Getting Fired and created Training for Finance Grads to get Lucrative Jobs idea → $200k/Month

Hello Rebels

🏖️ Creative Entrepreneur fun one-liner:

Why did the entrepreneur love the desert? Because they see potential where others see emptiness!

Onto Today’s story….

Patrick Curtis was dejected because a bad thing happened at his job.

With his finance background, he decided to start a biz to help young finance professionals navigate their careers and achieve success in the competitive world of finance.

He started Wall Street Oasis

It worked, and he is making $200k/Month.

Here is how he did it.

Patrick Curtis got a job in investment banking at Rothschild after his college and worked a grueling 90+ hour week.

He later transitioned to private equity, which was his dream.

He thought he had achieved his dream career.

However, less than 4 months into his private equity job in Boston,

Patrick was unexpectedly fired and asked to sign a waiver and take $10,000 to leave quietly.

He started looking for jobs, but whenever he applied for a job,

he didn't get it because his former employer refused to provide him a reference.

Since he hadn't signed the waiver yet at his former company, Patrick thinks they refused to provide a reference.

He scrambled for four months to get a job, but it was in vain.

Luckily, his network came to his rescue.

A former colleague at Rothschild vouched for Patrick to his private equity fund back in New York.

But the biggest drawback was Patrick needed to move away from family and friends, since the job was in New York.

But Patrick knew it was necessary to keep his career on track.

He accepted the offer, but he never really felt the same after that experience.

His confidence that everything would work out if you worked hard was gone.

After reading a Forbes 30 under 30 article,

Patrick was struck by how many of the successful businesses were in a specific niche or sub-industry,

not some grandiose idea or the next Google.

Patrick knew he wanted to start something.

So, he immediately called his friend who knew how to code.

Given that Patrick's only expertise was in investment banking, they decided to create a fun community centered around young finance professionals.

They had no concrete plan for their monetization strategy,

but they knew that if they could build a strong following, they would be able to generate revenue to reach this audience.

Within a few months, the first iteration of Wall Street Oasis was born.

They originally called it iBankingOasis.com, but later changed the name.

They started reaching out to student groups focused on finance and Patrick's small network to get feedback and stimulate activity on the forum.

Using a Content Management System called Drupal, Patrick and his co-founder built a basic community with a free template theme and a $50 logo.

To attract users, they sent personalized emails to thousands of finance student clubs and finance undergraduates.

By offering a free compensation report as an incentive,

they were able to get about 200 people to register within the first few weeks to join their community.

Of these, about 50 were active users.

To answer questions and keep the forum active, they leveraged Patrick's professional network.

His connections provided valuable insights and engagement within the community.

Patrick invested $1,000 of his own savings, and he put up Google Ads on the community forum.

His startup costs were primarily server expenses.

They gave very little thought to the monetization;

their initial goal was to build an audience and figure out the revenue model later.

As the community grew and user-generated content increased,

organic search traffic naturally followed, with the content base expanding from 100 topics to over 400,000 discussions and millions of comments.

It cost them nothing to publish, as most of it was user-generated, and they put their sole focus on providing a fun, welcoming, and insightful community.

Wall Street Oasis featured a dynamic forum where members could discuss industry trends,

share job opportunities, and seek advice from experienced professionals, Patrick explains.

They then joined a vertical ad network focused on financial products, helping revenue jump to $60k/year.

The next year, they released their first interview course.

Patrick was shocked at the demand and number of sales that came in for the first release.

They got over $20k in the first month.

So they decided to continually improve the course and also release courses for other industries and verticals.

They also started building WSO mentors, to help increase their customer's chance of landing a job.

They charged by the hour for this service.

Customers loved this service too.

They also released more interview courses like investment banking interview course, private equity interview course, and hedge fund interview course.

To grow their social media presence and attract more users, they curated content from the community, showcasing common user problems and insightful answers.

These relatable posts were shared across their social media channels.

They garnered 7 million impressions and over 500,000 engagements monthly across their social media accounts.

They also started a daily newsletter called The Daily Peel,

which provided a quick recap of the investing markets each morning but in a way that was entertaining to read.

They quickly amassed 90,000 subscribers and a very healthy open rate of 45-55%.

They added sponsors in the newsletter and got $10k/month in revenue.

Within three years, the community grew from 200 initial members to over 50,000 registered users, with thousands of active contributors.

To help him stay focused, he started doing Bullet Journaling.

Patrick credits books like "The 4-Hour Work Week" by Tim Ferriss and the inspiration of entrepreneurs like Gary Vaynerchuk for his success in business.

They grew like crazy and are now making $200k/Month.

Patrick says…

"In order to succeed, you need to get started and stop trying to come up with the perfect business plan or perfect idea."

"Start trying to build and provide value first, and the answer will come as you learn more about your market and the consumer."

8 reasons why he succeeded

1. Turned a negative experience into motivation

• Patrick was unexpectedly fired from his private equity job and struggled to find a new job.

• This experience shattered his confidence that hard work alone would not lead to success.

• He used this setback as motivation to start his own business.

2. Identified a niche based on personal expertise

• After reading about successful businesses in specific niches, Patrick decided to start something in his area of expertise.

• Given his background in investment banking, he chose to create a community for young finance professionals who want to get lucrative finance jobs.

• Focusing on a niche he knew well allowed him to provide valuable content and attract the right audience.

3. Built a community first, monetized later

• Patrick and his co-founder focused on creating a fun, welcoming, and insightful community for young finance professionals.

• They had no concrete monetization strategy at first, believing that a strong following would eventually lead to revenue opportunities.

• This worked for them.

4. Zero cost content creation

• As the Wall Street Oasis community grew, organic search traffic increased due to the expanding user-generated content.

• Publishing user-generated content cost Patrick and his co-founder nothing, allowing them to focus mainly on providing a quality community experience.

5. Doubled down after initial success

• Patrick was surprised by the high demand and sales for their first interview course release.

• They continued to improve the course and release additional courses for other industries and verticals.

• Listening to customer demand helped them a lot.

6. Curated content from the community for social media

• To grow their social media presence, they curated content from the community, showcasing common user problems and insightful answers.

• These relatable posts were shared across their social media channels, garnering millions of impressions and engagements.

7. Launched a daily newsletter with sponsored content

• Wall Street Oasis started a daily newsletter called The Daily Peel, which provided a quick, entertaining recap of the investing markets each morning.

• They quickly amassed 90,000 subscribers with a high open rate and added sponsors, generating $10k/month in revenue.

8. Emphasized the importance of taking action

• Patrick advises aspiring entrepreneurs to get started and stop trying to create the perfect business plan or idea.

• He suggests focusing on building and providing value first, and the answers will come as you learn more about the market and consumers.

• Taking action and iterating based on feedback is more important than waiting for the perfect plan.

🍩

Hope you liked the story and the strategies which made them successful.

Keep Rocking!

Yours “Anti-Stress” Vijay Peduru