The Next Chapter

When I was in 2008, I formed a band together along with one of my best friends of the moment. Stu McLaren and me put our expertise together to form Member.

We did not know that we were going to embark on an incredible and unimaginable journey. WordPress was increasing at a phenomenal growth rate. It was an exciting time. There was no clear answer, but there was a lot of evidence that WordPress could outdo Joomla and Drupal.

To put this into context, Katy Perry and Lady Gaga had been making waves in the new music scene. A few of our team members were still in grade school back when we first began.

When the Internet marketing industry was in full swing the discussion of membership sites were the talk of the town. There weren't many options to create a membership site with WordPress. Most development companies were concentrated on themes. Consequently, the premium plugin market was essentially not even a thing.

We saw this as an opportunity to take action immediately. Mike Lopez was our Jedi programmer, who was able to create whatever we put him to the test with. He built the first version of Member on his own in less than three months.

As with my previous software businesses, we saw a demand so we created the perfect solution to the commonly encountered problem. Needless to say, Member was able to see some rapid growth. The first year, the majority of sales came from word of word. We grew for well over an entire year prior to spending a dime on advertising.

This is the kind of opportunity an entrepreneur dreams of.

Early into our history when we first started, we got our first enquiry about selling our company. This was a nice gesture, but they wanted well-established brands where the founder had decided to go home. We were fresh and full of enthusiasm and enthusiasm, therefore it made no sense.

In the end, the initial inquiry proved to be a valid validation. The member was always "Built to sell" There were many who were interested.

After the initial inquiry I had a conversation with my friend, who I thought of as a reliable advisor. His entrepreneurial experience includes owning several different businesses. One of them is a Venture Capital Firm. He also had sold other companies previously. Naturally, this man is an expert.

My friend gave me a helpful tip. He said, "the secret to selling a company, is to identify the buyer and make sure that everything you do about your company an ideal fit."

The advice made a lot of sense for me, however there were some minor issues. The first is that when you're partners, you're not creating an organization that only one of the partners wants. The partners agree to build together. Second, we could never determine the purchaser.

At some point, Stu and I decided to make Mike the minority partner. I believe it was in 2010.

The landscape changed dramatically in the latter half of 2014. Stu made the decision to pursue his passion for instructing and focusing on helping people build profitable membership sites. Mike along with me both remained with the software company.

Then, I was the largest shareholder along with the Member. It was both scary and exciting at the same time.

The leadership team I was part of and my took a trip to Colorado to concentrate on the planning.

It was clear it was time to start recalibrating. The focus needed to shift on what we've achieved over the years and become certain of what we are able to achieve in the near future. Personally, I had to stop thinking about building a company I thought that someone might want to purchase and start thinking about what sort of company I'd prefer to have.

These past few months have shown me numerous things. The most important lesson I learned is that Isolation is the death of entrepreneurs. Being in business can be quite lonely at times. There is no better way to build relationships and friendships that can help you bring balance and order to the business.

You never know when a relationship will turn into an actual connection...

I was introduced to Micah Mitchell at a conference. He was in a partnership with a person who was selling an application similar to Member. Many people would have considered the company to be the most serious competitors. I wasn't thinking much about it and just felt like the guy was great and would love acquainted with him.

In the next few years, and Micah had left his prior collaboration and founded a business called Memberium. In the past, many would have considered him even more of a competitor now. The only thing I could say was that I loved him.

The proof was in the fact that I bumped into him during the security checkpoint at the airport. We enjoyed a wonderful conversation, discussing what we had been working on, then we found out we had been assigned seats with each other on the flight. Was this a joke? Surely, someone lined this up. Nope, it was completely random.

On that same trip, we began brainstorming about the best April Fool's joke where we would announce that Micah recently acquired Member. We laughed that it could be referred to as Memberium. We might even tack 360 to the name just in order to add a little fun. Some people who read this might be able to understand.

What started as a randomly assigned seat next to my software competition (thanks Delta!) became a lasting friendship. We would get together regularly to talk about business at dinner for the next couple of years. Sadly, our meetings were over when my family and I returned to Tennessee. We made some great friendships in Utah and it was hard leaving them behind.

I love designing software. The excitement of seeing the idea realized is exhilarating. It's especially exciting when you have an amazing team and the product grows much more than you imagined it would become. An excellent example would be our most recent release of the Courses Add-Ons to Member.

Although it's as exciting as this sounds, the fact is it can also be demanding. Just when you get to the one-yard line and it's nearing time to score, you could be through the air exhausted from all of your effort.

As we wrapped on the design and planning to launch the product, I began to feel extremely tired. I started to realise that my best move would be to locate a genuine market partner. A partner that understood the marketplace and could assist me to take Member to the next level. I have made several calls to some of my most trusted business acquaintances. My wife informed me that Micah should be on the list of candidates. I promised my wife to call him back on the next day.

The moment I called Micah, he randomly sent me an email. It was like sitting next to him on the flight. There are times when you know that there is a reason for everything.

The discussions grew into the notion of selling Member to Micah's firm MemberShipper that is the one that is supporting Memberium. It turns out what we had been building using Member was exactly what MemberShipper was looking to add to their portfolio.

Over the years, I've had hundreds of inquiries about selling the business. The majority of them didn't feel right until now. It was crucial for me to ensure that Member keep growing as a company. Also, I wanted to be sure that the amazing staff will be well looked after.

Every step of the way, it became more and more clear it was the right option for the Member, the team and the thousands and thousands amazing customers who have stayed with us for so long.

I'm extremely thankful to the leadership teams from both sides. They've been hard at work to make the transition as simple as they can for me. It's very impressive to observe all of them working together.

The common question I'm getting currently is "What's the next step to you?".

While I do think I'd do really well being retired, what do I need really is a time off. I'm planning to take an extended period of time for myself.

What does all this mean for you if you're a Member?

To put it in a nutshell, you can expect the team to continue innovating and Members will continue to be developed and enhanced. It's not going anywhere.

I'm committed to working with Micah and the rest the team for a full year. They have put me into a position which could be described as my ideal job. I'm currently the "Director of Strategic Partnerships" for both brand names owned by MemberShipper.

I will be attending many gatherings in the coming months. My goal is to provide the most value possible over the course of the year. I can't wait to see Member advance up to the next step under Micah's guidance.

It's possible that I will be around for much longer than anyone would have imagined.

I've never felt better in regards to the future of member as I feel now. We are just getting started.

You can read Micah's full announcement on the acquisition here.

There is also...