In just over 10 years, Barstool Sports has grown from a small paper that was passed out to commuters at public transport stations in Boston into one of the most popular sports blogs in the country.

It's satirical take on everything from athletes to the best pizza has earned it a loyal following who not only read the site but are also devoted to their social media pages, their podcasts, and their unique line of clothing.

And it all began with Dave Portnoy, who started the business out of his home in Milton, Massachusetts.

'I hated my job and I wanted to find something I liked doing, and I gambled,' said Portnoy, who is better known as 'El Pres' by members of Barstool nation.

He attempted to get a marketing position with off shore casinos he said, until he was told after flying out to Las Vegas from Boston that he did not have enough experience to be considered for a job.

Portnoy said that he was told however that if he started a newspaper, offshore sportbooks would purchase advertisement space in the publication.

'So the paper was really hardcore sports, hardcore gambling, fantasy football - and I would hand it out outside subway in Boston,' said Portnoy, who released his first print issue of the paper in 2003.

Over the next four years the paper slowly began to grow, with stories and commentary on men's interest also starting to make their way into the print version.

The paper's look soon changed after its launch as well, when the cover began featuring a local woman, who most of time dressed up in lingerie.

'Over time we started going away from just hardcore sports and gambling to have more a lifestyle feel,' said Portnoy.

Barstool found David Portnoy and CEO Erika Nardini

Then, in 2007, a man in New York who was a fan of the paper asked Portnoy if he could build him a website for Barstool.

'From that point on it became clear that this was going to be the history of Barstool,' said Portnoy, whose distribution model in the early days involved hiring local homeless people by the Boston T stations to hand out the paper.

The paper had a sizable fan base by that point, and Portnoy and his staff had been honing the voice of the publication for four years, finding the perfect tone to start their own blog.

It was around this time that Barstool began launching in other US cities including New York, Philadelphia and Chicago to name a few. There was also a college vertical called Barstool U.

By that point explained Portnoy, Barstool had already exceeded even his widest expectations.

It was not just the paper and website either, but also the introduction of a Barstool concert series as well as merchandise that could be purchased by readers.

'And it was all word of mouth,' adds Portnoy in response to how quick everything seemed to grow in just a few short years.

'I never put a penny into it, all the money that was coming in was going back out for Barstool and to find writers.'

With time. investors began taking an interest in the budding media empire Portnoy had been putting together as well, and approached him with offers.

Portnoy said he had no interest though time after time, so it came as a bit of a shock in January of this year when it was revealed that a 51 percent stake in Barstol had been purchased by The Chernin Group.

Details of the sale were not revealed, but the company's valuation at the time was put somewhere between approximately $10 and $15million.

It was The Chernin Group's newly appointed Head of Digital Mike Kerns who sought out Portnoy to try and convince him to sell his stake in the company.

Portnoy explains that to do this, Kerns went through the agent of former New York Giants quarterback Jared Lorenzen, asking if he could maybe get his client to talk to Portnoy and set up an initial conversation.

Lorenzen, a member of the Giants 2007 Super Bowl-winning team and who Portnoy affectionately notes was 'known for being one of the fattest quarterbacks,' had become a fan of Barstool over the years,

He found humor in their social media posts, like the one that showed him doing a belly flop into a pool during the 2015 Final Four tournament.

Kerns then flew out to Boston from San Francisco to meet Portnoy, asking him what he would do if they gave him the money.

The answer it seems was keep building the organization, and move headquarters to New York City, where Portnoy has been since early this summer overseeing his empire, whose editorial content he is still 100 percent in control of despite selling off just over half of Barstool's shares to The Chernin Group.

To mark the big news, Barstool released a video announcing the sale that showed Portnoy alongside longtime contributors Kevin Clancy (aka KFC) , Keith Markovich (aka KMark) and Dan Katz (aka Big Cat) walking through Times Square.

'Do I like Manhattan? No. Do I want to be in Manhattan? No. Do I like these people looking at me during this press conference? No. But it's the right move,' said Portnoy while New York, New York played in the background.

Portnoy does admit though that during that initial meeting with Kerns he said that the first move he would make if Chernin bought Barstool would be to relocate to New York.

'I just thought of this concept,' said Portnoy, referring to the office which has now been fully realized.

It is equipped with two soundproof rooms for recording podcast programs or filming video, enough space to fit in the bloggers writing for the website who had been scattered across the country, and a well stocked and sizable bar.

Money was not the only thing The Chernin Group was offering though,with Portnoy admitting he was also eager to get some expertise on managing other aspects of Barstool.

'We were good at content but really bat at everything else,' explained Portnoy.

'We just had very funny people creating content, but no rhyme or reason as to why were doing anything. It was always our belief that if we bought out good stuff our fans will like it and we'll go.'

The Chernin Group it turns out was just as eager to work with Portnoy, making it clear he said that they understood what he was trying to do with the site.

Soon after the deal was struck the New York office space was secured, followed a few months later by the hiring of the company's new CEO.

'The whole sale really rejuvenated me,' explained Portnoy, who said it felt like starting fresh after 13 years.

To introduce the newest member of the Barstool team, Portnoy headed to Times Square to film another video.

'We needed somebody with big-ass balls, dragging on the ground, alpha male,' said a tuxedo-clad Portnoy in the video.

'We have found our CEO, our boss, a masculine boy.'

He then introduced Erika Nardini as Barstool's new head of house, a digital media executive who had previously worked for companies like AOL (where she was chief marketing officer), Yahoo and Microsoft.

Now, she and Portnoy are working together to see where they can take Barstool.

'I'm interested in giving our audience more of what they want and enabling them to find us. And I am interested in capturing their attention,' said Nardini.

'And what's really great about Barstool is that while other websites were chasing headlines and clickbait and distribution, these guys were just focused on a brand.'

Nardini than added that it is that brand which is the most valuable asset they have, a brand that has in many ways reached many first-time users through their popular social media posts.

When asked about why he believes the brand has been so successful on social media Portnoy points to her first bloggers, who in the days before Twitter would instead keep their stories going with discussions in the comment section of their stories.

Portnoy and his bloggers also met with fans of the website face-to-face in the early days at events, which he believes made them more accessible and gave then a built-in audience from which they could grow their base.

'It's all these writers too. We hire them and they become personalities,' explained Portnoy.

'We hire them and people want to know what cologne their wearing or what they're eating for breakfast.'

It seems that people also want to wear what the Barstool boys and girls are wearing based on how quickly they manage to sell out the items being sold in their online store, like a tie-dye tee with a picture of Harambe that features a halo over his head to mark the tragic death of the Cincinnati Zoo animal.

The biggest sellers though are the shirts and sweatshirts and croakies and flags and most anything else you can get a screenprint on that Barstool sells with their official motto: 'Saturdays are for the boys.'

And the greatest Barstool story may be the one behind how that rally cry came to be.

Writer John Feitelberg was in Newport, Rhode Island at the Irish bar O'Brien's late one night when an old man drinking alone suddenly shouted out: 'Fridays are for the men. Saturdays are for the boys.'

Feitelberg said he immediately posted it on Twitter and then, as often happens when one has been out drinking, forgot about it until the next day.

He woke up to see it had been retweeted a few thousand times he said, and a movement was born.

And with Nardini stepping in, there may soon be yet another rally cry soon adopted by female Barstool fans.