Nathan Barry isn’t what you’d picture as a successful entrepreneur. He doesn’t dress in snazzy designer suits and doesn’t spend time jet-setting to exotic locales to take part in parties. No, he’s the kind of guy who prefers spending time with his family and teaching others what he knows. He built ConvertKit into a multi-million-dollar business, and it all started with blogging online.
Humble Beginnings In a Blog
Barry happily says that blogging was what brought him to build this empire. In 2011, he sought a way to escape his job and earn money online. Like many entrepreneurs, he was tired of the constant rat race and wanted to reach beyond and above it.
He held on to his job for a while, but eventually, it bogged down his spirits so much that he just had to leave. So, with a mere 800 subscribers on his email list, he set out to be his own boss, hoping that he could make ends meet.
A Brilliant Idea From Other Creators
Barry would follow other creators’ online spaces. Several of them showed him how much money could be made from writing a book. To this end, he decided to work on a book covering a topic that he knew inside and out – The App Design Handbook.
He published this book in 2012, and the popularity of his approach soared. Within the first day of the book going live, he had made $12,000. At the end of the week, he had hit the $20,000 mark. In Barry’s own words, this marked the inflection point for him – the point he knew that making money online was doable.
Going Beyond the Ebook Market
Making money off the ebook was excellent for his finances, but he knew he could do more. As a blogger, Barry had taught himself to develop one thousand words a day of good content. Since he had a successful book under his belt, it gave him more fuel for the fire.
He would create blogs about his writing process, what he found worked and what didn’t. People would tune in because the content was interesting and delivered in a straightforward and natural way. His second book followed soon after the first and focused on designing web applications.
The Seeds of ConvertKit Are Sown
Barry’s second book did even better than the first one, bringing in over $25,000 on that first day. While it was suitable for his content that he covered this book’s production and release, he also saw something that planted the seed for ConvertKit in his mind. Email marketing was a powerful way to generate sales.
Barry’s realization came alongside a discussion he had with a long-term friend after the book was published. The friend was an internet marketer in the 2000s, and Barry asked him about email marketing. He was surprised when the friend noted that email marketing typically outperformed social media marketing.
A Deeper Connection
Social media is a powerful tool that brings creators closer to their audience. However, social media doesn’t offer anything inherently to its audience. It says, “Hey if you like my content, feel free to like and subscribe,” or something along those lines. It didn’t hold with what Barry knew about marketing.
Email marketing had the potential to forge a connection that went far deeper than just a “like and subscribe.” It allowed the audience to get something from the creator. Leveraging email lists was a great way to reach out to a group of engaged readers who wanted to know more about what he was doing.
Fighting With His Email Software
Mailing lists are powerful, but they’re only as good as the software you’re using with them. Email list subscription services often don’t have a good enough interface to interact with an audience. They are very much stuck in the ideal of “mass-emailing,” which is impersonal and drives away an audience.
Learning that every time he had to personalize an email, he would need to do battle with MailChimp to get the result he wanted. This combat made Barry realize there was a hole in the market. Since there was no email platform for creators like Barry, he decided he would build one, and that’s where ConvertKit came from.
Starting as a Public Project
Kickstarter might have a bad rap these days, but it was the best way to get a project funded back in the day. Barry started ConvertKit as a Kickstarter project, and it quickly picked up steam. He first posted about this SaaS company on his blog, and word spread among followers like wildfire.
One of Barry’s mantras is “Work in Public.” To keep himself accountable to his Kickstarter supporters, he decided to live blog the entire thing every step of the way. Not only did this win him the respect and admiration of his fans, but also many other people who were impressed with what he was doing.
The Project Falters
After about six months, Barry had exhausted his initial seed funding and a bit more money raised from early investors. He was only working part-time on ConvertKit while the rest of his time went into blogs and inbound marketing. In a daring dive, he decided to abandon the things that were already making him money and double down on the SaaS plan.
In a bold new marketing plan, Barry reached out to people, spoke to them one-on-one, and pitched them an alternative to MailChimp. For a while, all his time was spent meeting people and talking to them while continuing to provide stellar customer service on ConvertKit.
A Recovery Unlike Anything Else
In a few months, ConvertKit went from making less than $1,300 a month to a whopping $98,000 monthly revenue. Barry attributes this success to engaging others and doing what works. He’s a firm believer in not reinventing the wheel.
These days, he spends most of his life with his wife and kids while offering a few courses to help others. Another of Barry’s mantras is “Teach what you know,” which has benefitted him immensely over the years. He advises that you only know what you don’t know when you try to teach it.
As for ConvertKit, it remains one of the most popular email subscription services in the world. With a six-figure monthly revenue, it shows the power of teaching what you know and never giving up.
