How Jason Yanowitz Bootstrapped Blockworks To A +$20M/yr Company

About this video

Jason Yanowitz, founder and CEO of Blockworks, discusses building a crypto media and research company from scratch. He recounts his unconventional journey—including a stint in multi-level marketing as a college student—and explains how Blockworks scaled from hosting events to becoming a diversified platform encompassing podcasts, newsletters, conferences, and a subscription research product serving crypto investors.

Key takeaways

• Jason’s early MLM experience taught him sales, marketing, and confidence to build a business, even though he didn’t realize at the time it was ethically questionable; he credits this for the grit and hustle mindset that enabled Blockworks
• Blockworks’ thesis from day one was that crypto would grow exponentially and need professional, Bloomberg-like information sources, but the company evolved unexpectedly—starting with events (which became a major revenue driver), then media, then a research subscription platform
• The conference business is capital-intensive and cyclical; Jason’s insight is that bigger is better (consolidating into two major conferences rather than many smaller ones), but crypto’s volatility makes multi-year venue planning risky, as seen when CoinDesk nearly collapsed after a 2018-to-2019 attendance drop of 80%
• Jason optimizes for fulfillment and autonomy rather than maximum scale; he avoids the ‘should do’ tasks (large company management, investor relations) to focus on what he wants to do, contrasting with founders like Elon Musk or Brett Adcock who embrace larger sacrifices
• Most first-time founders don’t have a grand vision at launch; Blockworks’ success came from iterating day-to-day (posting on LinkedIn, hosting events) and only later recognizing the thesis; second-time founders can plan with more clarity because they have experience

Episode details: published September 28, 2023 · 23K views · 1:09:44 long. Summary written by Self Growth Videos from the episode itself. The business ideas, figures and results discussed are the hosts’ and guests’ own claims, shared as brainstorming and entertainment — not verified facts and not investment advice.

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