Michał Suski built Surfer SEO from a side project in 2017 to $13M ARR — bootstrapped, without VC money, with under $1M in total marketing spend. By 2025, the company had been flat on revenue for two years, was carrying debt from a co-founder buyout, and sold to Positive Group in a SaaS market where multiples had dropped sharply from their 2021 peak. This is his first public conversation on the acquisition.

In this episode, Michał walks through the internal dynamics that forced the sale: the co-founder disagreement that split the founding team, the debt the remaining partners took on to buy him out, and why they were eventually looking for an acquirer rather than a VC round. He breaks down what preparing a company for sale actually involves when you've run on gentleman agreements and have two aircraft on the balance sheet, why the due diligence process took over a year, and how you structure a deal that works for five founders who each have a different idea of what the company is worth.

He also covers what he would have done differently — specifically, why selling three years earlier at the growth peak would have returned far more per share, and why they didn't. Michał Suski is one of the most recognised figures in the SEO software space, with Surfer used by 150,000 active users across 12,000 paying customers. This is not a success story told from a stage. It's a working account of what bootstrapped exits actually look like when circumstances force your hand.