How Starter Story actually makes money — every claim cites a verbatim quote from a public source.
"Join our free newsletter to get unlimited access to all startup data."
"it is profitable and generates a 'seven-figure' revenue, according to founder Patrick Walls."
"the business started to look less like a hobby and more like a media company. He doubled down on publishing, hired carefully and built out a subscription product."
"Starter Story has a similar business model to what the New York Times has for its content... There are 3 pricing tiers for the subscription, with the highest one including their courses and mentorship for your business."
"Within two years, Starter Story surpassed $1 million in annual revenue."
"We would put the ad at the top of every page, and then we put a native ad in every newsletter."
"The business is run by a team of three full-time staff: Walls, his sister and chief operating officer Sam, and producer Gus Tiffer."
"An early sponsorship relationship turned into deeper conversations, and eventually an offer."
"I monetize the newsletter with a sponsorship, and I start making some money from affiliate revenue."
"A few months after launching Starter Story, Walls was approached by an email marketing company called Klaviyo, and they soon struck a deal that positioned the company as the exclusive sponsor of Starter Story."
"Sponsorships account for a slight majority of the revenue Starter Story brings in, around 57%. In March of 2019, Pat said Klaviyo started paying $4k per month, or $48k per year to sponsor the whole website and newsletter."
"I'm making money through some affiliate marketing."
"Many of these are affiliate links, and Starter Story gets paid a commission when these are used. Affiliate marketing accounts for around 5% of revenue."
"Starter Story provides over 4,400 real-world case studies of businesses that are making millions in revenue through expert interviews and storytelling."
"Pat also created the Lean SEO course that walks through how he grew the website to over 1M monthly visitors from search alone. He sells that as a standalone product that can be bought without having an annual subscription. Right now it’s $249, but it looks like they’re increas..."
"Today, Starter Story has... more than 10,000 paid members..."