How this subscription box company sold for $19M — and why the founders bought it back

For many founders, selling a company is a bittersweet feat.

Years of hard work have literally paid off. At the same time, it’s often difficult to part ways with a business and a team you likely care a lot about.

But what happens when the opportunity arises to buy the company back?

That’s exactly what happened for the founders of BattlBox Group, an expert outdoor and survival gear company that sells subscription boxes. After selling the company in 2021 for about $19 million, they reacquired it less than two years later at a fraction of the price.

This story has a lot of moving pieces. Here’s how the deal(s) went down.

Inside BattlBox: How the business sold once, then again

In 2015, John Roman was a market manager for BullsEye Telecom in Atlanta. On the side, he made small investments — $10,000 or less — in startups, he shared on The Retail Adventure Podcast.

One of those companies was BattlBox, co-founded by Daniel Dabbs (CEO) and Patrick Kelley (COO). Roman invested in BattlBox shortly after it launched in 2015 and spent a few hours each month advising as a board member. But his involvement quickly grew, and about a year later, he joined the team full time as a co-founder and CMO.

Even in the early days, BattlBox’s monthly subscription box made up a large portion of its revenue. The box is packed with quality outdoor and survival gear — from emergency supplies to hiking and camping essentials. Subscribers could choose between different tiers priced from ranging from $24.99 to $149.99 a month.

The goal was to grow BattlBox — then use it as a playbook to launch more subscription boxes, Roman shared on Entrepreneurs Exposed. As a result, BattlBox Group created two more subscription boxes: a barbeque box and SpartanCarton, a fitness box.

But they couldn’t get either to pass “proof of concept,” which Roman said he considered 1,000 subscribers, so they sold both to a Toronto company specializing in “guy commerce.” That company’s flagship brand was Carnivore Club, a cured meat-of-the-month club.

In 2019, Carnivore Club decided to pull out of commerce, so they sold off their brands, and BattlBox Group acquired Carnivore Club.

“It was a similar business model, and we knew we could increase efficiencies and grow it as well,” Roman told They Got Acquired, noting the brand shared warehouse space, a marketing team and more with BattlBox.

How BattlBox grew outside the (subscription) box — and landed a Netflix show

Roman wanted BattlBox to be more than a subscription box. He also wanted to build a community of outdoor enthusiasts and survivalists.

Toward the end of 2016, the team made a key hire: Brandon Currin, VP of content marketing. The BattlBox team knew Currin through his YouTube channel, where he posted monthly BattlBox reviews as a customer.

With Currin on board, BattlBox grew its social media following, which was essential to the brand’s growth, Roman told They Got Acquired.

BattlBox also had a Reddit-style bulletin board for community members, which has since been converted to a Facebook group.

BattlBox’s website, which Roman said got around 250,000 monthly pageviews in 2021, boasts a robust archive of articles. Additionally, BattlBox had around 500,000 email subscribers.

“A lot of our top-of-funnel is organic,” Roman said on the Adventure Retail podcast. “They come in organically through YouTube or TikTok or other social channels, and they subscribe to our email. They follow us and watch our videos, and eventually, the advertising does work.”

In 2020, BattlBox took its content strategy to the next level with a Netflix show, “Southern Survival.”

How’d that come about? BattlBox was approached by High Noon Entertainment (think: “Cake Boss” and “Fixer Upper”) in 2017. High Noon Entertainment then pitched the show to the History Channel, who passed on it.

In 2019, High Noon Entertainment tried again, pitching the show to Netflix, which gave it a green light. Throughout the eight-episode series, the BattlBox crew tested various products, from vehicle escape tools to survival knives.

The pandemic had already spurred the company’s growth in early 2020 like it did for many direct-to-consumer brands, and the Netflix show “just further shot the hockey stick growth up,” Roman said.

As a result, in 2021, BattlBox shipped out around 15,000 orders a month, with 40 employees. The group’s revenue reached $23 million, with an adjusted EBITDA of about $3.3 million.

Selling Battlbox: Finding a buyer who doubled as a partner

Alongside its growth, the BattlBox founders began looking for a buyer in 2021.

“One of the partners was checked out and wanted to retire,” Roman told They Got Acquired. “It did not make sense to buy them out on the 6x EBITDA valuation we all agreed the business was worth. Instead, we needed to find a buyer that we viewed as a partner.”

The team worked with multiple M&A advisors, but it was Tim Keenan at Ocean Bridge Capital whose list of potential buyers included EMERGE Commerce. EMERGE is a Canada-based e-commerce holding company that acquires and operates niche consumer brands, like Just Golf Stuff.

Although BattlBox received higher offers from private equity firms, “it was just clear they weren’t a partnership,” Roman explained on the Entrepreneurs Exposed podcast. “With EMERGE, they spoke the same language. They didn’t want to change the business fundamentally. They just wanted to be on the sidelines and provide assistance and synergies.”

EMERGE purchased both brands, BattlBox and Carnivore Club, under BattlBox Group, in October 2021. The deal totaled $18.95 million and included $10.25 million cash at closing, plus $1.5 million deferred cash, payable over three years.

Additionally, the two parties agreed on an earn-out of up to $7.2 million based on performance over three years, including up to $1.2 million in cash and $1.2 million in shares each year.

“It was an absolute process — about six months from LOI to deal closing,” Roman told They Got Acquired. “A big time suck was having our financials audited.”

Now, he said, when running other businesses, he always maintains audited financials.

An unexpected twist: Buying BattlBox back

After the acquisition, BattlBox operated as an independent business unit with Roman as CEO and Kelley as COO. But less than two years later, in April 2023, the co-founders had the opportunity to buy BattlBox back.

“Our parent company was working down some debt and needed cash, and we saw an opportunity to get the business back at a discount from what we sold it for,” Roman told They Got Acquired.

Roman and Kelley reacquired BattlBox Group — this time without Carnivore Club — for $6 million, about one-third of what EMERGE paid for both brands in 2021. Richard Toms, CFO, also became an equal partner.

“I think if we wouldn’t have bought it, someone else would have,” Roman speculated on Entrepreneurs Exposed. “Where would the brand be? It might be dead.”

Today, BattlBox is back in growth mode. The team has continued to use content to build brand reach. That includes reaching 1 million followers on TikTok, Roman shared on his blog Online Queso.