Starter Story - I was banned by the big tech. Now what?

Hey,

This is Pat, founder of Starter Story — I wanted to give a warm welcome to the 1,943 people who joined us since our last newsletter. To anyone reading this, your support means a lot! I hope you enjoy reading our content as much as we enjoy creating it.

Three times per week, I write this email to share the lessons we learned after talking to successful founders around the world.

If you're not interested in our emails, you can unsubscribe here.

PS: I love you! This month, we're running a St. Valentine’s Founder’s Day 💝 Promo to help you start doing what you love and launch your dream business. Get a 25% special discount for newsletter subscribers and join Starter Story Premium.

And now, let's dive in:

These companies were banned by the big tech. So, how do they do their marketing?

Big tech platforms (Google, Facebook, Twitter, and Amazon) have policies that prohibit certain industries from advertising on their platforms. 

Products or services related to these spaces are often the ones experiencing the most restrictions: Tobacco, CBD, drugs (legal or not), weapons, and adult products and services. 

However, now Google will allow ads for CBD products and so will Twitter (essentially in regions where these are legal).   

Relying on ads is such a common strategy that many companies will be completely lost without that channel. 

But when obstacles are ahead, that’s when entrepreneurs thrive the most. 

And we’ve interviewed plenty of entrepreneurs who successfully navigated challenging situations. Let’s take a look at how they overcame them, so you can be inspired by their stories:

Adult industry

This is what they call it. It ranges from sex toys, to actual hygiene products to escort services.

A pretty tough industry to market.

This blogger makes $10K/month with a sex toys review site. 

However, he started on Medium to test the waters and validate the idea quicker. And after just 3 months, he was banned from the platform.

Now, on his own website, it’s all about SEO and keyword research.

This after-sex cleanup product makes $1.4M/year.

But they also struggle with ads.

What’s helping them get the word out is leveraging their uniqueness to create videos that easily go viral on TikTok.

Trust me, they’re good.

This founder started a $200K/month escort service at 21.

Many eyebrows raise just by mentioning it.

Not just ads, with a business like this, it’s hard to get an accounting service, set up a website, or even a phone line without paying a premium.

The good part?

They leveraged being super open about an obscure world for most people and got a ton of attention from the press.

CBD

CBD, hemp,... this is a super hot topic due to the regulatory changes in the last years. Encouraging the creation of many new businesses that strike gold in the space in a very short period of time.

But rarely being able to leverage paid media.

This team built a $3M/year wholesale CBD operation.

With Google, Bing, Instagram, and Facebook banning direct advertising of CBD, and Amazon not allowing sales of it at all, this company relied heavily on a more traditional approach.

They got early traction through networking at events (super underestimated) and leaned on local radio and TV stations to keep that momentum going (rarely used).

These college roomates went from zero to $500K/month in 2 years.

Doing what? Selling joints, mostly.

And they hit that number by recruiting hundreds of micro-influencers in the cannabis space. 

Because why bet all your marketing budget on one Snoop Dog Instagram post?

Tobacco

Once a common presence in all types of mainstream media advertising, these products are completely prohibited to advertise anywhere.

That didn't stop this young founder to start a $20K/month cigar subscription box while still in college.

He was able to grow it after many hours of reaching out and building relationships with blogs (including cigar blogs, mom blogs, fitness YouTubers, mainstream media, etc).

That hard work paid off and has contributed to over 70% of their lifetime revenue.

Firearms

These products are one of those that rarely will be allowed to advertise on major platforms ever.

And they have the budget to spend. They spent $67M in the first half of 2022.

This founder started a $180K/year blog about firearms.

By building and growing his online platform, he’s been able to attract some of that marketing budget.

Herbal products

The thing with restrictions is that sometimes it’s not totally clear if you’re good to advertise or not.

Herbal products can fall either way. Depending on components, active ingredients, etc.

This is the case of a company that generates $3M/year despite being banned by big tech companies.

And it’s not just ads. Their organic traffic dropped to nothing.

Then, how do they do it? 

The winner that brings the bread home is advertising on “alternative” social media. Platforms overlooked by most companies that have lower competition.

COVID

The pandemic came with a ton of restrictions for businesses too. Especially for activities like traveling.

Revenues in the industry experienced incredible drops. Some had the cash to burn and wait for the situation to return to normal. But others had to get creative.

This founder created a portfolio of websites that compensated for the downfall of his main travel website.

Currently, he pockets around $70K/month (and his interview is an absolute masterclass on how to acquire a website).

Conclusion

If you're in a similar position, the strategies in these case studies can save your business.

But even if you're not, you can still learn from them and leverage them to unlock new growth channels or cut down your marketing spending.

However, the most important takeaway from this is to learn from these founders’ mindset. Learn how to overcome obstacles and be comfortable in a challenging environment.

Want to discover more proven ways to start and grow a business?

Get full access to our database with 4,000+ real-life case studies and 8,000+ business ideas.

Discover how founders:

a) Come up with money-making business ideas

b) Launch their businesses (even while working a full-time job)

c) Get their first customers, and what strategies they use to generate cash as quickly as possible

And find out exactly how founders went from idea to thousands of customers.

All the systems and strategies to build a successful business can be learned, so why not learn them from others who have already done it?

👉 Unlock full access now and launch your dream business.

Quick hitters

This piece of plastic you put in your shirt generates $180K annually. They’ve sold 500K of them. Now they’ve built a second business that creates custom-printed shirts, and it’s killing it too. 

This $9K/month crazy niche product was created thanks to Reddit feedback. The platform is an amazing resource for entrepreneurs and hustlers. Did you know I used Reddit to get Starter Story off the ground? Here’s a post about how I cracked Reddit to get our first users.

This $350K/year bath products business started in a kitchen. Their products are sold in 120+ stores (90% of revenue comes from wholesaling). And it all started with a $5K investment. I love these bath/soap businesses because (1) you can start them from home, and (2) little initial investment is needed.