The Story
Alex Lieberman started Morning Brew in his dorm room and sold it for millions. But after selling, he felt lost for 12 months doing "every cliche thing an entrepreneur does when looking for meaning" - reading stoicism, taking long walks with his dog.
He landed on a new identity: the Multipreneur. His vision: launch a bunch of tiny businesses and hire CEOs to run them. Over the next 5-10 years, he wants a dozen+ companies where he's the CEO of NONE but co-founder and chairman of ALL.
His first business in the holding company: Story Arb - a ghost writing agency for B2B executives. He put $0 into it. Current stats: 12 clients paying $7,000/month = ~$1M/year annualized revenue. Goal: $10M business with $3.5M profit.
Key Insights
The Morning Brew Background
- •Started in college at University of Michigan
- •200-person company doing $75M+/year in revenue
- •Sold in October 2020 to Axel Springer
- •Stepped down as CEO 6 months later - "hardest professional moment ever"
Why Personal Holding Companies Are Taking Off
- •Increased emphasis on lifestyle balance and health
- •Cost of failure in entrepreneurship has never been lower
- •Easier than ever to ideate/test ideas (Product Hunt, Kickstarter)
- •Cheaper to run businesses (Shopify, Beehive)
- •New image of success: cash-flowing 6-7 figure businesses vs. swinging for $1B
How Story Arb Started
- •Saw short-form video agencies popping up
- •Thought: text platforms (Twitter/LinkedIn) haven't been given enough love
- •Put out a tweet: "If you're an executive who believes in building audience but don't have time/skill, DM me"
- •Got 25 DMs - validated demand before building product
- •Connected clients with ghost writers, set up Slack channels
- •2-3 months in: hired a CEO (doesn't want to be CEO himself)
Story Arb Structure
- •12 clients at $7K/month = $84K/month = ~$1M/year
- •2 full-time employees (CEO + content strategist)
- •3 freelance ghost writers
- •Profit margin: 30-35%
- •Goal: 110 clients = $10M/year with $3-3.5M cash flow
Defining Product-Market Fit
- •What % of clients would recommend to their network? (Target: 50%+)
- •Retention: Average ghost writing agency retains 3-5 months. Goal: 10 months average
How to Find Great CEOs
Look for "unteachables":
- •Obsessive brain (goes to sleep/wakes up thinking about the business)
- •Great critical thinker
- •Values aligned (high integrity, strong communicator)
- •Great work ethic
- •Humility and self-awareness
CEO Compensation
- •Salary: $100-200K/year
- •Equity: 10-50% of the business
- •After product-market fit: quarterly profit distributions to equity holders
Finding Business Ideas
- •"Never just sit on a couch thinking of business ideas - worst way to do it"
- •Be a magnet for problems
- •Hoard people's problems, then think of novel solutions
- •Next idea: Workflow automation agency (Notion, Airtable, Zapier, Make, AI, offshore talent)
Testing Ideas
- •Start with a tweet
- •If interest → tweet thread
- •If interest → newsletter
- •If interest → video
- •Same concept for business: step pebble to pebble, not leap across the river
Key Advice
"Find the suck. Find great problems to solve. Immerse yourself in industries you're interested in. Identify problems that are especially painful with no good solution. Then think about how you can provide a better solution."