HubSpot Acquires Starter Story: A $6M Bootstrapped Side Project, the SaaS-as-Media Playbook & What It Means for Creator Economy M&A

1. The Deal

Jonathan Hunt, VP of Media & Content at HubSpot, stated: “Small business is a core audience for us. Starter Story is one of the largest non-traditional media brands speaking to founders who are gaining momentum.”

2. Pat Walls: From Starbucks Side Project to $6M/Year

Pat Walls studied Economics and Accounting at UC Santa Barbara. He worked as an Associate at Deloitte, then as a Solutions Architect at Anaplan, then as a Software Engineer at Dia&Co and ReferralExchange. He does not have a CS degree — he learned to code at a bootcamp after discovering he enjoyed programming through SQL financial modeling. He also once ran an iPhone repair business after being fired from Apple.

The Origin

• Late 2017: Started Starter Story as a side project at age 27, $60K in debt
• Woke up at 6am to work from a Starbucks in NYC before his corporate job
• Cold-emailed founders for interviews and coded the platform himself
• Initially generated $3–4K/month before quitting his job
• Prominent advocate of the “building in public” philosophy — shared revenue, metrics, and struggles openly throughout the entire journey

The Think Week

In May 2020, Pat took a “Think Week” (inspired by Bill Gates) that became the pivotal turning point. Within 30 days he doubled revenue. Within 2 months he tripled it. The business went from a modest side project to a multi-million dollar operation — all bootstrapped and profitable.

3. Revenue & Growth: The Hockey Stick

The 2023–2024 explosion — from $1.1M to $6M — was driven almost entirely by the YouTube pivot. By late 2024, Pat was reportedly making ~$250K/month.

Revenue Breakdown

Pre-YouTube (circa 2023)

• Sponsorships/ads: ~57% (~$640K/year)
• Subscriptions, courses, paid community: ~38%
• Affiliate marketing: ~5% (~$56K/year)

Post-YouTube (circa 2024–2025)

• 75% from products (subscriptions, courses, paid community)
• 25% from advertising and sponsorships
• Revenue mix flipped — products became dominant over ads

Audience Metrics at Acquisition

4. The YouTube Pivot That Changed Everything

The single biggest inflection point in Starter Story’s trajectory was the pivot from SEO-driven written content to YouTube-first video. The results speak for themselves: $1.1M → $6M in one year.

• Long-form founder interview videos became the primary content format
• YouTube subscribers grew to 800K+ (260K by April 2024, tripling by acquisition)
• Revenue mix shifted from 57% ads to 75% products
• Video created deeper trust and engagement than written case studies alone
• YouTube became a superior funnel for paid community and course conversions

Notably, HubSpot was Starter Story’s first YouTube sponsor — they saw the channel’s potential before deciding to acquire the entire business.

Pat Walls himself identified the shift: “We saw the attention shifting toward video and jumped on that wave.” This mirrors a broader trend: YouTube is replacing SEO as the dominant discovery channel for B2B audiences.

5. The Tweet That Started the Acquisition

On September 23, 2025, Pat Walls posted this tweet:

“hubspot should acquire starter story the SEO ship is sinking IMO hubspot needs to pivot wayyyy harder to video, specifically youtube i’m biased, but acquiring starter story would take their youtube game to the next level thank you for coming to my ted talk”

Five months later, on February 23, 2026:

“8 years ago, I started a side project inside of a tiny Starbucks. Today, Starter Story is being acquired by @HubSpot. Here’s how it happened.”

A tweet turned into a conversation. The conversation turned into an offer. This is perhaps the most “build in public” acquisition in history — the founder publicly suggested the deal, and the acquirer said yes.

6. HubSpot Media: The SaaS-as-Media Playbook

HubSpot is executing a strategy that is reshaping B2B marketing: building (and buying) owned media properties that reach their buyer persona, rather than renting attention through paid ads.

The thesis is simple: if your customers are early-stage founders and growing businesses, don’t buy Google Ads targeting “CRM software.” Instead, own the media those founders already trust and consume. Every reader, viewer, and subscriber is a potential HubSpot customer who already has a positive association with your brand.

Performance Metrics

• YouTube-driven lead generation: growing 68% year-over-year
• Newsletter-driven leads: increasing 53% year-over-year
• Combined reach: 2.9 million YouTube subscribers
• Monthly engagements: 50+ million
• Exceeds Morning Brew’s audience; more than doubles Salesforce’s reach

7. The HubSpot Media Portfolio

Each acquisition fills a different content format and audience segment: newsletter (The Hustle), podcast (My First Million), AI niche (Mindstream), YouTube + community (Starter Story). Together they create a multi-channel media moat that no amount of ad spend can replicate.

8. Strategic Logic: Why This Deal Makes Sense

For HubSpot

• Proximity to builders: Starter Story reaches early-stage founders — HubSpot’s core buyer demographic — through trusted editorial content
• YouTube moat: 800K+ subscribers in an era where YouTube-driven leads are growing 68% YoY; SEO-driven traffic is declining across the industry
• Community asset: 10K+ paid community members = warm leads who already trust the brand
• Content library: 4,500+ founder case studies with revenue data = unique, defensible content that AI cannot easily replicate
• Cost efficiency: At an estimated $22–40M, this is cheaper than the annual ad spend required to generate equivalent qualified leads

For Pat Walls

• Liquidity event: 8 years of bootstrapped work converted into a likely eight-figure exit
• Distribution upgrade: HubSpot’s existing 2.9M YouTube subscriber base and 50M+ monthly engagements amplify Starter Story’s reach
• Editorial independence: Maintained, mirroring The Hustle’s post-acquisition autonomy
• Team growth: Access to HubSpot’s resources to scale beyond what a bootstrapped operation could do alone

As HubSpot put it: “If you want to reach the people who matter most to your business, build (or acquire) the media they already love.”

9. Valuation & Comparable Deals

Estimated Valuation

Financial terms were not disclosed. Using available data:

• Revenue: $6M at ~75% margin = ~$4.5M EBITDA
• Creator economy M&A multiples (2026): 5–9x EBITDA
• Estimated range: $22M–$40M
• The Hustle comp (~$27M for 1.5M newsletter subscribers, 30 employees) suggests the higher end is plausible given Starter Story’s superior revenue and YouTube audience

Comparable Deals

10. Creator Economy M&A Landscape

The Starter Story deal fits into an accelerating trend:

• Deal volume: 69 transactions (2024) → 81 (2025) = +17.4% YoY; 2026 expected to be equally active
• Valuation multiples: Most creator economy companies valued at 5–9x EBITDA
• Primary targets: Software (26%), agencies (21%), media properties (16%), talent management (14%)
• The shift: From paid advertising to owned media as primary customer acquisition channel for B2B software companies

Greg Isenberg captured the thesis:

“Media is becoming the base layer of software companies. As infrastructure not as marketing. The audience becomes your research lab, your distribution engine, your recruiting funnel, your feedback loop, and your launchpad all at once.”

11. What It Means

1. SaaS Companies Are Becoming Media Companies

HubSpot’s playbook — acquire niche media brands as customer acquisition channels — is becoming the standard B2B growth strategy. Paid ads are losing ground to owned media. The companies that own the attention of their buyer persona have a structural advantage over those renting it through Google and Meta.

2. Bootstrapped Media Businesses Are Premium Acquisition Targets

Indie Hackers (Stripe), The Hustle (HubSpot), Morning Brew (Business Insider, $75M), and now Starter Story. If you build a trusted audience in a high-value niche, SaaS companies will pay a premium for that proximity. The key ingredients: authentic voice, real data (revenue numbers), and a community that trusts you.

3. YouTube Is the New Moat

Starter Story went from $1.1M to $6M in one year by pivoting to YouTube. HubSpot explicitly cited video as the strategic rationale. Newsletter-only media brands are being outpaced by multi-channel properties with strong video presence. YouTube-driven leads at HubSpot are growing 68% YoY vs 53% for newsletter.

4. The “Build in Public” Endgame

Pat Walls literally tweeted that HubSpot should acquire him, and they did. The transparency and audience he built over 8 years was the product. Building in public isn’t just a marketing tactic — it’s a credibility moat that makes you an acquisition target.

5. SEO Is Declining; Original Content Wins

Pat Walls himself said “the SEO ship is sinking.” Starter Story’s 4,500+ founder case studies with real revenue numbers represent original, defensible content that AI cannot replicate. This is the kind of content that retains value in an AI-saturated information landscape.

6. The Tweet-to-Acquisition Pipeline Is Real

This may be the most “build in public” acquisition in history. September 2025: public tweet suggesting the deal. February 2026: acquisition announced. Five months from tweet to close. In an era where founders have direct access to decision-makers via social media, the best business development is being publicly excellent at what you do.

12. Opportunities & Implications

• Build niche media for SaaS verticals: HubSpot proved the model. Every large SaaS company (Salesforce, Atlassian, Stripe, Shopify) needs its own media portfolio. Build a trusted audience in a high-value B2B niche, and an acquirer will come.
• YouTube-first B2B media: The text-to-video shift is the biggest arbitrage in B2B content. Most B2B brands still think “blog post first.” YouTube-first founders will command premium acquisition multiples.
• Community + content bundles: Starter Story’s 10K+ paid community was a key asset. Media brands without community are leaving money (and acquisition value) on the table.
• Build in public as deal flow: Founders who share metrics publicly create their own acquisition pipeline. Potential acquirers can evaluate the business before ever making contact.
• Media-as-a-service for SaaS: Not every SaaS company can acquire a media brand. There’s an opportunity to build, grow, and sell niche media properties to SaaS companies as a repeatable model.
• Original data as moat: In an AI world, original case studies, revenue data, and founder interviews are defensible content. Aggregation and summarization are commoditized; original reporting is not.
• Creator economy M&A advisory: Deal volume up 17.4% YoY at 5–9x EBITDA multiples. There’s a growing need for bankers and advisors who understand creator economy valuations.