They Got Acquired - Thyme is money

May 5, 2023
​Read on web​

I remember following Lindsay and Bjork Ostrom in the early days of their food blog, Pinch of Yum.

I’m not into cooking, but I devoured every one of Lindsay’s personal stories and Bjork’s income reports. As someone who was also growing an online business in the early 2010s, I enjoyed hearing about how they’d transitioned from their jobs as a teacher and retreat leader and figured out how to build online.

So it was cool to see them pop up in our database of acquisitions as having sold one of their properties, WP Tasty.

Bjork declined to comment for our story, so our reporter Lisa combed through the information the couple has shared over the years to piece together a timeline of how they got here.

A few aspects of their 10-year journey stand out:

• They built WordPress tools they needed as food bloggers…. then found their fellow food bloggers needed them, too.
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• As they gained traction, they left their day jobs and went all in. Now they have a team of about 20 employees.
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• Instead of selling their entire business, they parted with one or two of their properties.

See our full story on how this Minnesota couple built a food blogger tool chest and sold off part of it:

​This couple built a food blogging suite from scratch, before selling off a few slices​

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Why Sam Parr’s building a private founder peer group — and how you can join

While running his first company, Sam Parr, founder of The Hustle, hosted monthly meetings with a few other founders.

They discussed things like how much salary to pay themselves and how to be happy even though things were chaotic. Things that were important, but couldn’t be Googled or tweeted.

They grew their companies alongside each other, experienced similar challenges, and sold around the same time. (Parr sold The Hustle to Hubspot.)

You know that quote about how you’re the average of the five people you hang out with most? Parr created Hampton — a community that puts high-earning founders into small groups to meet with one another and an executive coach — so you can be the average of people you want to be the average of.

It’s highly vetted: only for leaders of fast-growing, tech-savvy startups with at least $1M in annual revenue. Curious to learn more?

When you apply, say you heard about it from They Got Acquired.

💡 Quick tip for selling a content business

If the URL is hosted alongside other URLs — which is common for entrepreneurs who run more than one website — move it to its own hosting account prior to sale.

Don't change the host; you don't want to mess with the site ahead of your sale. Simply separate it from your other URLs so it has its own account and login.

Then when you sign on the dotted line, you can easily transfer the site by handing the new account to its new owner.

Give them the email + login, and they can go in and change that login info, payment info, and more. They can also transfer it to their preferred host whenever that's convenient for them.

This is faster and less stressful than transferring your domain from your host to theirs as part of the transaction. Your payment will likely be tied to a successful handoff, so thinking ahead about this change could result in that money hitting your bank account more quickly.

See you next time,

Lexi Grant
Founder & CEO
​They Got Acquired​
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Our mission is to redefine startup success by showcasing companies that sell for $100K-$50M. Learn more about us or follow us on Twitter.

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