How she sold a community company for $22M – then bought the company back

In 2016, Jaclyn Johnson launched Create & Cultivate, a community for women professionals and entrepreneurs that focused on in-person events.

But when the spread of COVID-19 pushed everyone online, Johnson quickly pivoted to virtual events. This move allowed the bootstrapped company to continue to grow — and Johnson sold a majority stake in 2021 for $22 million.

But the story doesn’t stop there. In 2023, Johnson bought the company back. Here’s how she did it.

Create & Cultivate’s pivot from in-person to virtual events

Create & Cultivate isn’t Johnson’s first startup — or even sale. She sold her bootstrapped marketing agency, No Subject, in 2016 for 7 figures, she shared on the Money Wise podcast. She then invested $50,000 from that sale into Create & Cultivate, and a partner put in $250,000.

Despite COVID forcing Create & Cultivate to cancel in-person events, the Los Angeles-based company reached 1 million women monthly through online platforms and saw 7-figure profitability in 2020, Johnson said.

“We have always had a content piece of the business, but I would say about 70% of our revenue was events, and 30% digital products and services,” Johnson told Forbes. “In 2020, we simply flipped those numbers and were able to move quickly because we had the infrastructure and teams in place to make it happen.”

Programming for a virtual audience was untapped — but not a new idea for Create & Cultivate. They launched a podcast, WorkParty, in 2018, then a membership club in 2019, and ramped up e-commerce offerings before the pandemic.

Johnson credited the company’s mission-driven approach to serving career women as the key to retaining brand sponsorships such as Mastercard, Madewell, Apple TV and Amazon. These relationships were built over the years, she told Forbes, and when the pandemic hit, many sponsors prioritized supporting women-owned small businesses like Create & Cultivate.

By March 2021, the company had grown to 17 employees.

Create & Cultivate’s $22 million sale

Create & Cultivate was acquired by private equity firm Corridor Capital for $22 million in March 2021. Johnson worked with financial advisory firm Access Media Advisory for the acquisition, which specializes in media and communications companies.

Johnson described selling the company as “challenging,” given it was an events-focused business amid a global pandemic, she told They Got Acquired. Even so, her brand thrived digitally when similar companies failed because they were unable to capitalize on the online experience.

Johnson continued to serve as Create & Cultivate’s CEO until January 2022, according to her LinkedIn profile. Then, in April 2022, Kate Spies was tapped as the new CEO, according to WWD (Women’s Wear Daily). Johnson became  vice chair of the company.

How Johnson bought back her majority stake — for less

After Create & Cultivate’s sale, Johnson’s life took a “sharp right turn” in late 2022.

“I was very burned out and exhausted,” she shared on the Moneywise podcast. “I wasn’t enjoying the work I was doing, I got divorced.”

She needed a break, and for the majority of 2023, she spent more time traveling, doing yoga and focusing more on her life than her career.

After her year of reset, the opportunity to buy back Create & Cultivate arose. Johnson was still a vice chair at the company, and with COVID-19 in the rearview, the new owners were struggling to transition back to in-person events.

Create & Cultivate’s revenue had dropped from $14 million in 2019 to $4.7 million in 2022 and $5 million in 2023, CNBC reported. Its valuation had dropped to $8 million, according to a Forbes estimate shared by the Los Angeles Business Journal.

But Johnson was ready to jump back in — and she set out to buy back her majority stake.

“Obviously private equity didn’t love falling back to the founders that they bought it from,” she shared.

After a long back-and-forth, Johnson and her new business partner Marina Middleton bought back equal stakes of majority ownership at the end of 2023 — and they paid less than the 2021 sale price, she shared.

This time around, Johnson was committed to implementing more boundaries and operators to handle the day-to-day, including bringing on Middleton. The two had a new plan for events: to combine Johnson’s experience with large-scale events with Middleton’s expertise in bespoke, tailored events, Johnson told CNBC.

For example, in July 2025, around 2,000 people attended a sold-out Create & Cultivate festival in downtown LA, featuring keynotes from Ciara, Ayesha Curry and Brittany Snow, CNBC reported.

“You don’t want to do things the exact same way you did them before,” Johnson said. “We’re thrilled to come out swinging.”