Puerto Rican ex-startup employee built a $8.6K/month media business with just $19

Most people think you need venture capital to build a media company. Meanwhile, Danny Miró-Chinea just built a six-figure business with less than the cost of dinner for two.

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While everyone fights over building the next AI SaaS, this guy built a sustainable media business by just... telling good stories about his community.

Try explaining to someone that you make $8,600/month writing about Latino-owned businesses in a newsletter nobody pays for.

That's Danny Miró-Chinea's reality.

Funny thing is that… he never planned to monetize the newsletter at all. He was building an audience for a marketplace he wanted to launch "eventually."

Then a Latina founder saw one of his Instagram videos, subscribed to his newsletter, and DM'd him the next day asking if he did "paid collaborations."

His response? "Of course I do!" (Translation: I had no idea what I was doing, but I figured it out fast.)

Within 60 days of posting his first video, he closed his first $1,200/month retainer.

Fast-forward to August 2024, and Comprende is pulling in $8.6K monthly recurring revenue—enough for Danny to quit his full-time job and move to Medellín as a digital nomad.

Here's what Danny figured out that most people miss: U.S. Latinos represent a $3.2 trillion economy—the 5th largest GDP in the world if it were a standalone country.

Yet outside of Hispanic Heritage Month, there's almost zero positive media representation of Latino businesses and entrepreneurs.

That gap? That's the entire business model.

The timing is perfect because three things converged:

And the beautiful part is that the market keeps growing. Between 2010-2020, Latinos accounted for 73% of U.S. labor force growth, and they're starting businesses at 1.7x the rate of the general population.

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Danny spent 3 years at a venture-backed startup learning what not to do.

When he left to start Comprende in 2020, he made one critical decision: no venture capital. No complex tech. Just a newsletter and social media celebrating Latino businesses and culture.

His 10-newsletter challenge to himself? Write 10 weekly issues to prove he could stick with it. No promotion. No expectations. Just consistency.

By issue 10, it became a habit. By January 2024, he started posting short-form videos. One video about a Latina fintech founder went viral, and suddenly he had his first client asking to collaborate.

Within 8 months, revenue went from $0 to $8,600/month. Not bad for a "side project," huh?

Danny isn't the only one cracking this code.

Hell Gate launched with just $28,000 from seven journalists and now generates $42,000 in monthly recurring revenue from 5,300 paid subscribers.

They focused on hyper-local New York City news—the kind of niche coverage big media ignores.

Their secret? They publish twice weekly instead of daily, keeping readers informed without overwhelming them. And they grow 10% month over month despite charging $6.99-$9.99/month for access.

That's the power of picking a specific audience and actually serving them. While Danny went the free newsletter + sponsored content route, Hell Gate proved people will straight-up pay for niche content if it's valuable enough.

Another one: The Brink's AI Newsletter Speed Run

Marcus Ramsey took a different approach with his AI newsletter, The Brink. He got to 14,000 subscribers in just over a month by packaging complex AI news into three-minute morning reads.

His growth hack? Lead magnets paired with aggressive social media promotion. While Danny built slowly and organically, Marcus proved you can accelerate the timeline dramatically with the right content strategy.

Here's what's wild: three completely different approaches (free + sponsored, paid subscriptions, lead magnet growth), three completely different niches (Latino businesses, NYC local news, AI updates), and they all work. T

he common thread? They picked underserved niches, showed up consistently, and let the audience find them.

No paid ads. No complex funnels. Just valuable content in spaces where nobody else was showing up.

Danny's tech stack is embarrassingly simple. He's not running some complex AI automation empire. He's using the same tools you probably already have access to.

The Full Tool Stack:

Total Monthly Investment: ~$395

But here's what he's really doing with AI that matters:

The AI tools aren't doing the work—they're multiplying his output. One newsletter becomes 10+ pieces of content across platforms. One hour of writing becomes a week of social media presence.

Before you quit your job to become the next Latino media mogul (or whatever niche you pick), let's get real about what the Instagram highlight reel won't show you.

The Hard Parts:

You're on camera.

Danny's success hinged on posting short-form videos of himself talking to the camera. Every. Single. Day. If you're camera-shy, this model gets way harder. You can hire talent (like he does now), but that eats $200/month of your margin, turning a 95% profit business into something more mortal.

Consistency is non-negotiable.

Danny wrote 10 newsletters that basically nobody read before even promoting it. Then posted daily for months before landing his first client. The algorithm doesn't care about your perfectionist tendencies or your "I'll post when inspiration strikes" energy. It rewards showing up, period.

Revenue concentration is risky.

Even at $8.6K/month, Danny's entire income depends on 2-3 clients. One cancellation could cut his revenue in half overnight. One economic downturn where marketing budgets get slashed? You're exposed. This is why he's racing to diversify into sponsorships and digital products.

You'll become your business.

Danny is Comprende. His face, his voice, his story. That's powerful for building trust and authority, but it means the business can't easily run without him (yet). Want to take a month off? Good luck replacing your face and personality.

Let's break down how this actually makes money, because "newsletter + Instagram = $8.6K" sounds like magic until you see the mechanics.

Revenue Timeline:

What He Actually Sells:

Danny's retainer packages include a mix of:

Danny's goal is $10-15K/month with 1-2 more clients. At that point, he'll be maxed out on client capacity. The next move? Passive income streams:

That's the real endgame: trade time-for-money services to build cash flow, then reinvest in assets that generate income without proportional time investment.

You've got 72 hours this coming weekend. Here's what you're building:

Weekend Sprint Checklist:

☐ Saturday Morning: Pick your niche. Not "marketing" or "business"—something specific like "SaaS tools for real estate agents" or "productivity systems for freelance designers."

☐ Saturday Afternoon: Set up your tech stack. Beehiiv account (free), Carrd landing page ($19), ChatGPT Plus if you want it ($20).

☐ Saturday Evening: Write your first newsletter. Pick 3 interesting stories or insights from your niche. Use ChatGPT to help structure it if you're stuck.

☐ Sunday Morning: Create your landing page. Headline, 3 bullet points about what readers get, email signup form. Done.

☐ Sunday Afternoon: Record your first 3 short videos. Introduce yourself, explain what you're building, share one valuable insight. Use ChatGPT to draft scripts if needed.

☐ Sunday Evening: Schedule everything. Newsletter goes out Tuesday. Videos post Monday, Wednesday, Friday. Set up the pattern now.

The goal isn't perfection. It's proving to yourself you can commit to 10 newsletters before you quit. That's it.

Danny's story isn't about having the perfect idea or the most innovative AI tools. It's about spotting a gap, showing up consistently, and being willing to iterate when opportunities knock.

He thought he was building a marketplace. The universe handed him a media agency. He said yes and figured it out along the way. That's the real skill—recognizing when the market is telling you where to go, even when it's not where you thought you were heading.

Can this work outside the Latino market? Absolutely.

The model isn't "build a Latino newsletter"—it's "find an underserved niche community, tell their stories authentically, monetize through services first, then scale to passive income." Newsletter businesses in fitness, writing, sports, and creativity niches are seeing 38-42% open rates and similar monetization patterns.

Pick your niche. Show up. Tell good stories. Be the person who actually gives a damn about that community. The clients will find you. But only if you stick around long enough for them to discover you exist.

If you've never started an online business but this sounds doable, Easy AI Playbook walks you through every step of building profitable AI businesses from scratch. No hype, no get-rich-quick promises — just proven frameworks that work even if you're starting from zero.

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