Other Startups

Andy Johns is a former VP of Growth and product leader at Facebook, Twitter, Quora, and Wealthfront who left a high-six to low-seven-figure income and a path to CEO to focus on mental health advocacy after experiencing severe burnout and a heart scare at 35. Through Clues.Life and his newsletter, he helps high-achieving tech professionals and military veterans understand and heal from trauma-driven burnout using a four-step transformation framework: suffering, seeking truth, self-compassion, and compassion for others.

Latitude is a venture platform co-founded by Gina Godhill dedicated to building the next generation of iconic tech startups in Latin America. The company organized a 5,000+ person conference across two days with 70+ speakers including Ben Horowitz, bringing together top entrepreneurs, operators, and investors from across Latin America and the US. Gina emphasizes the importance of recognizing both the 'A-side' (highlights) and 'B-side' (failures and struggles) of entrepreneurial journeys, with the thesis that Latin America represents significant untapped opportunity in tech.

TBH was a viral polling app that allowed teens to give each other anonymous positive feedback. After 15 failed app launches over 4-5 years, Nikita Beer's team finally hit product-market fit with TBH, which reached 360,000 installs per day at its peak and was the #1 app in the United States within 9 weeks. The app was acquired by Facebook for over $30 million.

Never Search Alone is a free community-driven platform founded by Phil Terry that helps job seekers find employment through peer-support councils of 6-8 people. The program uses a product-lens methodology called 'candidate market fit' to help people narrow their job search and includes practical frameworks like the Manukin two-pager and listening tours. With 2,000 volunteer moderators and widespread word-of-mouth adoption, the platform reports an average job search duration of 3 months, at the low end of the national average.

Ultra Speaking is a public speaking workshop and course created by Tristan DeMontebello, a world champion public speaker. The program teaches conversational speaking through gamified exercises and deliberate practice, moving away from the typical "public speaking voice" that makes people sound unnatural. The core methodology focuses on treating speaking as a subconscious flow-oriented skill rather than a conscious process, with games like Conductor and Triple Step designed to build confidence through low-stakes, high-turbulence practice scenarios.

Tiny is a holding company founded by serial entrepreneur Andrew Wilkinson that has grown to ~$300M in revenue by acquiring and holding profitable businesses long-term, inspired by Warren Buffett's philosophy. Rather than starting companies, Wilkinson learned to buy established businesses with strong moats (network effects, brand loyalty) and leave them largely unchanged. The company owns 40+ businesses including Dribbble, Letterboxd, Serato, and Aeropress, demonstrating that bootstrap companies can scale massively without VC funding.

Chip Conley, founder of Joie de Vivre (the second-largest boutique hotel chain in the US), was recruited by Brian Chesky at age 52 to join Airbnb as head of global hospitality and strategy. His near-death experience from an allergic reaction led him to sell his hotel company and pivot to founding the Modern Elder Academy, the world's first midlife wisdom school with campuses in Baja and Santa Fe, addressing the value of intergenerational collaboration and age diversity in tech.

LinkedIn, under CPO Tomer Cohen, is piloting the Full Stack Builder model—a radical reimagining of how product gets built at scale. The program empowers builders across any function to own the entire product development lifecycle (idea to launch) by automating everything except vision, empathy, communication, creativity, and judgment. With custom-built AI agents (trust, growth, research, analyst) and re-architected platforms to work with AI, early adopters are saving hours per week while maintaining or improving quality, with top performers showing the most enthusiasm.

Mollye Graham is an operating executive and leadership coach who built Glue Club, a community for scaling leaders. Drawing from 18+ years at Google, Facebook, Quip (sold to Salesforce), and the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, she developed frameworks like 'Give Away Your Legos' and the Waterline Model to help leaders manage rapid growth, navigate emotional challenges, and build high-performing teams.

Bazi Hassan is an affiliate marketer who generated $1.1 million in sales revenue over 3.5 years by mastering paid traffic acquisition (primarily via TrafficVents PPV network) and email marketing funnel optimization. Starting with just $5,000, he built a 165,000-person email list and earned approximately $500,000 in commissions by promoting high-EPC offers like MOPE (nophonebiz.com). He is now launching his own coaching platform to serve the customers he surveyed and learned from while marketing affiliate products.

Jeffrey Zorofsky co-founded Witchcraft in 2003, a fine dining-quality sandwich shop that brought seasonal, locally-sourced ingredients to a casual format. The first location generated over $1.5 million in its first year with lines out the door, and the concept scaled to 15 active locations (17 total opened, 2 closed) across 6 years, reaching approximately $20 million in annual revenue with 400+ employees. Jeffrey later became a judge on Bravo's Best New Restaurant and shifted focus to advising food entrepreneurs and businesses.

Joe Pulizzi built Content Marketing Institute into a dominant player in content marketing education through a multi-revenue model centered on large-scale events. Content Marketing World, their flagship conference, generates approximately 70% of revenue through paid registrations ($1,100 average yield per person) and sponsorships, with the 2016 event projected to bring in $9.25-$9.5M in total revenue and $2.5M in profit.

Elliot Hulse built Strength Camp from the back of his car while drowning in $90,000 of credit card debt (2007-2010), transforming it into a seven-figure business with 1.3+ million YouTube subscribers and 300,000+ email subscribers. His business model combines free content marketing via YouTube with a customer ascension ladder selling ebooks, programs, workshops, and high-ticket conferences like the Non-Jobs Summit ($297-$397 per ticket). Revenue peaked at $80,000+ per month through strategic content repurposing and email conversion optimization.

Colin Huggins is a classical pianist who performs on the streets of Washington Square Park in New York, earning approximately $100,000 annually through donations. Over nine years, he refined his performance strategy—from making $100-150 per day initially to rarely making less than $1,000 per day by understanding audience psychology, strategic music selection, and crowd dynamics. Beyond street performance, he works with the Reciprocity Foundation, writing songs for homeless youth in New York City.

Baby Bathwater Event Series, co-founded by Hollis Carter and Michael Lubbidge, is a high-end mastermind event that brings together 100 carefully curated entrepreneurs and founders. The second official event generated approximately $330,000 in revenue from 110 attendees paying $3,000-$5,000 per ticket, with all profits reinvested into the community and future events.

FinCon is an annual conference founded in 2011 by CPA and personal finance expert Philip Taylor that brings together the world's top personal finance content creators and influencers. By 2015, the event had grown to 900 attendees generating over $500K in revenue ($220K from ticket sales and $220K from sponsorships) with $200K in profit, after initially losing money for the first few years. The key to profitability came from treating it as a full business rather than a side project, introducing VIP ticket tiers, and restructuring sponsorship offerings to highlight attendee reach and influence.

Ziglar Corporation, led by Tom Ziglar, is a legacy personal development and training company that has modernized its distribution through digital channels. The company offers a $7,500 five-day Ziglar Legacy Certification course and generates significant traction through 4 million Facebook fans, 400,000-500,000 unique weekly visitors to the Ziglar Vault content hub, and a top-100 US podcast with 35,000+ downloads per episode, adding 3,000-5,000 email subscribers weekly.

Michael Port is an author and public speaking expert who built Heroic Public Speaking into a successful training business offering crash courses ($1,000), annual events in Fort Lauderdale, and a 4-month graduate program in Philadelphia. His first book, Book Yourself Solid (2006), sold approximately 500,000 copies primarily through email marketing to his network, establishing him as a thought leader whose subsequent books and courses have generated significant ongoing revenue.

Buddha Doodles is a creative project turned full-time business founded by illustrator Molly Hahn in 2011 as a daily meditative practice following personal hardship. Starting with free daily sketches on Tumblr and building an email list to 13,000 subscribers, Molly launched a gift shop in May 2013 that now generates $22,000-$28,000 monthly through merchandise sales, prints, cards, and other products. The community has grown to over 200,000 followers across platforms, with Facebook being the primary driver of growth at 160,000+ fans.

Mastermind Talks is an exclusive invite-only event for entrepreneurs founded by Jason Gaynard, building on his experience hosting mastermind dinners in Toronto. Starting with 4,200 applicants for 150 spots at $995, the event grew to $6,000 per ticket by maintaining intimacy and quality, with recent events generating approximately $800K-$900K in revenue from attendees alone. The business was built entirely through relationship-based networking and strategic speaker partnerships, with no paid marketing.