I Built A $25m Agency With No Investment (here's my playbook)

Every Sunday, I share the strategies I'm using right now to build my businesses. You can join for free here ➔ https://www.chris-donnelly.co.uk/ I started an agency from my university bedroom with no money, no connections to clients, and no idea what I was doing. Fast forward 10 years, and I sold it in 2021 for $25 million. In this video, I share the exact playbook, from how I secured my first client to how we found our niche, built it to £3M ARR, lost it all and then rebuilt it to an eight-figure exit. We're going to cover: Why doing free work at the start is actually the smartest move you can make The demand/supply moment that tells you it's time to raise your prices The quadrant-based thinking framework I used to take the business from £3m to £10m revenue How one breakfast event in New York generated over $1 million in revenue What I did during COVID that turned near-collapse into our best year ever How to run a competitive exit and get 11x EBITDA on a bootstrapped business ______________________________ Timestamps: 00:00 - Intro 00:29 - Why you should start an agency 01:05 - How to get your first client 04:50 - Positioning and niching down 09:29 - The pricing moment most founders miss 10:27 - Delegation and building systems 14:26 - Building a great business model 16:07 - How to scale an agency 26:33 - How to become famous in your industry 29:05 - How to exit ______________________________ Follow Me: Instagram →   / chrisdonnellyofficial   LinkedIn →   / donnellychris   ______________________________ The short life story - I decided to skip the corporate job & start a digital marketing agency at 21. Here is the journey so far: Age 21: Bootstrapped Adjust Media at university making websites Age 22: Left Uni and rebranded to Verb Brands Age 27: Acquired DBD Media Ltd, their 20 staff & expanded to digital marketing Age 28: Won Bugatti & recognised as leading luxury agency Age 30: Sell entirety of Verb Brands to Croud & LDC in an 8-figure deal Age 31: Founded Lottie Org w/ Will Donnelly (Grow revenue to 8 figures, raise $35m & hire 100 people). Age 32: Launch my Media, Education and Investment business Age 33: Launched the Creator Accelerator and reached 8 figures in revenue Age 34: Co-founded Searchable. It’s been a journey. Through Searchable.com, I help founders and marketers to grow their organic traffic on autopilot with our autonomous SEO and AEO tool: searchable.com