I Sold My Company. Then I Bought It Back.

Two and a half years ago, I made a significant decision: I sold BestSelf to private equity. My daughter was just six months old when the deal closed, and to be honest, as a postpartum mother, I desperately needed to breathe. I had even filmed a PayPal commercial five days after an emergency C-section, enduring two layers of Spanx, pain medication, and a camera-ready smile. Standing there, pretending everything was perfect while my incision throbbed, I knew something had to give.

For seven years, I had poured every ounce of myself into BestSelf. But here’s the truth: I had no idea what I was doing. I’d never managed a team before, and I didn’t even realize I had ADHD until a year after launching. I was learning how to run a company by making every possible mistake.

At some point, I fell into a common trap: chasing growth for growth’s sake, obsessing over top-line revenue, and building a business that looked successful on the outside but was slowly consuming me from within.

So, when private equity came calling, I said yes. I protected my team with a six-month guarantee, bonuses, and raises. Yet, to my dismay, the PE firm—new to e-commerce and quickly realizing it wasn’t their industry—let everyone go after six months anyway.

Then, in December 2023, they called again. They were exiting e-commerce entirely and liquidating the brands they had acquired. Did I want BestSelf back?

I spent three days journaling, asking myself one pivotal question: What kind of company do I actually want to run?

Because I had seen the other side. The impressive revenue numbers, the “successful” exit. And it wasn’t as exciting as I’d imagined.

I still loved the brand. I still believed in the products. But this time, I wanted something profoundly different.

The Real Lesson: Building for Purpose, Not Proof

The first time I built BestSelf, I was trying to prove something. Not to investors—we were bootstrapped. But to myself. To everyone who had ever doubted me. To that persistent voice in my head that whispered I wasn’t enough.

My insecurity was so profound that I allowed the business to become my entire identity. Every revenue milestone was validation; every setback felt like a personal failure. I was using BestSelf to fill a void that no amount of external success could ever truly satisfy.

But when you’re granted a second chance, a powerful realization emerges: The best businesses aren’t built to prove anything. They’re built to solve something.

This time, I’m building differently. It’s a “problem first, product maybe” approach.

If I can help you solve a problem with content—great, here’s a newsletter. With software—cool, here’s an app. With a physical tool—awesome, here’s something tangible. But the solution always comes after a deep understanding of the problem.

Because here’s what I genuinely want: to make your life just a tiny bit better every day. Whether that means:

• Helping you be more focused when your ADHD brain has other plans.
• Guiding you to be intentional with your time when everything feels urgent.
• Supporting you in being less controlled by your phone (because, let’s be honest, we’re all struggling with this).
• Creating space for whatever your version of your best self looks like.

Not my version. Not some influencer’s version. Yours.

Your Purpose-Driven Audit

Set a timer and answer these three questions without editing. Use a tool like Unfiltered.page if you want to capture your raw thoughts:

1. If I stopped chasing other people’s metrics of success, what would I actually want to build/do/create?
2. What am I currently doing because I think I “should” versus what I actually want?
3. What would change if I built my life to fulfill me instead of prove something?

Here’s Where You Come In

When I bought BestSelf back in February 2024, I initiated a fundamental shift. We are no longer merely a product company that happens to have customers. We are a community of individuals figuring out how to live better, and sometimes, that journey involves creating products.

However, I cannot solve problems I don’t understand. The old me would have assumed I knew what you needed because I struggled with similar issues. The new me knows better.

So, I’m asking you directly:

• What’s the thing that drives you crazy every single day?
• What problem have you tried to solve, but nothing quite works?
• Where does digital overwhelm hit you the hardest?
• What would make your tomorrow even 1% better than today?

I’ve created a short survey (literally 3 minutes, I timed it) because your answers will shape everything we do next. Perhaps it’s content. Perhaps it’s an app. Perhaps it’s something that doesn’t even exist yet. But it all begins with truly understanding what you need.

Take the 3-Minute Survey - Help Shape BestSelf’s Future

(And yes, you’ll receive a $5 gift card for your time—but honestly, your insights are worth far more than that to me.)

This isn’t just market research. This is me, genuinely asking you: How can I help?

🤔 Reflection Prompt

"What would change if you built your life/work/relationships to fulfill you instead of proving something?"

📚 Reading Corner: I’ve been revisiting "The Courage to Be Disliked"

Particularly this quote: "The courage to be happy also includes the courage to be disliked. When you have gained that courage, your interpersonal relationships will all at once change into things of lightness."

Building from joy instead of insecurity requires accepting that not everyone will understand your choices. And that’s perfectly okay.

🔍 Cool Find: The coolest thing I’ve discovered this week? Your responses to the survey. Someone wrote, "I just need someone to tell me I’m not behind," and I literally screenshotted it for my wall. Your struggles become our next solutions. That’s how this works now.

Haven’t taken the survey yet? Add your voice here - 3 minutes

Thank you for being here for BestSelf’s second act. Let’s build something amazing together.

Cheers,
Cathryn