Less Doing

Ari Maizel didn't set out to build a virtual assistant company. He started as a productivity consultant and coach, creating a system called "Less Doing" based on nine fundamental principles. But when he launched a virtual assistant offering in Q3 2015 as an extension of his coaching business, something unexpected happened: it became his fastest-growing revenue stream, eventually overshadowing his consulting work entirely.

The Less Doing VA service launched in late August 2015 with a simple model: customers paid a $149/month membership fee plus $50/hour for work, billed by the second. But Ari quickly realized something critical was missing. "We didn't have that the first month and that was a really important shift for us," he said, referring to the recurring monthly fee component. This pivot from pure hourly billing to a hybrid subscription model transformed the unit economics and customer behavior.

Ari built the team carefully, recruiting "very, very, very good talent" and paying them well. Unlike typical VA services, he positioned his offering as "on-demand project managers" or "on-demand chief of staff," capable of handling projects of any size—from podcast production and sales funnel creation to book writing and business operations. By June 2016, just nine months after launch, he had 120 people on team (only 20 of whom were VAs; the rest were specialized contractors), handling everything from A/B testing to social media.

Growth came primarily through Ari's existing audience and authority. He had published "Less Doing More Living" with Random House/Penguin in March 2013, which sold 30,000 copies (12,000 ebook, 8,000 audiobook, and the rest softcover). He was running "The Less Doing Podcast," which had grown to 30,000 monthly downloads by June 2016, with 220+ episodes in the back catalog generating long-tail downloads (notably, an interview with David Allen still drove 50-100 downloads weekly). He was also doing two speaking engagements per month.

These three channels—the book, the podcast, and speaking—drove nearly all customer acquisition. "A lot of people find me that way," Ari explained. "Anecdotally, the podcast seems to be one of the best ways that we find people because they really get to know what we do." He also mentioned "strategic partnerships" as a growth channel, though he didn't elaborate.

Ari learned hard lessons about outsourcing and delegation. When hiring ghostwriters to write his first book, he initially blamed the vendors. Then he realized: "If you give something to a competent outsource provider and they make a mistake, it's 90% of the time it is your fault because you didn't give them the information the right way." This insight—that clear communication is the bottleneck in outsourcing—became a core competitive advantage for Less Doing.

He also discovered the power of "showing" over "telling." For his book, instead of writing a manuscript, he filmed a 2.5-hour seminar on video using just a basic camera on a tripod, then gave that video to a ghostwriter with minimal instructions. The writer, Carissa in Ohio, produced a manuscript for just $400 that eventually sold to Penguin. This validated his later podcast strategy: letting people hear how Less Doing actually works proved far more effective than any sales pitch.

What didn't work: Ari turned down a $300,000 investment offer because the company didn't need it. Growing at "hockey stick" rates with zero outside capital, the team used 35% of billable hours on internal projects (social media, sales funnels, analytics) to build the company from within.

By June 2016, Less Doing had: - 170 paying customers (Ari's target was 300) - May 2016 MRR of $46,000 (and growing every month) - 2015 revenue of $200,000; projected 2016 revenue of $1M+ - Average customer value of $1,150/month ($149 subscription + ~$1,000 in hourly work at $50/hour for 20 hours/month) - 411 billable hours in a single week, delivering 2-3x time value per hour worked - Zero outside capital and profitability from day one

Ari had just released his second book, "The Art of Less Doing," and was taking a one-year break from speaking (except for one October event) to spend time with his fourth child, born in February 2016. At 33, he was intentionally capping growth at 300 clients and 5,000 billable hours/month, preferring high-touch, premium positioning over scale.