From blogger to $21M/yr media tech
powerhouse
Ben Aston started with a simple blog and built a media tech powerhouse. Now, Black & White Zebra's products are bringing in 21M+ per year.
Here's Ben on how he did it. 👇
Starting with satire
Armed with a 386 PC and a squeaky 33k modem, I launched my first online publication back in 2001, while in high school. It was a satirical student site called Seuch Times. We created great content, built an audience, and monetized it with t-shirt sales! I was hooked. That experience of creating content with and for a community — connecting with niche audiences and turning it into a business is what planted the seed for everything that came later.
After a decade managing digital projects at top agencies in London, I moved to Vancouver and continued to work in digital project management. I decided to launch a blog about it — helping people get into and succeed as digital project managers. It was meant to be a side project, a lead-gen tool for an ebook I planned to sell but never published. The site slowly grew, and over many years, I realized there was a much bigger opportunity: to build a network of practitioner-led publications, each serving a specific niche of modern work.
That side project became our flagship brand, The Digital Project Manager — and the foundation for Black & White Zebra (BWZ).
BWZ is bootstrapped, profitable, and growing — with 15+ niche media brands, including People Managing People, and The Product Manager, with millions of monthly visitors, and a strong foundation of trust and utility with our audiences. And right now, I’m building two new things I’m incredibly excited about:
Revstacks, a monetization and AdTech platform for B2B publishers, creators, and professional communities.
Revleads, a B2B SaaS demand-gen platform that helps marketers reach in-market buyers through trusted, high-converting editorial environments.
We've grown BWZ from zero to $21M+ in annual revenue, with $9M in EBIT last year. We’ve onboarded 220+ advertisers, and now power monetization for 10 publisher partners through Revstacks.
Living the market gap
For The Digital Project Manager: the pain point was simple: I wanted to create the resource I wish I had.
In the early 2010s, I was working as a digital project manager in London. It was the wild west of adland — crazy clients, tiny budgets, and stupid deadlines reigned supreme. The role was new, the industry was evolving fast, and I was constantly Googling for help… but finding nothing. No playbooks. No community. No practical, real-world guidance.
That pain point was my first signal. If I was struggling with this, others probably were too.
After launching The Digital Project Manager as a blog in 2011, I realized there was a real, underserved market for practitioner-led content that was actually useful. That was signal number two. People wanted focused, high-trust content that helped them get better at their jobs. And as that audience grew, I saw a much bigger opportunity: To build a network of professional brands that supported people not just with content, but also community and tools.
We kept hearing questions from our audience like:
“What tool should I use for this?”
“Has anyone used this platform? Is it actually worth it?”
“I’m drowning in options — what’s actually good?”
Meanwhile, SaaS vendors were asking how they could get in front of our audience — a buying audience that was engaged and trusted us.
We realized the disconnect: Most B2B SaaS marketing was happening on platforms where the audience didn’t care or didn’t trust what they were seeing. So we built Revleads to help B2B SaaS vendors reach people who were already actively researching, and Revstacks to give publishers and communities like ours a better way to monetize that trust.
In both cases, the market gap was clear — because we were living it ourselves.
Building on simple foundations
Our publishing platform is built on a fairly simple foundation. We use WordPress as our CMS, MemberPress for memberships, Gravity Forms for lead capture, and OptinMonster for conversion optimization. Zoho powers our internal ops, and HubSpot is our core CRM and marketing automation layer.
What sets us apart is what we’ve built on top of that: our proprietary AdTech (Revleads) and PubTech (Revstacks) platforms.
We built both platforms in-house to give us more control and to solve problems we were facing ourselves as a media company.
Under the hood, the custom tech includes:
A proprietary bidding engine and campaign manager
Reporting dashboards for vendors and internal teams
Contextual placement tools that work across our entire owned and operated portfolio and beyond — on third party publications too through Revstacks
Tools for tracking conversions, lifetime value, and campaign ROI in real-time
It’s a full-stack media monetization engine that complements our content and community — not something bolted on as an afterthought.
A focus on tech; not content
For years, I believed we were a content business. And to be fair, we were — The Digital Project Manager and our early brands grew because of great, trusted content. But looking back, I wish I’d embraced my own roots in tech much earlier.
We spent years relying on external agencies and contractors to support our platform. It was slow, expensive, and fragmented. Once we finally built an in-house tech team, everything changed — faster development, tighter alignment, and a real product mindset. If I had to start again, I’d prioritize building that core technical team from day one.
Monetizing trust
The initial product was content — tactical, real-world advice. No hacks, no fluff; just useful stuff from lived experience.
That obsession with quality and practicality became our edge. People trusted us. And when we eventually started monetizing — first with affiliate links, then ads, then community memberships. And for the ads, we made sure the response wasn’t “ugh, another ad.” It was, “Oh good, I was looking for a tool like this.”
Over time, we built out our own adtech stack — first to support our own monetization, and then to offer performance-based ad buying for vendors via Revleads, and monetization infrastructure for publishers via Revstacks.
Because we had full control of the tech and the audience relationships, we could do things differently:
Build ad experiences that are actually useful to the audience.
Offer marketers a way to reach buyers when they’re researching, not just scrolling.
Give publishers a way to monetize without relying on programmatic junk.
That’s what makes our stack different. It’s not just a network. It’s part of a broader ecosystem of trust, expertise, and real utility.
Audience-first growth
We’ve grown primarily through audience-first, organic strategies — not paid ads or growth hacks. Our playbook has always been: Help people solve real problems at work, and growth will follow.
A few strategies that have worked particularly well:
Evergreen, intent-driven content: We focus on job-relevant, evergreen content that aligns directly with what our audience is trying to accomplish. For example, our “project kickoff checklist” on The Digital Project Manager consistently ranks in search and drives thousands of monthly sessions — because it solves a real, recurring need. This kind of content compounds over time and keeps performing.
Community-driven feedback loops: We listen closely to our members — especially in our paid communities — to spot gaps. For example, when members kept asking about tools for resource planning, we launched content around that, which now ranks #1 and drives both traffic and Revleads campaigns.
Platform-native content expansion: We launched YouTube channels and podcasts that repackaged our highest-performing topics in more engaging formats. Our “Mastering Digital Project Management” course was born directly from recurring audience questions — and has become a profitable product line and lead generator.
User-led brand expansion: We don’t launch brands unless we see audience pull. People Managing People and The Product Manager were created in direct response to what we saw in our search data, email replies, and community conversations. That ensures we’re always building where there’s demand.
As we expanded, we launched new brands for specific roles - The CFO Club, The CMO Club, The CRO Club and more. Each was designed to serve a real need, not just chase volume. Then we layered in community — Slack groups, memberships, courses — to deepen engagement and loyalty.
That ecosystem became a magnet — not just for users, but for B2B SaaS vendors too. In fact, most of the advertisers on Revleads have come to us through inbound. Companies like Monday.com, Smartsheet, Zoho, Kantata, Deel, Rippling, and Connecteam reached out because they saw the value of getting in front of large, engaged, high-intent audiences — in context. They don’t want banner blindness on random sites. They want to appear where professionals are already solving the problem their product addresses.
That’s the power of trusted, contextual content paired with a niche audience.
Scaling issues
One major challenge came during COVID. We scaled rapidly — from a small, collocated team to a globally distributed one across multiple time zones. We grew headcount, but not always in the right way. We hired a lot of people, and some managers, but many weren’t senior or experienced enough to lead at the level we needed. We were trying to scale before stabilizing the foundation. I’d do that differently next time: one time zone, better onboarding, and far more intentional leadership hiring.
Because of that leadership gap, there was a period where we were producing a ton of content — but it was the wrong content, done the wrong way. It didn’t match user intent, it wasn’t high enough quality, and it wasn’t aligned with search demand. We lost steam fast — and at one point, lost nearly a third of our revenue.
That was a wake-up call. In trying to grow, I lost track of the core — audience insight, and delivering real value. Now, I stay in the weeds where it matters. I make sure our high-level strategy filters down through the org. I dig into frontline work, not to micromanage, but to ensure we’re pointed in the right direction.
A hard lesson I’ve learned as CEO: Execution is everything. Good ideas are easy. Great execution is rare. I’ve had moments where the vision was clear, but the team, process, or timing wasn’t right — and the idea died. Now I’m ruthless about attaching plans, capacity, and accountability to every major initiative.
Growing revenue
Our business model is built on three core pillars:
Advertising via our proprietary AdTech platform, Revleads
Publisher monetization through Revstacks, our PubTech platform
Professional development through courses and paid memberships
We’ve grown revenue by doing the basics — really well.
At the heart of it is creating great content, in, with, and for our community. We publish deeply useful, practitioner-led content that helps professionals do their jobs better. That content builds trust — and that trust drives both organic growth and monetization.
Revenue growth has come from a few key levers:
Creating more content in more verticals: We’ve launched brands like The Product Manager, People Managing People, and The CMO Club, each focused on a high-value, underserved professional niche.
Improving our monetization infrastructure: We built Revleads to help SaaS vendors reach buyers at the moment of intent, and Revstacks to give publishers a better way to monetize without relying on junk programmatic ads.
Giving vendors more real estate: As our brand portfolio grows, so do the placements, inventory, and campaign options we can offer — allowing us to serve larger budgets and deeper partnerships.
Expanding our community layer: From paid memberships to peer networks and cohort-based training, we’ve created spaces where people return not just for information, but for connection and support.
The strategy isn’t complicated: Make something valuable. Scale it carefully. Monetize it thoughtfully. That’s been the key to our growth.
Parting Advice
Build your brand early
Firstlyl, build your brand early. It’s not enough to be good — people need to know you're good. For too long, we were the best-kept secret in B2B media. That hurt us in hiring and in sales. If I could do it over, I’d be much more intentional about telling our story as we built — not just once we had something to show.
Be valuable and specific
A lot of early-stage founders focus too much on the idea and not enough on the execution. I’ve been guilty of that too. I have notebooks full of great ideas that went nowhere. What matters isn’t how good the idea sounds — it’s whether you can turn it into something useful, and whether you can do it consistently.
For me, everything changed when I started thinking like a project manager:
Set the vision — where are you trying to go?
Define success — what does good look like?
Work backward — what has to be true for that to happen?
Break it into steps — then make those steps smaller.
Keep going — momentum compounds.
Don't be a copycat
I didn't come from a digital media background, and that turned out to be an advantage. I wasn’t constrained by how things were “supposed” to be done. I just focused on solving real problems and doing it in a way that felt clear, human, and — maybe surprisingly — fun.
That’s one of our core philosophies: Serious things can be fun. Business doesn’t have to be boring. Work doesn’t have to feel like a chore. If you understand something deeply enough, you can simplify it. If you can simplify it, you can make it engaging. That’s where the magic happens.
Build trust before revenue
Most of our business — content, community, and even ad sales — grew out of relationships we built by being useful and honest. Our biggest advertisers came inbound because we were already helping their future customers do their jobs better.
And have strong opinions (lightly held)
You need conviction to start something. But you also need humility to evolve it. Stay close to the problem, and be willing to change your solution as you learn more.
What's next?
Our goals are focused on expanding impact, deepening value, and making professional growth more accessible — and more fun.
1. Expand Revstacks into the creator economy
2. Make serious fun the standard in career content
3. Build the most loved professional development ecosystem in digital media
4. Turn audience trust into intelligence at scale
5. Help SaaS vendors and publishers win — more efficiently
You can learn more about me and what I’m building at benaston.com, or connect with me on LinkedIn — I love meeting other indie hackers, creators, and SaaS founders building things that matter. To explore what we’re building at Black & White Zebra — our media tech company — you can check out:
Revstacks – Our monetization platform for professional creators, publishers, and communities
Revleads – Our performance ad platform helping SaaS vendors reach in-market buyers
You can also dive into more of our career media brands:
The Digital Project Manager – For people managing projects, processes, & pixels
People Managing People – HR, leadership, and organizational culture
The Product Manager – Product thinking, strategy, and execution
The CX Lead – Customer experience strategy and service design
The CTO Club – Engineering leadership and technology strategy
The CFO Club – Finance leadership for the modern CFO
The CMO Club – Marketing leadership, brand, and growth strategy
The CRO Club – Revenue operations, enablement, and GTM systems
Leave a Comment
Very interesting article. Congratulations.
The idea of the ecosystem is very powerfull.
This journey really hit home — especially the part about being “too broad at first.” We faced the same challenge while building a platform for CapCut content creators.
Appreciate the transparency in sharing both wins and lessons — bookmarked this for inspiration!
Great case study on building tech-first media companies. The key insight here is the pivot from "content business" to "tech business" - most publishers stay stuck in the content hamster wheel. Building proprietary adtech (Revleads) and pubtech (Revstacks) created defensible moats and higher margins.
The audience-first approach is gold: solve real problems → build trust → monetize that trust through relevant solutions. Much better than chasing vanity metrics or generic programmatic ads.
Biggest takeaway: Don't just create content for an audience - create an ecosystem they can't leave. Community + tools + monetization = sustainable competitive advantage.
Couldn’t have said it better myself — really appreciate the thoughtful read.
That shift from “content business” to “tech-enabled ecosystem” took years to fully realize. For a long time, we thought we were just scaling content — but what we were actually building was infrastructure: trust, tools, and monetization stacked around real audience needs.
And yes — getting off the hamster wheel and building something with leverage has made all the difference. Still a long way to go, but this kind of reflection makes the messy middle feel worth it. 🙌
The section headers are great! Very motivating read. Thanks!
Ben, your journey from a simple blog to a $21M/year media tech powerhouse is truly inspiring. Your commitment to building trust, serving niche audiences, and innovating with platforms like Revstacks and Revleads offers invaluable lessons for creators and entrepreneurs alike.
Incredible work, Ben—turning a blog into a $21M/year powerhouse is truly inspiring!
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The experience is so excellent. I hope I can become such a person one day, and I have also tried to build my own website
Really appreciate you sharing this journey, Ben — the way you built trust with your audience before layering in monetization is such a powerful reminder. Too many founders chase revenue first, but your story shows how solving real problems and creating genuine value compounds over time.
I also found your lessons on execution and scaling particularly insightful. Great ideas are easy to come by, but turning them into something useful with consistency is where the real challenge lies. Thanks for being so transparent about both wins and mistakes — lots of takeaways here for anyone building in public.
From a blog to $21M/yr? Proof that solving real problems + consistent action = unstoppable growth. Respect, Ben!
This was such a solid breakdown — love seeing stories where blogging evolves into serious media infrastructure. It really reinforces how powerful it is to build trust over time with content before layering on tech or products.
What stood out to me most was the shift from just publishing to building a system that supports scale — something many creators overlook. I recently went deep into this too while helping a niche blog expand into a media brand. The turning point was when we optimized for authority + off-page SEO (instead of just churning more posts). It compounded faster than expected.
GREAT
Incredible journey — love how it started with blogging and evolved into a full-blown media-tech powerhouse. It’s a strong reminder that consistency, audience-first content, and long-term vision can compound into something massive. Curious — was there a pivotal moment when things really started to scale, or was it more of a slow, steady climb?
Ben Aston ka journey sach mein inspiring hai — ek simple blog se start karke itni badi media tech company banana koi choti baat nahi. Ye example un sab ke liye hope deta hai jo apna passion kisi digital platform pe lana chahte hain. Isi tarah mein bhi ek unique niche pe kaam kar rahi hoon jo technology aur innovation se related hai — specifically Radar Burz, jo aaj kal defense aur smart city applications mein kaafi important ho gaya hai. Interested readers yahan se detailed info le sakte hain:
Well done : )
There are so many impressive stories like this. Inspiring to say the least. Well written @jamesofthedrum
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This is next-level inspiring. Turning a blog into a $21M/yr media-tech force shows how far niche content can scale when it's deeply valuable.
I'm in the early stages of building Impartoo, a curated site for ranked Top 10 stock, ETF, and crypto picks, trying to take the “Wirecutter for investors” approach.
Curious, what inflection point made you realize this was bigger than just content? Was it tech enablement, partnerships, or a shift in monetization strategy?
Really inspiring journey — thanks for sharing! 🚀
I’m currently running a small design & dev studio (Gelios Web) where we build custom web solutions and UX/UI for startups. Reading stories like this motivates me to think bigger about scaling beyond client work and moving into our own products.
Curious — what was the hardest part for you when transitioning from blogging to building a media tech powerhouse?
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Great story however what we think is somehow blogging is dead now
I love how this approach is very thoughtful. What is your top tip for monetising early content without alienating readers?
I love how this approach is systematic and thoughtful. My wife and I are building our family business of digital greeting cards, and we aim to start small, be authentic, and be consistent.
We're excited to keep sharing and learning from this community!
I feel encouraged.
With niche content, strategic partnerships, and innovative monetization, James Fleischmann built a $21M/year media tech powerhouse from a simple blog.
Wow, this was 🔥!
From blogging to $21M+ — love how it all grew through consistency and content. Super relatable as I run a marketing agency too.
Curious — if you had to restart in 2025, would you still go the same route?
Lots of people wanting to get in this position don't have nor can get the appropriate skills to learn to build stuff like this.
Your post really inspired me. Right now, I'm working a full-time job while spending my evenings and weekends developing a personal project. It’s a tough phase, and I’m not sure if I can keep going—but once my product gives me enough confidence, I’ll go all in. Thanks for sharing your story.
I feel this! I'm solo-building too and the mental rollercoaster is real. Keep going – you're not alone 💪
A brilliant example of turning personal pain points into market opportunities! Love how you prioritized trust and utility over quick wins—proof that solving real problems creates lasting value. The shift from content to tech-first was especially insightful. Keep building with purpose!
most publishers stay stuck in the content hamster wheel. Building proprietary adtech (Revleads) and pubtech (Revstacks) created defensible moats and higher margins.
Thank you for this!
This journey from a humble blog to a powerhouse media tech company feels like a modern-day fairy tale only with less magic and a whole lot more ad tech, strategy, and hustle! Truly impressive and inspiring to see how far it’s come.
This is the kind of founder journey that quietly rewrites the playbook. Loved how you stayed rooted in solving real problems and scaled by earning trust first. As someone building in the B2B video space with GudSho, your blend of content, community, and tech really struck a chord.
Thanks for sharing this so openly
I just checked the website, it showd me zero treffic now, on revstack and just 5 at revload
how your clients find you.
Totally fair question — and a good reminder that tools like Ahrefs often miss traffic for niche or B2B platforms (especially ones without public-facing content).
Most of our clients don’t “browse” the site like consumers — they reach out to us directly because they’ve seen us across our media brands, newsletters, or campaigns running on our network. We’ve grown almost entirely through inbound, fueled by trusted content and audience relationships we've built over time.
So while the platform sites themselves might look quiet, the actual activity is happening behind the scenes — through live campaigns, sales conversations, and partnerships already in motion. Quiet websites, busy dashboards 🙂
awssm done
This is one of the most thoughtful and deeply transparent stories I’ve read on Indie Hackers — thank you for sharing the wins, the lessons, and the systems behind it all.
What really stood out to me:
Starting with lived pain points and letting that shape the vision
The clarity around building trust before revenue
And your shift from “content business” to full-stack media tech — that’s a powerful insight most founders miss
As someone currently building a niche SaaS product (focused on contract automation for influencer marketers), your audience-first growth and modular monetization approach really resonates. The ecosystem mindset you’ve cultivated is rare — not just content, but tools, trust, and tech.
Following along for more. 🙌
James Fleischmann scaled his platform from a blogger to a $21M/year media tech powerhouse through content strategy, innovative tech, and consistent engagement with his audience.
Did he? I thought hit was me.
Woah! Every body want 21M/yr))
I just finished reading everything — from your early days with Seuch Times to building Revleads and Revstacks, and even the hard lessons during COVID. Truly inspiring! It’s incredible how you turned each challenge into an opportunity. As someone who’s still finding my path in career and business, I learned a lot. Thank you for being so honest and detailed — it really gave me perspective and motivation.
Super interesting how you built and grew your audience ecosystem. Fantastic story of content to tech. Love it !
Wow, what an inspiring story! 🔥
I was especially impressed by how he scaled from something as simple as a blog into a multimillion-dollar business focused on tech and media. Stories like this really show that starting small—with consistency and a clear vision—can lead to amazing results.
As an early-stage developer and creator, this kind of story motivates me a lot. I’m taking notes on how he diversified his content, built a community, and found smart ways to monetize.
Thanks for sharing this—it gave me exactly the push I needed today!
What an incredible journey — from humble beginnings as a blogger to building a $21M/yr media tech powerhouse! 🚀 It’s awesome to see how consistent content creation, smart audience building, and reinvesting into tech partnerships can transform a side project into a major enterprise.
In the very early days, it was a mix of organic search and social sharing — but not in the polished “growth strategy” sense. Some of the first real traction came from cathartic, “I get your pain” content — stuff like “a day in the life of a digital project manager” memes that got shared because they felt true. It wasn’t tactical — it was just human.
That emotional resonance built early awareness, and over time, organic search kicked in as the content library grew. No shortcuts — just consistency, specificity, and a little humor to get people to stop scrolling and say: “this is for me.”
This is very inspiring, hopefully one day this will be me :)
This type of post is super inspiring
Thank you — that really means a lot! 🙏
If it helps even one person keep going or think a little differently about what’s possible, then it’s worth sharing.
This story hit home – I'm currently building something small that I hope can scale the same way. Seeing how you went from a blog to a media-tech powerhouse is wild. Especially impressed with how you balanced content and product.
I’m working on an AI toolkit for jobseekers right now (Gumroad launch just recently), and I’d love to learn more about how you validated early demand. What gave you confidence to double down early on?
Thanks — really appreciate it. And congrats on launching your toolkit — that’s already further than most people ever get.
To be honest, I wasn’t trying to validate anything at first. I started the blog for fun — and for myself. I needed a space to process what I was learning and share what I wished someone had told me earlier. I genuinely would’ve kept writing even if it never took off.
But over time, the stats started telling a quiet story — people were finding it, sticking around, and coming back. That slow, steady engagement gave me the confidence to keep going. I’d play around with different content types or formats, and when I saw something resonate, I’d double down on it. That feedback loop is what helped shape the direction — not some big launch moment or splashy growth hack.
So in a way, the confidence didn’t come first — the consistency did. The signal emerged from the noise once I had enough work out there for it to show up.
many things can be improved i guess
this journey from blogger to a massive media tech company is like a fairy tale, but with less magic and more ad tech!
Haha exactly — fewer wands, more dashboards 😅
Definitely more spreadsheets, late nights, and pivoted plans than fairy dust… but I’ll take it!
Appreciate the kind words — it’s been a wild (and very manual) ride.
Incredible story — turning a blog into a $21M/yr media-tech company is nothing short of inspiring.
Loved how you scaled not just content but the entire business model. Super motivating for anyone building in the content or SaaS space! 🔥
Thanks so much — really appreciate that!
It’s definitely been a winding road, but the core idea’s always been the same: create something useful, build trust over time, and keep evolving the model around what the audience actually needs. Scaling content is one thing — scaling trust and monetization together is where it gets interesting (and tricky).
If you’re building in content or SaaS: keep going. It compounds — just not always in the way or timeline you expect.
Wow, what an inspiring journey!
What do you mean by having strong opinions (lightly held)?
To me, strong opinions, lightly held means having a clear point of view — based on what you’ve seen, learned, or believe — but being totally open to changing your mind when new information comes in.
It’s how we’ve built BWZ: have conviction, but don’t get too precious. Try things. Learn fast. And if it turns out your “brilliant” idea doesn’t work... drop it, adapt, and keep moving.
It keeps you from getting stuck — or worse, being technically right but strategically wrong.
@james-fleischmann thx for this interesting article
p.s. probably you have broken (incorrect) link in "The CMO Club – Marketing leadership, brand, and growth strategy"
Wow, from a simple blog to a $21M machine? That’s like turning water into wine, except the wine is just really successful ad campaigns. Kudos, Ben! 🍷
Haha appreciate it — but if this was turning water into wine, it was the kind that ferments verrrry slowly over 10+ years, involves dozens of spreadsheets, some questionable content experiments, and at least three existential crises 🍷
Still aging in barrels, tbh. But I’ll take the compliment!
very well
very good
holy moly
Incredible story Ben! Your journey from satirical blog to $21M+ really resonates with me.
I'm currently building AlbumForge - first photo software with a soul. Like you with The Digital Project Manager, I started by solving my own pain point: as an adopted child from Vietnam, I understand how precious family memories are.
Your point about "monetizing trust" hits home. We do 1=1 giving (every license sold = 1 donated to kids in need) because authenticity drives everything. Our customers aren't just buying software - they're joining a mission.
Also love how you built your own adtech instead of relying on external solutions. We're doing similar with our AI co-creator Claude - building tech with soul vs just copying what exists.
Question: When you were starting, how did you balance staying true to your values while scaling revenue? The "serious things can be fun" philosophy particularly interests me as someone combining meditation + entrepreneurship.
Thanks for sharing this blueprint! 🙏
Thanks — really appreciate the kind words and thoughtful question!
Balancing values and revenue was (and still is) a constant challenge. “Serious things can be fun” wasn’t just a tagline for us — it became a quality filter. If something felt soulless, over-engineered, or too disconnected from how real people work and learn, we paused or scrapped it.
There were faster ways to grow — we could’ve scaled generic SEO content or plugged in affiliate junk — but we knew that breaking audience trust even once can undo years of goodwill. So we made peace with growing slower, but stronger.
That mindset helped us build something with actual staying power. If your values drive your decisions, the monetization will follow — and feel aligned when it does.
Thanks Ben! Really appreciate you taking the time to comment. It means a lot to know the message resonated with someone. 🙏
Building something meaningful feels so much better when you know it's actually helping people like you. Hope your own journey is going well! 💫
This article has benefited me greatly.
good artice!
Oh my gosh
Ben, that's an incredible journey! What really strikes me is how dedicated you've been to tackling real problems and building solid trust with your audience. The way you focused on content led by actual practitioners, used audience feedback, and scaled intentionally (thinking about the long term, just not quick growth) is like a masterclass in how to build something that lasts.
Thanks so much — really appreciate that 🙏
Honestly, nothing about this journey has been fancy or particularly brilliant — it’s mostly been a mix of persistence, listening closely, and doing the unsexy work over and over again.
Staying close to the audience, working with people who’ve actually done the work, and trying to solve real problems — that’s been our north star. Slower, sure. But way more sustainable (and more fun) in the long run.
What an amazing journey, Ben! Starting with a simple blog and turning it into a media tech powerhouse that brings in over $21M per year is truly inspiring. Your focus on building trust, solving real problems for your audience, and creating valuable content is a testament to your success. It's great to see how you've leveraged your tech background to create innovative solutions like Revstacks and Revleads. Excited to see where you take Black & White Zebra next!
Really appreciate that — thank you! 🙏
It’s been a long, messy, sometimes accidental adventure from “let me start a blog” to building platforms like Revleads and Revstacks. I definitely didn’t have a grand master plan — just a clear sense of the problems I wanted to solve, and a lot of trial, error, and Google Docs.
Excited for what’s next with BWZ — but if we can keep solving real problems and earning people’s trust along the way, I think we’re on the right track