Technical writing service / agency
Run a technical-writing agency that produces docs, manuals, and content for software and hardware companies.
The idea, in plain language
Run a technical-writing or content agency that produces docs, blog posts, newsletters and onboarding copy for software and creator audiences. Starter Story leads with Karl Hughes's draft.dev at $2.5M/year in two years (technical writers for dev-tool companies), with Alex Lieberman's Morning Brew / StoryArb ghostwriting agency as the newsletter-flipped case. Koerner covers Steph Spector at $6-7K/month freelance writing ($1,200/article using Claude/Gemini), All the Hacks' content-as-a-service for creators, and MrBeast's video-translation business. MFM adds writing-as-marketing chapters and Ethan Agarwal's content-as-service origin story. Customers are SaaS marketing teams, dev-tool companies and creators; startup cost is essentially zero (Upwork profile + a portfolio); cited revenue is $2.5M/year, $75M Morning Brew exit, and $1,200/article freelance.
Where the sources agree
- Niche beats generalist - draft.dev goes hard on 'writers for developers', StoryArb serves high-profile newsletter operators, the Hacks content-as-a-service targets specific creator clients.
- Recruit a bench of writers and productise the service - draft.dev, StoryArb and the onboarding-call agency all scale by subcontracting to vetted writers or operators rather than doing it all solo.
- AI is an accelerant, not the product - Steph Spector uses Claude/Gemini to speed output but charges for human voice and perspective.
- Speed-to-position matters - Hutchins frames the $1M path as '48 hours of positioning, not building', and draft.dev launched without a website.
Where they differ
- Starter Story pitches agency scale ($2.5M/year draft.dev, $75M exit on StoryArb); Koerner pitches solo freelance economics ($6-7K/month, $1,200/article); MFM pitches writing as a marketing/lifestyle skill; Isenberg pitches content-as-a-service or an onboarding-call agency rather than pure writing.
- Pricing model varies from per-article freelance ($1,200), per-client retainer, to enterprise content retainers (StoryArb's high-profile clients) - no video pins a single canonical price.
- Capital intensity ranges from $0 (portfolio + Upwork) to multi-million-dollar platform scale (Morning Brew $75M exit), with the operator angle consistently cheaper than the agency-platform angle.
- Customer mix spans B2B SaaS marketing (draft.dev), consumer creators (StoryArb), international localisation (MrBeast translations) and education/B2B services (onboarding-call agency) - the videos do not converge on one customer.
What each source says
Starter StoryHe Built A $2.5M/Year Business In 2 Years
Karl Hughes's draft.dev story supports a productized technical-writing micro-agency with fixed-price landing pages, documentation, and case studies for one specific technical vertical, fulfilled by a small bench of writers.
Watch on YouTubeIsenberg5 game-changing startup ideas from a life hacking genius
Chris Hutchins's agency and AI-service-business ideas point toward an AI-powered intake and onboarding-call service for boring verticals such as insurance, data entry, paralegal, solo law, or local service firms, sold per call or per workflow.
Watch on YouTubeStarter StoryThe Multipreneur: He’s Building A $10M Portfolio of Income Streams
Video covers The Multipreneur: He’s Building A $10M Portfolio of Income Streams.
Watch on YouTubeKoernerThe Side Hustle AI Was Supposed to Kill Is Booming
Video covers The Side Hustle AI Was Supposed to Kill Is Booming.
Watch on YouTubeMFMThis Man Got Richer Than Jeff Bezos With A Boring Business (#361)
Video covers This Man Got Richer Than Jeff Bezos With A Boring Business (#361).
Watch on YouTubeMFMHow to Learn To Do Anything In Record Time
Video covers How to Learn To Do Anything In Record Time.
Watch on YouTubeIsenbergThe Co-Founder Of A $75M+ Company Gave Me His BEST Business Ideas
Video covers The Co-Founder Of A $75M+ Company Gave Me His BEST Business Ideas.
Watch on YouTubeMFMEthan Agarwal | Hustle Con 2018
Video covers Ethan Agarwal | Hustle Con 2018.
Watch on YouTubeIsenbergHow To Invest Like An Optimist With Morgan Housel
Housel's 'preparedness over prediction' framing supports technical writing that treats worst-case scenarios as planning assumptions, turning risk documentation into a practical operating tool rather than a forecasting exercise.
Watch on YouTubeTools people use for this
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