NerdPilots
Kevin Pereira is a serial entrepreneur who had built and sold multiple businesses before launching NerdPilots. As he developed different products and websites, people kept asking him to use his designers and developers to build their own projects. Rather than turning them down, Kevin saw an opportunity: "let's create a little agency where people can get a website built or if they have any website issues, they can come to us and we'll fix it."
Kevin's process for building NerdPilots was straightforward and efficient. He explained his vision to his main designer, sent examples of designs he liked from other websites, and a couple of days later received a design. After refinement with feedback from friends, he handed it off to developers to code. Initially, NerdPilots started with a subscription service model where customers paid $69/month for two hours of work, backed by a rudimentary backend system for project management. However, this model quickly became problematic. After landing just three clients, Kevin realized the backend was a mess because "people's needs varied a lot. Some people just needed an hour every two months while some people needed almost a full-time developer."
Kevin promoted NerdPilots on Facebook groups initially, but discovered the real growth driver: Craigslist. "The best way to get customers has been Craigslist. We just posted on Craigslist every day and we find lots of good clients (and a lot of bad clients as well!)." This direct, repeatable channel became the backbone of customer acquisition. The agency also worked on social media presence, a blog, and guides to attract inbound leads.
The biggest pivot that transformed NerdPilots was shifting from the subscription model to a project-based agency model. Kevin realized that spending the same effort to acquire a client paying $100/month versus $50,000 for a project made no sense. After landing a major $38,000 project, he fully committed to pursuing bigger deals. Google AdWords, however, didn't work: "We once tried Google AdWords, but we were not able to make it successful."
Managing client expectations became critical. Kevin implemented signed contracts with every client and developed an instinct for which clients would be problematic. "I tend to reject customers – I now just feel what kind of client they're going to be and if they're not very responsive." By the time of this interview in March 2019, NerdPilots had grown to 12 team members: 1 project manager, 2 designers, 2 assistants, and 7 developers.
NerdPilots was generating "somewhere between 15 to 25 thousand dollars a month" with an ambitious goal of reaching $100,000/month by the end of 2019. Kevin was developing the next evolution: a new backend system that would become TaskJoyy, a SaaS product. The vision was to solve a core pain point for agencies—inefficient client communication and project management. The platform would let clients post jobs ("I need a website, I need this bug to be fixed") and receive quotes, creating a more streamlined workflow similar to Upwork but for agency services. Kevin believed this product would become useful for other agencies to manage clients and maximize revenues, transforming NerdPilots from an agency into a platform business.
- •Kevin identified a clear, repeatable customer acquisition channel (Craigslist daily postings) and doubled down on it rather than chasing vanity metrics or complicated marketing funnels.
- •The pivot from subscription ($69/month) to project-based pricing aligned revenue incentives with effort—he could spend the same time acquiring a $50,000 client versus a $100/month subscription, making economics and motivation clear.
- •Kevin's portfolio of 10+ businesses taught him to reject bad opportunities quickly and focus on businesses where similar competitors already succeeded, reducing risk and validating demand.
- •Ruthless client selection and contractual clarity prevented the agency from being dragged down by difficult customers, allowing the team to scale with higher morale and fewer conflicts.
- •Kevin balanced running multiple businesses by delegating heavily—using a dedicated project manager per project, virtual assistants for emails and support, and clear delegation to developers—which freed his time for strategic decisions rather than execution.
- 1.If you're starting an agency, test Craigslist as a customer acquisition channel by posting daily with a clear service description and value prop; track which postings generate the best-qualified leads and iterate on messaging.
- 2.Switch from a time-based subscription model to project-based or value-based pricing early; calculate the customer acquisition cost (CAC) for different price points and focus sales efforts on segments where CAC-to-LTV math favors larger deals.
- 3.Before building a new business, do a market check: find at least 2-3 competitors already making money in that space; this validates demand and gives you a north star for pricing and positioning.
- 4.Implement a simple client qualification rubric based on responsiveness, clarity of communication, and budget fit; reject or raise prices for prospects that don't meet it to protect team morale and reduce delivery friction.
- 5.Build a backend/operations platform that solves your own agency's worst pain point (client project requests and communication) as your first SaaS product, since you'll have a built-in user base and deep understanding of the problem.
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