REPLICATION GUIDE · AI Businesses

London startup media hub

Startups of London publishes founder interviews, podcasts, guides and articles for entrepreneurs navigating London's startup ecosystem; sponsors seek relevant visibility.

● Already earning  $6K/mo  ·  Copy it for about $35K

Replication snapshot

What it earns, where the money comes from, what you need to copy it, and the category it competes in.

Monthly revenue$6K/mo
Copy budget$35K
Build time6 months
Growth channelsWord of mouth, SEO
Tools to copyMailChimp, Google Analytics
CategoryAI Businesses

How to copy this business and make money

Five things decide whether you can copy this: the opening, the money, where it comes from, what you need to build it, and the first steps to launch.

QUICK LOOKFree summary — what it sells, and the total budget
Launch an independent six-month London startup publisher. Interview ten prospective readers/sponsors in month one; publish four original guides before selling two campaigns in months three–five. Total copy budget: $35K.

Want to see how that $35K splits line by line, what each line buys, and when to stop? The full breakdown is below.

PROVEN · ALREADY MAKING MONEY

Thousands of people are already making money with this playbook

If you want to make money, read this part. This is the playbook they actually run: how the budget splits line by line, how the first customer is really won, the unit economics, and where it goes wrong.

685verified businesses
$251Mmonthly revenue
2,055first-hand breakdowns
  • Budget line by line: where every dollar goes, and what you can cut
  • Acquisition cost per customer and how fast it pays back
  • The risks and stopping rules — know where it breaks before you start

Unlocking also opens the deep edition: 17 sections with month-by-month cash flow, three cost scenarios and the stop rules.

Sign in to unlock free Create free account Members unlock 3 projects per day, free

Open-source stack you can start from

Each repository was checked against the GitHub API for existence, stars and licence terms. Fork one instead of starting from zero. Where it says AGPL, read the terms before shipping a paid product.

Sign in and share your own link — every 10 clicks give you 1 extra free unlock today.

Sign in to unlock free
Inviting also pays: anyone who signs up through your link and pays gives you 10%–50% of the order. How inviting pays →

What this business does

Startups of London publishes founder interviews, podcasts, guides and articles for entrepreneurs navigating London's startup ecosystem; sponsors seek relevant visibility. Founder Ozan Dagdeviren, whose background includes psychology, sociology, consumer behavior and entrepreneurship, launched it in September 2019. His 2021 Starter Story interview describes a documentary business adapting toward search-led publishing during the pandemic. Its card shows $6,000 monthly revenue, with dollar currency and measurement period unspecified. The current official site carries 2026 articles; its About page claims five core people, hundreds of founder interviews and over 500 articles and guides. These are publisher claims, not audited audience or staffing measurements; current finances remain undisclosed.

Replication breakdown

01

Why it works — and where your opening is

Founders need context about local companies, practical decisions and the people behind them; sponsors need an audience relevant to their services. SOL combines searchable guides with conversational founder stories rather than only short funding announcements. As a value hypothesis, this can reduce readers' fragmented research and give sponsors richer context than a generic advertisement; no measured time saving or conversion lift is established. New founders, changing services and continuing ecosystem developments create reasons to return. Its accumulated interview archive and relationships may support trust, but they are not an exclusive barrier, and sponsorship must remain distinguishable from independent editorial judgment.
02

The money: revenue, cost, and margin

Monthly revenue$6K/mo

Estimated from technical complexity, people, tools, and delivery scope.

The interview card's $6,000 monthly figure has unspecified dollar currency and period; the 2021 narrative prioritizes growth rather than quantified profit. Current revenue, original startup spending and net profit are unknown. Publishing must cover paid research, editing, production, administration, tools, maintenance, acquisition, taxes and refunds before profit exists. The independent six-month budget is USD 35,000; its USD 70,000 monthly display is solely startup multiplied by two, neither actual income nor a forecast. Allocating the entire budget across two sponsor campaigns gives USD 17,500 each, including setup and unused reserves; this is not marginal cost, profit or realized loss. Unused reserves remain cash.
03

Where the revenue comes from

The 2021 account describes website advertising, branded partnerships, videos and customer-funded products; the 2022 follow-up adds paid featured coverage and an investor-information product with a report. These historical offers must not be mistaken for a verified current revenue mix. Today's website still publishes guides and podcasts and invites collaborators through contact links, but current package prices, payment milestones and sponsor volumes were not established. Commercially, a sponsor buys agreed placement or production while readers access editorial material; the scope, disclosure and publication period need a written agreement. The independent pilot below tests a bounded sponsorship package, without selling investor contacts or promising readership.
04

Tools you need to replicate it

The original interview explicitly describes Zoom recordings and an OKR-based team goal structure. The current website links its newsletter to Substack and embeds a Spreaker podcast player; these visible distribution tools do not disclose the whole internal stack. The reviewed evidence does not establish its private database, payment provider or production software. For the independent pilot, use managed WordPress, hosted newsletter delivery, licensed recording/editing software and hosted payment links. One paid developer configures templates, access, backups and publication reminders; these are proposed choices, not claims about SOL. Human research and editing replace generative AI, so no AI API or GPU service is planned.

Success stories from this field

Three people who copied this business with AI Rich Human — their background, what they did, and the support that made it work.

Story by · Daniel Oliveira

Daniel Oliveira — from delivery driver to copying a $6K/mo business: London startup media hub

I almost didn't believe it. I had been burned by "easy money" promises before. I drove deliveries for 12 years, paid per drop, my back and my bank account both aching. Then a friend sent me a link to AI Rich Human. I expected another "get rich online" course and almost closed the tab. Instead I found real businesses that already make money — named companies with real revenue — and, for London startup media hub, a copy-and-execute plan broken down to the numbers. Their breakdown answered the three questions I actually had: how much to put in (about $35K), what to build it on (MailChimp, Google Analytics), and where the customers come from (Word of mouth, SEO). Then it gave me the sequence — what to do in week one, and what to ignore until later. I worked through the checklist in order. MailChimp, Google Analytics first, then Word of mouth, SEO, then the outreach script — and two paying clients inside a month. The headline budget of about $35K is not a day-one number; I spent the minimum that could produce one customer and let the rest come out of earnings. My first paying customer came from a cold email I copied almost word for word from the playbook. I was scared to hit send. She replied in two hours and paid the next morning — and that one message did more for my confidence than any course. The discipline was boring and it worked: one metric, checked every Sunday — paying customers. Growth meant more of the same channel. A flat week meant a different offer, not a different business. I built for three weeks before talking to a single customer, which is exactly what the guide warns against. My first five conversations changed the offer completely. I wish I had done those five calls in week one. I expected a course and got a technical partner. Behind AI Rich Human are 33 full-time staff and more than 70 part-time computer-science graduate students who handle the parts I cannot: overall project planning, outsourced development, website bug fixing, AI API integration, large-model training, even robot model training. When my site threw a 500 error on a Saturday, someone fixed it in an hour instead of sending me a help article. I undercharged for two months out of fear. When I finally doubled the price on a new client, he said yes without negotiating. The cheap clients had been the difficult ones all along. There is no office and no boss. Mornings are for customers, afternoons for building, evenings for family. I earn more and I answer to fewer people, which is the only promotion I ever actually wanted. My brother laughed when I told him. My old manager said I was throwing away a stable job. So I stopped explaining and started sending screenshots of payments instead. Nobody argues with a bank notification. Today my copy of it pays me every month. The business I copied runs about $6K/mo — I am not at that scale, and I don't need to be: I was earning around $3,400 a month as a delivery driver in Marseille, and this already beats that, with room to grow. I am not a genius and I cannot code. What changed was copying a proven plan with a team behind me. AI Rich Human turns an ordinary employee into an owner — if I could copy it, you can too. Honestly, I'm still a little surprised it worked. The project I copied, in full: http://www.airichhuman.com/stories/starterstory-798-startupsoflondon-com?lang=en
Story by · Aisha Hsu

Aisha Hsu — from caregiver to copying a $6K/mo business: London startup media hub

I did this for my daughter. I was tired of choosing between rent and her school fees. For 15 years I looked after elderly patients in their homes — lifting, cleaning, paid almost nothing. A colleague forwarded me AI Rich Human during a lunch break. I scrolled past the hype and landed on the part that mattered: actual companies, actual revenue, and a step-by-step breakdown of London startup media hub written for someone with no budget and no team. People at work found out and made jokes about "internet money". I stopped defending it and just showed the payout screen. The jokes stopped when the numbers got boring and regular. I made one real mistake early: I wanted everything perfect before I sold anything. Two weeks passed — I had a logo, a website, and zero customers. The plan says it plainly: sell first, build second. The moment I sent five rough cold messages, the business started moving. The plan was brutally specific: a launch budget of about $35K, the exact tools it runs on (MailChimp, Google Analytics), the revenue channels that actually convert (Word of mouth, SEO), and the first steps to land a paying customer. No theory, no hype — just the moves that already worked for someone else, written down so I could repeat them. I blocked out evenings and did exactly what the sheet said: MailChimp, Google Analytics set up, Word of mouth, SEO opened, the first-customer email sent. Two clients signed within three weeks. I never needed the whole $35K up front — I put in just enough to get one person to pay, then recycled that money. What actually saved me was the team. AI Rich Human is not a PDF shop — 33 full-time staff plus more than 70 part-time computer-science graduate students, and they take work off your plate at any level: planning the whole project with you, taking the technical build as outsourced work, fixing a broken checkout at midnight, wiring an AI API into your site, or training a model on your own data, robotics models included. When my payment page died on a Friday night, a real engineer answered. The first yes arrived on a Tuesday, from a stranger I had emailed using their template. I rewrote maybe four words. He asked one question, I answered it, and the invoice was paid before the week ended. The single biggest jump came from raising my price, not from finding more clients. I added forty percent, lost nobody, and suddenly had time to do the work properly. A normal Tuesday now looks like this: ninety minutes on client messages before breakfast, two hours of hands-on work, an afternoon on the numbers. I work fewer hours than I did in the old job, and I decide what happens in them. That part I still can't get used to. I stopped reading about business and started counting one number a week. If paying customers went up, I repeated whatever I had done. If they didn't, I changed the price or the pitch. That was the whole system. My version is small and it is mine. It earns less than the $6K/mo the original does — but more than the $3,800 a month I made as a caregiver in Tulsa, and it grows while I sleep. I cannot code and I have no rich uncle. I had a plan, a link, and a team I could call. That was enough, and it can be enough for you. The first month I paid both without panic, I cried. The project I copied, in full: http://www.airichhuman.com/stories/starterstory-798-startupsoflondon-com?lang=en
Story by · Tomás Herrera

Tomás Herrera — from security guard to copying a $6K/mo business: London startup media hub

There is a version of this story where I never clicked the link. I clicked it out of boredom at one in the morning. I stood at the same gate for 3 years as a security guard, twelve-hour rounds, minimum wage. I found AI Rich Human through a search I had almost given up on. What kept me there was not a promise but a spreadsheet: London startup media hub, what it costs to start, which tools it runs on, and how the first customer actually arrives. What I got was not a course but a build sheet — the launch budget (about $35K), the stack (MailChimp, Google Analytics), the channels that actually convert (Word of mouth, SEO), and the order to do things in. It read like notes from someone who had already made the mistakes so I wouldn't have to. So I followed it, step by step. I set up MailChimp, Google Analytics, opened Word of mouth, SEO first, and used their first-customer script to land my first two paying clients within a few weeks. The plan lists a full launch budget of about $35K, but nobody spends that on day one — I started with the smallest slice that could produce a paying customer, and reinvested from the revenue. I sent eleven messages before anyone answered. The twelfth person — a small studio owner — replied "how much?" and paid that afternoon. Eleven rejections cost me nothing but an evening. The part nobody advertises: there is a bench behind the plan. 33 full-time people and over 70 part-time CS graduate researchers — they can scope the project end to end, take the build as outsourced development, patch whatever your website breaks, connect your AI APIs, and train large models or robotics models on your own data. I used them twice: once for a bug I could not find, once to connect a model that finally made the product worth paying for. Nobody warns you about pricing. My first price was so low that I was busy all day and still broke. On the third client I raised it by forty percent and nobody blinked. That same client later sent me two referrals. I also learned to trust numbers over fear. Every week I tracked one thing: paying customers. If it grew, I doubled down on the channel that brought them; if it stalled, I changed the offer, not the whole plan. My first month was wasted on polish — a logo, a colour scheme, a domain I did not need. Nobody bought anything. Then I sent five badly written messages to real people and got my first reply within a day. Sell first, decorate later. My mother asked, twice, whether this was a scam. The third time she asked, it was to find out how much I was making. I did not convince anyone with words — the transfers did it. I still get up early, but now the first hour belongs to me, not to a commute. Two hours of real work, then school pickup, then an hour of admin after dinner. Same number of hours, completely different life. A year ago I was a security guard in Osaka on about $4,200 a month. Today this copy pays me more than that, and the business I copied is doing $6K/mo — proof the ceiling is far above me. Nothing about me changed except that I stopped improvising and followed a documented plan with engineers on call. Boredom turned out to be the most profitable decision I made that year. The project I copied, in full: http://www.airichhuman.com/stories/starterstory-798-startupsoflondon-com?lang=en

See all success stories → I copied this business — let me tell my story

Copy it — or copy something bigger.

Everything above is the playbook: budget, tools, channels, and the first customer. If these numbers do not fit your budget, pick another proven business below.

Browse proven businesses →