It has been 4 months since I left my full-time job to build Internet Empires.
Since then, I’ve gotten dozens of texts from friends and family members essentially saying…
“Wait, you left your secure, high-paying job at one of the best companies in the world, with great benefits, to become... a content creator?”.
Yes. Well kinda.
More than just a content creator.
Most people don’t get it, but here’s my reasoning:
1) I’ve always wanted to see how far I could go if I just locked in and built one thing. I’ve worked on a startup, I DJ’d in SF for years, I wrote a self-development book, I had a podcast back in 2016, but all while juggling a highly demanding 9-5 job that always took priority over everything.
2) Now is the best time in history to bet on yourself. You have countless tools at your disposal to build whatever you want and scale yourself using the internet.
3) Every year that passes, the list of responsibilities on my plate will keep stacking up. If not now, then when? It will be much more difficult moving forward. So why not now?
4) I can always go back and work another full-time social media gig if I really had to (but I will do everything in my power to make this work).
5) I genuinely love doing this. Sharing stories, creating content, and being helpful. If I can consistently do this within my niche of internet entrepreneurship, then money will come later.
Which brings my to my next point: Hypergrowth.
Most startups enter hypergrowth when their app or user base is exploding, things are breaking, and they can’t really keep up with the demand.
While I’m not building a traditional startup, I am building a media startup.
And if there’s one thing I am good at, it’s growing distribution outlets.
It is all I’ve done throughout my entire career at LinkedIn, Snap, & a16z.
So why not do this for myself?
For the last 4 months, I’ve been diligently laying the foundation, building the brand of Internet Empires, and getting things squared away for this next phase of growth.
I’ve done 14 interviews with some of my favorite builders on the internet.
Each one serves as a mini-course or case study on how to build an internet business.
Now, it’s time to scale.
But first, why?
Well, if I can grow the audience across this little media empire that I’ve started, then it can actually turn into a real business and make enough money to sustain itself (and keep fueling growth).
Up until now, I’ve rejected ad slots because the money didn’t really seem worth the loss of brand equity that I’ve built.
But if I can scale this thing across outlets like email & podcast, then I should be able to attract high-quality partners and lock in longer-term deals (vs one-off shills).
So that brings us to now.
If you are reading this, then thank you.
You’re early.
You’re one of the 3,000 people who have followed along while I’ve ranted about social media, distribution, and why the internet is incredible.
In the next 6 months, I’ll grow this community to 50,000 newsletter subs.
I’ll also grow my YouTube from 8,000 to 100,000 subscribers by the end of the year.
There are about a dozen growth experiments I’m currently running and will share updates along the way.
Stay tuned for more.
-Ish
p.s. if you haven’t already subbed to the YouTube, check it out here:
here’s our top-performing episode so far (with Ben Rubin, founder of Houseparty, Meerkat & Towns)
currently at 22,000 views