Today we are interviewing Charlie Light. Charlie has created and operated some of the largest meme accounts on Twitter and ended up turning it into a full time job and then a successful exit via acquisition.
Background of yourself and how you got started building a business online
I have a master’s in accounting but worked in various startups after college. I started my first parody account, John W. Rich (Wealthy) in April 2020 while I was bored during the Covid lockdowns. It grew quickly and hit 40k followers or so within a few months. I tried making money off of the account, but my first few monetization attempts didn’t work. I finally realized that I had business owners following my account who would pay me to help create their content. I started with a couple clients at the end of 2020, and eventually grew my agency to $44k a month in revenue. It was just me and a couple part-time contractors.
Why Twitter over any other platform?
Twitter is the most fun platform. I didn’t think my humor would be welcome on LinkedIn or Facebook, and YouTube is obviously for video creators, not writers. I like that Twitter is an endless game; you can basically reply to hundreds of people a day and quickly grow an audience if you’re willing to be on the platform for hours a day engaging with everyone
The genesis of John W. Rich? How you came up with the idea.
I had read a lot of business history books, especially about scandals and fraud. The original seed of the idea was Ken Lay, disgraced CEO of Enron. He had grown a Fortune 50 company and amassed a huge fortune without really understanding how his own business operated. I also borrowed inspiration from many of the VCs who got rich during the late 90s Tech Bubble, and preserved their reputation for being innovators well into the 2020s despite not contributing anything meaningful to the business world in over 20 years.
Challenges you saw running a parody account?
It’s hard to make money directly from the account. No one wants to buy stuff from you because they assume everything you post is a joke. Advertisers don’t really want to work with you for the same reason. You can get paid for engagement, but it’s not much money and technically against the terms of service.
How did you begin monetizing the account?
I tried selling hats and t-shirts, but made only like $50 over a couple months. Then I made about $200 doing a couple sponsored posts. Finally, I landed my first clients: They each paid me about $2,000 a month to write content for them. I started upping my prices after that and eventually could charge up to $8,000/month for the right client.
What was your monthly income at the peak?
The peak was mid-2022, just before I sold my agency. Revenue was $44k and gross income was $39k after paying a couple contractors. Most of 2022 saw months between $25k and $40k in revenue with similar margins.
Why sell the business?
Looking back, it was a mistake to sell. At the time, I thought selling would help me grow revenue because the acquirer had a sales team that would sell my service. But I would have been better off continuing to grow myself and working with the right clients.
What would you have done differently if you had to redo everything?
I would have charged more but worked with fewer clients. Having one client who pays $6k a month is way easier than having two clients that pay $3k a month. I should have narrowed down to my ideal client who I could get the most results for and charge more, rather than taking on every single client I could.
How has building a twitter presence changed since Elon bought the company?
It’s much harder to grow a business-related account now. Back in 2021-22, it was easy to add 5,000 new followers a month. But now, even the most well-known business accounts struggle to add a couple thousand followers a month. At least this year, the only way to grow fast is by making content related to politics. But, it is still a great platform to make money from if you’re looking for clients. It’s much harder to build an email list now – Elon has made it impossible.
What are you doing now?
I’m Head of Content for Enduring Ventures, a permanent capital holding company. I write tweets, make LinkedIn posts, and make videos for the company and the founders. I’m also still shitposting on my personal account @charliewrich.
Any cool projects you are working on?
I’m working on a copywriter parody account, @alphacopywriter. It’s still a work in progress. I also have a website called Solo Writers, a group for people who write online. We have about 100 people in the group now
