Browse Case Studies

Bell Curve is a growth agency founded by Julian Shapiro that positions itself as an in-house CMO for startups, managing entire growth funnels rather than just running ads. Julian learned growth tactics while building Velocity.js, an open-source animation library, where he pioneered unconventional marketing strategies like direct outreach to niche blog editors and influencer collaboration. The agency grew through freelance referrals and now primarily serves YC-backed companies.

Design Joy is a productized design service built and run entirely by Brett Williams as a one-person operation. Starting from a side project in 2017 generating $5-6k MRR, it exploded during the pandemic and after a viral tweet to over $130k MRR (over $1.5M ARR) by 2021. Brett charges $4,595-$5,500/month for unlimited design work on a month-to-month subscription basis, serving 40-50 customers simultaneously through extreme specialization and efficiency.

Dominic Wells built Human Proof Designs into a million-dollar business while working as an English teacher, writing blog posts on his iPad between classes. He used affiliate marketing and content creation as his primary growth channels. The business demonstrates how non-technical founders can break into entrepreneurship through persistence and strategic content marketing.

Obedient is a digital marketing agency founded by Allie LeFevere that helps early-stage founders differentiate their brands through fun and humor-based marketing. Allie has built experience across both scalable product businesses and digital marketing agencies, focusing on using fun as a key differentiator in a market dominated by undifferentiated products and fear-based marketing.

thoughtbot is a consultancy founded by Chad Pytel that has grown from nothing into a 100-person agency on track to generate $20M in revenue. Through 15 years of work, Pytel has helped turn hundreds of ideas into SaaS products while building a sustainable consulting business.

WP Buffs is a productized service business in the WordPress space founded by Joe Howard. He bootstrapped the company from $0 to over $70,000/month in revenue by finding paying customers within days of launch and focusing on raising prices to increase profitability. The business emphasizes simplicity as a core operational principle.