Today, that same process takes us two to three hours, and despite what you might think, the quality is indistinguishable to even a highly discerning technical audience.

While AI thought leaders (with obvious agendas to do so) are shouting about the “end of white collar work,” I’m seeing something more nuanced yet equally important on the ground: buyer behavior is shifting, prospects are arriving more informed, sales cycles are being compressed, and LLM-driven leads are starting to outpace traditional search.

It’s clear that generative AI is not just a handy new tool. We are facing a fundamental change in how digital work will happen and how products will be sold.

The choice for agency owners is no longer about if you’ll use generative AI or not, but whether you’ll try to hang on to the last vestiges of a dying model, or reinvent your business to thrive in an age of faster cycle times, better informed buyers, and higher expectations from service providers.

How the Ground is Shifting

I already mentioned the Draft.dev transformation, but let me elaborate a bit.

Using LLMs to help draft written content faster is probably the most obvious use case, and the tools are getting better at pulling in context from documentation, meeting notes, and previously written content. While we spend a lot of time gathering all this information from clients, once we have it, the writing process is significantly faster and requires much less editorial oversight than it did a couple years ago.

With a single senior engineer in the loop, we can typically create long-form content pieces in a few hours of work, whereas in the past, it took weeks of editorial and technical review before pieces were ready for clients. And, this new AI-powered workflow makes the output more consistent. We can incorporate previous comments from the client into our prompts, ensuring they never have to give the same feedback twice.

With this meaningful improvement in production cycle time and costs, we’ve been able to layer in content strategy, site/content audits, SEO/LLM monitoring, and distribution assistance without raising prices. Essentially, clients are getting more value for money from working with Draft.dev in 2026 than they ever have before.

But, I’m also not convinced that the tools will get to a point where they operate independently on high-stakes tasks anytime soon. LLMs and agentic tools are still just computers, and you can tell that they operate like computers, giving unreliable output when faced with novel input that’s not been previously tested or tried. So, each time we bring on a new client or attempt a different type of content, we have to re-tune our prompts and check the output more closely.

That said, any agency will recognize that having fewer humans in their COGS is likely a good thing for the bottom line. Fewer people per dollar of revenue means we don’t need as many managers, software tools to manage them, or communication overhead. It’s ultimately good for our businesses, but also good for clients as we can weather the inevitable budget ups and downs without as much swing in headcount.

Buyer Behavior is Changing

Another important consideration for agencies is that the way clients are finding and selecting agencies is changing. At both our companies (Draft.dev and The Podcast Consultant), LLM discovery is starting to outpace traditional search for buyers who book sales calls.

While SEO may still lead to site visits, traditional searchers tend to be higher in the funnel, and need to go through the full cycle of read => download asset => nurture => sale, while LLM traffic tends to book a sales call directly.

The reason for this is that buyers are using LLMs to dive deep into their specific needs and both our agencies are positioned to be specialists in their respective areas. So, when someone asks ChatGPT “what are some good developer marketing agencies?”, Draft.dev is much more likely to appear based on our internet-wide content footprint.

That said, these new buyers coming in from LLMs are better informed and often know more about what they want than people who come in from referrals or traditional search. I notice they tend to be evaluating us alongside competitors more often and they’re often more familiar with our workflows and service offerings.

The takeaway here is that for agencies, having published content about what you do and how you do it is no longer optional. The more specialized you are, the better and the more you write and talk about that specialty, the more likely you are for LLMs to recommend your services.

The Tech Stack of the Future

In addition to AI changing client services and discovery models, it’s empowering a suite of new software tools that will reduce operational complexity and enable smaller agencies to do more with fewer people.

A few examples of this include:

• Vibe Coding (Especially for MVPs): It’s never been easier for agency owners with small tech teams to build out a software tool for internal (or external) use. Our team uses Airtable, n8n, and a variety of LLMs to automate everything from onboarding to reporting, and we have essentially created our own in-house software to do it with very little cost or maintenance overhead.
• AI-Based Software Solutions: AI-powered PEO or payroll providers like Warp and bookkeeping tools like Docyt allow agencies to wait longer to make costly back-office hires, keeping OpEx low while you get off the ground.
• The Rise of Agentic Platforms: Most recently, agentic platforms like Zo.computer and OpenClaw have replaced my administrative assistant, and are now at a point of speed and reliability where I can trust them to handle a wide range of low-level, non-specialized tasks with a few minutes of skill-building.

All these factors will mean smaller, more nimble agencies with greater specialization and highly automated workflows will thrive in the next few years. While some clients will certainly use AI to build these processes in-house, plenty will have bureaucratic and technical reasons why they can’t adopt these tools quickly.

That’s where the big opportunity in digital agencies lies this year, and that’s why I see two paths for agencies going forward.

Two Paths for Agencies in 2026 and Beyond

The Legacy Maintenance Path

Some agencies will not want to change. Resistence from tenured employees, fear of change, and owners unaware of the impact this technology can have will try to maintain their headcount and highly customized client relationships.

The problem is that these agencies will be outpaced by up-and-comers if they don’t adapt.

It won’t happen overnight, but as more tech-forward, nimble agencies start building expertise, case studies, and a proven track record, they’ll chip away at slower-moving incumbents who can’t match their price, output, or capacity.

One of our jobs as agency owners is to standardize the work to a point where individuals can’t muck up a project as easily, and machines are an order of magnitude more consistent at performing similar tasks repeatedly than employees can.

So agencies that continue to rely on humans with high variability in skills will get left in the dust of those that take the other path.

The AI-Powered Agency

Agencies that can eek out more margin have a greater capacity to grow, stronger cash reserves, and the ability to bring on better talent. In short, they are more likely to succeed in the long-run.

So, it stands to reason that agencies that successfully replace headcount with AI tools will grow faster, be more prepared to weather a downturn, and start to win the hiring war.

The AI-Powered Agency will think like a software company (how can we automate this?) instead of a body shop (how can we train people to do this?), and while this has always been true, it used to be that software was less capable than people for certain nuanced, highly skilled tasks. With the right prompts and tools, generative AI is removing this limitation. You no longer have to employ a software engineer just to help you build a tool that transfers data from one API to another; you can just ask an AI agent to do it.

I no longer ask someone on my team to schedule meetings, make reminders to follow up with people, or research a client’s competitors. These things are all easily accomplished by AI, and with at least as much reliability as a junior to mid-level employee would have done in the past.

These tasks may seem trivial, but they stack up, and agencies that are best able to stack these wins will continue to thrive in 2026 and beyond.

Finally, the AI-powered agency will intuitively understand the value of showing up in LLMs today. As more agency evaluation moves to LLMs and is potentially done entirely by agents, this moat will continue to broaden.

Predictions and Tactical Advice

First, let me say that I don’t think the adoption curve is as short as tech leaders want you to think, but I do think it’s coming fairly soon.

The technology is moving fast and interfaces for AI agents and LLMs are improving, such that tech-savvy users can pick up these tools and be pretty effective with them in a few hours.

But, many industries are just inherently slow to adopt new tools. Regulated fields like healthcare and governments won’t change their vendors overnight, and legal and compliance departments in large companies will need time to figure out the implications of these tools.

That said, compared to other transformational technologies (railroads, electricity, or even the internet), the impact of generative AI on white collar work will happen much faster. The “deployment phase” is significantly shorter because of the groundwork laid by these preceeding technologies, and so much of our economy is wrapped up in things that AI can now do that the economic opportunity is immediate and significant.

My prediction is that 50% of agency jobs today will be done by AI within 2-3 years.

I think the jobs that will remain are client-facing ones (real-time video agents still can’t shake hands at a conference) and highly skilled or strategic client service roles.

Junior to mid-level roles that are largely focused on execution and back-office administrative roles will be much less necessary early on, and even for agencies that scale up and need some of these hires, they won’t need nearly as many as they did in the past.

Much like the “typing pools” of the 1940s and 50s, these masses of lower skilled jobs will just be gone in the next few years.

Key Takeaways

• For Employees: Don’t fight AI; become the orchestrator/advocate for it. The employees we have who will stick around are the ones who lean into AI to become 10x more effective than those who don’t.
• For Owners:
  • Hire or appoint an AI implementer. You can be the visionary who sees how AI could be used, but an engineer or SME will help you get to successful implementation much faster.
  • Increase expectations. Employees should have a higher client-to-employee ratio than in the past, but make sure you roll out the tools and processes to help them bridge the gap.
  • Invest in AEO. As mentioned, this is becoming a huge part of the buying cycle. Ensure your agency shows up when the “buying agents” of the future do their research.

Leverage is the Only Path

Entrepreneurship is all about leverage.

While AI means change, and I understand that change can be scary, it’s also a huge opportunity to create time leverage.

Fewer people will be able to do more things. Some jobs won’t be necessary, but new jobs that were previously impractical will become possible. These shifts will cause huge changes in society but they’ll also provide new opportunities for savvy owners who are willing to lean in and make the most of them.

What do you think? Tell me how AI is changing your business by sending me a message on Linkedin.

While I enjoy having structure in my workday, I no longer have to accept the standard 8 am to 6 pm working day that startups typically abide by. I choose to build my working hours around my family, my clients, my preferences, or whatever makes sense for me. It’s a huge perk to being an entrepreneur and one that I’m surprised so few really take advantage of.

Anyway, as I’ve internalized this ability, I’ve been trying to figure out what I’m maximizing life for.

My friend Ben Wilhelm asked me about this on his podcast a while ago, and in this post, I’d like to build out that answer. You don’t get many years on this planet, so you have to know what you’re trying to get out of your short trip here.

I’m maximizing for energy, and in this post, I’ll explain what that means.

What is Maximization?

Once your baseline needs are secured, how do you spend your time? If given a choice between a job that paid more or one that gave you a shorter commute, which would you choose? Do you prefer to take on projects like those you’ve previously completed or those that will push you outside your comfort zone?

Most high-achieving people are trying to maximize for something; that is, they want to get as much of something as they can. Everyone picks a different “something,” but common maxima include:

• Financial wealth
• Status
• Hours worked
• Personal improvement
• Knowledge
• Family or leisure time
• Energy

I want to stress that none of these is the “right” answer because everyone is different.

Most people float between two or three of these throughout their lives, and that’s fine. After floating between a few of these over the past decade, I’ve come to realize that energy is my preferred maximum.

What is Maximizing for Energy?

I never knew what to call this feeling until reading How to Fail at Almost Everything, but I like Scott Adams’ definition of personal energy:

When I talk about increasing your personal energy, I don’t mean the frenetic, caffeine-fueled, bounce-off-the-walls type of energy. I’m talking about a calm, focused energy. To others it will simply appear that you are in a good mood. And you will be.” - Scott Adams, How to Fail at Almost Everything and Still Win Big

I am naturally a positive person, but I’ve found that certain habits result in my having more energy over the course of a day or week. As I continue to figure out what these habits are, I’ve made it my goal to build a lifestyle business that allows me to exercise practices that maximize my energy while minimizing my energy blockers that get in the way.

I’ve found that once I center my life around energy, most of the other things fall into place. With enough energy, I can fight through the tough parts of running a small business, maintaining good relationships, and managing my own psychology.

And I’m not the only one who believes this. According to research 72% of founders report mental health challenges and higher stress levels, and the only way you can really combat this is having the right supports (people, activities, habits) in place.

“Founders don’t fail from lack of skill. They fail from exhaustion, noise, and isolation.” - Quote on lume’s website that I find especially compelling

Energy Builders

I find energy in balance. Too much of anything will drain me, so I try to get some of each of these things every day. While all of this is very personal, understanding what works for other people will probably give you some new ideas to try:

1. Sleep, Movement, and Fuel

7-8 hours of sleep, 30+ minutes of exercise, and a high-protein, relatively low sugar diet works for me. When I get the wrong mix here, I can tell. I’ve also found things like artificial sweeteners mess with my gut and mental clarity, so I try to minimize those.

Time and effort invested in your health is a great investment in your long-term success.

2. Flow

“To build your working life around the experience of flow produced by deep work is a proven path to deep satisfaction.” - Cal Newport, Deep Work

I try to get 1-4 hours of flow per day. This gets harder as my team at Draft.dev grows, and I have more clients to keep up with, but I need this. Deep work is incredibly satisfying, even if it means people have to wait a few hours for me to respond to their next email.

Without this, I get anxious. I feel unaccomplished and more easily annoyed at everything. This makes vacations hard for me unless I can bring a notebook to write in.

3. Stimulating Conversation

“We don’t need more noise, more variety, or more pitches. There’s noise all around us, but it’s often the idle chatter of people hiding in plain sight, or the selfish hustle of one more person who wants something from you. Our world is long on noise and short on meaningful connections and positive leadership.” - Seth Godin, The Practice: Shipping Creative Work

While I have met some great people on social media, that’s not where we developed a true connection. I try to schedule one or two stimulating conversations every day.

4. Learning

“Every skill you acquire doubles your odds of success.” - Scott Adams, How to Fail at Almost Everything and Still Win Big

I’ve always learned best by doing things for myself. Experimentation is how I figure things out, so I intentionally leave my Friday afternoons free to experiment with new technology, marketing tactics, or writing ideas.

This has helped me develop a wide range of skills, and while they haven’t all been profitable, the act of learning them gives me energy.

5. Family

Growing up, my dad owned a small business and had a very flexible schedule. Some of my most distinct memories with him are when he picked me up from school, coached my basketball team, and took me to field trips.

When I started my business last year, I committed to being there for my son in the same way as he grew up.

I take him to daycare and pick him up almost every day, stay home with him on Wednesdays, and cancel meetings to keep him home when he’s sick. In the grand scheme of life, blowing a few days of work to be with my children as they grow up is an easy calculation to make.

Energy Drainers

On the flip side, I’ve found some habits and workplace norms tend to drain my energy faster than others. While some of these things are unavoidable or even pleasurable in small doses, I’ve found that I have more energy on a daily basis when I meter my exposure to them:

1. Interruptions

When I went out on my own, I set out to eliminate Slack from my daily life. I am in a few groups with friends, but I treat those more like social media channels: I check them a few times per week and don’t do “urgent” messages there.

“Slack is like a meeting that never ends, but because it’s done facelessly, there’s much less pressure to be properly attentive and courteous.” - Timothy Noah, Down With Slack

I only single out Slack because it’s become a workplace norm in startups, but I find the same problem with social media and email. So, I turn off all these notifications and set a few times per day to check each of these platforms. This takes power away from the apps and helps me find more focused time for flow, family, and fitness.

2. The “Standard” Work Schedule

I like to work out during the middle of the day, so I usually schedule a break to work out between 11 am and 2 pm. I pick my son up from daycare at 4 pm, so I take another break between 4 pm and 7 pm for dinner and bedtime, then I do a couple of hours of work in the evening before I wind down at 9 pm.

I also like to work on Sundays because nobody else is working. I get a ton of time for flow and higher-level thinking, plus it frees me up to take Wednesdays off to do chores and watch my son. While this leads to a “typical” number of hours (around 40 per week), most employers wouldn’t be amenable to this kind of schedule.

I also don’t take typical” vacation days. For example, I usually don’t take a break on New Year’s Day or Martin Luther King Jr. Day. Instead, I use those days to get more focused time in because nobody else is working. Then, I take another day off when I’d prefer it.

As more teams go remote this year, I expect non-traditional schedules like mine will be more common.

3. Video Games

I’ve always loved building simulators like Sim City, Tropico, and Roller Coaster Tycoon. I’ve gone through periods where I invested too many hours in these games because they offer the same sense of flow that programming and writing do. The problem is that they always leave me feeling empty afterward.

I think this is because video games are so ephemeral. Nothing I do in the video game world translates into other areas of my life or helps me get a lasting sense of accomplishment. So, while I still bust out a mobile game for a few minutes now and then, I’ve tried to eliminate video games from my daily habits.

4. Drinking

I quit years ago. Our society tends to use alcohol as a social lubricant, but I’ve found that I build more meaningful connections without it. Plus, it’s not great for your health, and as someone with an addictive personality, “just one drink” was always tough. After a night out, I felt less energy and more malaise the next day.

For me, the fleeting positives don’t outweigh the negatives.

5. Sugar

Another weird thing I’ve found that messes with my energy is sugar. When I have too much, I’ve found that I don’t sleep as well, I eat worse, and I have energy swings throughout the day. Maybe there’s a physical reason for this reaction, or perhaps it’s all in my head. Either way, it’s better for me to limit my sugar intake.

6. Repetition

I’m not a detail-oriented person and I hate repetitive tasks. This is probably why I was drawn to programming early in my career, but you can’t automate everything.

Fortunately, I’ve found that some people love the predictability of doing the same thing over and over again. To help maintain my energy levels, I use my strength as an organizer to set up processes and then partner with other people to handle the repetitive execution.

What Are You Maximizing For?

While my formula for maximizing for energy works for me at this point in time, I expect it to change as my age and life circumstances do. So, I’m curious to hear from you. What are you maximizing for? What have you found works for you? How are you building your life around these goals?

Find me on email or Twitter to pick up the conversation.

For example, a friend of mine recently brought up the idea of consulting for startups.

He’s been working in software for almost two decades, he’s worked for a few well-known companies, and he definitely has skills and knowledge that would be valuable for a startup. But, he was surprised when I told him startup consulting is not a good idea.

Now look, I love startups. I have been the first employee twice, and one of my businesses does a lot of work for series A startups. I’ve consulted for some in the past, and I’ve met plenty of startup consultants in the past decade, but I stand by the statement that they’re not good customers for consultants, no matter how much you love working with startups.

Learning more about startups? I’ve compiled a list of my favorite books for founders here.

What is Startup Consulting?

First off, when I say “consultant,” I’m not talking about freelancers or contract hires. Those two categories of employees are essentially tax shelters for small companies that can’t afford full-time people yet, and their work is typically very execution-focused.

I’m also not talking about advisors, mentors, or coaches (more on advisors here). People in these roles are typically more focused on asking questions or serving as a sounding board. If you’re an experienced entrepreneur coaching a new founder, that’s great. I have several mentors, and they’re invaluable, but they don’t make a living from helping people like me.

Clarity around consulting vs. advisory vs. mentorship roles often comes down to how interactions are structured, the payment details, and what outcome is expected. Some of these conversations are exploratory and informal, while others are focused and intentional. And as a side note, founders should use tools like private live video chat when they need confidential, direct discussion without distractions, but more on that in the future.

Anyway, a startup consultant is someone whose business is to come into a small company, ask some questions, analyze the data, prepare a report, and make recommendations based on their findings. They don’t execute tasks or manage team members directly (although there are exceptions) but focus instead on high-level strategy.

Startup consultants aren’t typically involved for the long-term (and are almost never offered equity), but the good ones might provide some follow-through to see how their recommendations pan out. They might also offer a retainer to answer questions about their recommendations as they come up, but they usually aren’t part of the day-to-day.

Why Do People Start Consulting for Startups?

The most lucrative piece of the consulting market is focused on Fortune 500 companies. That’s where giants like PwC, Deloitte, E&Y, KPMG, McKinsey, and BCG all play, but for one-person consulting shops or small agencies, it’s pretty hard to land one of these customers.

So, many new consultants set their sights on startups. Some figure they can take their experience from a larger company (or, god forbid, an MBA) to help early-stage startups “grow up.” Others trade on a former employer’s success (i.e., people who put “Formerly Google/Apple/Facebook/etc.” in their Linkedin bios), using name recognition to attract startups that like having a name brand behind their consultants.

These hopeful new consultants hang up their shingles, offering something vague like “Proven Growth Strategies” or “Scalable Product-Led Growth.” If they have a deep personal network, they’ll probably find enough clients to survive for a couple of years, but most of them won’t stick with the startup market long.

The Case Against Startup Consulting

While startups can make decisions quickly - almost to a fault - they aren’t an easy market to serve. They’re price sensitive, have high expectations, prone to failure, and often need more tactical than strategic help.

Let’s dive into each of these points and see how they affect startup consulting.

1. Founders Have Unrealistic Expectations

What consultants offer is squishy, and for big companies, it can be more political than practical:

“CEOs that want or need to make an unpopular decision often bring in a consulting firm to help. This provides ammunition to recommend an unpopular or risky decision to the board. The CEO can also distance herself from an unpopular decision by blaming the consultants.” - Raj Ramanan, Co-Founder at Loku

While large companies hire consultants to validate decisions or reassure institutional investors, startups hope you will solve their deepest, darkest problems. Your recommendation isn’t just a handy report for investors - they’re going to stake the future of their business on it.

While you will certainly send the startup off with the strategy document you promised, anyone who has worked with a startup knows that things change too fast for a static recommendation like this to make any difference. They’re going to need you to come back and revise the strategy as they learn new things. Unfortunately, you probably didn’t build that into the price, so now you’re annoyed that they won’t just follow your original plan, and they’re annoyed that they spent $20k for an outdated document.

2. Price Sensitivity

As a consultant, it would seem that the obvious solution to the first problem is to simply charge the startup more for ongoing help. The problem is that startups must be frugal to survive.

“People who are cheap are much more likely to succeed. And not just because their money lasts longer; a frugal attitude seems to correlate with success.” - Paul Graham, Y Combinator

Most funded startups are trading on borrowed time and get 12-18 months of runway per fundraise. Bootstrapped startups aren’t any better because the founders tend to be sacrificing more out of pocket to keep the lights on.

While large companies get budgets earmarked for hiring consultants or completing specific projects, small startups usually have to run all major expenditures by the founder. I’ve known founders who won’t let division heads charge so much as $100 to the company card without clearance from the CEO.

So while you look at your $200 per hour price tag as a bargain for startups (McKinsey is charging $16k per day, after all), they see it as a significant line item on a razor-thin budget. Misalignment like this is bound to lead to disappointment on one side or the other.

3. Startups Need More Hands Not Brains

“In truth, startups rarely need new ideas — they already have more than they know what to do with. So adding yet more ideas to the backlog is stressful, especially without the resources to execute them.” - Dave Bailey, CEO Coach

I recently met with a startup that hired a very senior person from a big tech firm. He loved having a big title, but when the time came to build the product, he was unwilling to roll up his sleeves and write any code.

“I’m the CTO who drives the Ferrari, not the Toyota,” he said.

In the first few years, startup founders spend at least 80% of their time on low-level, hands-on drudgery: sales calls, product development, social media management, writing email campaigns, hiring key people, setting up payroll/books/insurance/etc…It’s not glamorous work, but it needs to get done.

So, it’s tough for a startup to justify bringing on a consultant who only offers high-level strategy at an hourly rate many times higher than their early employees.

Most startup founders who have cleared the first couple of bars by doing some fundraising and making some sales are pretty smart people. They don’t need a consultant who’s never been in their shoes to tell them how to run their business; they need humble people who can get their hands dirty and make shit happen.

4. Consultants Don’t Share the “Vision”

“Consultants had a very topical view of our business, did not sit with us every day, and did not have the same passion and zeal for our company that we as founders naturally had. After three months, we stopped using them and learned a very important lesson.” - Gray Skinner, CEO at Droplr

Even if you restrict your work to startups within a single industry or market, as a consultant, you’re never going to be as “bought-in” as the founders. So, when you come in and make a recommendation that flies counter to what the founder believes, they can simply write it off. “She must not see what we see.”

Whether the founder is right or wrong doesn’t matter. What matters is their perception that outside consultants are never going to be as dedicated or see the vision that they do.

You might be able to filter startups out if they’re especially hostile to consultants, but it’s usually hard to tell what their attitude will be until you start to make recommendations to them.

5. The “Expert” Problem

Most consultants consider themselves experts in some specific field. That’s great, but as I’ve pointed out in the past, experts fall prey to the same biases that the rest of us do.

For one thing, many consultants tend to overgeneralize their experience. If you’ve been in marketing at a few startups, you might think you know everything there is to know about startup marketing. Even if you don’t project this hubris publicly, it affects the way you make decisions and closes you off to new inputs.

“We love anecdotes so much because it’s often much easier for people to believe someone’s testimony as opposed to understanding complex data and variation across a continuum. Anecdotes exempt us from having to prove our point: it’s happened once; that’s solid proof as far as I’m concerned.” - Manuel Frigerio

This overgeneralization problem seems especially toxic in startup consulting because what worked in cutting-edge startups five years ago won’t necessarily work today.

“The solution the firm comes up involves a high tech presentation and even higher tech case studies, but when it comes to the true substance of the steps they recommend, it may as well be 1982.” - Michael Schein, CEO at Microfame Media

6. Founders Need to Learn for Themselves

I recently saw a consultant who would sit down with a founder in any industry for an hour and tell them which marketing channels they should use.

I am skeptical that this will work. A startup’s early successful marketing channels will be based on which avenues the founder is most familiar with and where their target market hangs out. You can tell a founder to “just use Instagram ads,” but if they’ve never run an Instagram account or created social media ads, that’s not good advice.

There’s value in learning and trying multiple marketing channels, even if they don’t work at first:

“Most of the time, your first attempt out of the gate will be suboptimal. You should not simply write off a channel because of this. Rather, you should determine if you’re within ‘striking range’ of making that channel work. Then, you can start iterating until the channel starts paying dividends.” - Ryan Farley, Co-founder at LawnStarter

My point is that consultants tend to offer solutions without offering much of the learning that happens along the way. This makes them a really bad fit for startups where the founders need to be taking missteps that lead to learning.

7. Failure is Imminent

Up to 90% of startups ultimately fail. As a consultant, you need to get some wins under your belt, and startups are not a very reliable way to do so. You can take some risk off the table by working exclusively with venture-funded startups or startups that are crossing over the 5-year mark, but by that point, they’ll start behaving more like mid-sized businesses than startups anyway.

The other problem with this high failure rate is that you’re a convenient scapegoat for all of the startup’s problems. You might have just been responsible for the marketing strategy, but that led to a faulty product strategy which led to bad engineering hires which led the company to run out of money…you get the idea.

Alternatives to Startup Consulting

Okay, I’ve made my case against consulting for startups, but that doesn’t mean I’m against small companies. Most of my clients at Draft.dev are Series A and B-stage startups, but I work with plenty of seed-stage startups too. They’re typically a lot more interesting to work with than enterprise customers and they make purchasing decisions much faster.

So, what’s the best way to help startups without founding or joining one full time?

Option 1: Become an Execution Partner

As I pointed out above, startups typically need more hands than heads. Whether you do this yourself (as a freelancer) or hire a team to join you (as a productized service or agency), there are many opportunities to help startups with some of their hands-on tasks.

For example, technology startups almost always need:

• Developers
• Designers
• Product managers
• Testers/QAs
• Marketing tacticians
• Sales reps
• Customer support

If you develop expertise in the execution of one of these areas and can consistently train others to do it, you can build a great business selling your services to startups.

Sara Horowitz does a fantastic job laying out strategies for becoming a successful business of one in her book, The Freelancer’s Bible. While her advice isn’t limited to freelancing for startups, it almost all applies here.

Option 2: Advise or Mentor Instead

“A lot of times the question is harder than the answer. If you can properly phrase the question, then the answer is the easy part.” - Elon Musk

If you’re really averse to getting tactical, but you’re determined to help startups, you can take the mentorship path. While it’s a little less direct - you typically don’t want to approach founders and say, “Hey, can I mentor you sometime?” - it can be just as fulfilling as consulting.

I’ve personally never paid my advisors or mentors, but I’ve known people who do, so you could make some money going this route. That said, if you need a steady income, you’ll likely have to supplement your mentorship money with another source. I wrote more about the economics of becoming an advisor or mentor here.

The Mentor’s Guide is a good read on this topic. Most people don’t think much about the tactical side of mentoring, but Lois Zachary has. She lays out some fantastic strategies for mentors and advisors in this book.

Option 3: Go Up-Market

Every startup consultant I’ve met who stays in consulting ends up going up-market.

By “up-market,” I mean they start working with larger companies. Usually, it’s a progression: they start with seed-stage startups, move to Series A, and eventually small to medium enterprise customers.

It makes sense. If you’re working on an hourly rate, you’re likely to get more successes and less price sensitivity with clients who are larger and less likely to face financial hardship. While this gets you out of the “startup” business, it’s definitely going to make you a more successful consultant financially.

Alan Weiss is a legend in the world of management consulting. Million Dollar Consulting (forgive the clickbaity title) provides a great look at the business nuts and bolts of picking clients, winning proposals, and making a sustainable consulting business.

The bottom line is that consulting for startups is tough. The earlier the company, the harder it will be for you to make a financially viable consulting firm, and even larger startups have challenges. If you’re succeeding as a startup consultant or you have an alternate take, let me hear what you think.

The tradeoff - as any service business owner can tell you - is that scaling a service business is notoriously hard.

I’ve now scaled Draft.dev to multiple millions in revenue and since acquired The Podcast Consultant to begin scaling it as well. These experiences were both a direct result of productizing our offerings, so I wanted to share a bit more about what productized services are and why more service businesses should take note.

The Middle Ground: “Productized” Services

“A productized service is one that runs systematically and continues to produce and grow with or without your direct involvement.” - Brian Casel

In an ideal productized service, every process and role is so well-defined that the founder doesn’t need to be involved in any of the day-to-day work. This is in stark contrast to models like hourly consulting where you trade time for money. Productizing a service is hard to pull off, but if you can do it, it makes your company more valuable and less dependent on you.

After hearing Tristan King’s story on Tropical MBA and Andrew Pierno’s on Indie Hackers, I decided I would chime in with my approach.

Even with these steps in mind though, starting a new business is really hard. In the past few years, I’ve had some of the highest highs and lowest lows in my professional career, but I can’t imagine trading it for another day job anytime soon.

How to Scale a Service Business

Within 9 months of starting Draft.dev, we built a team of nearly 50 writers, a full-time editor, a marketing associate, and a handful of other freelancers helping with specialized tasks.

My wife jokes that I like delegating too much, but the truth is that’s what separates entrepreneurs from freelancers. Delegating isn’t magic though - it’s a lot of work. Here’s how I have approached it in my service businesses:

1. Niche Down

When I first started the business, I took just about any client that wanted help with their engineering blog or technical copywriting. I knew I wanted to do something at the intersection of software engineering and writing, but I wasn’t yet sure where the profitable, scalable niche was in this area.

After a couple months of trying variations on the theme and having countless conversations with prospects, competitors, and clients, I started to really narrow down what I did and for whom. Rather than writing any technical content on the internet, now Draft.dev exclusively offered blog posts for marketing teams at Series A and B funded startups that wanted to reach software developers.

You might think that choosing a niche that narrow would hurt my chances of ever closing a sale, but the opposite happened. As I’ve gotten more narrow, clients and friends refer me more and better new clients. These new clients come in with some understanding of what we do, so they’re easier to work with and more similar to others I already work with.

The more similar each of your clients is, the more scalable your productized service becomes.

The startup company I worked for was essentially a productized service using a similar model to Draft.dev, but in a totally different market. We always struggled to grow because we were afraid to define our market too narrowly, and looking back, I think that was our biggest mistake.

Admittedly, not just any niche will work, but the easiest way to grow a scalable service business is to do one single thing for one type of customer. The more narrowly defined, the better.

2. Separate and Track Each Task

Once I niched down narrowly enough that finding new clients wasn’t much of an issue, I started to define each step in the sales and production process. Initially, I came up with 5 categories:

• Sales - calls, emails, follow-ups, etc.
• Account management - planning content, delivering work, answering questions, renewing clients
• Writing - outlining, researching, and writing each blog post
• Editing - copy editing, formatting, and handling revisions
• Administrative - setting up accounts, paying bills, tax stuff, etc.

Then, I started tracking my time spent on each of these categories. Yes, even when the business was just me, I was tracking how much time I spent writing vs. editing vs. renewing clients.

I also tracked (more qualitatively) my mood while doing each of these tasks. For example, I quickly realized that sales calls were fun, but I couldn’t do them all day - I needed a little time for focus work too. I also realized that I liked the writing process, but it took by far the most time of anything.

One of the biggest factors in building a successful business is being able to stick with it long enough to figure it out. This means I try to minimize the time I spend doing energy-sapping, annoying tasks and maximize my time spent doing the things I find interesting or fun. This has always led me to clear decisions about which task I need to focus on delegating next.

3. Break Down One Task

At this point, I decided not to document all of these tasks in detail. Processes will change as you hire other people, so it’s usually best to produce just in time documentation.

Instead, I decided to pick the task that took the most time and figure out how I did it. That first task was writing, so I wrote a style guide and started creating briefs for each article I was planning to write.

A lot of founders struggle with breaking down complicated tasks, and this ends up being a huge detriment to their company’s growth. I don’t know if I have any novel tips here other than the old saying, “You eat an elephant one bite at a time.” In other words, just get started by trying something and seeing what works.

4. Hire a “Trailblazer”

Outsourcing a task to another person - especially one critical to the business - is scary at first, so I usually start with a “trailblazer.” Trailblazers are smart, proven people who I knew based on prior work or a strong personal recommendation that they can handle the job - even if I did a poor job defining it.

My first trailblazer was my friend Josh Alletto. He had a background in writing and I had worked with him on side projects, so I knew he was a solid engineer. He was essentially a zero-risk hire who could help me refine my instructions and expectations for future writers I hired.

As I expected, Josh did a great job on his first article and in August, 2020, I had gone from freelance technical writer to agency owner. I had my first writer.

5. Make it Foolproof

I never expected to build Draft.dev off trailblazers alone. First, there aren’t enough of them out there and which I have access to. Second, trailblazers get expensive, and for good reason. They tend to be in high demand, so while starting with a trailblazer will help you figure out how to communicate your expectations effectively, you should build a process and instruction set that is nearly foolproof.

The next couple of articles I outsourced to other writers were not so great. One author completely missed the point of the article and even after I gave him instructions to revise it, it was still no closer to complete. I had to rewrite the whole thing overnight. Another one showed promise, but her grammar and formatting were wildly inconsistent, so it took almost as long to clean up as I would have spent writing it.

With these modest failures in mind, I tore down our writing and recruiting processes. I figured out how much detail I needed to give writers (hint: it’s a lot) and how to pick applicants which were more likely to produce high-quality work. I took some notes and automated some parts of this process to reduce the chance that I would miss some critical piece of communication.

As I iterated on this process, demand for our service was steadily growing. In the past, my clients had hired Draft.dev for direct access to me as a writer, but now, new clients came on knowing that I’d work with other writers.

6. Mind the Margin

While bringing on more writers meant I was writing less, it also meant I was paying more to other people while the baseline costs of running the business had not changed. I started tracking my margins and realized that I’d need to raise prices to continue growing.

A lot of freelancers are baffled by the fact that agencies can charge double or triple the hourly rate that they can as a soloist, but here’s the secret:

Companies aren’t paying just for your time in hours; they’re paying based on the value you bring in.

A single freelance writer (ie: me in the early days) could write 8-10 articles per month if they did nothing but write full-time. They could also only write about topics they knew well, so freelancers are severely limited in which clients they can take on.

An agency like Draft.dev though doesn’t have the same limitation. Once I started bringing on other writers, our output was limited by my pace of editing and onboarding new clients. So, Draft.dev is potentially much more valuable to our clients than Karl the freelance writer was.

Counterintuitively then, productized services can often increase prices as their capacity increases because larger capacity means working with larger, more mature, less price-sensitive clients. I know, this probably feels anathema to every economic intuition you have, but take my word for it. This is why my larger competitors can charge 2-3x what I do while individual freelancers can only charge about half.

7. Repeat

As I raised prices, improved quality, and increased our maximum output at Draft.dev, new bottlenecks started to arise. The next one was editing - which didn’t take that much of my time, but did sap my energy in a big way. I found a fantastic editor and brought her on for as many hours as I could justify. We’re now starting to look at bringing on a second editor to test our processes and make sure we’ve foolproofed that part of the business.

Once you get the basic process down, you realize that scaling a service business is not only do-able, it’s really fun. I love getting to help more clients and offer more writers the opportunity for consistent, well-paid work in their area of expertise. We have a long way to go, but I’m very excited about what we’re building at Draft.dev.

Further Reading

If you like the idea of systematizing your business, read The E-Myth Revisited. This is the book I recommend the most to entrepreneurs who are struggling to get out of the day-to-day execution work in their business, and it’s the primary inspiration for my process above.

Service businesses that are productized like this are also much easier to sell. Check out Built to Sell if you’d like more on that topic or my post on selling your business. There are lots of specialized resources as well that focus on various industries and business types. For example, if you want to sell your veterinary practice or sell your local business you might use a specialized broker or resource. If you’re not quite ready to sell, you should also explore reliable resources focused on your industry. The types of advisors and peer groups for veterinary practice management, for example, will be very different from those catering to marketing agencies.

Finally, I’ve created this list of must-read books for entrepreneurs. These include some of the most impactful reads for me as I started my business, so I hope they help you turn your idea into reality too.

And now, in 2025, the talk around startups is all about the 9-9-6 work week (ie: the 80-hour per week grind).

The more things change, the more things stay the same.

Anyway, back when I joined my first startup, I was right out of college. I didn’t have a family, significant other, or hobbies outside of work. I liked my job, plus I didn’t have a mature personal network or any understanding of leverage, so it was relatively easy to put in long hours and work weekends. While I certainly did a lot of tasks and learned a lot of skills in those early days, looking back, I realize that I didn’t actually accomplish much.

After working for three early-stage startups, founding my own in 2020, and buying a second company in 2022, I’ve talked to countless founders about startup hours, pacing, burnout, and hustling, and honestly, they almost all make the same shortsighted tradeoffs as I did.

While hard work is inevitable in entrepreneurial ventures, it’s not always the shortest path to success. In fact, it often leads to distracting side effects (broken personal relationships, anxiety, health issues) that detract from your ability to do hard things in the long-run. In this post, I’ll share more about the limitations to working more hours and some of the things I’ve learned about maintaining balance in a startup from both an employee’s and founder’s perspective.

“Typical” Startup Hours

One of the challenging things about joining a startup is that there are rarely “typical” work hours. Some startups expect employees to be in the office from 8 am to 8 pm every day and answer emails on the weekend, while others might allow complete flexibility with very little concern over hours worked.

While it’s a myth that every startup requires you to work overtime every week, most startup employees put in 50-60 hours per week, and many founders put in 60-100 per week.

But, the problem with long hours is that they’re counterproductive:

“John Pencavel found that productivity per hour declines sharply when a person works more than 50 hours a week. After 55 hours, productivity drops so much that putting in any more hours would be pointless. And, those who work up to 70 hours a week are only getting the same amount of work done as those who put in the 55 hours.” - CNBC Report on Standford Productivity Study

Your body needs sleep, food, relaxation, and even boredom to function properly. This is especially true for those of us who do high-concentration, creative work (like writing, programming, and strategic thinking).

A few years back, I ran across Bored and Brilliant, and it led me down the path of examining my own perceived productivity. It reminded me of the need to put down my phone and just think every once in a while. Regular introspection leads to clarity, focus, and prioritization that is extremely valuable as a startup founder.

Looking for more good startup books? I’ve listed a few dozen of my favorites here.

Why Are Startup Hours so Long?

So if the research is against long hours for most people, why do startup founders work so much? And, why do they, in turn, expect their employees to do the same?

There are four factors I see at play in defining startup working hours:

1. Hustle Culture

“I don’t think it’s fair for people to say that they work 100 hours. That’s just a PR move, like when Elon Musk sleeps on a hard couch in a meeting room. Why couldn’t he have a nice bed delivered to his office?” - Anonymous opinion on Quora

You might think of startup founders as original, free-thinking, creative people, but most of them are just as vulnerable to peer pressure and cultural norms as any of us. So, when high-profile startup founders report that they slept at the office, other founders see this as a template for success. Some even lie about the number of hours they work because of the cultural pressure to put in more time.

The pursuit of press coverage and venture capital just raises the profile of these myths, giving outsiders the impression that these founders must be truly special. Remember, it’s a lot of hype, and that hype begets more hype, so while startup employees can claim they work an ever-increasing number of hours, it’s impossible to verify those claims or failry evaluate their output from the outside.

2. Work-Life Separation is Dwindling

It’s even harder to “unplug” from work when your office is six feet away from your bedroom, and your phone goes to bed with you at night. Now that more companies are remote than ever, employees are working longer hours and having more meetings in what would be off-hours.

The problem is even more pronounced for startups. Founders are often betting their financial future on their new business or so wildly passionate about the problem they solve that it’s next to impossible to “turn it off.”

3. External Pressure

Building a business requires making promises to a lot of people. As a founder, you’re telling employees that they’ll have a job, you’re telling customers that you’ll deliver value, and you’re promising your family that all this sacrifice will be worth it someday. These pressures are amplified when startups raise money because venture-funded startups have a board who might watch the founders closely to make sure they’re working as hard as possible to get them the return they expect.

Once these external pressures are internalized, companies tend to build a culture that encourages long hours. Managers then reward employees who put in the most time, and employees come to expect these working conditions. You can see this vicious cycle most prominently in law and consulting where billable hours are a badge of honor.

4. Gatekeeping

This might be controversial, but I believe that part of the reason startups tout their commitments to long hours is as a form of gatekeeping.

When you require everyone in your company to work 60+ hour weeks, you exclude people who have a family at home, kids they need to pick up from school, or mental health issues. This disproportionately hurts minorities, single parents, older workers, and women, and it’s part of the reason we see fewer underrepresented groups in startups.

This isn’t always the case though. I remember meeting a CTO at another startup early in my career who quit work at 3 pm every day to pick up his kids. This set a culture at the company, which was totally different from my personal experiences.

You Need Appropriate Pacing

All this pressure will eventually lead to burnout somewhere within your startup. Whether the founder cracks under pressure or you can’t retain employees because of the rigorous pace, it often hurts the organization in the long run.

Short sprints of long hours are possible - and in my experience, often necessary in a startup - but growing a successful company takes years, not months. No number of hours worked can shortcut this fact.

“If you really look closely, most overnight successes took a long time.” – Steve Jobs

The problem is that many founders get pressured into thinking short-term. Whether it’s investors pushing them to show traction required for future funding rounds or unfulfilled promises to customers, founders often overcommit themselves to a point where a sustainable pace is impossible.

Tips for Startup Founders

At different stages of a company’s life, different levels of commitment are required. But, no matter what you’re working on, it’s not productive to keep grinding away month after month without giving yourself a break.

Similarly, if you have employees, you can’t expect them to selflessly spend their lives working long hours and holidays just to help you fulfill your dream. You can push people to a certain point, but learning how to do so in a productive and worthwhile way is one of the best things you can learn if you want to retain your best employees.

Here are four things I’ve learned about startup work hours and pacing as a founder:

1. Don’t Push People Without a Purpose

It’s tempting as an entrepreneur to always want more from your employees, but just because you feel a sense of urgency in managing your business doesn’t mean every one of your employees will feel the same. One of the most frustrating things for employees is being pushed to work harder, longer hours without a clear purpose that ties directly into their performance.

Similarly, if you do expect employees to work 60+ hours per week, be upfront with them about this expectation. There are plenty of young go-getters (I was one of them) who don’t mind putting in long hours but be aware that you might be missing some highly-qualified, experienced candidates with this approach.

2. More Work is Not a Solution to Poor Planning

If one department in your company is behind on a deadline, figure out how you can work with them to either adjust expectations, change their requirements, or estimate better next time. Just because you or someone in your organization planned poorly does not mean it’s a good idea to push everyone else to the breaking point.

3. Listen to Your Employees

Even more important than avoiding situations that stress your employees is listening to them when they are feeling the pressure. If you’re cultivating the right atmosphere at the office, don’t be surprised when someone shows up to tell you that they can’t keep up the pace for another 60 hour week.

4. Trust Your People

Finally, as an entrepreneur, you have to be able to trust your employees. If you don’t, you need to ask yourself why you hired them or find a way to replace them. When you trust your employees, you’ll know that when they insist they’re working too much, they really are.

Note: I’ve added a few books on this topic in my list of the best startup books for founders here.

Questions for Potential Startup Employees

While the bulk of an early-stage startup’s culture is defined by the founders, employees and managers have a lot of influence on working hours and pacing too. If you’re being hired by a startup and you’re not sure about what the culture is like, here are some questions you can ask to get a better sense:

1. How Many Hours Per Week is Typical?

You can ask this question without sounding lazy. I always tell employees this expectation, but if you’re in an interview with a startup and they don’t say it explicitly, it’s better to know what they expect than to be surprised on your first day.

2. Do You Have Typical Working Hours?

Again, with more companies going remote, many are also giving employees the option to work their own hours. I have customers in Europe, Australia, Asia, and the US, so even though I try not to work more than 40 hours per week, I don’t have a very “typical” schedule.

3. Do People Hang Out Outside of Work Much?

I asked this question in interviews with startups because I wanted to know the dynamic of the team. There’s no right answer here, and I’ve been with startups on both extremes. If you’re young and early in your career, you might like hanging out with your coworkers at the bar after work. If you have a family and established friend group, you might prefer to clock out at 5 pm every day.

Working hours are an important part of deciding if you’ll be a good fit at a startup. Some startups are built off the expectation that everyone should put in 60+ hours per week, but many aren’t, so focus on the kinds of companies and culture you want to be part of.

This post was first published in 2014, but has been heavily updated multiple times as I’ve gained more experience and new research has come out.

I started the company in 2020 and by 2022, we were doing $2.5m in revenue and I had a whole team working to create hundreds of pieces of developer-focused content every month.

I stepped back, and started working on a bigger vision. I bought a second company and started to apply the framework I had built at Draft.dev at The Podcast Consultant, and within a year and a half, I was out of the day-to-day in that business too.

In 2024, things at both businesses were stable, so I started to look for the next business to buy.

And Then, 2025 Happened

At the beginning of 2025, the rules for SBA lending changed, forcing us to rethink our model for future acquisitions. This is fortunately a temporary change, but it forced me to pull the plug on multiple deals that we had just started to entertain.

In the meantime, Draft.dev’s dealflow slowed to a crawl.

Part of it was the macroeconomic environment: 2025 has been a year of uncertainty in many ways, and a lot of our clients and prospects were taking a “wait and see” approach before committing to any external marketing spend.

At the same time, AI and its impact on search behavior, content strategy, and our clients’ product roadmaps introduced even more uncertainty.

Finally, the swing in talent demand meant there were more freelance software engineers, developer relations professionals, and dev marketers on the market than ever before.

The Warning Signs

While cashflow at Draft.dev stayed strong through Q1, the leading indicators showed that we weren’t closing the deals necessary to maintain that level of revenue into Q3 or Q4, and that meant we’d either have to revisit our cost structure, packaging, or both.

I was pretty disconnected from Draft.dev going into Q1, so while I saw that sales call numbers were down, the team assured me that they had ways to fix it. We relaunched the website, started selling a couple variations on our existing content packages, and trying new things to get more face time with our target buyers.

Unfortunately, none of it was putting enough good deals into the pipeline, so by Q2, I started taking a more active role in the problem.

Stepping Back In

Since our options for acquiring another company were limited anyway, I decided that my highest leverage point would be stepping in to help with sales at Draft.dev. In May, I started joining calls, working my personal network, and having conversations with clients and industry people to understand their demands and objections.

A few things immediately struck me as I joined in:

1. The demand was fundamentally different than it was two years ago. Draft.dev has always been on the high cost, long timeline, high quality end of the value spectrum as this matched the traditional wisdom in developer marketing. But, very few prospects wanted to wait 6-8 weeks for pristine content when they could get a rough version from a freelancer in 1-2 weeks for 1/3 the price.
2. We were mostly leaning on inbound. Historically, our positioning and focus has always been so strong that we didn’t need to do much intentional outbound, but we were starting to see the repercussions now. Even if outbound leads to deals with longer cycles or lower close rates, we needed to have some specific plan to leverage our networks and industry connections to drive deal flow.
3. There wasn’t a clear prioritization in our prospecting or sales efforts. Instead of doubling down on larger clients we did great work for, actively maintaining relationships with previous clients, or finding new leaders to connect with, we were working every deal with equal effort - even if it was only going to net us a few thousand dollars.
4. We didn’t know how to successfully execute some of the services we were selling. For months, I had been pushing the team to sell more strategic offerings, but nobody on the team really had enough experience to push back on clients who wanted us to do silly things. So, we fell into the habit of being order-takers and spinning our wheels when client’s weren’t sure what they wanted.

I take full responsibility for all of these mistakes.

This wasn’t a team failure problem or even a “hiring the wrong people” problem. Draft.dev’s product-market fit had simply expired because the market around us had changed dramatically.

While I thought I was avoiding being a micromanager, I was letting good people flounder because they didn’t feel comfortable or empowered to raise their hands and ask for help.

If I had built a culture that was more open to feedback or really pushed people to give me feedback, I think I might have seen some of these patterns earlier, but by the time I stepped back in, it was too late to fix some of these issues without a pretty big change in our team and pricing structure.

Re-Building the Sales Pipeline

The first thing I decided to do was to build up our sales pipeline again.

Sales calls had dwindled down to one or two per week, not nearly enough to sustain our model in the long-term, even with many clients on retainer and a decent close rate. So, rather than sitting on my hands and waiting for people to book more calls, I built up a target account list.

With under 400 companies, most of whom we had contacts or done previous work for, the list was small enough that I could manually work a few companies per work with a low-volume, high-touch outreach effort.

I also re-worked these calls to be less about finding a way to sell them something and instead to focus on learning about what they are doing and their concerns, fears, and challenges in the current market.

I changed our sales targets so that on a weekly basis, the focus is positive connections and calls with target accounts, not just explicit “sales” calls. This means that it’s a good week if we get 10+ opportunity calls, even if only 1-2 are “true” sales calls as the long-term goal is to nurture those opportunities rather than just take whatever interest comes in.

I also changed the sales process quite a bit. I threw out our deck and instead of walking them through set packages and pricing on the first call, I simply focused the first call on finding out if the prospect had pricing, power, and priorty (the 3-Ps) to even make scoping a project worth it.

Re-Discovering Product-Market Fit

By August, I had had enough sales calls and interactions with customers, to see that we had to rework our offerings, and fast.

The playbook that I used to build Draft.dev (long timelines, robust processes, high costs) was not meeting the needs that customers were coming to us with. I kept hearing people demand faster turnaround times, lower initial commitments, and some assurance that we’d get them the results they wanted.

So, my business partner and I decided we had to make a hard pivot if we were going to keep the company relevant in 2026 and beyond.

We went to the drawing board, and started looking at what had worked for clients who got the most value out of our work together, and started to look at other best practices that many of our clients weren’t following in their content efforts.

The Problems

These conversations and a deeper dive into our data led me to realize that many clients weren’t getting the value they should out of the content we were creating. While reasons varied, itt typically came down to one or more of the following:

1. They lacked a cohesive strategy. Many clients get hung up on every single piece of content rather than looking at content marketing as a holistic effort. In other words, they put too much emphasis on every article, page, or blog post being “perfect” (a subjective target) rather than focusing on the way multiple types of content can work together to drive their goals.
2. They couldn’t maintain a regular publication cadence. While we were there to help them outline, write, and revise content, their internal approval process would mire down publication workflows, leading to half the content we wrote in 2024 actually being published. This is a huge problem, because clients obviously don’t get value out of content that never sees the light of day.
3. They weren’t telling anyone about the content. Because they only published sporadically and didn’t have a plan to get content in front of their target audience (or sometimes didn’t even define their target audience), there was very little chance anyone would ever find it. Sure, SEO might eventually work, but when you can only publish once or twice per month, that’s a long, slow road to take.

Rebuilding Draft.dev

After identifying the blockers, the next question we asked ourselves was, “How can we remove them?”

Fortunately, we have run successful content marketing efforts for both our businesses and we’ve seen them running at many of our clients and friends’ companies, so we knew these issues could be resolved. But, we also knew that the answer wasn’t a step-function improvement to our existing process, but rather a rewriting of how we worked with clients and our fundamental value proposition.

So, we made a huge change:

Draft.dev no longer just writes technical content.

Draft.dev builds and runs your technical content marketing engine to ensure it drives meaningful growth.

While this means that yes, we still write technical blog posts, create tutorial and demo videos, and create high-impact lead magnets, it means we only do them in tandem with a cohesive, consistent strategy, and a plan to meaningfully promote these assets.

And we don’t just trust that clients have something. We create this roadmap and promotional strategy for clients, allowing us to sit at the table while we review the results together each month. This new approach allows us to control some of the roadblocks that have traditionally held clients back from building a well-oiled content machine, and while we haven’t transitioned 100% of our clients over to the new model, the early signs are that this is the way forward for the business.

What’s in Store in 2026?

My goal as a CEO isn’t to be the “fixer,” I want to enable others to do that, but there are times when the market changes enough that you have to step in and re-engineer your business. It’s not realistic to expect a non-CEO to do that, so while I will get back to a more passive role in the business, I’m also not naive enough to think it’ll happen overnight.

The economic and technical environment is still changing quickly, and we have a lot of details to operationalize so the business doesn’t rely on me for the day-to-day again, but I’ve been down this path before. It’s not something I’m worried about doing again.

The big advantage to using Airtable (and by extension, the Airtable API) is that it has an excellent visual user interface and integrations with many other tools built in. Plus, you can use Zapier to trigger custom actions when new items show up in Airtable.

If you haven’t tried the Airtable API yet, you’re in for a treat. Airtable having such a simple and intuitive API means all the data you store there instantly has the ability to programmatically interact with all your other tools and services. This opens you up to limitless possibilities for triggering automations or even building an entire website with Airtable as your back end.

In this post, I’ll walk you through some of the pros and cons and share a quick tutorial for getting started with the Airtable API.

Airtable API Pros

Some of the advantages to using Airtable’s no-code API include:

• Super simple to get started, a zero-code solution
• Permissions using sharing settings in UI
• Input forms to allow users to add content
• Can use with Zapier to trigger events in other services, send emails, etc.
• Database-style linking between records
• Query by complex functions for advanced filtering and searching of records
• User roles allow limited role-based permissions
• Excellent automatic documentation generated for each table
• API is automatic; every Airtable you make already has API access

Airtable API Cons

Airtable isn’t perfect though. In fact, you’ll run into its limitations if you have a lot of traffic and don’t cache the data. Some issues with the Airtable API include:

• Officially only allows up to 5 API requests per second, which might be fine for light use, but could be limiting as you scale up
• Free accounts are limited to 1,000 API calls per month
• Authenticating users requires them to have an Airtable account and generate their own API key
• Single API key is not as secure as OAuth or similar server-client flow
• Not as customizable as some options

Getting Started with the Airtable API

Using Airtable as an API is straightforward, but a few important details matter, so here are the basics:

1) Set up your base and get IDs

1. Create a base and at least one table with a few fields/records.
2. Grab your Base ID (looks like appXXXXXXXXXXXXXX) and Table ID or name (e.g., tblYYYYYYYYYYYYYY or Tasks). You can find these in the API docs for your base or via the URL in the Airtable UI.

Base URL pattern:
https://api.airtable.com/v0/{baseId}/{tableNameOrId}

2) Create a Personal Access Token (PAT)

Legacy “API keys” are deprecated, so now you have to use Personal Access Tokens. Create one and scope it minimally (for simple read/write to a table, common scopes are data.records:read, data.records:write, and often schema.bases:read). Store it as an environment variable; don’t hard‑code or ship it to the browser!

Auth header format: Authorization: Bearer YOUR_PAT

Then you can start making requests. Let’s take a look at a few examples in the next section.

Airtable API Examples

In all the following examples, be sure to replace:

• YOUR_PAT with your token
• appBASEID with your base ID
• Tasks (or tblTableId) with your table

A) List records (with pagination, fields, filters, sort)

cURL

curl "https://api.airtable.com/v0/appBASEID/Tasks?pageSize=100" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $YOUR_PAT"

JavaScript (fetch)

const BASE = "appBASEID";
const TABLE = "Tasks";
const url = `https://api.airtable.com/v0/${BASE}/${TABLE}?pageSize=100`;

const res = await fetch(url, {
  headers: { Authorization: `Bearer ${process.env.AIRTABLE_PAT}` }
});
const data = await res.json();
console.log(data.records); // [{ id, fields, ...}, ...]

Python (requests)

import os, requests

BASE = "appBASEID"
TABLE = "Tasks"
url = f"https://api.airtable.com/v0/{BASE}/{TABLE}?pageSize=100"

r = requests.get(url, headers={
    "Authorization": f"Bearer {os.environ['AIRTABLE_PAT']}"
})
r.raise_for_status()
print(r.json()["records"])

Filters and sorting

• Filter by formula:

curl "https://api.airtable.com/v0/appBASEID/Tasks?filterByFormula={Status}='Open'" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $YOUR_PAT"

• Sort by a field:

curl "https://api.airtable.com/v0/appBASEID/Tasks?sort[0][field]=Priority&sort[0][direction]=desc" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $YOUR_PAT"

Airtable supports view, filterByFormula, and sort for the list endpoint. Use URL encoding for complex formulas.

Pagination: If the response includes an offset, pass offset=<value> on the next call to fetch subsequent pages.

B) Retrieve a single record by ID

curl "https://api.airtable.com/v0/appBASEID/Tasks/recXXXXXXXXXXXXXX" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $YOUR_PAT"

C) Create records

Single record (cURL)

curl -X POST "https://api.airtable.com/v0/appBASEID/Tasks" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $YOUR_PAT" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "fields": {
      "Title": "Write Airtable post",
      "Status": "Open",
      "Due Date": "2025-10-15"
    }
  }'

Batch create (JS)

const res = await fetch(`https://api.airtable.com/v0/${BASE}/${TABLE}`, {
  method: "POST",
  headers: {
    Authorization: `Bearer ${process.env.AIRTABLE_PAT}`,
    "Content-Type": "application/json"
  },
  body: JSON.stringify({
    records: [
      { fields: { Title: "Task A", Status: "Open" } },
      { fields: { Title: "Task B", Status: "Open" } }
    ]
  })
});
const out = await res.json();
console.log(out.records.map(r => r.id));

D) Update records

Partial update (PATCH)

curl -X PATCH "https://api.airtable.com/v0/appBASEID/Tasks/recXXXXXXXXXXXXXX" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $YOUR_PAT" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "fields": { "Status": "Done" }
  }'

Batch update (Python)

import os, requests, json

BASE, TABLE = "appBASEID", "Tasks"
url = f"https://api.airtable.com/v0/{BASE}/{TABLE}"
payload = {
  "records": [
    {"id": "rec1...", "fields": {"Status": "In Progress"}},
    {"id": "rec2...", "fields": {"Status": "In Review"}}
  ]
}
r = requests.patch(url, headers={
    "Authorization": f"Bearer {os.environ['AIRTABLE_PAT']}",
    "Content-Type": "application/json"
}, data=json.dumps(payload))
r.raise_for_status()
print([rec["id"] for rec in r.json()["records"]])

Use PATCH for partial updates; PUT replaces fields. Ensure your token has write scopes.

E) Delete records

curl -X DELETE "https://api.airtable.com/v0/appBASEID/Tasks/recXXXXXXXXXXXXXX" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $YOUR_PAT"

You can also send records[]=rec1&records[]=rec2 to delete multiple.

Practical Tips for the Airtable API

Finally, some more things to keep in mind when using the API:

• The API is server‑side only: Don’t expose your PAT in client‑side JS—proxy through your server or edge function.
• Schema changes might break things: If you rename fields, API calls using field names must be updated; consider using field IDs for stability.
• Troubleshooting auth issues: 401/403 typically means scope, base access, or header issues. Confirm your user is a collaborator on the base and the PAT is scoped to that base.
• Filtering gotchas: filterByFormula + view returns only matching records within that view. Always URL‑encode formulas.
• Performance: Keep rate limits in mind; you’ll need caching, incremental syncs, or denormalized “API views” for heavy workloads.

Conclusion

If you are looking to turn structured data into an API or access your data via API, give Airtable a try today. But, if Airtable doesn’t work for you, check out my piece on API Development which includes lots of good options for building an API.

I was the first engineer at CTO at a couple of early-stage tech startups, so one of the questions I get the most from non-technical founders is, “what tools should I use to build my web app before I can hire a full-time developer?”

In this post, I’ll share some of the best web application builders I’ve seen for non-technical founders to build MVPs and POCs. Some of these are AI-based coding tools while others are more traditional “no-code” builders. Let’s dive in!

1. Cursor

Cursor is an AI-powered code editor that’s particularly well-suited for non-technical founders building relatively straightforward web apps. Built on top of VS Code and integrated tightly with GPT-4, Cursor lets you write prompts like “create a user login page” or “add Stripe payments” and receive working code snippets, suggestions, or even entire files.

Cursor’s going to work best for founders who are willing to learn just enough code to describe what they want and then iterate with AI help. Cursor has a free plan with usage caps, and paid plans start at $20/month, offering more generous GPT-4 usage and collaboration features. The main limitation is that you’ll still need some basic programming literacy to deploy or modify more complex apps because it’s not a pure drag-and-drop builder like some no-code platforms. Still, for tech-savvy non-engineers, Cursor can dramatically accelerate the early prototyping and MVP phase.

2. Nicepage

Nicepage is a visual website builder allowing you to create responsive websites, landing pages, and website templates without coding. It features a drag-and-drop user interface, 15,000+ designer-made website templates, automatic responsive modes, and export to HTML, WordPress, and Joomla. You can work with Nicepage on Windows and Mac OS as a desktop application, WordPress and Joomla plugins, and online.

Unlike code-based applications like Cursor, Nicepage won’t require you to touch a code editor, so it’s going to be much more accessible for founders who really don’t want to take the time to learn programming and do want to focus on sales and marketing efforts.

3. Bubble

Note: I wrote a detailed overview of using the Bubble app builder for your startup here.

Bubble features a chat-based and a drag-and-drop interface, allowing for multiple ways to create your web application, and it’s packed with connectivity integrations. For example, you’re able to connect your own SQL database to the application, allowing you to later migrate away from Bubble or share data with other business applications as you grow. Bubble has an active community online (forums) and in person (local meetups). Pricing starts with a free tier that supports basic apps, while paid plans begin at $32/month for more advanced features like custom domains, API integrations, and backend workflows.

Bubble is pretty amazing, but it does come with a learning curve. While you don’t need to code, you do need to understand application logic, database structure, and user experience design. Additionally, apps built on Bubble can face performance limitations as they scale, and migrating away from the platform later can be difficult due to its proprietary framework. Still, for many non-technical founders, Bubble offers one of the fastest paths to building a real, functional web app.

4. Shopify

Shopify is a powerful, user-friendly platform that’s great for non-technical founders who want to quickly launch and scale e-commerce web applications. With its intuitive drag-and-drop store builder, extensive theme library, and robust app ecosystem, Shopify makes it easy to set up everything from simple product catalogs to complex multi-channel sales operations—no coding required. It also handles hosting, security, payment processing, and inventory management out of the box, allowing you to focus on their products and customers. Pricing starts at $39/month for the Basic plan, with transaction fees unless you use Shopify Payments.

While Shopify is excellent for e-commerce MVPs and storefronts, it’s not going to work for custom web applications that aren’t centered around selling products. Additionally, customizing functionality beyond what apps and themes offer may require hiring a developer familiar with Shopify’s Liquid templating language. For founders building a commerce-focused business, though, Shopify is probably the best option on this list.

5. Sheet2Site

Google Sheets is an easy, powerful, and free online spreadsheet application. But what if you could use the data in a Google Sheet to create a website? That’s what Sheet2Site does. Pricing starts at $29/month for the Basic plan, which includes a custom domain and email support, with higher tiers offering more advanced customization and integrations.

One key limitation is flexibility. While Sheet2Site is great for simple, structured content, it’s not suitable for more complex application logic or interactive workflows. Still, for non-technical founders looking to ship something quickly and validate an idea, Sheet2Site offers one of the fastest, lowest-effort paths to a live web presence.

6. Lovable

Chat-based interfaces are all the rage now, thanks to the preponderance of LLMs. Lovable is another relatively new no-code web app builder focused on helping non-technical founders create beautiful, functional SaaS products with minimal effort. Its unique selling point is a tightly integrated, opinionated design system that makes it easy to produce polished user interfaces out of the box—perfect for founders who care about aesthetics but don’t have a design or development background. With built-in support for user authentication, databases, and logic workflows, Lovable enables you to go from idea to live MVP quickly. Pricing starts at $40/month, with a 14-day free trial to explore its features.

The big drawback is that because it’s a relatively new platform, Lovable doesn’t have the ecosystem, third-party integrations, or scalability that more established tools on this list have. It’s best suited for early-stage SaaS founders who want a fast, design-forward way to launch and iterate on their product without getting bogged down in technical details.

7. Zoho Creator

Zoho Creator is primarily for internal tools, so if you’re building something with a small userbase and intensive data requirements, this might be the right option for you. Their drag-and-drop web application builder features pre-built apps such as “Time Tracker”, “Project Tracker”, “Appointment Management”, “Contacts”, and more. Plus, it integrates with the Google Suite, QuickBooks, PayPal, and many other popular applications.

8. Thunkable

Thunkable is a drag-and-drop builder cross-platform mobile and web apps without writing code. It’s particularly well-suited for non-technical founders as it targets both iOS and Android with a single app build. Thunkable supports API integrations, animations, logic flows, and even features like camera access and push notifications. The platform includes a free plan for basic prototyping, while paid plans start at $15/month, scaling up with additional publishing options and support.

Thunkable offers a lot of flexibility, but building complex logic-heavy apps still requires a bit of a learning curve, and performance can be a concern in large-scale applications. Still, it’s a great option for mobile-first MVPs or proof-of-concepts.

9. Softr

Softr is a no-code platform that allows you to build full-featured web apps, client portals, and internal tools directly from Airtable or Google Sheets. As a heavy Airtable user myself, I love Softr because it gives you a good looking frontend for even the biggest, most complex Airtable backends.

Softr includes features like user authentication, gated content, search functionality, and integrations with tools like Zapier and Stripe. The pre-built templates for marketplaces, directories, job boards, and dashboards make Softr ideal for non-technical founders looking to quickly launch a marketplace site. Like many no-code platforms, it’s limited in terms of backend customization and complex workflows, but it strikes a great balance between speed, flexibility, and ease of use.

10. Glide

Finally, Glide lets you turn Google Sheets or Excel files into powerful mobile and web apps without writing any code. It’s especially useful for building internal tools, CRMs, inventory trackers, or lightweight client portals, and offers a well-designed interface with built-in components for forms, calendars, and charts.

The free plan allows for basic apps with limited rows of data, while paid plans start at $60/month for more advanced features, integrations, and custom domains. Scalability is probably your biggest limitation. Glide apps are best suited for simpler use cases or internal-facing tools rather than full-scale public SaaS products. Still, its ease of use and spreadsheet-based logic make it incredibly accessible for non-technical founders.

Conclusion

The ecosystem of web and mobile app builders for non-technical founders is growing every day, so while this list includes my favorites in 2025, I’m sure I’ll have to come back to this post to update it often. If you have a favorite that I should check out, tell me about it, so I can keep this list up-to-date with all the latest options!

So, I built a wishlist and started reaching out to digital marketing agencies that I thought would be a good fit. Within a few weeks, I was having regular calls with owners who wanted to sell their businesses, and I started getting a look “under the hood” at a few of these companies.

After the first acquisition, I took about a year to focus on learning and stabilizing that business before I started the hunt for my third. So, while my personal experience comes from buying digital marketing agencies, I’ve also gotten to speak with dozens of entrepreneurs who have sold their agencies for my podcast and in my acquisition research.

Check out my episode of Retained Trust to hear more about my perspective on selling your digital marketing agency.

In this post, I’d like to share a summary of how digital agency acquisitions typically work. If you’re an owner who’d like to sell your digital marketing agency or other digital service business, then this is going to be a highly transparent look at how the process works from valuation all the way to closing.

Let’s dive in!

How Buyers Value Marketing Agencies

If you haven’t thought about selling your marketing agency, you probably haven’t thought about the way valuations work, but it’s actually pretty straightforward. Unlike high-growth tech startups which are much more speculative investments, digital agencies are valued using consistent formulas based on their top line revenue and bottom line cashflow.

So, before you decide to sell your agency, it’s important to understand how buyers will value your agency so you have a reasonable expectation going into the process.

Note: If your agency’s books and finances aren’t in order, this is an essential first step in calculating a valuation. Check out my post on agency finances to get started on this topic.

EBITDA and SDE Multiples

Most buyers will use a multiple of EBITDA (Earnings Before Interest, Taxes, Depreciation, and Amortization) or SDE (Seller’s Discretionary Earnings) to value businesses. I won’t go through the calculations for these here in this article, but essentially, both of these metrics help buyers understand how much cash the business generates.

For marketing agencies with less than $5 million in top-line revenue, SDE tends to be more common as the owner’s salary is often a significant portion of the cashflow and they’re typically pretty active in the business. For agencies in this size range, multiples tend to be between 2x-4x SDE.

For larger marketing agencies (>$5 million in revenue), multiples can get significantly higher. This is because more sophisticated buyers are interested in larger, more stable companies, and typically, higher revenue indicates less dependency on the owner. I’ve seen agencies get up to 10x EBITDA multiples in this size range.

Revenue Multiples

While less common, some agency buyers will use revenue multiples instead of EBITDA or SDE multiples. This happens more often when it’s a larger agency acquiring a smaller one, so they know that post-integration, they’ll get better economies of scale than the smaller agency could get on their own. Revenue multiples are often 1-2x top-line revenue.

As a seller, be careful about assuming you’ll be able to get a revenue multiple valuation. These are pretty rare, so unless you’ve already got a revenue-focused buyer lined up, you can probably assume buyers will use an SDE or EBITDA multiple.

Add-Backs

Because digital agency buyers are buying cashflow, it’s important to have an accurate sense of how much profit your business really generates. But, what if you’ve been running some personal or unnecessary expenses through your business for tax efficiency purposes?

I’ve seen sellers who pay for their car, house, travel, and even meals using their business’ revenue so they can lower their profit for tax purposes. I’m not an accountant or lawyer, so I won’t comment on the legality of this practice, but it happens often enough that buyers have a way to account for it: Add-backs.

An add-back is any cost that your business incurred that will not be incurred by the acquirer. These add-backs can make a huge (mostly positive) impact on your valuation, but it’s important to understand that both sides have to agree to them.

In other words, if you argue that you spent $100,000 on travel that was non-essential last year, but you don’t have receipts to prove it, the buyer may not honor this add-back.

Ideally, you should clean up any unnecessary expenses a few years before you go to market, but if you don’t, make sure you document them and keep records of your spending.

What Impacts Your Agency’s Multiple?

Using add-backs to improve your margins is one way to improve your marketing agency’s valuation, but the biggest lever you have is increasing the multiple that buyers are willing to pay.

Here are a few things you can do to improve your agency’s multiples:

• Top-line revenue - I’ve already said this, but larger agencies are seen as more stable and less owner dependant. It also opens you up to bigger buyers with deeper pockets.
• Recurring revenue - Buyers often look at “quality of earnings,” which basically means, “how likely is the cashflow this business generates likely to continue?” Recurring revenue through subscriptions or reocurring service contracts is a great way to show this.
• Client retention - Agencies that maintain client relationships for years are inherently more attractive to buyers than those that churn through clients every few months.
• Client diversification - If 20% or more of your revenue is tied to a single client, buyers will be more cautious with your valuation. Try to build a client list with no more than 10% of your revenue in any one client and you’ll improve your valuation multiple.
• Industry or niche - Most buyers, especially those looking at smaller agencies, will want to see industry or service specialization. This makes your business more repeatable and differentiated. I’ve seen sellers try to pitch their wide variety of client industries and types of services as a strength, but that’s just not how buyers see it.
• Growth rate - While buyers don’t buy agencies for their potential, seeing steady growth over a number of years is more attractive than declining or flatlined revenues.
• Process and documentation - Finally, the more repeatable and well-documented your processes, the better. Don’t go overboard here, but make sure you (the owner) aren’t the one doing everything and that you’ve been able to train a team to take care of your clients.

Unfortunately, most of these factors can’t be fixed overnight, but that’s why it’s important to prepare for a sales at least 2 years before you plan to start looking for buyers.

How to Find Buyers for Your Agency

Once you have cleaned up your books and you have an understanding of how much your agency might be worth, it’s time to start looking for potential buyers.

Business Acquisition Marketplaces

There are a few marketplaces that list service businesses and as a buyer, I can say that we find a lot of decent deals on these platforms. The ones I’m using right now are:

• Rejigg
• BizBuySell
• Website Closers

Each has its own pricing model (and some act more like brokers than marketplaces), but it’s worth checking these out if you’re serious about selling.

Marketing Agency Brokers

Business brokers take a sizeable fee from the seller after the transaction and many also charge a retainer while they’re working with you, but the good ones will introduce you to more buyers and improve your overall valuation.

The quality of brokers varies widely, and I’ve only found a couple that work with small (<$5m in revenue) agencies, but if yours is larger, you should definitely ask around for the best ones in your industry.

Direct Competitors and Complimentary Agencies

Whether you sell soon or not, it’s a good idea to build your network of competitive and complimentary agencies. When you do decide to sell, these are the people you’re most likely to get a deal done with, so the better your relationship is going into this process, the easier the process will be.

Personally, I keep a list of competitors and compliments for each of our companies and I make it a point to stay in touch with them annually, just in case either of us wants to sell or merge.

Private Equity

While private equity fundraising is down from its peak a few years ago, it’s still a very common exit opportunity for larger marketing agencies (>$5 million in revenue).

Private equity buyers often try to acquire multiple businesses within a sector, merge their revenues, and then sell the combined entity at a higher multiple to larger private equity funds or take the company public.

This means that you might be able to retain some equity and roll it over into the larger entity. You might also be able to stay on and work with the fund for years. While this isn’t appealing to every seller, it’s something worth considering.

Individual Buyers or Employees

Finally, smaller agencies (<$5 million in revenue) are often sold to employees or individuals. These acquisitions can be done through “seller financing” (eg: the buyer pays the previous owner off using the business’ profits for a number of years) or a bank loan.

In the US, “search funds” are becoming more common for MBA graduates who want to buy a business rather than start their own. These buyers typically try to buy companies that are too small for private equity with the hopes of growing them and selling them to PE funds down the line.

Deal Structures

As you start building your list of interested buyers, you need to think about the kinds of deal structures you would consider. In agency acquisitions, there is almost always a transition period where you’ll need to work for the new owners, but depending on your priorities, this could be as short as 6 months.

Sellers also rarely get 100% of the purchase price up-front. Most deals are paid out over 1-5 years. Typically, you can make more in total from a longer payout period, but you risk the business failing in the interim.

Offers will commonly include one or multiple of the following:

• Cash - Expect some of the purchase price at close with another chunk paid out after a few months.
• Earnout - Many agency acquisitions will include a multi-year earnout, meaning that you only get the full valuation if you hit certain sales or profit targets.
• Seller financing - You may be asked to finance part of the deal as well. Buyers use this to keep the seller involved, especially if there’s not an earnout.
• Equity rollover - Finally, a partial buyout will allow you to maintain some ownership in the company. This is especially common in private equity rollups.

Most buyers will be aware of the options above and some may have strong opinions about which structure they can and can’t use. Others may be more flexible, so if you have strong opinions, it’s best to state them up front so you can get on the same page.

The Closing Process

Buying a business is usually a significant transaction for both parties, so the closing process is pretty involved. It can take anywhere from 3 to 12 months to go from offer to the final closing date, and don’t forget that you have to keep operating the business well the whole time! If the financials change, buyers may “retrade” or change their offer, often not in your favor.

LOI (Letter of Intent)

Once the buyer and seller are roughly aligned on the valuation for the business, the buyer will typically prepare a non-binding LOI (or “Letter of Intent”).

This agreement is intended to give the buyer time to evaluate the business’ financials and operations before the transaction is official. LOIs are typically “exclusive” for the buyer, meaning that the seller cannot keep speaking to other buyers once signed.

Finally, while LOIs often include a purchase price and some of the major deal terms, they are non-binding, meaning that the numbers and deal specifics can (and likely will) change before closing.

Due Diligence

Once the LOI is signed, the buyer and seller will work together to verify the business’ financials. This will involve giving the buyer access to your books, contracts, invoices, bank records, tax records, and much more. Buyers are typically looking for undisclosed risks or irregularities that would cause them to balk at the acquisition.

Buyers may also want to talk to customers, key employees, or partners at this stage. While you may not want to tell your entire company that you’re working on a sale, you’ll probably have to involve some of them in preparing or accessing documentation.

In the meantime, this is when buyers will typically finalize financing for the deal. If they are using debt, you may need to deliver some documents to their bank as they perform their diligence.

Closing

Finally, once the buyer is satisfied with the diligence process and the financing has been approved, both sides will sign a final purchase agreement.

Most digital agencies are done as an asset sale, meaning that the buyer is acquiring key business assets (contracts, goodwill, domain names, account access, etc.), but not liabilities (debt, legal liabilities, accounts payable, etc.). It’s important to have this document reviewed by a knowledgeable lawyer because it could have huge implications for how or if you get paid fully for your business.

After the Sale

Once the agreement is signed, you will enter the transition period. The timeline and process will vary widely, but you’ll probably start handing over access to everything that makes your business run. There’s a lot to do at this stage, including:

• Announcing the sale to employees, customers, and partners
• Handing over administrative access to all software accounts
• Reassigning contracts
• Setting up bank accounts, invoicing, and payroll

If there’s an “earn out” period where you’ll continue running some or all of the business, then your day-to-day might not change much. On the other hand, if the buyer is replacing you more quickly, things could change very quickly.

Common Mistakes Sellers Make

Data shows that 75% of owners regret selling their business, and this matches my experience with sellers too.

There are four mistakes I see most often lead to post-sale regrets:

• Not understanding valuations or the process - Going into a sale with a naive view on valuations, retrades, the timeline, and the difficult reality of earnouts often causes huge mismatches in expectations.
• Not evaluating multiple offers - Businesses with multiple offers tend to get more than those who have eyes on a single acquirer. If you’re considering one offer, take a step back and go find two or three more to help you level set expectations.
• Not understanding the post-sale expectations - Variable compensation after the sale or a long-term sellers note can both be huge sources of strife. Make sure you understand all the fine-print in your closing documents and financing agreements.
• Not knowing what they want to do next - Finally, for many entrepreneurs, their business is an integral part of their self-worth. When they lose their business, they realize that they have to create a whole new self-identity. Even if you’re selling for enough money to retire, make sure you know what you’ll do with your time and identity because I guarantee, watching TV for 16 hours a day will not leave you happy and fulfilled.

Further Reading

Given that this is only a blog post and it’s only focused on one type of business (digital marketing agencies), I’ll admit that it’s not the most comprehensive resource out there for selling your company. That said, I hope it gave you a strong starting point and inspires you to read more before you consider selling your agency.

Here’s a few books I’d recommend for further reading:

• Exit Rich by Michelle Seiler Tucker
• Built to Sell: Creating a Business That Can Thrive Without You by John Warrillow
• The E-Myth Revisited: Why Most Small Businesses Don’t Work by Michael E. Gerber

I’m also happy to answer questions or have further discussions about selling your agency, so feel free to reach out on Linkedin or via email.

The first was Bored and Brilliant by Manoush Zomorodi. In it, Zomorodi explains the importance of not filling every moment of time with a quick hit of something to do. Counterintuitively, doing nothing can make you more productive in the long run:

“When our minds wander, we activate something called the ‘default mode,’ the mental place where we solve problems and generate our best ideas, and engage in what’s known as ‘autobiographical planning,’ which is how we make sense of our world and our lives and set future goals.” - Manoush Zomorodi, Bored and Brilliant

The other was Cal Newport’s Deep Work. In this book, Newport explains how the constant hopping between quick replies, notifications, and distractions makes creators less productive and happy.

“Efforts to deepen your focus will struggle if you don’t simultaneously wean your mind from a dependence on distraction.” - Cal Newport, Deep Work

I haven’t gone quite as far as Newport by completely shutting down my social profiles, but I did remove notifications from my phone, uninstalled all social applications, cleaned out my home screen, and have made a conscious effort to reduce my screen time.

As I evaluated all the technology tools I use, I also thought a lot about whether they actually made me more productive or if they simply distracted me into feeling productive.

One application that stood out as especially troublesome was Slack.

Why I Don’t Use Slack for Work

When I left my job to start my own business last year, I thought a lot about the kind of business I wanted to build. I realized that Slack was not a good fit for the kind of lifestyle I wanted or the team I wanted to hire.

I wanted Draft.dev to be fully remote and mostly asynchronous. This allows us to hire great people around the world, and it means that even if you’re spending a month in Hanoi on your Vietnam data eSIM, you’ll be able to contribute to the team!

While Slack is a highly refined product with solid design and generally good engineering, it’s not perfect and it poses many problems in remote work environments. So, here’s why I opted out of Slack for our business:

1. The Availability Perception

I like talking to people, don’t get me wrong, but I don’t want to give people the impression that I’m available to chat any time throughout the day. I also don’t want my employees to feel pressured to get back to me immediately just because I sent them a Slack message.

Some days, they might need to spend 4-5 hours in deep work, focusing on a problem or banging out an interesting idea. There’s no such thing as a “quick question” when you’re focused, and I want to build a business that gives us a lot of time for this kind of focus.

2. The Slack Clients

Unlike email, Slack pushes you heavily towards using their always-on, memory-hogging, notification-heavy desktop client. Sure, they have a web version, but it’s limited and tries to push you into getting the app at every turn.

It also seems to be impossible to tune your notifications for the desktop and mobile clients correctly. It’s very hard to make them quiet without simply turning all notifications off, and once you get to the point, why not just use email?

3. Feeling Held Hostage

As your company grows and your backlog of work conversations does too, Slack holds you hostage.

They make you think that you can “get work done” in Slack, but once all your important documents and decisions are stored there, they let you know that you have to upgrade to see old messages.

I get it; they need to make money. I pay for dozens of services that help my team communicate better, but I don’t like the bait and switch here.

Similarly, it makes me nervous about adding new people to our team Slack because each person we add will result in a new $10 per month charge. With 50 freelancers on our team today, that’s a cost we can’t bear just yet.

4. Is It Private?

As an employee, I always wondered if my private Slack messages were really private or if higher-ups could read them. It was never really clear from Slack’s product messaging.

I’ve since found out that, yes, your boss can read your private Slack messages. Even if I’m the boss, I don’t like this level of paternalism.

But, is Slack Really the Problem Here?

“If you widen a road to reduce traffic congestion, what generally happens instead is that you get the same level of congestion, only with more vehicles. Similarly, if an office opts for Slack because everybody’s email inbox is overflowing with crap, it’s magical thinking to believe that their Slack channels won’t soon be overflowing with crap, too.” - Timothy Noah

I realize I can use Slack’s “away” settings to show people that I’m not available.

I also know that team chat tools existed long before Slack.

Still, Slack’s the big player in the room, and I’ve never been part of a Slack group that used the channel effectively for asynchronous communication.

When you have a team in Slack, people assume that messages will be responded to within a few minutes, and longer response times make people worry. This might be a human problem as much as a Slack problem, but I don’t want to have to explain my preferred Slack etiquette to everyone who joins my team.

It’s ironic because Slack bills itself as a place to “get work done,” but I’ve never seen it used for accomplishing anything significant.

So What is Slack Good For?

I don’t think that Slack’s all bad, though.

I am part of a couple of social channels, including one with my mastermind group, but we use it more like a watercooler than a workplace. I’ve also been active in a few industry Slack groups, and I’ve gotten clients through them occasionally.

There’s probably also a good case for Slack in a business where nearly instant responses are required (although SMS would likely work just as well). If you’re an on-call support team and need to be able to drop things at a moment’s notice when something comes through, Slack might be a good app to facilitate this.

Still, we’ve found pretty good ways to get by without Slack so far.

Working Without Slack

Because we hire people all over the world, I don’t expect everyone to have compatible work hours, and I don’t want team members in different time zones to be left out of important conversations.

First off, there are real-time chat tools that are better than Slack. Zulip is solid, and because it’s open-source, you get more transparency and a greater ability to customize the tool. That said, we decided to completely skip chat tools using the following stack of tools:

1. Trello and Airtable Comments

One of my primary issues with Slack is that conversations get lost in channels (especially if people don’t use threads, but that’s another rant).

Fortunately, the project management tools we use (primarily Airtable and Trello today, but I’ve tried many others in the past) all support comments on cards. This is a much more logical place to track conversations around a specific project or task.

2. Email

I funnel all these comment notifications into my Gmail account and then use a system of filters and labels to triage them twice per day (inspired by this method). Some emails get handled by my virtual assistant, and I respond to others within 48 hours.

Gmail’s flexibility and powerful filtering and sorting features are much better for keeping track of important messages and removing the fluff. Plus, it works on every device include the browser, so I don’t need to have it open at all times.

Email gets a bad wrap because it’s been abused and misused for a long time, but I find that people are more understanding of you taking 24-48 hours to answer an email than they are a Slack message.

3. Loom

Finally, some tasks are complicated to explain, so a lot of people hop on Slack to walk other people through them. This is fine when you’re working times overlap, but it causes huge bottlenecks if you are in the US but working with people in Australia or India.

This year, I’ve started using Loom to record detailed walkthroughs or answer complicated questions for my team. This has helped replace a lot of scheduled Zoom calls and Slack conversations I would have had in the past.

Final Thoughts

Slack isn’t necessary for my team today, but I don’t think it’s a bad tool for everyone.

My encouragement to business owners, team leaders, and those in authority positions would be to consider the implications of the tools you decide to use.

Remote work can be done in many ways. Some teams are remote but require high levels of real-time collaboration. Others - like ours - are remote, but work is done largely independently. Some tools are better for the former (maybe Slack), and others are better for the latter.

Just don’t undercut your employees’ productivity and focus by forcing them into tools that aren’t right for their jobs.