Originally sent as "someone asked me how to get passive income" to the From operator to owner newsletter.
The other day, inside a group chat with three of my best friends (a VP at a bank in London, a director at a studio in San Francisco, a senior product manager at a unicorn in Lisbon), one of them casually dropped a question:
"Any good podcast on how to become rich and have passive income?" (laughing emoji)
For a second there was silence, and then all of them turned to me, half-joking, half-curious, half-expecting I'd have an answer ready because, for these topics, I usually do.
They weren't wrong. If there's one thing I consume obsessively, it's conversations about entrepreneurship, passive income, startups and building things that generate income without blowing up your life in the process.
I'd just finished one on my flight back from Poland. Chris Koerner: a serial entrepreneur who has built 80+ businesses, turned tiny side hustles into real companies, and insists you only need $500 to start.
I agree. Madgrowth and my advisory work are zero-employee businesses: lean, simple, highly profitable, and I haven't spent $500 total on them. Most of the work is my experience, a few tools, and a laptop.
The catch
Many people want exactly what I wanted when I began Madgrowth. More freedom. More time. Income that doesn't depend on constant hours. A way to create something once and keep delivering value long after.
The catch: people only buy from you if they trust you. If you show up. If your voice makes sense to them. If your personal brand reflects the work you do.
Chris also shared something I see almost every day. Most people never start anything new, and he thinks it comes down to two reasons: they worry too much about what others think, and they don't know how to connect their ideas with the tools available.
There are more tools than ever, yet more hesitation too. Starting something used to require big budgets or moving to San Francisco. Now it's so accessible. Still, so many people freeze.
The solution to both is simpler than you think. One: stop caring what others think. Two: shorten the time between the idea and the action.
Ideas are signals
Treat ideas like signals instead of passing thoughts. When you act fast, you build confidence. When you act often, you build leverage. When you keep going, the work compounds and leads to more opportunities. One idea leads to another. One project teaches the next. Over time you look back and realise you've built a small portfolio around yourself.
Madgrowth turned into advisory for leaders in tech, growth programs and consulting for startups, big companies and VCs, speaking engagements, and now software products. All because I started with one small digital product. It turned out that way because I took the first step, then learned what resonated and delivered on the opportunities that came up.
Expertise only comes after action. Never before. Every person you admire started from zero. Every consultant asked for their first small client payment. No shortcuts.
So, how do you become rich or build passive income? I don't have the blueprint either. But I know one thing: you take action first.
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From operator to owner goes out every Thursday: a 3-minute read on building a business after a tech career, with the experiments, the numbers and the mistakes.