I'm a designer who turned into a writer who turned into a startup CEO. My mission is to help creators earn a living. Subscribe for essays on building an audience and earning a living as a creator.
I own at 10%+ of five companies—Here's the breakdown:
When I was learning to build websites real world examples were so much more helpful to me than hypothetical examples.
Today that's easy to find in almost every category except money. People will happily share real world examples about anything they are learning, but as soon as you have a question about money everyone gets uncomfortable. I'm trying to change that by writing openly about money.
I think the fastest way to build wealth is to concentrate on one core business (rather than building many income streams), but at the same time I think business is fun and you should pursue ventures that bring you joy.
Today's article is breaking down the 5 businesses that I own at least 10% of—let's break them down:
1. From Boise
Ownership: 50% | Annual revenue: ~$50k
From Boise is a local newsletter about Boise, Idaho (my hometown) that just passed 20,000 subscribers. It's a passion project that is just about to hit break even in Q4 2022. My co-founder Marissa is the editor and runs the business. I expect it to do about $100,000 in revenue in 2023 and make a very small profit.
Long-term I'm excited to continue to invest in Boise and this will give Marissa and I a platform to continue to showcase great local companies.
2. Short-term Rentals
Ownership: 40% | Annual revenue: ~$700k
Along with two partners I built an Airbnb business that owns a total of 16 rentals across six properties around the Boise area. This has been great to do something in the real world (computer only work gets boring without contrast) and to diversify a little bit.
Thanks to the run up in real estate these are quite a bit more valuable than what we paid for them. Up until recently all of our profits were reinvested to buy more properties and make improvements. Now we are starting to take some profits as distributions (my share of profits after mortgage payments is about $4,000 per month). We have a full-time employee so none of us partners spend much time on it.
SPONSORED BY CANDOR
The most authentic way to share how you work
Looking for a way to be more authentic at work? Look no further than Candor. This innovative platform allows you to create a visual representation of how you work, giving a real, unashamedly human view of yourself. With tools that let you express yourself in ways job titles, work history and portfolios can't, Candor is the perfect way to showcase your unique strengths and personality. As a leader or teammate, understanding the inner-workings of your team members (e.g., motivations, goals, communication style) is essential for creating a high-performing, transparent culture. With Candor, not only will you be able to do just that, but you'll also empower your teammates to reach their personal development goals.
Candor is 100% free. Join today.3. Cerro Gordo
Ownership: 10% | Annual revenue: ~$600k
It's not often you meet someone who owns a ghost town so this is definitely the most attention grabbing of any of my investments. When my friends Jon and Brent first bought the town I came in as a small investor at 2%. Then as investors wanted to sell I gradually bought more to get to just over 10% that I own now.
The town makes money from merchandise sales, location fees for TV commercials, and sponsorships. If you aren't already following the YouTube channel you should subscribe.
2023 will be huge for the town when we finish The American Hotel and host our first paid guests. In the future we'll have more media properties (a podcast, newsletter, and more) as well as launch more products (maybe Cerro Gordo whiskey?).
4. Harkla
Ownership: 10% | Annual revenue: ~$2 million
My friend Casey built an incredible business called Harkla creating products for kids with special needs. When the opportunity came to buy shares from one of his previous investors I was thrilled.
We've got a weighted blanket and sensory swing from Harkla for our 3 year old and he loves them. Definitely check them out.
5. ConvertKit
Ownership: 85% | Annual revenue: ~$33 million
This is the one you've heard of and where I spend 99% of my time. My passion is helping creators earn a living and everything ConvertKit does is based around that mission.
Our approach to stay bootstrapped and profitable has paid off as we go into this downturn. When most tech companies are announcing layoffs we are planning to add 18+ full-time team members over the next year.
If you have an audience, or are thinking about growing one, you can use ConvertKit for free.
***
That's the full list! I’ve made some other small investments, but realized that I don't enjoy them as much as being able to take a meaningful share of a great business.
I also now avoid anything that will give me more paperwork or complicate my taxes. So all my other new investments are now just going into basic index funds or more money into companies I already own shares in (like buying more of Cerro Gordo).
—Nathan
P.S. If you enjoy frank discussions about money and are already earning a full-time living as a creator, you should check out my paid newsletter for creators earning over $200k/year.
Nathan Barry
I'm a designer who turned into a writer who turned into a startup CEO. My mission is to help creators earn a living. Subscribe for essays on building an audience and earning a living as a creator.
Hey Reader, If I could solve only one thing in my business, that would have the biggest impact, what would that be? This is the question every great entrepreneur obsesses over. Rather than trying to do everything at once, you look for the bottleneck and focus on solving that. There’s a book called The Goal by an Israeli physicist named Eliyahu Goldratt. It’s a 1984 business novel that business systems nerds love. However if you’re not a business systems nerd you probably… won’t love it. It’s...
Hey Reader, Have you ever spent money on something and immediately felt guilty afterward? Will Guidara spends his money foolishly on purpose. And he thinks you should too. He once bought an entire barrel of whiskey and put it in his basement. He also put a skee-ball machine in the office. Is he going to get a monetary return on either of these things? No. But that’s kind of the point. He calls it the 95/5 rule: Manage your money and time like a maniac 95% of the time (no expense is too...
Hey Reader, Have you ever spent a whole day on something almost nobody saw? It's painful when the whole reason you worked hard was because you wanted to reach people. If you teach a workshop in person, you reach the 20 people in that room. But if you record that same workshop once, you can keep teaching for years on autopilot. This is the concept of leverage, and it's something I talk about in my upcoming book, The Ladders of Wealth (you can pre-order it now). A lot of people will look back...