Inspiring Entrepreneurs: The Journey of Starter Story and Its Founders
Company profile
Company business details
Motivation to build the product
The founders were motivated by the need for reliable and detailed information about entrepreneurship. They recognized that many aspiring entrepreneurs struggle to find real stories and insights into how businesses are built, which sparked the idea for Starter Story.Problem that their product solves
Starter Story solves the problem of limited access to detailed and reliable information about starting and running a business. The end users are aspiring entrepreneurs who need guidance and inspiration from real-life experiences to navigate their own entrepreneurial journeys. Solving this problem is important as it helps reduce the uncertainty and challenges faced by new business owners.Their unfair advantage
Starter Story's unfair advantage lies in its focus on real stories and experiences from successful entrepreneurs, providing unique insights that are often not available in traditional business resources.Strategies
Pre-Launch (Product Development & MVP)
Niche Identification and Content Creation
Pat Walls identified a niche in entrepreneurship by interviewing founders and sharing their stories, which included revenue figures. He initially attempted to create a website focused on pets but quickly pivoted to entrepreneurship after realizing his passion. He built the website using create-react-app and deployed it on Netlify, focusing on content creation from the start.
Building a Minimum Viable Product (MVP)
In 2016, Pat Walls and his friends founded a B2B SaaS platform aimed at helping small brands sell products to retailers. They dedicated their nights and weekends to building a minimum viable product while managing full-time jobs. Their goal was to get into Y Combinator to gain investment and users, but they faced challenges and ultimately shut down the company after failing to gain traction.
Launch Stage
Finding a Solid Distribution Channel: Reddit
In the early days of Starter Story, Pat Walls realized that despite publishing great case studies, no one was visiting the website. To solve this, he identified Reddit as a solid distribution channel. He began posting his case studies on relevant subreddits, which led to significant engagement. One of his first successful posts hit the top of the r/entrepreneur subreddit, validating the interest in his content. This strategy not only drove traffic to Starter Story but also helped in securing initial sponsors and interview opportunities with businesses.
Differentiate Yourself: Create Amazing Content
Pat Walls focused on creating in-depth case studies that were unlike anything else available online. He aimed to provide detailed insights into how entrepreneurs built their businesses, including their revenue and costs, which was rare at the time. This unique approach set Starter Story apart from competitors who published shorter, promotional articles. The depth and transparency of the content attracted readers, encouraging them to share the site with others, thus increasing its visibility.
Document the Journey
Pat Walls began documenting his journey of building Starter Story through monthly progress reports. He shared updates via blog posts, tweets, and videos, detailing the strategies he was trying and the results he was achieving. This practice, which is now referred to as 'building in public', not only helped him clarify his own priorities but also attracted a community of like-minded individuals who supported his venture. This transparency fostered connections and built a personal brand around his entrepreneurial journey.
Initial Interviews and Content Release
To launch Starter Story, Pat decided to start with three interviews instead of waiting to gather ten. He reached out to his personal network to find interview candidates, conducting interviews over the phone and transcribing them into articles. This approach allowed him to learn about content sharing and audience engagement early on, treating each interview release as a mini-launch.
Content Creation through Interviews
After launching Starter Story in October 2017, Walls began by interviewing friends over the phone to gather case studies. He then created a Q&A template to streamline the process, allowing founders to answer questions on their own. This approach not only made it easier to gather content but also improved the quality of the case studies, which became a cornerstone of the website.
Growth Stage
Finding a More Reliable Distribution Channel: SEO
As Starter Story grew, Pat Walls recognized that Reddit was not a scalable distribution channel. In early 2020, he pivoted to focus on SEO as a means to drive traffic. He began creating content optimized for search engines, targeting high-volume keywords related to business ideas. This strategic shift resulted in a tenfold increase in organic traffic over the following year, helping Starter Story reach over 1 million visitors per month.
Go All In + A Stroke of Luck
In early 2020, Pat Walls made the decision to focus entirely on Starter Story, abandoning his other projects. Coincidentally, this was during the COVID-19 pandemic, which led to a surge in interest from individuals looking to start businesses. This timing allowed him to capitalize on the increased demand for entrepreneurial resources, significantly boosting Starter Story's growth during this period.
Hiring Key Personnel
In 2020, Pat Walls made a pivotal hire when he brought his sister on board to help with content creation after she was laid off due to the pandemic. This decision proved to be transformative for Starter Story, as her contributions helped drive projects that increased revenue and expanded the business's potential. Pat learned the importance of hiring talented individuals who could take ownership of ambitious projects, allowing him to focus on other areas of the business.
Diversifying Revenue Streams with Paid Memberships
Recognizing the risks of relying solely on sponsorships and ad revenue, Pat Walls initiated the development of a paid subscription model for Starter Story. Over the course of three years, he refined the offering, which included access to premium content and databases. This diversification strategy not only provided a more stable revenue stream but also enhanced the overall value proposition of Starter Story.
Building Systems and Processes
To streamline operations and scale effectively, Pat Walls leveraged his skills as a developer to create tools and automations for various business processes. He focused on automating as many tasks as possible, and for those that couldn't be automated, he sought to hire or outsource. This approach allowed Starter Story to operate efficiently with a lean team, setting it apart from competitors who may not have utilized such technological advantages.
Leveraging Reddit for Traffic and Engagement
Pat utilized Reddit to cross-post his interviews, which helped attract high-quality traffic to Starter Story. Although the traffic from Reddit was not massive, it was valuable as it brought in engaged users who were likely to subscribe to the newsletter. This strategy also helped him attract new interview candidates, as companies wanted exposure to the Reddit community.
Organic Search Optimization
Over time, Pat began to see significant organic search traffic to Starter Story, with around 400 visitors per day. He focused on creating high-quality content and implemented basic SEO practices like good titles and correct tags. This organic growth was a pleasant surprise for him, as he had not initially prioritized SEO.
Product Hunt Launch
After accumulating around 15 interviews, Pat launched Starter Story on Product Hunt. Although it wasn't a breakout success, he felt it was a significant milestone. This launch helped him gain initial traction and visibility in the entrepreneurial community.
Community Building Plans
Pat expressed a desire to create a community around Starter Story, planning to implement features like a forum and AMAs to engage users. This strategy aims to foster a sense of belonging among users and encourage interaction, which could lead to increased loyalty and user retention.
Leveraging Social Media for Traffic
Walls discovered that some of the founders he interviewed began sharing their case studies on social media, which helped drive initial traffic to Starter Story. Additionally, he posted full interviews on Reddit, particularly in the r/Entrepreneur forum, while adhering to the community's self-promotion rules. This strategy led to significant visibility, with some posts receiving over 100,000 views, which in turn attracted more entrepreneurs to share their stories.
Automating Content Production
To scale operations, Walls leveraged his coding skills to automate various processes. For instance, he set up automated emails to founders when their interviews went live, encouraging them to share on social media. He also created an integration between Google Docs and his article format, which streamlined the content production process and allowed him to focus on other aspects of the business.
SEO Optimization and Repurposing Content
Walls identified that interview content was not performing well in search engines, so he began creating SEO-friendly landing pages that summarized key information from case studies. This strategy significantly increased traffic, propelling Starter Story from 100,000 unique visitors to over a million per month. The new traffic sources also opened up additional monetization opportunities.
Maturity & Scaling
Monetization through Sponsorships
After a few months of operation, Pat began monetizing Starter Story through sponsorships. He sent out 10-20 cold emails per week to potential sponsors, which led to agreements for native ads on the site and in newsletters. This strategy helped him generate revenue, which grew to $1,700 per month.
Long-term Sponsorships
To reduce the hassle of managing short-term advertising agreements, Pat sought long-term sponsors. He successfully secured a year-long sponsorship deal with Klaviyo, an email marketing tool, which allowed him to focus more on growing the site rather than constantly searching for new sponsors.
Implementing a Paid Membership Model
In early 2020, Walls introduced a metered paywall for Starter Story, allowing users to read three stories for free before requiring a subscription for full access. This model proved to be a gamechanger, generating $5,400 in monthly revenue shortly after launch and growing to $8,000 a month by June 2020. The membership also included access to a searchable database of business ideas and marketing strategies.
Email Marketing for Conversions
By the time Starter Story had over 100,000 email subscribers, Walls recognized that newsletters became a key conversion channel. Nearly half of the conversions were attributed to the newsletter, which he utilized to promote new case studies and the paid membership. This strategy effectively engaged the audience and drove revenue growth.
Learn more about Starter Story
Half A Decade
How Pat Found a Successful Niche Interviewing Entrepreneurs
