His $500,000 Exit After 6 Failed Businesses

Ash Read founded a niche website called Living Cozy, described as “your go-to source for modern homeware and furniture brands” 🏡

Per a recent profile, the site was earning “tens of thousands of dollars per month” – so $20,000+ monthly revenue – before Ash sold it last year.

He apparently sold it for a “6-figure deal,” and I’m guessing that amounts to at least $500,000 🤑

How it all began…

Read started at age 18 with his first software company and kept trying businesses as side gigs over the next decade.

For his day job, he worked in content marketing and SEO for software companies.

Ash ended up launching 6 software companies before starting Living Cozy, but none of them took off 😕

He writes…

It seemed like software was the easiest route to go from zero to 1 and build something but in reality playing to my strengths was the best route.

His strengths were content marketing and SEO, skills he honed at his day job.

So…

In 2020… he started a new [side] project: compiling a curated list of e-commerce brands in the home goods space…

In one weekend, he built a website using Webflow, a no-code platform. He called it Living Cozy.

And…

He made his first revenue six weeks later when a user purchased bedding through an affiliate link on his site.

📝 Ash writes…

That was a really big moment. It made me believe, if I can get more traffic to this website I can drive revenue.

Then…

After about six months, Living Cozy was getting tens of thousands of pageviews, and by the end of 2020, Read felt like it was truly taking off.

Ash ran Living Cozy as a side project for a couple of years, which was tough…

The time constraints were a huge challenge, he said.

“The way I got over this challenge was by being ruthless with prioritization and only focusing on the tasks that I knew would scale the business”

🥳 He finally quit his day job in November 2022…

That shift enabled him to focus on building deeper relationships with brands. The company already had affiliate relationships with about 100 brands

Ash tweeted last September…

Living Cozy has been acquired.

The internet is flooded with content and Living Cozy managed to stand out by doing things the right way and taking no shortcuts.

Last words from Ash…

It took me quite a long time to learn to actually just lean into your strengths when you’re building a business.

His strengths were things he was already doing well at his day job.

Do you have a strength like that you can lean into? 🤔

Get 10 more business ideas in your inbox each week