I thought I would never sel CD Baby. When National Public Radio did a story
In 2007 I did a ground-up rewrite of the website from scratch. And man, it was
beautiful code. The proudest achievement of my life so far is that rewritten
software. Wonderful y organized, extensible, and efficient: the culmination of
2008 and beyond. Al my plans needed a huge effort for little reward, but were
required for future growth. I had broken the plans into about twenty projects of
two to twelve weeks each, and I wasn't excited about any of them. I'd taken CD
The next week, I got cal s from three companies, each asking if I'd be interested
“No way! There's so much more I want to do! This is my baby. I can't stop
employees and al that responsibility. I wrote about how nice it'd be to get outside
a bit and feel free from al that. I got excited about al the cool new projects I
could do instead.
I realized that the bigger learning and growing chal enge for me was letting go,
not staying on.
Surprised by this, I asked Seth Godin's advice. Al he said was, “If you care, sel
.”
(I think his point was that my lack of enthusiastic vision was doing a disservice
to my clients. It'd be better for everyone if I put the company in more motivated
hands that could help them al grow.)
I cal ed Jared Rose, my business coach, and asked him to gril me about this big
decision. “What other ways can you achieve the freedom you want, without sel
ing?” After an hour of questions like this, we both came to the conclusion that I
was real y done.
As with any breakup, graduation, or move, you emotional y disconnect, and it al
feels as if it were in the distant past. I felt like I was already on the highway with
a little box of stuff, moving cross-country, with my old home long gone, never to
be seen again. By the end of that day, I was no longer derek@cdbaby.com.
Unfortunately, as with a divorce, the paperwork took another seven months. I let
two companies bid, and ended up choosing the one that bid the lowest but
understood my clients better.
It was never about the money. The decision was done in that one introspective
day of writing in my diary and talking with my mentors. Afterwards, I was
completely unconflicted and knew it was the right decision.
I went to bed that night (January 18, 2008) and slept longer than I had in months.
Then I woke up ful of detailed ideas for my next company, but that's a different
story.
I've been asked a few times by other entrepreneurs, “How do you know when it's
time to sel ?”
My answer is, “You'l know.” But I hope this detailed story describes how it wil