I Quit My Job & Accidentally Built A $10M Business

Ian Meers

• Founder and CEO of Oceans, a high-skill operational outsourcing services business
• Background and origin story
  • Initially pursued a PhD in international and security policy but left academia over financial concerns
  • Moved into finance, working at a fund that invested in venture capital and private equity funds
  • Inspired by the entrepreneurs he worked with, decided to start his own company
  • First venture was a venture-backed app company that was eventually sold, but he found the VC-funded path restrictive and not truly autonomous
  • After exiting, committed to building a profitable, self-funded services business that prioritized personal freedom over hypergrowth or outside funding
• Pivotal moments and turning points
  • Realized during the pandemic that remote work had normalized global talent access, opening the offshoring model to smaller businesses for the first time
  • Saw an opportunity to enter the commoditized offshoring space by offering a better, more specialized product
  • Launched Oceans in late 2021 with no outside investment, fully self-funded and owned
• Business growth and current status
  • Signed first contract in February 2022
  • Generated $650,000 in revenue in year one
  • Reached approximately $15 million in revenue last year
  • Has been profitable since inception, earning millions in profit
  • Grew entirely through referrals and word-of-mouth, with $0 spent on paid marketing

Products and Offerings

• Core service: Matches full-time, long-term offshore talent (primarily based in Sri Lanka, with some in South Africa and other regions) to clients worldwide
  • Talent integrates fully into client teams—attending all-hands meetings, on Slack, on calendars, doing real operational work
  • Roles include executive assistants, financial controllers, and other high-skill operational positions
• Pricing: Charges $3,000–$4,000 per month per headcount, varying by role complexity
  • Pays all wages, benefits, and costs for offshore staff; profit is the margin between client fees and staff costs

Metrics and Financials

• Year-one revenue: $650,000
• Recent annual revenue: ~$15 million
• Profitability: Millions in cumulative profit since founding
• Hiring volume: Onboards 30–40 new offshore team members per month
• Client base: Hundreds of clients globally, including entrepreneurs, e-commerce brands, and service businesses

Strategy and Growth

• Vision and positioning
  • Built the business around lifestyle design—freedom to live where he wants, work flexible hours, and enjoy personal time
  • Focused on profitable services rather than venture-scale growth
• Primary growth engine: Word-of-mouth referrals
  • Believed from day one that referrals would be the core growth driver
  • Ensured exceptional service quality so customers naturally recommend Oceans to peers
  • Positioned customers as heroes when they refer others
• Key tactics
  • Started by offering heavily discounted pilot engagements to friends to validate demand before scaling
  • Specialized in high-skill operational roles rather than competing as a generalist offshore staffing provider
  • Advised niche vertical specialization (e.g., video editing, illustration, CAD design) as a path to $1–$2 million revenue for new entrants

Tech Stack and Infrastructure

• Kept tooling minimal and cost-efficient
• Core tools
  • Google Workspace (Gmail, Google Sheets, Google Classroom) for dashboards, operations, and training
  • Stripe for payment processing
  • Notion for internal documentation, reference guides, and organizational materials
  • TLDV for video and meeting recording
  • HubSpot as the CRM platform
• Philosophy: Maximize free or low-cost tools before investing in paid software

Lessons and Advice

• On starting a business
  • Solve a problem people already have—find existing demand and serve it better
  • Validate quickly: Can someone you know pay you for this within days of launching?
  • Avoid building a business dependent on paid ads to strangers; start with people who will give honest feedback
• On scaling
  • The hardest transition is moving from founder-doing-everything to building repeatable processes and systems
  • Document knowledge early; growth breaks when critical information lives only in one person’s head
• On hiring
  • Hire for adaptability and intelligence over direct experience
  • Look for talent in non-traditional locations and backgrounds (e.g., hired a former summer camp director as chief of staff)
  • For offshore EAs, prioritize smart, operationally experienced candidates and train them specifically for the role
• On lifestyle and mindset
  • A business that doesn’t let you live the life you want is not a successful business
  • It’s okay to spend time on hobbies, family, and rest—if the business runs without you, you’ve built it right
  • Don’t make decisions out of fear of choosing wrong; take opportunities, learn, and adjust—every path leads somewhere valuable