The WELL
One of the internet oldest paid online communities, a subscription discussion forum founded in 1985 by Stewart Brand. Salon Media Group sold it in September 2012 to The Well Group, a company formed by 11 long-time members, for $400,000.
Financial Data
Exit Analysis
The $400,000 sale price puts it in the top quarter of the 608 deals with a disclosed price here, where the median is $20,000. Most indie acquisitions cluster well under the headline numbers founders read about, which is exactly why a real distribution is more useful than an average.
This database tracks 60 Community exits, and the ones that disclosed a price sold at a median of $30,000. Category matters more than founders expect: buyers apply different discount rates to a content business, a mobile app and a B2B tool even at identical revenue.
From founding to sale took 27.0 years. Time to exit is a decent proxy for how built-to-sell a business was: shorter, cleaner processes usually mean documented operations and fewer surprises in due diligence.
See how this compares across the market on our market stats page, or browse more Community exits.
Exit Timeline
Founder
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