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Lisa Rowan

Lisa Rowan

Reporter

Lisa Rowan is a reporter and editor based in St. Petersburg, Florida. Over two decades in the news business, her work covering business and finance has appeared in Forbes Advisor, Lifehacker, The Penny Hoarder, and various other local and national publications. She has also served as a writer for the national office of SCORE business mentoring, and she once owned a vintage clothing shop in Washington, D.C. Since 2014, Lisa has co-hosted Pop Fashion, a podcast about the business of fashion and style.

Lisa is a graduate of the University of Maryland and Georgetown University.

Software

A short, to-the-point email led to the sale of this blockchain data company

Jonathan Knegtel’s short and sweet email about his startup, Blockdata, led to a sale to CB Insights within three months.

Agency

Marketing agency founder grew to $28 million revenue before selling majority stake

Robert Glazer’s affiliate marketing firm, Acceleration Partners, grew steadily for over 10 years. He sold a majority stake to a private equity firm in part to minimize his personal risk.

Platform

He created a platform for influencers to advise fans, then sold after pandemic boom

When Adam Frank suddenly found himself with thousands of Instagram followers, he created Wisio to monetize his audience.

Agency

How this founder’s immersion in PPC advertising turned into a $3.25M sale

How much of this $3.25 million deal was paid up front vs. how much was paid in stock? Here’s the breakdown, plus who bought the company.

Agency

How a freelance marketer landed atop search results, which helped him grow and sell his agency

Brett Farmiloe started offering SEO services to businesses as a freelancer. As its name recognition grew, Markitors expanded — and eventually sold to another agency.

Software

This couple built a food blogging suite from scratch, before selling off a few slices

Bjork Ostrom started making software tools for bloggers after his wife Lindsay’s food blog took off. But along the way, their company has parted ways with a few of them.

Content

She hired a CEO to strengthen her online training business, then sold for $4.5M

Caitlin Pyle’s “weekend project” teaching others how to proofread documents turned into a training hub packed with courses and e-books. But as the business grew, her passions evolved.

A woman sits on the edge of a gray couch with her arms crossed, giving a closed smile at the camera.
Platform

Keeping employees happy is big business: How this HR software sold for $9.1 million

David Niu created TINYpulse after getting burned out by his previous startups. During the pandemic, its employee surveys became critical for large companies trying to retain workers.

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