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Tom’s of Maine: A $5,000 loan, 36 Years, and a $100 Million Exit
Tom and Kate Chappell spent 36 years building the first natural toothpaste brand, nearly losing themselves in the process before selling 84% of the…
Oct 4
•
Jay Cox
4
September 2026
MVMT: How Six Watches Became a $100 Million Exit
How two college roommates pre-sold six watch prototypes on Indiegogo, taught themselves Facebook ads, and sold to a publicly traded watch brand for $100…
Sep 27
•
Jay Cox
6
1
Pura Vida: How 300 Bracelets Became a $103.7 Million Exit
Two friends bought 300 bracelets on a beach to help the men making them. Nine years later they were paid $103.7 million. Six years after that, the buyer…
Sep 20
•
Jay Cox
7
2
1
Plenty of Fish: How a Two-Week Website Became a $575 Million Exit
He built it in two weeks to learn a programming language and turned down the same buyer for a decade before throwing in the towel.
Sep 13
•
Jay Cox
10
2
3
Wirecutter: How 10 Articles a Month Became a $25M Exit
Every outlet reported a sale for “more than $30 million” until the buyer released its annual report.
Sep 6
•
Jay Cox
3
2
1
August 2026
Baremetrics: The $800,000 Write-off
Josh Pigford built a Stripe dashboard in eight days and had it profitable within a year. Seven years later the only way the sale worked was if both his…
Aug 30
•
Jay Cox
2
RXBAR: The $600 Million Wrapper
Peter Rahal and Jared Smith started with $10,000 and never raised money. Four years later, Kellogg paid cash. The recipe never changed.
Aug 23
•
Jay Cox
1
Sour Strips: The Silent $75.5 Million Exit
The candy brand America wanted.
Aug 16
•
Jay Cox
3
1
AppArmor: The $20 Million No.
How AppArmor revolutionized campus safety.
Aug 11
•
Jay Cox
1
2
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