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The Exit - Presented By Flippa

Parenting, Pivots, and a $40M Disney Deal: Rufus Griscom’s Exit Story

The Exit - Presented By Flippa

The Exit - Presented By Flippa

Technology

5.0420 Ratings

🗓️ 29 September 2025

⏱️ 33 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Want a quick estimate of how much your business is worth? With our free valuation calculator, answer a few questions about your business, and you’ll get an immediate estimate of the value of your business. You might be surprised by how much you can get for it: https://flippa.com/exit -- In this episode of The Exit, Rufus Griscom, co-founder of Nerve, Babble, and Next Big Idea Club, shares his journey from book editor to serial entrepreneur with three startups and a blockbuster exit to Disney. Rufus launched Nerve.com in the late ’90s, followed by spin-offs that were culturally significant but financially challenging. Those hard lessons shaped his disciplined approach to Babble, the parenting platform he built with his wife in 2007. Babble tapped into the emerging mom-blogging movement, growing to 10M monthly uniques and a $10M revenue run rate, becoming the leading parenting site of its time. Determined to secure a strong outcome, Rufus identified five likely acquirers early and built trust over years, consistently hitting milestones and proving growth. That strategy paid off when Disney acquired Babble for a reported $40M, after Rufus successfully negotiated a 25% bump over their initial offer and minimized reliance on earnouts. He emphasizes selling on momentum, building relationships with the right stakeholders, and being radically honest about challenges. Today, Rufus runs the Next Big Idea Club with Malcolm Gladwell, Adam Grant, Susan Cain, and Daniel Pink, delivering the most important new ideas to a fast-changing world. -- Rufus Griscom is a serial entrepreneur and media innovator who has founded and scaled multiple influential companies at the intersection of culture and technology. He launched Nerve.com in 1997, pioneering frank conversations about relationships and culture, before selling it in 2007. He went on to co-found Babble, a groundbreaking parenting platform acquired by Disney in 2011, where he continued as VP of Media. Today, he is the founder and CEO of The Next Big Idea Club, a learning platform and book club featuring thought leaders like Malcolm Gladwell, Susan Cain, Adam Grant, and Daniel Pink, dedicated to spreading transformative ideas. Widely recognized for his TED Talks and writing, Griscom brings decades of experience building communities, driving acquisitions, and shaping how big ideas reach the world. Website - https://nextbigideaclub.com/ -- The Exit—Presented By Flippa: A 30-minute podcast featuring expert entrepreneurs who have been there and done it. The Exit talks to operators who have bought and sold a business. You’ll learn how they did it, why they did it, and get exposure to the world of exits, a world occupied by a small few, but accessible to many. To listen to the podcast or get daily listing updates, click on flippa.com/the-exit-podcast/

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0

Before we get into the exit today, I want to talk about the certified M&A advisors that are on

0:05.7

Flippa. If you are an operator right now running a business and you're thinking about exiting,

0:10.8

you are going to want to get a free online business valuation on the exit landing page.

0:16.7

Without a doubt, it is the smartest thing you can do to start a process and get yourself organized.

0:23.0

So you're going to go to the URL, flippa.com, slash exit, to check out more, and let's jump into

0:28.1

the interview.

0:29.3

Below and welcome to the exit presented by Flipup, the number one platform to buy and sell online

0:34.2

businesses.

0:35.2

Flipa manages over a billion in deal value annually and combines

0:39.4

expert buy and sell side advisory with its market leading valuation tool, deal room,

0:43.9

off market offering, market insights, an AI-based deal-by-deal matching engine. Now for the exit.

0:50.9

The exit is a 30-minute podcast featuring awesome entrepreneurs who have been there and they

0:54.8

have done it. The exit talks to operators who have bought and sold businesses of all different sizes.

1:00.3

You learn how they did it, why they did it, and get exposure to the world of exits. It's a world

1:05.1

occupied by a small few, but accessible to many. On this episode of the exit, I sit down with

1:10.4

Rufus Griscom,

1:11.8

and he was the founder of a company called Babel.com that was acquired by Disney.

1:18.0

Babel was a parenting blog that Disney acquired for reportedly a $40 million exit.

1:24.5

And this wasn't Rufus's first venture.

1:27.1

This was one of, I believe, three leading up to this exit. And this wasn't Rufus's first venture. This was

1:27.5

one of, I believe, three

1:29.5

leading up to this exit.

...

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