They Got Acquired - This one-person business sold to Canva

June 30, 2023
​Read on web​

Today’s story is a doozy:

🔥 One-person business

🔥 Creative use of skills

🔥 Simple business model

🔥 Built under-the-radar for nearly 10 years

🔥 Sold to a mega-big startup fish: Canva

The company is SlidesCarnival, which offered free slideshow templates for PowerPoint and Google Slides.

It was run by graphic designer Jimena Catalina Gayo, who managed to draw 2 million monthly website visits from an audience eager for her high-quality designs.

They clamored to the site, often finding it through search, in part because the designs were free.

But this is the clever part: Gayo monetized not by selling templates, but by layering Google Adsense on top of all that web traffic, eventually bringing in about 20,000 euros/month (around $20,000/month).

Her story illustrates the value of focused creativity. Read more:

​How SlidesCarnival’s one-woman show generated 20K euros/month — and wowed Canva​

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When a biz tanks after the sale

Most of the stories we share end at the point of acquisition.

But what happens post-sale is often interesting, too. Especially if the business resells for drastically more or less than it sold for the first time.

Here's an example that caught my eye on Twitter: a few personal finance sites that were purchased years ago, and recently resold for less than the original sale price.

Check out the conversation in the comments as well:

See you next time,

Lexi Grant
Founder & CEO
​They Got Acquired​

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P.S. We're launching our Agency Deals Report after the July 4th holiday. It features nine agencies that sold in the last few years...

And it's free.

Keep your eyes peeled for that if you're in the agency space!​