This is the story of how I changed my life from a Starbucks:
POV:
It's 2017 and:
- I'm 5 years into "working for the man" - I'm $50,000 in debt - I feel like there's no way out
Me: "I'm going to start a side project to get myself out of this."
--
Months go by.
No progress.
Same old story...
Full of ideas and dreams with no plan on how to execute them.
Until...
--
I'm gifted the book "Deep Work."
Deep work is the state of focused, undistracted, and highly productive work where one can reach a state of flow and accomplish meaningful tasks.
Why do I struggle so much with actually getting sh*t done?
Maybe deep work is the answer?
My plan:
1. After I get off work, go straight to Starbucks 2. Order a large drip coffee 3. Turn off phone, turn on site blocker 4. Work on my side project for 2 hrs
--
October 18, 2017:
I get off work. I order my coffee. I sit down, turn off my phone and start working.
"Wow, this is so f*ing hard."
2 hours of pain and suffering later...
"This is the most progress I've made in years."
--
I go back the next day, and the next day.
Suddenly, I'm addicted to that feeling of progress.
What originally felt like a struggle now feels fun.
Deep work is thrilling, and the 2 hours fly by.
Flow state.
I start to look forward to these sessions.
I'm building a habit.
--
There's just one issue: I'm wiped out after work...
I switch to the morning, and my progress accelerates even more!
New routine:
1. Wake up 6AM, go straight to Starbucks 2. Order lg drip coffee 3. Turn off phone 4. Work on side project for 2 hrs 5. Go to my day job
--
I did this routine for 365 days.
October 18, 2018 (1yr later):
- I've built a side project (starterstory.com) making $3,000/mo - I've paid off ~$30K in debt - I've made plans to quit my FT job to go all in on Starter Story - I've learned how to actually execute on sh*t
--
Now starterstory.com is making $1M/year.
But... I certainly wasn't perfect. Of course I missed days!
However, I got addicted to the process, and the PROGRESS.
& I found myself doing 3,4, even 5 hours of deep work on days when I had the energy.
--
Tl;dr:
1. do deep work 2. consistently 3. over a long period of time
And you'll make a sh*t ton of progress.
I recommend this routine to anyone building anything.
It’s officially been 5 years since I launched the original Starter Story website:
Yep, that’s starterstory.com, when I “launched” the website in 2017. And, of course, nobody visited it.
On the surface, it doesn’t look much different than it does now.
But behind the scenes, everything has changed. I’ve turned this little side project into a real business, with a real team.
Since I’ve been working on Starter Story for half a decade, I wanted to write a bit about the journey and some of my biggest lessons.
Before we jump in…
In case you didn’t know, Starter Story is a platform where founders share how they built their businesses.
Last month (September 2022), we made $74K in revenue, and over 1.5M people visited the website!
You’re probably wondering how Starter Story works as a business and how it makes money:
Premium memberships (~38% of revenue): Members pay a yearly fee and get unlimited access to all of our case studies, databases, and other benefits
Advertising and sponsorships (~57% of revenue): Companies pay us to advertise their product in our newsletter and our website.
Affiliate revenue (~5% of revenue): We get paid when a reader clicks an affiliate link on our website and signs up for something or makes a purchase.
A bit more details on each of our revenue streams:
1. Starter Story Premium Membership (~38% of revenue)
With about 2,500 active members, our paid subscription generates ~$30k/month on average.
Similar to the New York Times, you can read a limited number of case studies on our website per month, for free. But if you sign up and pay to be a member, you can read unlimited, plus you’ll get access to some of our databases (e.g. business ideas database).
2. Ads & Sponsors (~57% of revenue)
Companies pay us to advertise their products in our articles or on our newsletter. Our audience is niche, so brands will come to us, looking to get in front of our audience. We also go out and pitch brands as well.
3. Affiliates (~5% of revenue)
Our case studies & content often mention what products founders use, such as Shopify, Klaviyo, and thousands of other tools. If a reader clicks a link to these tools, we sometimes get a cut of the sale (if they buy). This is a smaller part of our revenue but we’re hoping to grow it (feedback welcome).
Early traction: celebrate and zone in on the smallest wins
I started Starter Story as a side project (while I had a full-time job).
I’ve had many other projects that have failed...
What I’ve learned through these failures: the hardest part about building a side project is not giving up.
IMO the best way to not give up is to work as hard as you can to achieve some small traction or small positive reinforcement in the early days.
This traction doesn’t have to be life-changing, it could be something as simple as getting a few dozen people on an email list, or one happy customer sending you a note about how they love your product.
Finding early traction is not easy though - you’ll need to try a lot of things, and likely pivot your idea, strategy, market, etc many times. At least that was the case for me.
I was lucky enough to get some early traction, here's how:
1. Finding a solid distribution channel: Reddit
In the early days, I was publishing lots of great case studies, but nobody even knew my website existed…
I realized I needed a distribution channel.
I tried a lot of things and finally found something that worked: posting the case studies on reddit.
My first success: This post hit the top of r/entrepreneur, and it validated that our case studies with founders were actually interesting and valuable to Redditors.
These reddit posts would get a lot of upvotes, comments, etc, and some people would enjoy the posts enough to visit Starter Story and read more case studies, subscribe to our newsletter, etc.
There were many positive outcomes of sharing our content on Reddit. Besides its huge reach, these Reddit posts also helped us find our first “sponsors” (advertisers) and it also helped us find more businesses to interview on the site.
Key takeaway: Distribution beats product 99% of the time.
In the early days, I worked hard to make our case studies super in-depth - there was nothing else like it on the Internet.
I wanted to show how people actually built their business, which takes thousands of words.
Our competition at the time: 500-word fluff promotional articles on Forbes and TechCrunch about companies that raised their $20M Series A.
My goal: To create content that was different and better than anything else you could find. Additionally, our case studies also had something unique that caught people’s attention: we always shared how much money people were actually making.
Back then, it was rare to see entrepreneurs being so open about revenue, costs, and profit. We worked hard to get that info into our content, which helped set us apart from other blogs and websites.
Key takeaway: Our content was unique, fresh, and interesting which helped us stand out. Because we were different, people would share our site with their friends, on social media, etc.
3. Document the journey
In the early days, I used to write monthly progress reports about my journey building Starter Story.
I would blog, tweet, and create videos about what I was working on, the results I got after trying different strategies, etc. For example, I would write blog posts like this when the website had less than 1,000 visitors per month and made $0…
I think nowadays this is called “building in public”, but I was doing it because I really loved working on this project, learning new things, and writing about them.
Sharing all this stuff not only helped me build a better business, but it also helped me make tons of friends and connections online and build a small personal brand.
Key takeaway: Writing or sharing your journey can (1) help you understand your own priorities and (2) attract likeminded people into your corner.
Later traction: Reinventing ourselves, over and over
One thing I’ve learned as I’ve worked on growing Starter Story: what worked in the past won’t necessarily work in the future.
In other words, what got us from 0 to $10K/month is different than what got us from $10k to $20k/month, and so on.
Growing the business past its early stages was a challenge, and still remains a challenge every day.
I feel like we’ve had to reinvent ourselves multiple times to get where we are… But, I think that’s something that all growing businesses face, even if it’s not on the surface.
Here are some key things that led to our growth in our later days:
1. We found a more reliable distribution channel: SEO
Back in early 2020, I had monetized the business, but it wasn’t making more than $5,000/month.
I realized that in order to grow Starter Story, we needed more, and better, distribution.
Reddit was not a scalable channel of distribution for us, as the novelty of our case studies mainly had worn off.
So, we started looking into a new way to distribute our content: SEO.
We repackaged our content to match high-level search keywords and it was a big success.
This strategy resulted in 10x organic traffic growth over the next year, and it’s how we reached over 1 million visitors to our site per month.
Key takeaway: Find a truly scalable method of distributing your product. You might need to find multiple, over the years. Some good ones: SEO, YouTube, social media, direct sales.
2. Go all in + a stroke of luck
I used to be the guy that had 12 different unrelated businesses/projects going at once.
I wasn’t able to commit to one idea, so I just kept creating and trying new things.
I don't think it's bad to try a lot of things (especially early on), but it's nearly impossible to build two successful businesses at the same time.
In early 2020, I decided to drop all my other projects and go full-time on Starter Story.
Somewhat coincidentally, this was also the time that the COVID pandemic took over the world, which actually became a "boom" for entrepreneurs around the world.
More people than ever were sitting at home, browsing the internet and wanting to find a side hustle or ways to make money online. In 2020 and 2021, we saw records in terms of new startups and businesses created (see image).
This led to a ton of interest in Starter Story.
We certainly got lucky with the circumstances around the pandemic, but I’m not sure I would have been able to capitalize on this opportunity if I was still working on 12 different projects.
Key takeaway: Eventually, you’ll need to pick one idea and go all in on it.
3. I hired someone
In 2020, I made the most key hire in the company, and it was basically by accident.
My sister was laid off right after the pandemic hit, so I asked her to help me write a few articles for Starter Story.
One thing led to another, and she came on to the business full-time just a few months later.
She gave the business life, and pushed forward projects that took Starter Story to the next level in terms of revenue and potential.
As founders, we’re good at many things, but great at nothing. Our attention is scattered all across the business, preventing us from being consistent and focused on certain parts of our businesses that need a full time focus.
Key takeaway: Hire smart people to work on ambitious projects. Let them become “mini-founders” and allow them to learn and grow.
4. We diversified our revenue with a paid membership
We used to rely 100% on sponsorships and ad revenue.
As a bootstrapped company, it’s a bad idea to rely on a single source of revenue, especially because the "plug" could be pulled on us at anytime.
I realized we needed to diversify our revenue streams.
About 3 years ago, we started putting together a paid subscription version of our product (Starter Story Premium) we've refined it ever since.
Starter Story Premium has been a work in progress for years. We are refining it and improving it every day.
Key takeaway: As a bootstrapped company, we don't have the luxury of millions sitting in the bank in case something goes wrong. Therefore, it's better to have more reliable revenue, even if it's at the cost of growth.
5. We built systems and processes for everything possible
As a developer, I’ve built countless small tools and automations that have allowed us to scale our operations as a super lean team.
I’ve automated every piece of the business possible. If something is not possible to automate, then we try to hire or outsource for it.
I like to look at my developer/hacking skills as an advantage in my business. It’s allowed us to move quickly and operate with lower costs. It’s scrappy, and I often break things, but it’s something that sets us apart from the competition and the copycats.
Key takeaway: Identify and take advantage of your own skills - make them your competitive advantage.
-
If you want to know more about the business, or want me to clarify some things, shoot me an email or reach out on Twitter.
I invest money every single week. 60% into index funds (auto balancing robo investor). 20% into equities. And 20% into Bitcoin.
I have it set up so it withdraws and deposits the money automatically every week. I barely even think about it much. But it feels like a nice way to financial independence.
1. Make consistent money from a profitable business (cash flow) 2. Don't spend too much of it on yourself, invest as much cash as you can each week 3. Sell that profitable business one day
You get the best of both worlds if you do this. You build wealth predictably, but also set yourself up for a potential big exit lump sum (if you're lucky).
But if that doesn't work, you can always fall back on your money you diligently invested.
And if you're really lucky, something like Bitcoin really pays off.
It blows my mind how endless the possibilities there are building your own business. It is fulfilling and fun and scary. I'm grateful I get to do this every day. Right now I sit here on my couch building. Building cool shit that makes money. Unbelievable that I do this for a living. That is all.
Just came across this media company called 'Future' today. Never heard of them before, but they are primarily digital media and run lots of smaller sites.
Disruption happens a lot differently (and more slowly) than we think.
For example, think about disruption in the newspaper industry by the internet:
Newspapers didn’t immediately go online once the internet was created. Rather, blogs and websites started cropping up, and slowly people started getting their news from the internet.
This adoption took years. Once the shift already happened, the newspapers finally went online. But it was too late. Only a complete shift in business model would allow them to survive.
The next big industries to get disrupted are healthcare and education.
And I think the same thing will happen in healthcare.
Doctors and hospitals aren’t going to adopt new technologies. They have no incentive to. Their system works just fine right now.
But, just like the newspaper industry, people will find new, better, and more convenient ways of getting health care.
For example, the Apple watch can track many of your vitals. And Levels can analyze your blood. You can get prescriptions online. You can see doctors online. WebMD. The list goes on.
Slowly, these methods will become more popular than going to the doctor / hospital. Health care costs will go down for the average person.
The profits will be sucked out of the healthcare industry. Only then will the hospitals and administrators realize they need to adopt these new technologies to survive as a business.
But it will be too late, just like the newspapers. With their business model (massive fixed costs), they won’t be able to make it work.
The same will happen in education. We won’t replace traditional college. But less people will go every year. Thousands of apps, websites, and platforms will replace traditional education (Starter Story being one of them).
Colleges will try to implement these new technologies, but it will be too late.
I want to be a more positive person. More optimistic, less pessimistic. Glass half full, instead of glass half empty.
Stop saying sarcastic, clever, or negative skewing things, in my personal and professional life.
What I’ve been doing lately is just noticing whenever I have negative thoughts or say negative things. It’s OK to have them. But just noticing them is the first step.
I think that with positive thinking, I could achieve more and be happier. It feels like it’s one of those things that I need to “unlock” so I can level up.
I've been working on rebuilding our "databases" at Starter Story. I want them to be way more useful, and have them look a lot more professional.
It all started with this database for side hustles.
I modeled this off of the U.S. News Best Universities database and UX. I love how that page looks and feels. And it does very well in Google search.
That project took forever, but now we're migrating the database to work for other "objects", the first one being our tools database. It uses the same code and logic.
Here is the before and after:
You can now search, filter, and sort the tools, and see all 2,500+ tools, and ton of more metadata for each tool. Let me know what you think! (and if anything can be improved in terms of functionality, design, etc)
Here it is in all its glory. Really proud of this!
Today, I find myself with a million tasks to do. Last week I was away, and the work piled up…
On one hand, it’s kind of depressing to think that the rest of my life is filled with work. Filled with various tasks I need to complete every day, that in the grand scheme, are mostly pointless.
95% of the things I did today will amount to nothing. Will be forgotten in 5 years. The project will fail, wither out, I’ll lose interest, or I’ll find a better way to do the thing.
But that is kind of the beauty of it all. There is no end.
And if there was an end, I know I would only feel temporary finality, and probably go start working on something new, and the work would start all over.
Lately I’ve been enjoying the process of doing my small, pointless tasks. Instead of feeling burdened by them, I feel empowered by them. They give my purpose.
I work hard to do them to the best of my ability. I’m not focused on just getting them done, but doing them well, with care and passion.
Sure, there are truly pointless tasks you shouldn’t do at all. And you should outsource things to save you time. But there will always be more work after that. And that’s a good thing.
The work never ends. So enjoy the work, learn to love the work. Get addicted to the daily work. Focus on the process, not the outcome.
I spent the last week in Mexico. A few days at a tennis camp during the week, and then a weekend bachelor party with old college friends.
Traveling is finally, finally a thing again. And it felt really nice.
In 2021 I almost never traveled, and it definitely affected my mental health.
Although flying on planes and going through airports are still such a nuisance, it is so very worth it to get out there and see the world.
I forgot how travel opens up your perspective. Being in Mexico City reminded me just how small my own world is.
And seeing friends is worth all the money you have to spend. Bachelor parties and weddings and other related events are so expensive, and sometimes that bothers me. But they are worth the money. Getting together with friends is priceless.
I want to do that a lot more this year. Take more weekend trips. Take advantage of this time where nobody is worried about Covid and we can go anywhere.
More updates on the Starter Story business model transition (to ads). We are finally starting to see some success.
Although it’s taken months of thinking and planning and selling, we have officially locked down 3 big advertisers. For a total of $23K recurring ad revenue per month.
Our goal is to do everything in our power to make them happy, and keep them on board and get them to renew past their original contracts.
Our longer term goal is to get to $50K recurring ad revenue per month by the end of September.
Once we hit that, I think we’ll have a pretty solid grasp on the sales process (and better cash flows), and we can hire a salesperson to do this work.
Then, we can put more time and energy into growing our inventory, so we can sell more ads.
Since I started playing tennis, I’ve been documenting every time I’ve played, practiced, or just hit around for fun.
I track lots of things, such as type of play, opponent, court type, duration, score, and some notes.
(I didn’t actually start doing this until 1 year in, so I had to make up some of the data based on my old playing habits)
I put this all in my “Life” spreadsheet where I also track personal finances, expenses, investments, my business, and other things. I used to have a few different spreadsheets for this, but recently I merged them all into one.
The first tab of my “Life” spreadsheet is my high level “Home” dashboard where I can see bigger picture stuff, like net worth, last 30 months expenses, etc.
I just use some formulas on the raw data and can see some pretty cool stuff.
For example, how many hours I’ve spent playing in the last 30 days, or my official win-loss record.
I’ve dedicated 715 hours to playing tennis over the last couple years. Sometimes, I wish I could get better, faster. But then I realize that 700 hours is really not that much. Imagine how good I’ll be at 10,000 hours!
As a first time founder I focused way too much on implementation. What coding language to use, what marketing strategy, what the business model will be.
Over-systemizing, over-optimizing, and overthinking.
What I’ve learned over the years:
The most valuable thing to focus on is one question: am I helping people?
Am I adding genuine value to at least one person’s life? Success scales when I do more of that.
I talk to aspiring founders and they ask me questions like “should I do e-commerce or should I make an app?”. I think that’s the wrong way to think about building a business. Because that’s doing it for you, not for others.
I believe we would be more successful (more quickly) if we just focused on helping people.
Why? Because the job of a business is to serve its customers. Not to serve you. The best founders are servants to their customers.
This is something I’m only realizing years into my entrepreneurship journey. To be frank, I got into entrepreneurship for me.
Because I wanted people to use the products that I designed and created. And I wanted to quit my 9 to 5. I didn't want to work for someone else anymore.
Those were perfectly normal motivations to start a business, and they actually make sense for why so many people make the leap.
But now, I'm getting close to Year 5 of building businesses full time, and I’m sensing a shift.
Those things don’t motivate me much anymore. I get the most joy out of helping people. I think this will lead to far more growth, too. Will keep you updated.