Founder stories
First Customerin 3 months
19-Year-Old College Dropout Builds Content Agency from $75 to $4M
Founder
Julia McCoy
Solo Founder•Non-technical•USA
Commitment
Full-timeExperience
First-timeProduct
Content marketing agency.
Type
Agency / ServiceIndustry
MarketingModel
SubscriptionMarketing Strategy
How Julia acquired customers
Primary Channel
Cold Outreach
Tech Stack
Tools used to build Express Writers
WordPressSEO toolsProject management software
The Full Story
At 19, Julia McCoy was in college pursuing a degree she didn't want. She taught herself to write by writing hundreds of cheap articles.
Finding the Gap
She discovered an untapped need combining content marketing with SEO. She started Express Writers with just $75.
Scale
By fall 2012, working twelve hours a day. She grew to over $4M in revenue in seven years.
- Starting capital: $75
- Revenue in 7 years: $4M+
- Strategy: SEO + content combined
Key Takeaways
1
Practice by doing - write hundreds of cheap articles to learn
2
Identify market gaps (SEO + content combined) for competitive advantage
3
You don't need much capital to start a service business
4
Partner with complementary skills
Originally published onExpress Writers
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