Welcome to Money Making Story,

Today, we’re thrilled to share the story of Ian Myers, who turned a small remote hiring experiment into a wildly profitable $10M company in just three years.

In this discussion, we’ll delve into his:

• Key Takeaway

• From Finance to Founding a Business

• Stumbling into a Multi-Million Dollar Opportunity

• How Oceans Work

• 6 Ways to Automate Work

• First Customers—Without Spending on Ads

• Scaling from $1M to $10M

• The Life Ian Built: The Real Goal

• The Best Niches for an Outsourcing Business

• Lessons from Ian’s journey

• A Story Worth Reading

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Key Takeaway

“Success in business doesn’t always come from groundbreaking innovation. Sometimes, the key is spotting a proven opportunity, improving it, and scaling smartly while keeping operations lean.”

In 2021, Ian Myers found himself at a crossroads. He had already navigated the finance world, launched a venture-backed startup, and sold a business. But instead of feeling fulfilled, he felt stuck in a cycle of chasing empty goals.

So, he walked away.

What followed was an unexpected journey that led Ian to create Oceans, an outsourcing business that skyrocketed to $10 million in revenue within three years—all without any paid marketing. His story proves that building a profitable business doesn’t require millions in funding, complex strategies, or even a grand plan.

From Finance to Founding a Business

Before building Oceans, a $10M outsourcing business, founder Ian Myers followed a traditional career path in academia, finance, and venture capital. He worked with entrepreneurs and startups daily, watching them turn ideas into multi-million dollar businesses. But something was missing.

After realizing finance wasn’t for him, Ian quit his job and raised funding for his first company, an app startup. But venture-backed startups come with a catch—high-pressure expectations, board members dictating decisions, and a never-ending cycle of fundraising.

After selling the app company, Ian swore off outside funding and set out to build something that would give him complete ownership, financial freedom, and a business that worked for his ideal lifestyle. That’s when he stumbled into outsourcing, and everything changed.

Stumbling into a Multi-Million Dollar Opportunity

After stepping away from venture-backed startups, Ian took a different approach to entrepreneurship. Instead of chasing billion-dollar ideas, he asked himself one question:

"What kind of business will give me the lifestyle I want?"

The answer came in an unexpected form—offshore outsourcing.

Ian realized that while massive companies like Google and Microsoft had leveraged offshore talent for decades, smaller businesses were just beginning to explore it—especially after the rise of remote work during the pandemic.

That insight led to the birth of Oceans, a services business that connects high-skilled offshore talent with companies worldwide. By focusing on quality and long-term relationships, Ian built a business that quickly gained traction.

How Oceans Work

Oceans provides high-skilled operational outsourcing for businesses around the world. The company hires employees from Sri Lanka, South Africa, and other regions and integrates them as full-time team members for its clients. These workers become a direct part of their client’s operations, attending meetings, joining Slack channels, and handling core business tasks.

Clients pay between $3,000 to $4,000 per month per hire, depending on the skill level required. Oceans then pay the employees, cover benefits, and keep the profit margin in between.

In its first year, Oceans generated $650K in revenue. By year three, it was making over $15 million annually, with millions in profit.

6 Ways to Automate Work

First Customers—Without Spending on Ads

One of the most surprising aspects of Ian’s journey is that Oceans has grown entirely through word-of-mouth marketing.

From day one, he knew that referrals would be the key to growth. Rather than relying on Facebook ads or SEO, he focused on creating an exceptional service that clients wanted to recommend.

Key strategies that fueled Oceans’ rapid growth:

• Delivering a top-tier service:

  “People don’t recommend a service that sucks,”

  Ian states bluntly. By ensuring that Oceans’ remote workers were highly trained and reliable, referrals naturally followed.

• Empowering clients to be the hero: Ian made it easy for customers to refer to Oceans by framing it as a way to help their peers. If someone saw a colleague struggling with operations, they could confidently suggest Oceans as a solution.

• Building strong relationships: Ian personally guided early customers, ensured they had an incredible experience, and stayed engaged. The first 20-50 customers received a hands-on approach that set the foundation for long-term success.

Scaling from $1M to $10M

Scaling a service business comes with unique challenges. One of the biggest problems Ian faced was transitioning from a founder-driven operation to a structured company.

At first, Ian knew everything, but his team didn’t. Scaling required documenting processes and training teams to operate without him. The business also needed to hire aggressively. Oceans hire 30 to 40 people per month, but instead of looking for experienced executive assistants, they recruit highly capable professionals from other industries and train them from scratch.

Keeping tools and operations lean was another key factor. Oceans run almost everything on Google Sheets, uses Stripe for payments, Notion for internal documentation, and HubSpot as its CRM.

Some of Ian’s biggest takeaways on scaling:

• Hire from non-traditional backgrounds:

  One of his first hires was a former summer camp director who had no sales experience. But she was great at handling high-pressure situations and is now his chief of staff.

• Invest in training:

  Instead of hiring experienced executive assistants, Oceans hires smart, operationally-minded people and trains them to be exceptional at their roles.

• Document everything:

  Moving knowledge from individuals to company-wide systems was crucial for scaling smoothly.

The Life Ian Built: The Real Goal

Most entrepreneurs chase higher revenue, bigger teams, and more funding. Ian wanted something different—control over his time, flexibility to live where he wanted, and the ability to unplug without stress.

After years in New York, he moved to rural New Hampshire, where he finally found peace and balance. He spends mornings reading with coffee, plays video games every Saturday from 6 AM to 11 AM, and works 10 to 11 hours per day but with total flexibility.

“If your business doesn’t let you enjoy life, what’s the point?”

-he asks.

The Best Niches for an Outsourcing Business

If you want to start an offshoring business, Ian recommends specializing in a niche. Some of the best opportunities include video editing services for content creators and brands, architectural CAD design for construction firms, marketing operations for startups and agencies, executive assistance for business owners, and financial analysts and controllers for investment firms.

Lessons from Ian’s journey

1. Find a proven demand and create a superior solution rather than reinventing the wheel.

2. Start small, get paying customers as early as possible, and refine your model before investing heavily.

3. If people love your product or service, they will naturally share it. Prioritize customer experience over marketing gimmicks.

4. Design your business around the lifestyle you want—not just revenue goals.

5. Avoid being a jack of all trades. Dominate a specific niche.

6. If your business relies on you for everything, it’s not scalable. Build systems that allow others to step in.

7. Look for potential, not just experience. The best hires aren’t always the most obvious ones.

8. Stop waiting for the "perfect" decision. Take action. Even mistakes will teach you something valuable.

Offshore outsourcing isn’t new, but Ian’s approach proves that how you do it matters more than what you do.

More about Ian Myers

Many people fear making the wrong career move. But Ian’s advice is simple:

Ian’s journey proves that you don’t need funding, a big team, or a revolutionary idea to succeed. All you need is to find a real problem people already need solved, deliver exceptional service, let happy customers drive your growth, and design your business around your ideal life—not just money.

So ask yourself: 

What kind of life do you want? And how can your business help you create it?

And if you do that, you just might build a $10M+ business—by accident.

A Story Worth Reading

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