other Startups

CentaurLab is a venture studio founded by Chong Zheng (Lester) that helps non-technical founders build products using a cash + equity model instead of traditional agency fees. They recently launched Fundability to validate ideas through tightly scoped sprints and can help founders go from idea to working product in 2-4 weeks.

Man of Many is a men's lifestyle blog founded by Scott Purcell in 2012 that has grown from a part-time hobby to one of the world's largest men's lifestyle sites. The bootstrapped company now reaches over 2 million readers monthly and generates over $4M per year in revenue with a team of 13 employees.

Shelley Marmor started her first travel blog in April 2020 and grew to run four profitable travel blogs plus a blogging education business by 2023. After growing her income by 3,113% from 2021-2022, she launched Travel Blogging 101 in December 2022 to teach others her scaling methods through courses and 1:1 mentorship, averaging $55,688 per month from January to April 2023.

40 Aprons is a food blog started by Cheryl Malik that grew from a hobby to earning $18,000/month. In 12 months, her blog income grew nearly 4000% and traffic increased 1300% by focusing on consistent, high-quality content and leveraging Pinterest for growth. The business model relies primarily on display ads, affiliate income, sponsored posts, and freelance food photography services.

Adleaf Technologies was a 2013 startup that combined programming bootcamps with software solutions, training fresh engineers and delivering client work at low cost. Despite strong initial traction with 43 new admissions in one week from Facebook ads and recovering initial investment in two weeks, the company failed due to poor money management, seasonal dependency on college students, and partnership conflicts. The founder lost approximately $13,000 USD total.