BarBend: How We Built (and Sold) the Next Great Content Brand
In 2016, I co-founded BarBend.com. In our first year, we had 1.4 million users. Fast-forward to 2022, and BarBend registered over 31 million users and drove Gross Merchandise Value of nearly $19,000,000. In April 2023, we sold it.
For me and my co-founders, it’s close to a storybook outcome:
- The company will continue its growth with expanded resources.
- Investors are over-the-moon thrilled.
- All employees are continuing on, and they’ll have both more support and opportunities to grow with the company.
- The entire exec team is staying on, and not because we have to. BarBend is entering its fastest, most exciting phase of growth. We’re opting into that ride in a big way.
Between its founding and now, BarBend grew to become the largest independent source for strength content: Strength training, strength sports, and related topics in fitness, nutrition, recovery, and products. If you’ve Googled “Back Squat” or looked for World’s Strongest Man results, chances are you’ve come across our content.
In April 2023 — one seed round and seven content-producing years later — we sold BarBend and its associated properties to Pillar4 Media.
It’s been a tough few years for digital media companies, and my hope is that BarBend shows there’s still potential to build great brands around passionate audiences. It’s certainly not easy, but it is possible.
Here’s a (very) brief rundown of how we did it, and what’s to come.
(If you want the TL;DR, skip to the bottom for a graphic timeline of BarBend’s founding, growth, and sale.)
(Looking for more about how we grew BarBend and what’s next? Follow me on Twitter and Instagram!)
Falling In Love With Strength
Feel free to skip this section if you want the business case. But BarBend wouldn’t exist without my personal love of strength training, so I should give some background here.
I became passionate about strength training in college. After losing nearly 100 pounds my senior year of high school, I was looking to gain newfound confidence in — and understanding of — my body. The gym became a great outlet for that, as did my college’s rugby team.
A knee injury soon put the brakes on my rugby playing days. During rehab, desperate to get back to lifting weights, I began watching early YouTube videos of weightlifters, legends like multi-time Olympic gold medalists Pyrros Dimas and Hossein Rezazadeh.
Once I was cleared to lift again, I set out to find some Olympic-style weightlifters close by. This was before CrossFit helped popularize weightlifting in America, so it took a lot of digging through niche internet forums, but eventually, I struck paydirt: A group of competitive weightlifters were training in a gym accessible by bus. They were a diverse mix of graduate students, professors, pilots, contractors, and ex-Soviet coaches. And they welcomed me with astonishing kindness — surgically repaired knee and all.
I instantly fell in love with the sport, the training, and the camaraderie around it. When the gym we trained in went out of business, one of the lifters offered to let us train in his company’s garage, which housed snowplows.
The floor was uneven, and we had to move lifting platforms in and out before every training session. Our squat racks were made from old hubcaps and piping. During the brutally cold Boston winters, the only heat sources were space heaters. We kept shortening rest between sets so we wouldn’t get cold.
And it all just made me fall deeper in love with strength culture. I was never a great weightlifter. Heck, I never even qualified for a national-level competition. But the impact for me went far beyond competition results. I knew strength would be a part of me for life.
The Problem: Fans Without A Home
A love for weightlifting sparked my interest in learning about all forms of strength, competitive or not. And I did my best to keep up with the latest and greatest in all those expressions, not just weightlifting, but also CrossFit, powerlifting, strongman, and bodybuilding. That meant bouncing around among esoteric forums, cobbling together info from social media, and even scouring print magazines for competition results months after they actually happened.
There was no central source for this info. There was no home for strength nerds like me.
Just as importantly, there was no content outlet (that I knew of) that showcased the full diversity of strength. Resistance training is an undeniably excellent way to improve your life regardless of age, sex, gender, sexual orientation, or background. It’s scalable and accessible to people of almost all physical ability levels. And while there were individuals shouting the truth from mountaintops, no brand was really saying it.
In early 2016, burnt out from years of freelance editing, I thought it would be as good a time as any to take a chance and try and build the site I’d always wanted. But I knew I couldn’t go it alone: I needed more firepower, more skills, and more support.
I approached two of the smartest folks I knew in content and SEO, who I’d met while doing some consulting work for a university’s medical school. Kenny Kline and Joe Auer already had a boutique SEO and content shop, working with a variety of clients while trying to build their own niche sites through organic search.
My pitch was simple: “Let’s build ESPN.com for strength. And let’s convince everyone they can lift weights.”
They agreed to run with the idea. I wake up every single day thankful that they took that gamble.
All In a Name: BarBend
Every content brand needs a memorable name. I tossed a bunch of ideas Kenny’s way, but there was a clear winner. When he saw the name “BarBend,” he said we should grab the domain ASAP.
Fortunately, I already had, for the princely sum of $7.
I hired a designer friend to tackle the logo. He took the outline of a kettlebell and cut it in half diagonally to get BarBend’s “B.” The rest is history!
Getting Started: Going from Zero to One
The first 6–7 months of BarBend were a blur. Before we had a contributor budget or editorial staff, I was personally writing upwards of 30 articles per week under the name “BarBend Team,” largely news from around the strength world.
Kenny and Joe supported me in just about every way imaginable as I began a one-man content blitz. It’s probably the closest I’ll ever feel to a Formula 1 driver, pushing my engine to max capacity while an amazing crew made sure there was still gas in the tank. They made sure we had the resources to keep up and running long before BarBend generated significant revenue.
By the time World’s Strongest Man rolled around a few months in, we’d established enough traction to get upwards of 20,000 organic visitors a day.
By the Rio Olympics that summer, we were getting cited as a results source by Wikipedia and mainstream sports sites, which helped feed SEO growth. I remember writing results for every single weightlifting session, which meant bringing my laptop on dates and to birthday parties so we could publish recaps ASAP.
By August, we’d hit capacity for our little team. We needed more content firepower, and the client work/other sites Kenny, Joe, and I ran couldn’t singlehandedly support the next level of growth. We needed cash, and we knew we’d have to fight for it.
Fundraising: Hearing “No” Over and Over
I don’t remember how many meetings we had with VCs, but I do remember them all going poorly. In the 2016 investing landscape, we were far too narrow to appeal to institutional investors. They were looking for the next BuzzFeed. Many also thought strength training was a fad, with growth artificially inflated by CrossFit’s rapid rise.
We experimented with live-streaming events, and while some early numbers were promising, even those metrics weren’t enough to woo investors who could write big checks.
With few choices but a desire to keep the site going, we went the friends & family route for our seed round. Leaving no stone unturned, we were incredibly fortunate to get the money we thought could carry us for a few years.
The result was ~$800,000 in seed capital, which included checks from a few strategic individuals in the fitness space. I do think a number of our investors believed in the ethos and strategy behind BarBend. But I think a greater number simply believed in us.
Early Wins: Building a Brand
By early 2017, we’d hired two full-time writers/editors and began building a freelancer network of experts from around the globe. We also signed a first-of-its-kind partnership with USA Weightlifting, becoming their Official Media Partner for the four-year Olympic cycle (a partnership we’ve since renewed for another Olympic quad).
This gave us an increased level of legitimacy, but it also put the pressure on to continue growth while producing increasingly high-quality, verified content. We had basically no room for error in reporting.
A few years later, we began working as an Official Media Provider to World Para Powerlifting, under the International Paralympic Committee. That collaboration has meant a lot to me as BarBend works to prove strength is for everyone.
Thus began what I like to call our “building blocks” phase. BarBend’s growth between 2017 and 2020 was largely linear and slow. We kept costs as low as possible and doubled down on what we knew could drive traction: High-quality written content with smattering of video and social media to support it.
We also stuck to our core principles (or we sure tried to) by covering the diversity of strength topics, from elite athletes to beginner-friendly resources. I credit Kenny for keeping us — and especially me — grounded. His penchant for seeing a long-term vision set the tone for patience over frustration and sustainable growth over quick wins.
Our team grew by one or two people per year, and we gradually expanded our contributor base of talented freelancers. We also launched a podcast (hosted by yours truly) and newsletter.
Monetization came slowly, first with a programmatic ad network, then more gradually with affiliate-supported reviews content and direct sponsor partnerships. We did our best to avoid quick wins, turning down money from low-quality sponsors and keeping our burn rate as low as possible while we continued to build the site’s power and footprint.
Renewed Focus: Do or Die
By the time COVID struck in 2020, BarBend was ready to level up. The question was, were we? After some key team members and one co-founder left to pursue other opportunities, we needed a new game plan and renewed commitment to growth. Stasis would be our death knell.
The back half of 2020 brought a few crucial steps to accelerating BarBend’s growth. Josh Pelletier joined as full-time CMO and immediately began bringing more structure and systems to everything from ad networks to video content.
(Seriously, there isn’t a single part of BarBend Josh hasn’t improved in some capacity; he’s the most multi-talented digital pro I’ve ever met.)
Andrew Gutman joined as our Managing Editor and restructured our editorial team for greater scale. And Kenny and I redivided tasks in dual roles as President and CEO, respectively.
Crucially, we gave ourselves six months to reach true profitability. BarBend generated significant revenue, but we were still sipping from our seed capital to make up for the deficit. Fortunately, we hit our mark, and 2020 marked the company’s first truly profitable year. And it’s only grown from there.
Continued Growth: Getting Beyond Profitable
By the middle of 2021, business was on the up and up, with no end in sight. Our team continued to grow, eventually passing 10 full timers with nearly 100 part-time contributors. We also acquired BreakingMuscle.com, one of the internet’s early strength resources, and relaunched that site in 2022 as a complement to BarBend.com.
Our growth accelerated into 2022, and the year brought new highs for just about every metric imaginable: traffic, revenue, GMV, you name it. We had more visibility than ever, which kicked off a string of inbound inquiries about purchasing the company, some more serious than others.
Acquisition: How We Got Bought
The inquiry that really caught our attention was Pillar4 Media, a company Kenny, Joe, Josh, and I had an existing relationship with. Based in North Carolina, they’re a fast-growing portfolio of digital brands that connect consumers to the best products and resources across four key health and wellness categories: sleep, fitness, nutrition, and mental health.
We’d seen up close how Pillar4 accelerated growth after acquiring brands, with uncompromising attention to user experience. They understood our space and shared our belief that BarBend could expand beyond the niche to become THE next great brand in fitness. Instead of just buying BarBend/Breaking Muscle as assets, they wanted to build upon our staff and systems.
In addition, Pillar4 was a place our exec team was excited to work, with a culture we felt would seamlessly meld with BarBend’s.
In April 2023, we finalized Pillar4’s acquisition of BarBend/Breaking Muscle. We join a Pillar4 Fitness portfolio that did over $44,000,000 in Gross Merchandise Value in 2022. Combined, that creates a family of brands that will likely reach $100,000,000 GMV for 2023 on a run rate basis.
I’m biased, of course, but it’s a fantastic outcome for all involved. Our full team transitioned over to Pillar4. Our investors are ecstatic; a few have called me with literal tears of joy. And BarBend has more resources than ever as we unlock the next phase of improving lives through strength content and education.
BarBend has officially entered the big leagues. And I couldn’t be more excited to be along for the ride.
Moving Forward: What’s Next for BarBend
In the weeks since acquisition, remarkably little has changed for our team. They’re still producing the same high quality content, though the path to creating more and increasingly better content across written, video, podcasts, and newsletter is clearer than ever.
Our exec team is shifting a bit, and we’re all thrilled to continue with BarBend for the next phase of growth — which I have zero doubt will be the company’s biggest yet.
- My co-founder Kenny Kline moved to President of Fitness for Pillar4, overseeing growth and operations across the company’s fitness-related brands and partnerships
- Josh Pelletier moved from CMO to General Manager, assuming many of my former CEO responsibilities while heading up a variety of new initiatives (some of which I can’t publicize just yet!)
- I’m transitioning from CEO to Head of Brand, and my efforts will be focused on both internal and external PR, social, video, and partnerships to get the word out on new platforms
BarBend is really just getting warmed up. I’m incredibly thankful to the team at Pillar4 for recognizing not only what we’ve built, but how much bigger and more impactful it can be with the right support.
BarBend can, should, and will be the site of record for all things strength. Stay tuned.
Special Thanks
There’s no way I can properly thank everyone who supported us (and specifically me) over the past seven years, so preemptive apologies for leaving off some deserving names!
But in no particular order, I have to give special shouts to Jamie Wernet (my partner in life, who keeps me in one piece in so many ways), Alex Konrad, Tyler Hall, Alec Pinero, Adam Bornstein, Gabe Turner, Josh Kaplan, Kinsey Grant, Joel Palathinkal, Jeremy Siegel, Danny Lehr, Jenn Hirsch, Bo Babenko, Paul Adam Schaefer, Ben Fuller, Yasha Kahn, Chris Dolan, Denis Reno, Don Venterosa, Paige Doherty, Louie Catizone, Jordan Syatt, Adam Chaloeicheep, Phil Andrews (formerly CEO of USA Weightlifting, now CEO of USA Fencing), Jason Lucking, David Blair, Jonathan Goodman, Jared Prudoff-Smith, Justin Cordova, Kenny Santucci, Kelly & Juliet Starrett, Brooke Siem, Darren Coughlan, Paulie & Becca Steinman, Mike Graber, Alyssa Royse, Cheryl Haworth, Chad Vaughn, JP Nicoletta, Randy Shepherd, Suzy Sanchez, Logan Block, Curvel Baptiste, Spenser Mestel, Louis Amira, Roland Chang, Mike Flores, Jeff Ross, Todd Alexander, and Alesandra Woolley.
To everyone else who supported me — and there were so, so many — thank you!
The Timeline
