I bought out my business partner. Here’s why and what’s next.

The very last thing I did in 2024 was buy out my longtime business partner, Walter Chen. As you might imagine, there’s a backstory.

Way back in the summer of 2019, I’d been running a Slack group with an unbelievably bad name (“Content Marketing Career Growth”) that was gaining a little traction. I’d started it on a whim but quickly saw that people wanted a space to connect without the likes, feeds, and impressions that incentivize junk posting on social media.

I was happy enough to run it as a side project until my then-boss Walter Chen raised the idea that maybe it could be a business of its own. Add a job board, create a few courses, maybe some events. Why not?

The perfect time to launch a business

I’d had the itch to start a business for as long as I could remember, and this felt like the perfect idea and time. Walter not only encouraged me to do it—and therefore leave my job running growth for Animalz—but offered to help me fund it.

We came up with what I felt was the perfect situation. Walter would fund it for one year, and I’d aim to get profitable by then. I’d still take a salary, keep our expenses minimal, and use that time to see if I could turn the Slack group into my living.

I left Animalz, renamed the community to Superpath, and started working on it full-time in June 2020. We started making some money right away and just barely eked out a profit in month 12. We made $11,756 in May 2021 and $82,592 in the first 12 months. We weren’t profitable but were clearly trending in the right direction and I felt we’d proved that Superpath was a viable business.

The business has had its ups and downs since then. Walter and I have had our ups and downs too. Like any relationship, we disagree sometimes. Occasionally we have it out.

This came to a head in fall 2023. I scheduled a meeting and spent 30 minutes telling him all the reasons I was frustrated with him. What a relief to get all that off my chest!

He listened patiently. And when I was done, he said, “Okay, now my turn.” He provided a list of painfully accurate examples of all the ways that I was failing (and in some cases, not even trying) to improve the problems that I so often complained to him about. This was unexpected and humbling. It was a reminder that relationships always cut both ways, and gave me a chance to examine how my own work was helping or hurting the business.

One thing I’ve always appreciated about Walter is that he never sugarcoats things. Would you rather have a business partner who says, “You’re doing great, just keep going!” or one who says, “Dude, stop whining and fix it.”

I’ll take the latter any day.

Reassessing the business

2023 was a difficult year for Superpath. I thought about closing the doors many times. And if the job market had been even halfway decent, I might have done it.

Continuing to work on Superpath was the best move, and I’m glad I didn’t quit. 2024 was better. I stabilized and simplified the business. Revenue is down slightly, but we finished the year profitable and got back into the routine of paying ourselves quarterly dividends.

With some room to breathe, Walter and I were able to talk about the future of the business. We landed on a few things:

• The business was struggling to support two people. Even though Walter wasn’t taking a salary, the dividends were relatively small. And I wasn’t willing to reduce my salary, which is far and away our largest expense.
• We had different ideas about where to go from here. Go hard on growth? Aim to make it a true lifestyle business? Get a job and hire someone else to run it?
• We were each a little fatigued of the other. We’d been working together since 2016, and perhaps it was time for a break. It was nice to be able to admit this in an amicable way, and it opened the door for a conversation about going our separate ways.

We each put our thoughts into a document and scheduled time to talk it out. Ultimately, we agreed that I would buy him out. We settled on terms, and I hired a lawyer to formalize it. We signed the deal on December 30, 2024.

Change is hard

A buyout is harder than I expected. The details of the deal were relatively simple and this was (and still is) an amicable relationship, but there’s still a lot of emotion attached to it. Superpath has become a hugely important part of my life’s work, and Walter’s influence has forever changed the way I think about business.

The buyout gave each of us something we wanted. And the end of this partnership actually frees us up to be friends without the complicating factor of owning a business together. We’re going skiing together in a few weeks.

While I’m in a reflective mood, there are some very specific things I’d like to thank Walter for:

• For believing in me. My own boss told me to leave my job at his company and he’d pay me to do it. I don’t struggle with self doubt or imposter syndrome, but starting a business is intimidating. It was empowering to have his confidence in me.

• For teaching me that long-term thinking is a competitive advantage. Walter told me this at the very beginning. Build a business you like running, and you’ll be able to do it long enough to make it successful.
• For showing me the art of disagreement. Smart people respectfully disagreeing is a wonderful thing because it pushes each to think harder about their position and consider why another smart person has a different one. I’d never experienced this in a workplace, and Walter made it a staple of our communication.
• For pushing me. One of the hardest things about running a business mostly alone is that I don’t have accountability. Walter provided that and always pushed me to think about a better version of the business and my role in it.

Walter and I worked together for nine years, which is just over half of my career so far. He’s the single most influential person in my professional life, and I’m immensely grateful for the lessons, encouragement, and friendship.

So, now what?

The biggest change for me is mindset. Walter was my boss for four years before Superpath and I struggled to evolve away from that. I sometimes shifted blame to him in the way a disgruntled employee might. I sometimes deferred decisions to him or complained about things that were fully in my control.

That’s not CEO behavior. I knew it at the time, but now, without that dynamic, success and happiness are solely my responsibility. Only a few days into this, I’m already thinking and working very differently.

There’s still work to do related to the buyout, most of which is behind the scenes. I have to make changes with our bank, Stripe, Ramp, etc. My CPA is helping me change the way I pay myself. My wife is getting involved as my new CFO to help manage the finances (she handles this for the household and is much better at it than me). The lawyer suggested that I change Superpath from a Wyoming C Corp to a Colorado LLC, so I’m exploring that too. No one will see this work, but it’s all part of the infrastructure that allows the business to run smoothly.

I’m also auditing the entire business. I have a massive document where I’m reviewing every single part of the business. In some cases, I’m discovering back-office stuff that needs to change. In others, I’m finding ways that the customer experience can be improved. Across the board, I’m uncovering ways to change our offerings to be both more valuable to customers and more profitable for us.

This has needed to happen for a while and I plan to write all about how I conducted the audit, what I found, what changes I made, etc. I’m having fun doing it, and it’s fueling a ton of excitement for 2025.

House money

On New Year’s Eve, my wife and I gathered with some friends. We went around the table, each sharing our mantra for 2025. Mine is “house money.”

I got everything I wanted in 2024. My son was born in January, I achieved a goal to get a Boston Marathon qualifier, I bought Superpath, plus so many other smaller moments. It was an awesome year.

So in 2025, I’m playing with house money. This may sound cocky, but I don’t mean it that way. I’m humbled and grateful to have had the year that I did. In theory, there’s more pressure on Superpath now that I’ve put up a serious chunk of money to own it, but I don’t feel it.

Instead, I feel at ease. I feel in control of my own destiny. I feel confident. I’m excited. I’m eager to improve the business, fired up to get sh*t done and grateful for the opportunity to keep going.

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