Nathan Barry – Founder of ConvertKit

How does Nathan make money online?

Nathan has made money in many ways over the years.

Including:

• Freelance web design
• Creating and selling iPhone apps
• Freelance consulting
• Writing and selling ebooks
• Creating and selling an online course
• Building ConvertKit (email marketing and e-commerce software)

Since about 2015, ConvertKit has been Nathan’s primary business focus and source of income.

How much money does Nathan make?

You can get a sense of how much Nathan earned from his older entrepreneurial ventures via the yearly reports he posts on his website.

For example:

• 2011 – $20k profit from one iPhone app
• 2012 – $85k from ebooks, $34k from consulting, $25k from iPhone apps
• 2015 – $117k from ebooks and courses

Those numbers are dwarfed by the success of ConvertKit, which was earning almost $2 million in monthly revenue at the time of this writing.

See the current monthly revenue for ConvertKit here.

However, it’s unclear what kind of salary Nathan pays himself out of the company.

In a March 2017 interview, he did share some details on ConvertKit’s profitability:

Our profits have fluctuated quite a bit over the years, but for the last 6 months we’ve been quite profitable. We currently operate at about 25-30% profit margins: Out of $500k+ each month in revenue, at least $150k is profit.

How did Nathan get started?

From the about page on Nathan’s personal website:

My journey started with freelance web design, moved into selling iPhone apps, then growing my own audience and selling books on design.

Per Nathan’s LinkedIn, he studied marketing and graphic design at Boise State University, was a freelance designer from 2007 to 2009, then got a job as a senior user experience designer for two years.

In 2011, Nathan quit his job and taught himself how to code.

His salary at his old job was apparently $60,000. A year after quitting, he reported $145k income from his entrepreneurial efforts.

• Learn how to code with these top-rated courses

What type of online business does Nathan have?

According to our framework, his past and current online businesses can be broken down like this:

• Freelance (Level 2)
  This is how Nathan started out, offering software and website design services. Later he did some freelance consulting.
• Digital Products (Level 4)
  Nathan has created and sold ebooks, apps and online courses.
• Authority (Level 4)
  Nathan built up a fairly big following with the success of his digital products.
• Cloud Service (Level 5)
  ConvertKit is a prime example of a Software as a Service (SaaS) business.

Follow the links above for more info and examples for each type of business.