How a 7-Figure Women's Community Sold to One of Its Members—and Completely Rewrote the Acquisition Playbook
- Erin Greenawald
- 14 hours ago
- 7 min read
Updated: 14 minutes ago
When Gesche Haas sat down with Christina Salerno on November 5, 2025, she wasn't sure she was selling her company.
She and her husband had started trying for a third baby that September. Haas had told herself that if the pregnancy happened, she'd consider selling Dreamers & Doers, but only to someone she'd trust to steward it.
It wouldn't be her first time entertaining the idea. In 2022, she’d received two separate acquisition offers and turned both down.
Selling wasn't just a business decision, because Dreamers & Doers wasn't just a company. It was the highly curated female founders' community Haas had spent more than a decade building: a paid membership built around PR visibility and entrepreneurial growth, one that's put thousands of women in the spotlight, and one of the few women-led, bootstrapped businesses to run profitably for over ten years and reach seven-figure ARR. Whoever stepped in would not only inherit a thriving business, but also something personal.
When Haas thought about who that someone could be, one name came to mind immediately: Christina Salerno, a serial entrepreneur, a longtime Dreamers & Doers member, and Haas's trusted advisor and "CEO whisperer." Realizing how strong the fit could be, Haas reached out in October to schedule a light, informal conversation. Just in case.
In that first meeting, Salerno was excited by the possibility, but cautious. She asked Haas directly: Would you sell if you don't have another baby?
Haas said no.
But raising the topic had opened the floodgates. The two of them couldn't stop talking. The conversations went deeper than either expected: about how each of them was wired, what they wanted from the next chapter of their lives, financial situations, limiting beliefs, the kinds of things people don't usually share in a business negotiation. Because, as Haas and Salerno quickly learned, buying and selling a company is deeply personal.
Ultimately, that exploratory conversation became an acquisition. On June 5, 2026, Dreamers & Doers was acquired by Magical Teams, the operations consulting firm Salerno founded and runs.
But what’s unique about this story isn't the acquisition itself. It's how the deal happened. And what it suggests about the way business transactions can look when the people involved are working together, not against each other.
An Anti-Negotiation, Built on a Decade of Trust
Salerno wasn't a stranger walking through the door.
She has been a Dreamers & Doers member for over a decade, which isn't unusual, as a substantial portion of the community has been part of it for half a decade or more. "Dreamers & Doers is the longest community I've ever been part of," Salerno says. "I've changed a lot in over a decade. Different chapters, different priorities, different versions of me. And the community has been there through all of it. What's kept me is who's in it. It's been my professional community, my mastermind, and somewhere along the way, my friend group. That combination is rare."
Five years ago, when Dreamers & Doers was hiring a Head of Community, Salerno reached out and offered to help, pro bono, because she loved the community so much. On their first call, Haas realized she didn't want free help from Salerno. She wanted to hire her.
Salerno ended up leading nearly every hire at Dreamers & Doers from then on.
"She became my CEO whisperer," Haas says. "The person I'd voice-memo at midnight when I didn't know how to handle something operationally or with the team."
So when Haas reached out, what followed didn't look like most acquisition conversations. There was no letter of intent. The purchase agreement wasn't drafted until financing was secured. Salerno didn't formally engage her lawyer until later in the process.
"Between the trust we'd built over years and how well I already knew the business from the inside, this approach felt right for us,” she shares. (Although she’s quick to add: “We'd never encourage others to skip these steps without that foundation, though. The standard structure exists for good reasons.")
Every decision that could have felt adversarial felt collaborative instead. Haas wanted the valuation to be fair while reflecting the brand strength Dreamers & Doers had built, without trying to extract the absolute highest number possible, because she cared about setting Salerno up for success. Salerno, meanwhile, was equally focused on being generous as a buyer, given what Haas had spent over a decade building.
"Most deals get structured around extracting maximum value for yourself," Haas says. "On the flip side, ours was structured around mutual care, respect, and what's best for the business, which is how we both already run our companies.”
People may call that soft, she noted, but to her the approach was smart. “The cutthroat approach wastes resources, leaves the actual business worse off, and often kills the deal entirely. Ours closed, and the process itself has been one of the best experiences of my life. I think this is a distinctly female way of doing business. I also think it's just the better way."
In the end, the two reached a deal in the seven figures. But the founders also built in a contingency: if the deal hadn't closed, Salerno would have joined Dreamers & Doers as its COO. That arrangement let her pour into the team and members through the limbo period (building relationships, sharing context, immersing herself in the business) without it feeling purely speculative.
Photos of Dreamers & Doers gatherings over the years
Why This Partner, Why Now
Looking back on her previous acquisition offers, Haas says the deals themselves weren't quite right, but she also didn’t feel confident the buyers were the right long-term stewards for Dreamers & Doers. “Many members have told me that the care and intentionality behind this community is unlike anything they’ve experienced before,” she says. I would have happily continued leading Dreamers & Doers myself rather than hand it over to someone who didn't deeply understand our members and what makes this community special.”
“What made it feel right with Christina was knowing she cares for it the way I have. She brings operational expertise we’ve never had at this depth and will take it somewhere I couldn't on my own.”
Salerno has been running businesses since she was 16, including a 200-show national rock tour she booked and managed herself. She's spent two decades leading communities, including one she successfully exited. Magical Teams, which she founded five years ago, is an operations firm for growth-stage founders that disrupts how fractional executive work gets done to help startups build faster and more sustainably. All of that expertise now comes to Dreamers & Doers.
What’s Next
Salerno will step down as CEO of Magical Teams to focus full-time on Dreamers & Doers. "I'm not here to change what Dreamers & Doers is," she says. "I'm here to protect it, and then add to it. Members get everything they already love—the curated community, exclusive PR opportunities, strategic business support—plus the bonuses that come with bringing Magical Teams in."
Magical Teams will bring a bench of business growth strategists, fractional COOs and CFOs, AI and automation specialists, and people ops experts to take operational weight off the Dreamers & Doers team, allowing them to offer members even more benefits, opportunities, and features. The 12-person Dreamers & Doers team will stay on, including Haas, who will continue to be involved, bringing her relationships, creative instincts, and distinctive magic that has long defined the community.
Dreamers & Doers has always moved at a slow and steady pace, letting the community deepen rather than chasing rapid expansion. That doesn't change with this acquisition.
"So many acquisitions are really about acquiring a customer base or a sales channel," Haas says. "This one isn't. And that's deliberately aligned with Dreamers & Doers' long-standing no-selling community ethos. That's a big part of why this acquirer felt more aligned than any other I could have imagined."
Win-Win-Win
It wasn't on Salerno's bingo card to buy a business. But maybe that's the most Dreamers & Doers thing about this story: the community made possible a dream she didn't even know she had, then made it bigger, then helped turn that dream into reality. And now, as the person at the helm, that's exactly what she's here to do for every woman in the community.
"It's of course not all rainbows and sunshine. There's so much to figure out operationally, and letting go of a company as CEO brings up real personal growth. But getting to do this alongside Christina has made even the hard moments feel like opportunities," Haas says.
For Haas, what's next, alongside her continued involvement with Dreamers & Doers, is more time with her family (yes, still trying for a third baby), deep work in AI, and projects that make our increasingly digital lives feel more human.
Most acquisition stories are about who won. This one didn't have a winner. Just two women, one community, and proof that there's a better way to do this.
The perfect example: When the deal neared closing, Haas, Salerno, and Head of Community Taylor Harrington marked the transition with a three-night offsite that included both operational conversations and moments of celebration. As Haas and Salerno moved between calls with lawyers and finalizing documents, the group exchanged handwritten cards and talked through their vision for the member experience, alongside a cake that read: Dreamy & Magical.
"And I have a feeling," Haas says, "it will only get more magical from here."
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→ Curious what Forbes had to say about this acquisition? Dive in here.
