231: Building and Selling a Profitable Content-Based Business with David Thomas Tao

Free Time with Jenny Blake

“Let’s build ESPN.com for strength, and convince everyone they can lift weights.” With this mission in mind, the first six months of building the BarBend platform were a blur for today’s guest. By the end of the first year in 2016, they had had 1.4 million readers. By 2022, they had over 31 million registered users, allowing them to sell the business in 2023.

In this conversation, we cover David Tao’s take on the media landscape and how to build a profitable content-based business; raising a seed round of funding from friends and family after getting rejected from every venture pitch; the biggest mistake he made while experimenting with monetization strategies; and how he navigated a successful acquisition with a shared vision at the new parent company, Pillar4.

More About David: David Thomas Tao is an entrepreneur and writer based in NYC. He's the co-founder and former CEO of BarBend.com, the world's premiere strength sports and strength training media platform. A proud Kentucky native, David is also a Forbes 30 Under 30 Listmaker, Kentucky Colonel, and a noted whiskey/spirits writer and judge, appearing yearly on national tasting panels. BarBend was recently acquired in a thrilling deal that included hiring all employees and the executive team has chosen to stay on as well.

🌟 3 Key Takeaways

• Burnout and bottlenecks are two red flags that you need to hire team members who can help.
• Don’t be afraid to kill something promising if it’s not what you are best at, and if it’s not what you’ve built your team to be best at.
• When you have moments of fleeting clarity, pay attention: they aren’t flukes. Write them down; for example, when you wish you were doing something else with the business.

📝 Permission

If you’re bad at business development and partnerships, delegate that!

✅ Do (or Delegate) This Next

Consider what kind of help you could get on the “biz dev” front: what would be one small next step? Even if it’s something like employing the Cyrano Strategy for Delegating Important Comms so you aren’t the only one interacting with potential clients.

🔗 Resources Mentioned

• David on the web, IG: @davidthomastao, Medium, Twitter, Muck Rack, BarBend
• Pillar4 Media
• Articles: BarBend—How We Built (and Sold) the Next Great Content Brand
• NYT—Vice, Decayed Digital Colossus, Files for Bankruptcy
• Axios—BuzzFeed News to shut down, as CEO cites missteps
• They Got Acquired—Niche strength site BarBend sells to Pillar4 Media
• HR Tool: Justworks

📚 Books Mentioned

• Clockwork by Mike Michalowicz
• So Good They Can't Ignore You ****by Cal Newport
• Born Standing Up by Steve Martin
• Built to Sell ****by John Warrillow
• Free Time: Lose the Busywork, Love Your Business
• Pivot: The Only Move That Matters Is Your Next One
• Life After College

🎧 Related Episodes

• BarBend
• Jenny Blake Knows How To Help You Make Twice The Money In Half The Time
• Built to Sell Radio
• Invest Like the Best with Patrick O’Shaughnessy
• Free Time: 093: How to Sell Your Online Business with Alexis Grant
• 045: Behind the Free Time Brand with Adam Chaloeicheep
• 185: How Licensing Helps Serve the Queen Bee Role + Stop Keeping up with the EntrepreJoneses with Mike Michalowicz
• 086: The Cyrano Strategy for Delegating Important Comms
• Pivot: 290: May Cause Side Effects—Life After Antidepressant Withdrawal with Brooke Siem
• 12: Belly Of The Pivot Beast: On Bouncing Back From Zero With Adam Chaloeicheep

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