Smart50-Awards-Man-of-Many
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Man of Many

REVENUE: $2.6 million
GROWTH: 212.4%
FOUNDER: Scott Purcell (33), Frank Arthur (37)
HEAD OFFICE: Sydney
YEAR FOUNDED: 2012
EMPLOYEES: 9
INDUSTRY: Advertising, arts and media

How it started

Man of Many started as a part-time side-hustle for co-founders Scott Purcell and Frank Arthur, who were passionate about consumer products and design and saw a gap in the Australian publishing market for the content they wanted to read.

Quickly finding their interests were shared by an untapped market, they grew their presence from a product review blog to an integrated e-commerce shop and native branded content studio.

Growth

As one of the fastest growing media publications in Australia, Man of Many now has more than 5 million global page views every month, with its daily email newsletter reaching 175,000 subscribers.

However it’s not always easy to monetise an audience in the publishing game, as the founders note. For them, the integrated e-commerce site is key to winning advertising dollars. That focus has paid off, with the business growing revenue from $822,000 in the 2018-19 financial year to reach $2.6 million in 2020-21.

Where to next?

Already producing partner content with brands, the duo are set to expand beyond written articles into other formats.

“We want to create more video series, more podcasting, and physical product collabs with different Aussie brands,” they tell SmartCompany.

“We’ve found our readers love our multimedia collateral, and there’s so much room to grow in this space as a digital publication”.