April 21st, 2025
One year post-acquisition, we’re still weird, still writing newsletters, and somehow doing it with a bigger team and even more enthusiasm. Here’s what we’ve learned.
Exactly one year ago, we did something that every indie project dreams about and secretly dreads: we got acquired. Really Good Emails officially hitched its weird little wagon to Beefree, a fast-growing SaaS company with great design sense and, thankfully, a high tolerance for nonsense.
Was it thrilling? Yes. Terrifying? Also yes. Like proposing marriage while skydiving.
We weren’t just worried about contracts and cap tables. We were worried about soul-loss. Would the quirks be scrubbed? Would the jokes be lawyered out of existence? Would our Terms of Service be... normal?
If you've ever wondered what it’s like to hand over your little internet project to a bigger and more complex company, let me be your tour guide. Spoiler: it’s not the end. It’s just weirder and more caffeinated on the other side.
But before I get to the good stuff, here’s the brutal truth: most acquisitions? They fail. Statistically, 70% to 90% of mergers and acquisitions crash and burn — like a badly timed CTA on a Black Friday email. Culture clashes. Overhyped synergy dreams. Poor integration. Think sad trombone, not a confetti cannon.
Let’s rewind. We figured merging with a public company (Beefree is a business unit of Growens, traded on the Italian stock exchange) meant we’d have to trade in our quirky vibes for sanitized LinkedIn-approved polish. You know, like suddenly replacing our punchlines with Q3 goals and quarterly synergy reports. But that didn’t happen.
Instead, Beefree doubled down on the weird. Our press release was part-acquisition news, part roast. Our updated terms of service email pointed out the newly added boring points that nobody would probably read. And when it came time for the Email Awards, the team showed up in greensuits. Like, full-body morph suits. In public. On camera. Voluntarily.
Turns out, we were wrong. The brand didn’t get diluted. It got more budget and more friends.
And it didn’t stop there:
One of the biggest things we gave up was control over Unspam, the event we started as a kind of offbeat conference for email nerds who hate traditional conferences. We used to do everything: plan, host, stress out, stress eat, order snacks. But it became clear we couldn’t juggle that and everything else going on. The Beefree community team took it over, and, honestly? They nailed it. They've cooked up smarter roundtables, better post-event engagement, and a vibe that feels fresh without scrapping what made it special. On top of that, Beefree went full-on Unspam mode, throwing multiple people at it, making it feel more special, growing our budget, and helping us sell out well in advance.
We also had fears. Big ones. Like: would RGE become a glorified email database farm for AI? Would it be left to wither while our new parent company chased shinier SaaS goals? But what actually happened was...the opposite. We got more developers. More Beefree marketers focused on RGE and a dedicated growth team for both brands. More investment went into expanding RGE’s impact into webinars and newly created, local Single Slice events.
Beefree hasn’t exported RGE’s user base and put them through some data enrichment tool to find “potential enterprise clients for Beefree.” They don’t mine our data for behaviors that they can exploit. The only thing they ask of us is to continue to be a source of inspiration and help people make better email decisions.
That doesn’t mean everything’s sunshine and HTML roses. Decision-making is slower. There are more cooks in the kitchen now. We can’t just whip out a new idea overnight and push it live. There’s process. There are meetings. Sometimes there are three meetings about the meeting.
And as for me? I thought I’d spend the same amount of time on RGE as I always had. Joke’s on me. My new role at Beefree is way bigger than I anticipated. It eats up more time, and I’m not able to get as playful with RGE as I used to. That said, I still get to write the newsletter (hi 👋), and we have a team now. A real one. With ideas. And systems. It’s not just Matt and I anymore yelling across Slack. Like this recent email we sent out on April Fools.
People often assume acquisitions are clean, quick transactions. They are not. This took over a year to close. And we’re still navigating the dance of "where does RGE end and Beefree begin?" Would I do it again? Yes. But I’d timebox the acquisition process to avoid the year-long purgatory. And I’d go in knowing that it’s less of a handoff and more of a slow merge.
But we got lucky. Or maybe we just picked the right weirdos to partner with. Beefree didn’t squash our brand. They boosted it. They made Pro features free. They gave us a bigger team. They invested in events. They helped us become more international with a team in Europe. They made "Be Really Good" t-shirts and passed them out at our most recent retreat. I mean, come on.
The truth is, not all acquisitions are good. (Just look at what happened to Litmus.) We could’ve gone that route too. We turned down a bigger offer because it didn’t align with our ethics. That buyer wanted to sell off the events, mine the data, and spin RGE into something transactional and soulless. Beefree, on the other hand, showed their cards early: they care about creativity and community. They even hired community folks before the acquisition was finalized.
So, what’s it really like to be acquired without losing your soul? It’s a little messy. A little bureaucratic. Surprisingly heartwarming. And still full of jokes.
If you’re thinking about selling, here’s my advice: Find a company that loves your thing for the same reasons you do. Not because it looks good on a slide deck. But because it’s weird, and special, and they want to make it even better. And then hang on. The next chapter is going to be a ride in ways you can’t even predict.
We’re still figuring it out. But hey — at least we’re doing it in a greensuit.
Six months ago, we sold ReallyGoodEmails.com after a decade of building it from the ground up. Here’s a peek behind the curtain and a rundown of the top 10 things I wish I had known when we first started ReallyGoodEmails. Hopefully, these will save you a few sleepless nights if you're building something similar.
Wondering what is going on in Email? We surveyed thousands of people in email to get their outlook, skills, teams, history, and strategies.
Dive into the world of unmatched copywriting mastery, handpicked articles, and insider tips & tricks that elevate your writing game. Subscribe now for your weekly dose of inspiration and expertise.
