He Sold his WP Themes Store for $500,000

Mike McAlister started Array Themes in 2012 as a solo founder looking to turn his design skills into WordPress themes he could sell to a wider audience.

💬 He shares in a recent interview….

This was really early on in the days of WordPress, so templates weren’t nearly as commonplace as they are now. It was a burgeoning niche, and I happened to get in at a great time when my designs could have a widespread impact.

Mike intentionally kept Array Themes small, with just himself and one contractor handling all operations and development.

Finding ways to scale the operation while also remaining a purposefully small-scale operation was challenging. I didn’t have ambitions of creating a full-blown company, so I found creative ways to scale to healthy 6-figure revenue with as much autonomy as possible

According to the interview…

McAlister’s themes, which clients paid for with a yearly fee, earned the company monthly recurring revenue in the $20,000-$40,000 range and attracted attention from potential acquirers.

👉 Click here to see one of the themes he was selling back in 2017. You could buy just the theme for $49 or get access to all themes for $89/year.

Although he regularly received acquisition offers, Mike wasn’t interested in selling until he was approached by Brian Gardner from WP Engine in 2018…

This was also a unique opportunity for me to start fresh and focus on crafting products with a stellar team. I wanted a new challenge.

WP Engine acquired Array Themes (along with Atomic Blocks) for “mid-6 figures”… so around $500,000 💰

Reading Mike’s story, I can’t help but think of similar opportunities that might exist today.

He started creating WordPress themes…

… really early on in the days of WordPress…  It was a burgeoning niche, and I happened to get in at a great time

Funnily enough, Google Trends shows that search traffic for WordPress themes was already trending down by 2012 📉

Whereas traffic for the following might still be on the rise…

• Shopify templates
• Webflow templates
• Capcut templates
• Notion templates
• Canva templates

🤔

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