Teen From Kazakhstan Makes $1M/Year Online
Starter Story
Oct 14, 2025
Mark Vassilevskiy is a 19-year-old from Kazakhstan who built a $1M design agency in just 10 months. He went from zero clients to $80K/month revenue by mastering a strategy nobody else uses: public free redesigns. This video breaks down his "free work” formula and how he turned rejection into a repeatable client acquisition system.
Get design inspiration from the world's best apps → https://go.starterstory.com/markv
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Mark's $1M business: https://skale.solutions/
Follow Mark: https://x.com/markknd
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🏁 We're hiring: starterstory.com/jobs
0:00 - Intro
0:54 - Who is Mark
1:09 - What does Skale do?
1:40 - Mark's background
2:33 - Landing the first big client
3:28 - Free work that led to clients
4:08 - How to build an audience
7:06 - Numbers behind Skale
7:37 - $1M Tech stack
8:10 - Tools to get started
8:32 - Volume negates luck
9:21 - The final word
This video is an educational case study of one founder’s experience. It is not financial advice and does not guarantee any income or results. Every business is different and your results may vary.
Chapters
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Transcript
Chapters
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No tools listed for this business.
I
built
one
of
the
biggest
design
agencies
in
Silicon
Valley
and
we
make
around
80
000
a
month
This
is
Mark
a
19
year
old
from
Kazakhstan
who
built
a
million
dollar
business
in
just
10
months
And
he
did
it
with
a
brilliant
strategy
can
actually
work
and
can
actually
bring
you
more
customers
Mark
repeated
this
formula
and
went
viral
every
time
and
this
grew
his
business
fast
So
I
brought
Mark
onto
the
channel
to
break
down
his
entire
playbook
And
in
this
video
we'll
dive
into
his
step
by
step
free
work
in
public
formula
that
gets
clients
overnight
his
exact
playbook
on
how
to
go
from
zero
to
10
000
followers
fast
and
why
following
this
playbook
is
the
fastest
way
to
build
a
million
dollar
business
All
right
I
think
you
guys
are
going
to
like
this
one
I'm
Pat
Walls
and
this
is
Starter
Story
All
right
Mark
welcome
to
the
channel
Tell
me
about
who
you
are
what
you
built
and
what's
your
story
Yeah
so
I'm
19
I'm
from
Kazakhstan
I
built
one
of
the
biggest
design
agencies
in
Silicon
Valley
scaled
the
team
to
20
people
and
doing
around
80
000
a
month
All
right
well
before
we
get
into
how
you
built
this
can
you
just
explain
what
your
business
does
and
what
it
is
Sure
So
it's
a
design
agency
and
we
do
everything
from
the
websites
to
launch
videos
and
the
Times
Square
billboards
We
work
with
one
of
the
biggest
names
in
the
AI
niche
such
as
Bolt
new
Korea
AI
and
and
we
partner
with
Premier
with
Vogue
with
the
Contra
So
the
idea
behind
our
agency
is
we
help
you
to
get
noticed
We
usually
don't
focus
on
conversions
or
little
tweaks
on
landing
page
We
help
to
make
something
that
will
go
viral
Cool
Before
we
get
into
how
you
grew
how
you
built
this
thing
I
mean
I
look
at
your
website
right
now
the
design
is
amazing
How
do
you
get
into
this
design
world
and
then
build
a
pretty
big
company
out
of
it
More
than
five
years
ago
I
opened
the
Fimo
for
the
first
time
and
I
switched
from
front
end
as
a
developer
to
design
At
the
time
I
was
just
working
with
some
local
clients
in
Kazakhstan
I
got
a
couple
of
small
clients
on
local
websites
I
was
just
slightly
slightly
getting
more
experience
and
slightly
growing
right
Then
in
January
of
2024
I
decided
to
open
my
ex
account
for
the
first
time
and
started
posting
consistently
A
few
months
passed
by
I
got
like
5
to
6K
followers
and
in
November
of
2024
I
opened
my
agency
So
on
average
I
think
we
juggle
between
6
to
7
clients
a
month
Some
of
them
are
one
off
products
some
of
them
are
retainers
and
I
would
say
our
average
price
for
retainers
is
about
20K
a
month
Okay
cool
Well
I
mean
I
think
what's
amazing
about
your
business
is
that
you
don't
have
like
a
million
clients
You
just
have
a
few
really
really
solid
clients
that
pay
you
a
lot
of
money
per
month
Can
you
break
down
how
you
got
your
first
big
client
Yeah
sure
So
for
the
whole
summer
like
2024
I
was
applying
for
all
the
UX
UI
web
design
roles
I
could
find
And
eventually
all
of
them
rejected
me
So
I
decided
to
make
like
a
new
campaign
where
I
would
do
the
free
redesigns
for
these
big
brands
And
WoW
was
the
first
one
that
I
did
I
took
the
Atlantic
page
redesigned
the
hero
section
and
made
a
post
about
that
And
the
post
blew
up
to
like
110K
views
I
think
like
overnight
even
though
WoW
itself
didn't
notice
me
But
at
this
time
I
got
around
10
to
12
call
bookings
overnight
and
the
close
majority
of
them
So
it
basically
was
my
first
month
of
running
an
agency
and
making
this
new
campaign
and
it
turned
out
super
good
Okay
cool
I
mean
I
love
this
So
could
you
just
show
me
actually
right
now
a
post
that
you
did
free
work
that
led
to
clients
Basically
this
day
I
had
a
flight
from
Kazakhstan
to
San
Francisco
Because
I
was
going
to
the
Boat
event
I
also
met
with
the
Boat
team
and
I
showed
it
to
them
and
they
reached
out
to
me
maybe
like
in
a
week
and
we
started
working
together
And
here's
another
example
of
the
free
work
we've
done
We
did
a
redesign
for
the
homepage
of
Acquisition
com
and
then
Alex
Hermosin
himself
he
noticed
this
right
And
he
actually
responded
to
this
tweet
And
this
post
I
would
say
it's
probably
the
highest
conversing
post
of
my
life
It
maybe
brought
me
like
15
16
call
bookings
overnight
I
think
the
next
thing
that
some
people
watching
this
are
probably
wondering
is
okay
I
don't
have
an
audience
So
if
I
do
free
work
and
I
share
it
publicly
nobody's
going
to
see
it
I'd
love
if
you
shared
your
playbook
for
getting
that
early
audience
getting
those
first
few
thousand
followers
if
you're
doing
anything
in
design
or
really
anything
in
marketing
marketing
online
So
step
one
to
start
using
this
free
work
strategy
you
first
of
all
need
to
have
an
ex
account
So
you
need
to
get
some
followers
Spend
a
lot
of
time
engaging
with
other
people
in
your
niche
I
was
just
leaving
like
50
comments
a
day
on
other
design
response
Step
two
you
go
from
little
amount
of
followers
like
a
few
hundred
followers
to
a
few
thousand
followers
by
doing
giveaways
The
three
things
you
can
give
away
is
usually
the
knowledge
the
product
or
the
service
So
the
thing
is
you
basically
say
like
to
get
this
you
need
to
follow
me
you
need
to
leave
a
comment
you
need
to
re
box
them
right
And
then
I
will
send
it
to
you
like
in
a
DMs
And
basically
because
of
the
giveaways
I
was
able
to
go
maybe
like
from
500
followers
to
5k
followers
in
a
couple
of
months
by
doing
maybe
like
three
giveaways
in
total
Step
three
I
would
say
would
be
to
download
the
TweetHunter
extension
You
needed
to
see
the
most
viral
content
of
people
in
your
niche
so
then
you
can
replicate
that
Step
four
would
be
to
experiment
as
much
with
the
content
as
you
can
because
the
thing
is
3
to
5k
followers
is
actually
the
best
range
of
followers
you
can
have
Why
Because
you're
big
enough
to
make
some
of
your
content
blow
up
right
And
you're
not
big
enough
for
people
to
care
about
you
enough
So
you
can
like
make
like
a
bunch
of
posts
and
just
like
test
new
ideas
test
everything
you
have
in
mind
And
let's
say
if
it's
not
good
enough
then
people
just
will
not
notice
that
It
doesn't
matter
right
You
will
not
hurt
your
reputation
And
if
it's
good
enough
then
it
will
blow
up
step
five
would
be
to
make
something
cool
for
these
big
ass
brands
How
it
works
is
that
you
find
the
most
viral
brands
people
talk
about
right
now
So
right
now
it
may
be
in
Cluelea
So
every
month
every
couple
of
months
people
have
something
new
to
talk
about
And
your
idea
is
to
spend
as
much
time
to
make
the
highest
quality
of
work
for
this
trending
brand
name
to
then
make
it
go
viral
Okay
I
want
to
point
out
something
important
here
With
Mark's
agency
he
had
to
deliver
amazing
designs
fast
He
didn't
waste
weeks
tweaking
buttons
or
second
guessing
every
layout
He
had
a
system
for
creating
stunning
designs
quickly
which
is
the
same
idea
behind
the
app
Mobbin
our
sponsor
of
today's
video
Mobbin
is
one
of
my
favorite
tools
for
finding
amazing
design
inspiration
It's
a
giant
vault
of
real
product
designs
from
the
best
apps
in
the
world
Actual
apps
and
screens
broken
down
by
features
and
styles
styles
So
instead
of
guessing
how
to
design
your
app
you
can
just
find
proven
templates
and
build
from
that
10
times
faster
This
app
has
saved
me
hours
and
it
makes
designing
fun
again
So
if
you're
interested
check
out
Mobbin
at
the
first
link
in
the
description
Huge
thanks
to
Mobbin
for
supporting
this
video
and
sponsoring
the
channel
All
right
let's
get
back
to
the
story
Okay
thank
you
for
sharing
that
playbook
I
think
it's
awesome
Can
you
share
some
more
numbers
behind
the
business
and
how
it's
doing
just
10
months
after
starting
Yeah
we'll
make
80k
revenue
a
month
on
average
Next
month
we're
thinking
to
break
100k
If
you
see
it
our
dashboard
we
actually
double
every
two
months
in
terms
of
the
revenue
So
we
start
with
the
10k
a
month
then
two
months
to
20k
40k
80k
and
so
on
Right
now
I
have
25k
followers
on
X
I
recently
took
a
look
at
the
statistics
I
have
more
than
25
million
views
throughout
this
year
on
apps
Cool
Let
me
change
the
subject
I
do
want
to
understand
a
little
bit
more
about
how
you
built
this
business
What
is
the
tech
stack
and
the
tools
that
you
use
to
build
this
business
to
80
000
a
month
in
10
months
I
would
say
design
agencies
they
use
the
same
bundle
of
tools
at
the
zero
level
and
the
maximum
level
It's
always
Figma
Blender
After
Effects
Cinema
4D
We
use
it
for
3D
motions
We
use
Slack
for
communication
We
use
Notion
obviously
X
and
we
have
the
highest
level
of
X
verified
organization
subscription
for
the
brand
of
work
purposes
anyone
watching
this
that
wants
to
get
started
right
now
what
are
the
actual
tools
you
need
to
get
started
You
actually
don't
need
that
much
Figma
is
free
You
can
pay
like
30
a
month
for
firm
subscription
just
to
host
your
own
website
but
it's
also
not
necessary
I
have
a
bunch
of
friends
who
make
like
30k
to
40k
MRR
without
the
website
So
I
would
say
if
you
just
start
out
everything
is
free
Thanks
for
sharing
all
those
tools
If
you
could
go
back
in
time
and
stand
on
Mark's
shoulder
before
you
had
any
clients
what
would
be
your
number
one
piece
of
advice
or
advice
for
anyone
who's
watching
this
that
wants
to
get
started
and
build
something
like
you
People
usually
underestimate
the
amount
of
work
you
actually
need
to
put
in
right
So
I
always
ask
myself
what's
the
number
of
times
you
need
to
repeat
this
specific
task
that
the
chances
of
you
not
getting
a
client
or
a
lead
will
be
close
to
zero
How
many
times
I
need
to
do
the
call
DMs
How
many
times
I
need
to
post
the
content
The
chances
of
me
not
getting
something
from
that
will
be
close
to
zero
Well
thanks
for
coming
onto
the
channel
Mark
What
you
built
is
awesome
19
years
old
building
an
amazing
company
working
with
the
coolest
companies
So
thanks
for
coming
on
and
sharing
everything
It
was
awesome
Yeah
Thank
you
too
Pat
Thank
you
It
was
exciting
All
right
right
Big
thanks
to
Mark
for
coming
onto
the
channel
I
loved
his
story
how
he
built
all
this
in
public
and
how
he
grew
to
a
million
dollar
business
in
under
a
year
That's
just
insane
But
remember
it
all
started
with
a
simple
idea
and
today
that's
really
all
you
need
And
that's
why
we
launched
Starter
Story
Build
In
Starter
Story
Build
we
will
help
you
turn
a
simple
idea
into
a
real
working
app
and
you'll
do
it
all
without
writing
a
single
line
of
code
If
you're
interested
in
checking
it
out
then
just
head
to
the
link
in
the
description
and
check
out
Starter
Story
Build
All
right
that's
it
for
this
episode
Thank
you
guys
for
watching
I
hope
you
enjoyed
it
We'll
see
you
in
the
next
one
Peace
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