( no physical products )

  1. Justin Welsh — Saturday Solopreneur newsletter + courses · ~$4.15M

Left an executive startup job in 2019.

One idea: teach knowledge workers to build income solo, no team. Grew a newsletter to ~185K and turned it into $4M+/year with zero employees


  1. Sahil Bloom — The Curiosity Chronicle · $10M+ ecosystem

Quit finance, started a newsletter sharing mental models and life/finance frameworks.

Now 800K+ readers feeding a book, courses, and an investment holding company.

Showed mid-career pros that "writing what you're curious about" is a real business engine.

  1. Ali Abdaal — YouTube / productivity · ~$3.7–5M/year

A working doctor who filmed study tips on the side.

One obsession — productivity that doesn't burn you out — became a 6M-subscriber channel, a bestselling book (Feel-Good Productivity), and courses.

Gave a generation permission to chase "feel-good" output over grind.