Welcome to The Hustle Stack, your weekly hit of smart marketing plays, simple side hustles to grow your income without eating your time, founder hacks, and much more.
No fluff, no filler, just valuable, actionable insights you can skim, save, or stack into wins.
Let’s dive in. 🚀
This Week’s Hustle Stack:
Marketing Play of the Week: Founder-as-Content-Engine
The $2K+ PM Simple Side Hustle Hack: Launch-Funnel Setup Service
This Week’s Hustle News: AdsGency raises $12M seed
Tool of the Week: Notion (but with automation + template setup)
Time-Saving Hack: Team Hack
Founder Success Story: Golpo AI
🎯 Marketing Play of the Week
“Founder-as-Content-Engine”
What it is: You, the founder (or founding team), become the primary content channel. Instead of hide behind a brand, you lean into it. The idea: be the voice, be the story.
Why it works: Brands are saturated. People buy from people. Your story + authenticity = differentiator. With shifting ad costing and trust eroding, your founder voice becomes your best channel.
How to use it (3-step):
Choose one platform where your audience hangs (for B2C maybe TikTok/Instagram; for B2B maybe LinkedIn).
Commit to 3 posts this week:
Post A: “Why I started this company / this hustle” — personal, vulnerable.
Post B: “Here’s what we’re working on right now (behind-the-scenes)” — raw, unfiltered.
Post C: “Customer result / win” — show what your audience wants.
Engage hard. Reply to every comment within 48 h. Use direct messages for follow-ups. Ask a question in your post to spark comments (e.g., “What’s the #1 thing holding you back with [problem]? Drop a comment and I’ll pick 3 to reply to personally.”)
Why this costs low & scales fast: You’re leveraging your voice, not megabucks for ads. Once you build the habit and audience, you can boost top posts or repurpose them.
Pro tip: Use a micro-CTA in each post (e.g., “If you’re a [type] who struggles with [pain], DM me and I’ll send you a free checklist.”). This builds your list and warms leads.
💵 The $2K+ PM Simple Side Hustle Hack
“Launch-Funnel Setup Service” for Local Businesses
The Build:
Time required: ~10–12 hours initial setup.
Startup cost: Under AUD $200 (domain + landing-page builder + email tool).
Skills required: Basic PPC (Google/Facebook) or Meta ads, landing-page design (can use templates), copywriting.
How it works:Target 5-10 local businesses (cafes, personal trainers, therapists) who say: “I need more leads” but don’t know digital.
Offer: “I’ll build your ad-funnel + landing page + email follow-up for $1,500 – This month only.”
Setup: You build the landing page, set up an ad campaign, deliver the follow-up sequence. After launch you can upsell “monthly optimization / reporting” at $500/month.
The Math:One client at $1,500 = you already surpassed the $2K target if you do 2 clients this month.
Cost wise: if you spend $100 on domain & landing-page tool + maybe $100 on your time allocation = high margin.
Upsell: 5 clients on $500/mo = $2,500 recurring/month.
Why it’s realistic: Businesses always need leads. Many lack digital expertise. You provide the full funnel. Supporting data: Freelance digital-marketing side hustles are real opportunities.
Execution checklist:Find local businesses, send direct outreach or go door-to-door, and say: “I’ll show you a funnel proof that will bring you leads in 14 days or your money back.”
Draft a standard funnel: Landing page (pain/promise) → Thank you / Up-sell offer → 1-week email sequence → Ad spend managed by client but setup by you.
Use a template you can reuse every time (e.g., Growbo’s agency funnel breakdown)
Deliver: Show results swiftly, then talk monthly retention.
📰 This Week’s Hustle News
Hustle News
1. AdsGency raises $12M seed for agentic AI ad-platform.
Location: San Francisco. They’re building a system that automates digital advertising across Google, TikTok, Reddit & more.
Takeaway for you: If you’re doing funnel/ads manually, this kind of automation is creeping in. It means you’ll need to either specialise (niche) or automate faster — or you’ll get squeezed on price & time.
2. Viamedia rebrands to Viamedia.ai, emphasizing AI-powered ad tech and integrated linear + digital inventory.TV
Takeaway for you: Advertising isn’t just Meta/Google anymore — linear + digital + AI integration matters. Back-your positioning: “I do modern omni-channel funnel setups” rather than old-school “I build Facebook ads”.
⚡Tool of the Week
Tool: Notion (but with automation + template setup)
Why it matters: A lot of founders use it for notes. Here’s the step up: use it as your project‐/client-operation engine.
Mini case:
Set up a “Client Projects” database with fields: Name / Service / Start Date / Next Task / Status.
Create a template for “New client onboarding” page: intake form (embed Google Form or Typeform) → auto-generate tasks (via Notion + Zapier/Make) like “Build landing page”, “Write email sequence”, “Set up ads”.
Connect it via automation with Slack/Discord so when a task is “Blocked”, you instantly get notified.
How it saves time / makes you money: One system for all clients means less duplication, fewer mistakes, faster delivery → higher margin.
Link: If you don’t already have a template, start one today. And if you’re scaling, you can sell this type of operations template as an upsell.
⏳ Time-Saving Hack
“Ditch the Monday morning hour-long stand-up. Instead: record a 10-min async video on Monday (you share what’s happening) + have one 5-min ‘blocker check’ chat on Thursday. Use one shared board (Trello/Notion) with only 3 columns: Doing | Done | Blocked. Everyone updates once, then done. No more ritual meetings.”
Use this this week. Test it. See how your week goes smoother.
🚀 Founder Success Story
Meet: Golpo AI (founded by brothers Shraman & Shreyas Kar, ages 19 & 20)
What they did: They dropped out of Stanford University, built a startup that generates animated explainer videos from text, got into Y Combinator and just raised ~$4.1 M seed.
Lessons you can steal:
Don’t wait for “everything perfect” — they built while students.
Focus on a specific problem (explainer videos from text) rather than “everything for everyone”.
Use an accelerator or platform (like YC) not just for cash, but for credibility/network.
Your takeaway: If you’re sitting on an idea waiting for perfect conditions, stop. Launch something simple (MVP) this week.
👋 That’s a wrap for this week’s Hustle Stack. 👋
Thanks for reading, your time’s valuable, and we aim to make every issue worth it.
Got a hack, tool, or success story we should feature? Hit reply and share it, we love hearing from readers.
See you next week with more sharp plays, side hustles, and founder wins. 🚀
Stay sharp,
The Hustle Stack Team