"I Can't Code, So I Put Up Billboards Near Kanye's Office" - Built a 130K Newsletter Through Pure Marketing Chaos
Most startup stories start with "I learned to code." Harry Dry's story starts with failure.
His first startup idea was selling viral tweet canvas prints. After two months of coding and millions of YouTube views, he made just 25 sales and lost £145. Not exactly a promising start.
Then at 1AM one night, Harry spotted a Trump supporters' dating site blowing up on Twitter. His sleep-deprived brain made a connection: Kanye's fans needed dates too. Kanye was peak controversy then, making headlines daily.
This time, Harry skipped the complex coding. One landing page, one perfect hook: "Taylor Swift fans banned 🐍". Right during the peak Kanye-Taylor feud. 9,000 people signed up overnight.
Launch day started brilliantly. 200 users in the first hour. Then user 351 logged in. Complete meltdown: 6,700 Heroku errors. Images vanished. Server crashed. Dreams shattered.
Most would have taken coding classes. Harry chose a different path: spent two months' salary (£2,200) on billboards near Kanye's offices across four cities.
When the billboard company rejected him over copyright, his dad posed as a BBC reporter to negotiate. They changed "Kanye West" to "Mr West" and got approved.
When the billboards didn't go viral, Harry got even bolder. Armed with Google Maps, he called every office near Kanye's headquarters. Pitch himself through the phone.
After countless rejections, someone finally connected him to Kanye's CFO. The dating site failed, but the marketing lessons proved priceless.
In May 2019, Harry realized his technical weakness had forced him to become exceptionally creative at marketing.
He launched Marketing Examples, sharing every wild stunt and lesson learned. But this time, he approached growth differently.
Instead of chasing viral moments, Harry crafted a sophisticated multi-platform strategy. For Twitter and Reddit, he wrote detailed case studies breaking down successful marketing campaigns.
In Facebook groups and Slack channels where self-promotion was banned, he transformed his insights into eye-catching visuals, subtly watermarked with his website.
On LinkedIn, he turned marketing concepts into professional infographics that resonated with business audiences.
Every piece of content was meticulously adapted for its platform. A single marketing insight might become a thread on Twitter, a visual guide on Facebook, and a long-form analysis on Reddit.
He wasn't just cross-posting – he was cross-adapting, speaking each platform's native language.
The results spoke for themselves. Marketing Examples grew from 19,000 subscribers in year one to over 130,000 today, all through organic growth.
No paid ads, no growth hacks – just consistently valuable content tailored perfectly for each platform's audience.
What started as a coding failure became a masterclass in creative marketing. Harry turned his biggest weakness into his greatest story, proving sometimes the best technical solution is having enough marketing audacity to not need one at all.
If you found this inspiring, check out my Twitter&YouTube, where I’ll be sharing more success case studies and insights on startup growth. Any questions, I'll be in the comments. :)
