Agency to Product Startups

Flatiron Communications is a New York City-based PR and digital media agency founded by Peter Himler in 2015 after leaving Burson-Marsteller. The agency helps emerging and established companies capitalize on communication technologies, digital marketing, and content strategies. Operating with a lean team of four contractors paid $100-150/hour, Peter runs the business on retainer fees ranging from $7,500-$12,500 per month with six-month initial contracts, serving clients including AIG Private Client Group, Indiegogo, HSN, and various startups.

Ray Edwards is a bestselling author and communication strategist who transitioned from freelance copywriting to building a scalable online education business. His 2015 revenue reached $678,000, with a single course launch generating $400,000 in one month through his email list and affiliate partnerships. He commands $150,000+ fees for copywriting projects and is launching a new book with a free+shipping model to drive course sales.

James Hickey built an internet marketing consulting business serving 6-8 retail and local service clients at $750-$5,000/month, then scaled into a digital course business in 2011 after his mentor suggested he train people nationally. The 12-module course with 45-50 training videos has enrolled approximately 300 people, generating significant revenue through a tiered funnel of $295 digital products, $1,000 group coaching, and $2,000 one-on-one coaching.

Working Backwards, LLC is a consulting firm founded by Bill Carr and Colin Breyer, co-authors of the book 'Working Backwards.' The firm helps growth-stage and public companies implement Amazon's proven management practices and innovation processes, including single-threaded leadership, the PRFAQ process for product development, disagree-and-commit culture, and input/output metrics. The company synthesizes 15+ years of experience from Amazon (1999-2014), where Carr was VP of Digital Media overseeing Amazon Music, Prime Video, and Amazon Studios.

Brendan Schaub transitioned from UFC fighter to stand-up comedian to podcast entrepreneur. After 6 years building Showtime's podcast division from zero to 600k subscribers, he left to start Thick Boy Studios in December 2022, bringing 7 shows including 'Fighter and the Kid' and 'The Shop Show'. A year in, he's rebuilt to ~160-170k subscribers and focuses on audio metrics over YouTube vanity metrics.

ContentPros was a productized content generation service founded by Tommy Joiner. After roughly a year of operation, Tommy decided to exit the business and part ways with his business partner, sharing insights about the exit process on a podcast follow-up appearance.

AdBadger is a software product created by Michael Erikson, who previously built Search Scientists, a six-figure services business. The product represents a transition from services to software, allowing Erikson to scale his business model beyond hourly consulting work.

Jack Butcher built an agency focused on visualizing complex concepts into digestible graphics, but found the service model unsustainable. He productized his expertise into digital courses—including one on design and another on productization—reaching $800K-$1M ARR in 18 months by leveraging organic content marketing on social media. His success demonstrates the power of converting a service-based skill into scalable digital products with strong distribution channels.

Postaga is an all-in-one outreach platform that helps users build links, get podcast guest spots, and conduct cold outreach campaigns. Founded by Andy Cabasso and Sam (co-founders who previously ran a recurring-revenue agency they sold in 2016), the product launched in beta in January 2020 and achieved Product Hunt success in May 2020 (1,279 upvotes, #1 product of the day, #2 of the week), though they didn't monetize until August 2020. The company now operates with a freemium SaaS model ($99-$299/month tiers), a done-for-you service offering, a team of six, and attributes recent growth largely to the TinySeed program.

JD Graffam built SimpleFocus as a design agency serving enterprise clients like Oracle and the U.S. Air Force. Rather than building SaaS products from scratch, he acquired six struggling SaaS businesses with loyal customer bases, fixed their technical debt, and improved support—doubling recurring revenue across his portfolio without spending on marketing. His strategy of acquiring underperforming products with strong retention and managing them through his agency team proved more effective than traditional SaaS launches.

An established $30M B2B agency launched a SaaS product focused on building intranets for enterprise clients. The company has achieved $1M in ARR, leveraging its existing agency relationships and expertise to drive adoption of its intranet platform.

Jack Butcher scaled Visualize Value to $1M in ARR within 18 months by productizing his design and strategy services through courses and digital products under the 'Build Once, Sell Twice' model. The approach leverages his content marketing presence to drive a community of entrepreneurs and creators while reducing dependency on traditional agency work.