t know about you, but I don’t really want to try and convince our engineering team to love billing. We spend enough time trying to be insanely great at the very essence of our value—and this is on top of all the growth, people, sales, and ops fires that pop up. Why don’t the products we use just “do it for you”? 

I don’t want WYSIWYG editors. 

I don’t want workflows. 

I just want it done for me.

A partnership meant to be

When I met Christian Owens—Paddle’s Founder/CEO—six years ago, he was the first person who didn’t work at ProfitWell who finished my sentences. I actually called our CPO, Facu Chamut, immediately after and said if we ever wanted to go into billing we needed to hurry because, “this guy’s going to build it the way we would.”

Fortunately, we didn’t have to, because we’re joining forces to create the most helpful brand in SaaS, which starts with a product that has an ethos of “do it for you” when it comes to running and growing your subscription business. 

What happens now?

We’re excited to have the resources to build the brand and product that’s been in our heads for so long, especially with a team we never thought we’d meet—one that thinks the way we do. 

I know you have questions and I want to answer them. So, I’m hosting an AMA next Tuesday May 31 at 2pm ET. All questions are fair game—questions on the deal, negotiations, product future, and anything else.

Want in? Just email me at patrick@profitwell.com, and I’ll send over a calendar invite.