Company Black & White Zebra
Founder Ben Aston
Revenue >$1.75MM a month
Ben Aston started with a simple blog and built a media tech powerhouse. Now, Black & White Zebra's products are bringing in 21M+ per year.
Here's Ben on how he did it. 👇
Starting with satire
Armed with a 386 PC and a squeaky 33k modem, I launched my first online publication back in 2001, while in high school. It was a satirical student site called Seuch Times. We created great content, built an audience, and monetized it with t-shirt sales! I was hooked. That experience of creating content with and for a community — connecting with niche audiences and turning it into a business is what planted the seed for everything that came later.
After a decade managing digital projects at top agencies in London, I moved to Vancouver and continued to work in digital project management. I decided to launch a blog about it — helping people get into and succeed as digital project managers. It was meant to be a side project, a lead-gen tool for an ebook I planned to sell but never published. The site slowly grew, and over many years, I realized there was a much bigger opportunity: to build a network of practitioner-led publications, each serving a specific niche of modern work.
That side project became our flagship brand, The Digital Project Manager — and the foundation for Black & White Zebra (BWZ).
BWZ is bootstrapped, profitable, and growing — with 15+ niche media brands, including People Managing People, and The Product Manager, with millions of monthly visitors, and a strong foundation of trust and utility with our audiences. And right now, I’m building two new things I’m incredibly excited about:
Revstacks, a monetization and AdTech platform for B2B publishers, creators, and professional communities.
Revleads, a B2B SaaS demand-gen platform that helps marketers reach in-market buyers through trusted, high-converting editorial environments.
We've grown BWZ from zero to $21M+ in annual revenue, with $9M in EBIT last year. We’ve onboarded 220+ advertisers, and now power monetization for 10 publisher partners through Revstacks.
Living the market gap
For The Digital Project Manager: the pain point was simple: I wanted to create the resource I wish I had.
In the early 2010s, I was working as a digital project manager in London. It was the wild west of adland — crazy clients, tiny budgets, and stupid deadlines reigned supreme. The role was new, the industry was evolving fast, and I was constantly Googling for help… but finding nothing. No playbooks. No community. No practical, real-world guidance.
That pain point was my first signal. If I was struggling with this, others probably were too.
After launching The Digital Project Manager as a blog in 2011, I realized there was a real, underserved market for practitioner-led content that was actually useful. That was signal number two. People wanted focused, high-trust content that helped them get better at their jobs. And as that audience grew, I saw a much bigger opportunity: To build a network of professional brands that supported people not just with content, but also community and tools.
We kept hearing questions from our audience like:
“What tool should I use for this?”
“Has anyone used this platform? Is it actually worth it?”
“I’m drowning in options — what’s actually good?”
Meanwhile, SaaS vendors were asking how they could get in front of our audience — a buying audience that was engaged and trusted us.
We realized the disconnect: Most B2B SaaS marketing was happening on platforms where the audience didn’t care or didn’t trust what they were seeing. So we built Revleads to help B2B SaaS vendors reach people who were already actively researching, and Revstacks to give publishers and communities like ours a better way to monetize that trust.
In both cases, the market gap was clear — because we were living it ourselves.
Building on simple foundations
Our publishing platform is built on a fairly simple foundation. We use WordPress as our CMS, MemberPress for memberships, Gravity Forms for lead capture, and OptinMonster for conversion optimization. Zoho powers our internal ops, and HubSpot is our core CRM and marketing automation layer.
What sets us apart is what we’ve built on top of that: our proprietary AdTech (Revleads) and PubTech (Revstacks) platforms.
We built both platforms in-house to give us more control and to solve problems we were facing ourselves as a media company.
Under the hood, the custom tech includes:
A proprietary bidding engine and campaign manager
Reporting dashboards for vendors and internal teams
Contextual placement tools that work across our entire owned and operated portfolio and beyond — on third party publications too through Revstacks
Tools for tracking conversions, lifetime value, and campaign ROI in real-time
It’s a full-stack media monetization engine that complements our content and community — not something bolted on as an afterthought.
A focus on tech; not content
For years, I believed we were a content business. And to be fair, we were — The Digital Project Manager and our early brands grew because of great, trusted content. But looking back, I wish I’d embraced my own roots in tech much earlier.
We spent years relying on external agencies and contractors to support our platform. It was slow, expensive, and fragmented. Once we finally built an in-house tech team, everything changed — faster development, tighter alignment, and a real product mindset. If I had to start again, I’d prioritize building that core technical team from day one.
Monetizing trust
The initial product was content — tactical, real-world advice. No hacks, no fluff; just useful stuff from lived experience.
That obsession with quality and practicality became our edge. People trusted us. And when we eventually started monetizing — first with affiliate links, then ads, then community memberships. And for the ads, we made sure the response wasn’t “ugh, another ad.” It was, “Oh good, I was looking for a tool like this.”
Over time, we built out our own adtech stack — first to support our own monetization, and then to offer performance-based ad buying for vendors via Revleads, and monetization infrastructure for publishers via Revstacks.
Because we had full control of the tech and the audience relationships, we could do things differently:
Build ad experiences that are actually useful to the audience.
Offer marketers a way to reach buyers when they’re researching, not just scrolling.
Give publishers a way to monetize without relying on programmatic junk.
That’s what makes our stack different. It’s not just a network. It’s part of a broader ecosystem of trust, expertise, and real utility.
Audience-first growth
We’ve grown primarily through audience-first, organic strategies — not paid ads or growth hacks. Our playbook has always been: Help people solve real problems at work, and growth will follow.
A few strategies that have worked particularly well:
Evergreen, intent-driven content: We focus on job-relevant, evergreen content that aligns directly with what our audience is trying to accomplish. For example, our “project kickoff checklist” on The Digital Project Manager consistently ranks in search and drives thousands of monthly sessions — because it solves a real, recurring need. This kind of content compounds over time and keeps performing.
Community-driven feedback loops: We listen closely to our members — especially in our paid communities — to spot gaps. For example, when members kept asking about tools for resource planning, we launched content around that, which now ranks #1 and drives both traffic and Revleads campaigns.
Platform-native content expansion: We launched YouTube channels and podcasts that repackaged our highest-performing topics in more engaging formats. Our “Mastering Digital Project Management” course was born directly from recurring audience questions — and has become a profitable product line and lead generator.
User-led brand expansion: We don’t launch brands unless we see audience pull. People Managing People and The Product Manager were created in direct response to what we saw in our search data, email replies, and community conversations. That ensures we’re always building where there’s demand.
As we expanded, we launched new brands for specific roles - The CFO Club, The CMO Club, The CRO Club and more. Each was designed to serve a real need, not just chase volume. Then we layered in community — Slack groups, memberships, courses — to deepen engagement and loyalty.
That ecosystem became a magnet — not just for users, but for B2B SaaS vendors too. In fact, most of the advertisers on Revleads have come to us through inbound. Companies like Monday.com, Smartsheet, Zoho, Kantata, Deel, Rippling, and Connecteam reached out because they saw the value of getting in front of large, engaged, high-intent audiences — in context. They don’t want banner blindness on random sites. They want to appear where professionals are already solving the problem their product addresses.
That’s the power of trusted, contextual content paired with a niche audience.
Scaling issues
One major challenge came during COVID. We scaled rapidly — from a small, collocated team to a globally distributed one across multiple time zones. We grew headcount, but not always in the right way. We hired a lot of people, and some managers, but many weren’t senior or experienced enough to lead at the level we needed. We were trying to scale before stabilizing the foundation. I’d do that differently next time: one time zone, better onboarding, and far more intentional leadership hiring.
Because of that leadership gap, there was a period where we were producing a ton of content — but it was the wrong content, done the wrong way. It didn’t match user intent, it wasn’t high enough quality, and it wasn’t aligned with search demand. We lost steam fast — and at one point, lost nearly a third of our revenue.
That was a wake-up call. In trying to grow, I lost track of the core — audience insight, and delivering real value. Now, I stay in the weeds where it matters. I make sure our high-level strategy filters down through the org. I dig into frontline work, not to micromanage, but to ensure we’re pointed in the right direction.
A hard lesson I’ve learned as CEO: Execution is everything. Good ideas are easy. Great execution is rare. I’ve had moments where the vision was clear, but the team, process, or timing wasn’t right — and the idea died. Now I’m ruthless about attaching plans, capacity, and accountability to every major initiative.
Growing revenue
Our business model is built on three core pillars:
Advertising via our proprietary AdTech platform, Revleads
Publisher monetization through Revstacks, our PubTech platform
Professional development through courses and paid memberships
We’ve grown revenue by doing the basics — really well.
At the heart of it is creating great content, in, with, and for our community. We publish deeply useful, practitioner-led content that helps professionals do their jobs better. That content builds trust — and that trust drives both organic growth and monetization.
Revenue growth has come from a few key levers:
Creating more content in more verticals: We’ve launched brands like The Product Manager, People Managing People, and The CMO Club, each focused on a high-value, underserved professional niche.
Improving our monetization infrastructure: We built Revleads to help SaaS vendors reach buyers at the moment of intent, and Revstacks to give publishers a better way to monetize without relying on junk programmatic ads.
Giving vendors more real estate: As our brand portfolio grows, so do the placements, inventory, and campaign options we can offer — allowing us to serve larger budgets and deeper partnerships.
Expanding our community layer: From paid memberships to peer networks and cohort-based training, we’ve created spaces where people return not just for information, but for connection and support.
The strategy isn’t complicated: Make something valuable. Scale it carefully. Monetize it thoughtfully. That’s been the key to our growth.
Parting Advice
Build your brand early
Firstlyl, build your brand early. It’s not enough to be good — people need to know you're good. For too long, we were the best-kept secret in B2B media. That hurt us in hiring and in sales. If I could do it over, I’d be much more intentional about telling our story as we built — not just once we had something to show.
Be valuable and specific
A lot of early-stage founders focus too much on the idea and not enough on the execution. I’ve been guilty of that too. I have notebooks full of great ideas that went nowhere. What matters isn’t how good the idea sounds — it’s whether you can turn it into something useful, and whether you can do it consistently.
For me, everything changed when I started thinking like a project manager:
Set the vision — where are you trying to go?
Define success — what does good look like?
Work backward — what has to be true for that to happen?
Break it into steps — then make those steps smaller.
Keep going — momentum compounds.
Don't be a copycat
I didn't come from a digital media background, and that turned out to be an advantage. I wasn’t constrained by how things were “supposed” to be done. I just focused on solving real problems and doing it in a way that felt clear, human, and — maybe surprisingly — fun.
That’s one of our core philosophies: Serious things can be fun. Business doesn’t have to be boring. Work doesn’t have to feel like a chore. If you understand something deeply enough, you can simplify it. If you can simplify it, you can make it engaging. That’s where the magic happens.
Build trust before revenue
Most of our business — content, community, and even ad sales — grew out of relationships we built by being useful and honest. Our biggest advertisers came inbound because we were already helping their future customers do their jobs better.
And have strong opinions (lightly held)
You need conviction to start something. But you also need humility to evolve it. Stay close to the problem, and be willing to change your solution as you learn more.
What's next?
Our goals are focused on expanding impact, deepening value, and making professional growth more accessible — and more fun.
1. Expand Revstacks into the creator economy
2. Make serious fun the standard in career content
3. Build the most loved professional development ecosystem in digital media
4. Turn audience trust into intelligence at scale
5. Help SaaS vendors and publishers win — more efficiently
You can learn more about me and what I’m building at benaston.com, or connect with me on LinkedIn — I love meeting other indie hackers, creators, and SaaS founders building things that matter. To explore what we’re building at Black & White Zebra — our media tech company — you can check out:
Revstacks – Our monetization platform for professional creators, publishers, and communities
Revleads – Our performance ad platform helping SaaS vendors reach in-market buyers
You can also dive into more of our career media brands:
The Digital Project Manager – For people managing projects, processes, & pixels
People Managing People – HR, leadership, and organizational culture
The Product Manager – Product thinking, strategy, and execution
The CX Lead – Customer experience strategy and service design
The CTO Club – Engineering leadership and technology strategy
The CFO Club – Finance leadership for the modern CFO
The CMO Club – Marketing leadership, brand, and growth strategy
The CRO Club – Revenue operations, enablement, and GTM systems