Harvey's $5.2m business

Hey, it’s Guy & Farzan.

Yesterday I was sick, so I slept most of the day. The newsletter sat unfinished on my laptop. Today, the fever's broken. Still moving in slow motion, but the fog's lifted enough to write. Let's dive in.

Reading time: 10 mins

In the mail today. 3 founder stories, 1 bit of positioning advice, 1 tweet

 Founder story 1 

From Zero to AU$5.2M: How Harvey Jutton Built a Mining Recruitment Business

From couch-surfing in hostels to building a multi-million dollar recruitment business.

Here's how Harvey Jutton built HJ Recruitment into a thriving company that connects Australia's mining industry with top talent.

The unlikely journey started in the UK:
→ Grew up in the United Kingdom
→ Dropped out of high school
→ Left a career in construction
→ Started selling dried starfish on beaches
→ Made the leap to Australia with just £5,000
→ Was homeless, jumping between couches and hostels
→ Now runs a AU$5.2M business with 10 employees

But the fascinating part isn't just the journey, it's how he found the opportunity:

2023: Noticed luxury boats in Airlie Beach Marina and asked owners what they did
2023: Discovered most wealthy Australians had mining connections
2023: Identified FIFO (Fly In, Fly Out) work as high-paying opportunity
2023: Launched HJ Recruitment focusing on blue-collar workers 2025: Grew to AU$5.2M revenue in just two years

The path wasn't smooth:
- Couldn't afford mining qualifications himself (would take 3 years)
- Started with minimal savings
- Was homeless upon arrival in Australia
- Had to build client base from scratch with no local connections

Then everything changed. Harvey embraced three key strategies:
- Industry Insiders: Hired recruiters from the industries they serve
- Automated Database: Built custom systems to screen and attract talent faster
- Risk-Free Model: "We are a free business model until we fulfill our work"

Today's results:
- AU$5.2M revenue
- 10 employees
- 250 monthly website visitors
- Bootstrapped growth
- Team of 3 internal software developers
- Specialized in FIFO mining sector

Lessons for founders:
- Learn sales—it's one of the most important transferable skills
- Seek advice from people who are where you want to be
- Identify where your target audience's traffic is
- Start experimenting with what works
- Stand out in a world full of ineffective marketing

As Harvey says: "How big would you dream if you knew you couldn't fail?"

Founder story 2

Elizabeth’s $147 Million Granola Recipe

"I initially invested $5,000 into the company from my savings."

This is Elizabeth Stein describing how she started Purely Elizabeth. Today, her natural foods company brings in $147M in annual sales. But this "overnight success" took 15 years of persistence.

Here's the remarkable journey:
→ Started as a nutrition counselor in 2008
→ Baked muffins for a local race that everyone loved
→ Launched with $5,000 from personal savings
→ Now in 30,000 grocery stores nationwide

But the fascinating part isn't the numbers, it's how her business evolved:
2009: "I'll sell muffin and pancake mixes as a side hustle"
2011: "Our granola is the real star product"
2013: "Whole Foods is taking us national"
2024: "$147M in sales with innovative product lines"

The journey required perseverance:
- Started from her Upper West Side apartment
- Her mom became her first salesperson, calling Whole Foods buyers
- Stayed bootstrapped until 2017 to maintain majority ownership
- Pivoted from mixes to granola when she saw customer response

Then everything changed. After Whole Foods went national with her products, Elizabeth's sales jumped from $690,000 to $2.3M in one year.

Today's results:
- $147M in annual revenue (2024)
- $50M investment from SEMCAP (2022)
- Products in 30,000 stores nationwide
- Continued innovation with new product lines

Key insight about food startups:
Success isn't about following trends. It's about finding white space in the market where taste and nutrition meet. For Purely Elizabeth, it was introducing superfood ingredients like chia seeds, quinoa, and coconut sugar before they were mainstream.

The best part?
Elizabeth remains the majority shareholder and CEO: "This is my baby, and I want to stay CEO of Purely Elizabeth and continue to build this lifestyle brand."

Founder story 3

From His Parent's Basement to a $25M Valuation: The Inspiring Journey of David Park and Jenni AI

What if we tell you that this 28-year-old developer went from fighting cancer to founding an AI writing tool now worth $25M?

From working in his childhood bedroom to building a company with $8M yearly revenue, David Park's story shows what persistence can achieve.

The unlikely journey started in his parents' home:
→ Dreamed of being a founder since 7th grade
→ Launched first business (clothing brand) at 16
→ Dropped out of college despite parents' $20K investment
→ Met co-founder Henry who shared his AI passion
→ Cold-called agencies from his bedroom for months
→ Had to borrow money from mom just to buy Chipotle

But the fascinating part isn't just the struggle - it's how the vision evolved:

2018: Discovers GPT-2 and sees potential for AI writing tools
2020: Launches Jenny AI, hits plateau at $2K monthly revenue
2021: Investor from Uber podcast appearance brings $100K funding
2022: Viral Twitter post skyrockets growth from $2K to $10K MRR in one month
2023: Diagnosed with cancer while company approaches $1M annual revenue
2024: Scales to $25M valuation with team-driven approach

The path wasn't smooth:
- Years of failed startup attempts
- Countless rejections from cold calls
- Lost $250K investment opportunity by missing paperwork
- Cancer diagnosis at critical growth moment
- Realized company was too dependent on him personally

Then everything changed. Park embraced three key strategies:
1. User Feedback: Shifted from selling harder to understanding customers deeper
2. Social Media: Leveraged TikTok and Instagram for explosive growth
3. Team Building: Reduced dependency on himself after cancer recovery

Today's results:
- $25M company valuation
- $8M yearly revenue
- Thriving AI writing tool for businesses and students
- Sustainable growth model not dependent on founder
- Strong social media and influencer marketing presence

Key insight about modern AI startups:
"The future belongs to founders who can persist through failure and build systems beyond themselves, not just create cool technology.=

This is why Park believes entrepreneurs must give their all while understanding that success isn't guaranteed.

The future isn't just about building AI, it's about creating resilient companies that can thrive regardless of circumstances.

As Park's journey shows, even when facing rejection, poverty, and life-threatening illness, persistence and adaptation can transform a bedroom startup into a multi-million dollar success.

 Positioning advice from Anthony Pierri

Strong positioning means you have to do almost zero “selling.”

I am not a salesperson by trade.

In a previous SDR role, not a single lead I brought in converted to a paying customer.

And yet, in my current consultancy I have taken hundreds of sales calls and closed over a million dollars in new business in last two years.

I didn’t suddenly “get good at sales” — i have just felt the downstream effects of strong positioning.

Strong positioning removes the “selling” from the sales process.

I can count on two hands the amount of times I’ve needed to “sell” a prospect in the traditional sense.

99% of calls start with the prospect saying, “I already know exactly what you do, and we need it.”

This is because we spell it out directly in all of our marketing:

(I.e. we are for b2b technology companies who are working on their positioning as part of a website refresh and are getting stuck.)

Our positioning used to be much weaker.

We hadn’t picked a focus in order to keep our options open.

Our tagline was: “we help founders market hard-to-market products.”

This SOUNDS super sexy, but it is actually incredibly vague.

Prospects would come on sales calls with all sorts of ideas, and we’d have to really sell them on our actual service.

There were tons of objections to be handled, false comparisons being made, questions about ROI.

But now sales calls feel more like friendly chats.

Most of the time, they just want to meet us to make sure we aren’t jerks or something.

Their questions are usually related to our availability and figuring out a start and end date.

By saying who you are for, you will naturally discourage people who don’t want what you have from getting into a sales conversation.

And you’ll end up only selling to people who have already bought in.

 A tweet we loved

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See you in next week.

Guy + Farzan
Founderoo