Stu McLaren

On the timeline of his personal website, Stu McLaren lists his first sale in 2004 and the start of an affiliate management business in 2005.⁠[1]

In 2008 he co-founded WishList Member, a membership plugin for WordPress. On his website he says he was then selling the software for $97 per single-site license.⁠[1]

In 2009 he and his wife Amy founded the charity Village Impact, which focuses on bringing education to children who had no chance to go to school. On his website he recalls learning, while visiting rural Kenya to explore building a school, that a full-time teacher’s salary cost roughly $100 a month, close to the price of a WishList Member single-site license, which led him to connect monthly subscription revenue with funding teachers and to conclude that “the more money I make, the more impact I can have.”⁠[1][1]

In 2013 he began working with New York Times best-selling author Michael Hyatt. On his website he says that during the partnership Hyatt’s business grew from “high 6-figures” to a “high 7-figure business” and Hyatt’s email list grew from 70,000 to over 500,000.⁠[1][1]

In October 2014 he sold his interest in WishList Member; on his website he says the software was then powering more than 70,000 online communities and membership sites.⁠[1]

In 2016 he launched TRIBE, a training program on building membership businesses that was later renamed The Membership Experience. On his website he says he has helped tens of thousands of people launch memberships in fields such as photography, calligraphy, dog training, fitness, and music.⁠[1][1]

In 2019 he co-founded the membership and course platform Membership.io, formerly named Searchie.⁠[1][2]

His website timeline lists 2024 as the year he wrote his first book, “Predictable Profits.” Its full title is “Predictable Profits: Transform Your Business from One-Off Sales to Recurring Revenue with Memberships and Subscriptions”; it was published by Hay House Business, runs 288 pages in hardcover, and went on sale on February 11, 2025.⁠[1][3]

The publisher’s author biography for the book describes him as a membership expert and co-founder of Membership.io with over 15 years of experience in the subscription industry, living just outside Toronto, Canada.⁠[4]

On April 9, 2026, the YouTubeYouTubeYouTube is Google’s video-sharing and creator platform, founded in 2005 by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim and acquired by Google in 2006. Built around video uploading, viewing, and creator earnings, the platform has developed Shorts, YouTube Music, Premium, YouTube TV, and products for children, and is headquartered in San Bruno, California, United States.Open the full entry channel Hard Knocks Business published the street interview “The man behind MULTI-MILLION dollar memberships,” whose description introduces him by his YouTube handle @StuMe as a Canada-based entrepreneur. His name is not spoken in the video.⁠[5]

In the video he said he owns a training company and a software company and that the most he has made in a single year is $14 million; as an example he described a member whose membership teaching people to make balloon animals is a six-figure business.⁠[5][5][5]

In the video he recalled that when his daughter was born he realized his business model could not scale and his schedule was not his own, prompting the move to memberships; he said his decision to sell WishList Member was influenced by the book “The One Thing,” that the sale price was “in the millions,” and that he sold before knowing his next step, later starting membership.io.⁠[5][5][5]

Discussing philanthropy, he said in the video that the charity he founded with his wife has built 16 schools in Kenya attended by more than 6,000 children, raises between one and two million dollars a year, builds one school a year, and works with the Kenyan government to maintain the schools.⁠[5][5]

He said every entrepreneur should have some form of recurring revenue, because decisions are better without monetary stress (video at 00:25).⁠[5]

He said a common mistake in building a membership is overloading members, and that the focus should be on two areas: consumption and engagement (video at 00:36).⁠[5]

He said there is no need to have everything lined up before acting, because opportunities only become visible once one starts moving toward them (video at 01:44).⁠[5]

Asked what he would do if starting from zero, he said he would find a mentor, adding that one key to his success was a willingness to give up short-term profits for long-term gains (video at 02:33).⁠[5]

He hosts the podcast “Marketing Your Business” and runs the IMPACT Mastermind, a group for owners of membership sites.⁠[2][1]

Personal website: https://stu.me/ (opens in a new window).⁠[6]

Membership.io: Official website: https://membership.io/ (opens in a new window).⁠[6]

X: Public account: https://x.com/StuMcLaren (opens in a new window).⁠[6]

LinkedInLinkedInLinkedIn is a social networking platform for professionals. It was founded in 2002 by Reid Hoffman and others, launched in 2003, and listed on the New York Stock Exchange in 2011; after Microsoft acquired it for approximately $26.2 billion in 2016, it became a wholly owned Microsoft subsidiary. Its revenue comes from membership subscriptions, advertising, and recruitment solutions.Open the full entry: Public profile: https://www.linkedin.com/in/stumclaren/ (opens in a new window).⁠[6]

YouTube: Public channel: https://www.youtube.com/@StuMe (opens in a new window).⁠[6]