Welcome to our “From Dreamers to Doers” series, where we celebrate the remarkable achievements of entrepreneurs who turn their visions into reality. In this instalment, we feature Nicholas Rubright, the founder of Ranko Media, who has spent the last four years navigating the ever-changing landscape of SEO and PR.
The Accidental Entrepreneur
It sort of just happened to me… I just wanted to move my career forward from driving for Uber, so I started writing, then SEO, then I got more demand and it grew into an agency.
Nicholas didn’t set out with a grand plan to build an agency. His journey began out of a desire for career progression while he was driving for Uber.
He started as a freelance writer, which naturally evolved into SEO work. As demand for his expertise grew, so did his business, eventually transforming from a solo freelance operation into a full-scale agency.
The Challenge of Scale
While Nicholas was a marketing professional by training, he quickly discovered that running an agency required a completely different skill set: operations. Having previously grown his own websites, he was comfortable with the technical work but had never managed a team.
He often compares his agency model to SaaS (Software as a Service) businesses.
Unlike software, where a “one-to-many” model allows for rapid iteration and scaling of customer acquisition without a proportional increase in labor, an agency is a “one-to-one” service. This meant that as Ranko Media grew, Nicholas had to learn how to scale labor and operational systems, a process he admits took a long time to master.
Navigating the AI Shift
The emergence of Generative AI in 2025 posed a significant challenge. As investors and businesses began viewing AI as the new search engine, Nicholas saw a shift in the market.
However, he observed that AI search engines actually operate quite similarly to traditional ones, allowing him to adapt his strategies rather than being replaced by them.
Lessons for the Next Generation
Nicholas emphasizes that knowing your own weaknesses is critical to success. He attributes much of his growth to mentorship and networking, often reaching out to subject matter experts when he encounters questions outside his own expertise.
For those just starting out, Nicholas offers practical advice: “If you have no money, DIY things, but pay a consultant a few $100 for a call to check that you’re doing the things”.
Looking Forward
Today, Nicholas is focused on strengthening his team through recruitment and training. His ultimate goal is to build a business that can operate independently of his daily involvement while continuing to deliver high-impact results for clients.
Q&A with Nicholas Rubright
As a CEO, my best place is working with the team… I want to get to the point where I’m able to make our team stronger with focused recruitment, training, and development.
The Entrepreneurial Journey
Q: What inspired you to start your own business?
It sort of just happened to me. I guess the real start was freelancing. I just wanted to move my career forward from driving for Uber, so I started writing, then SEO, then I got more demand and it grew into an agency.
Q: What were the biggest challenges you faced when starting your business?
Operations. I’m a marketing pro, went to school for that, and have grown my own websites before. I had not managed a team. This took me a very long time to learn. Especially in this business, because as an agency, you have lots of projects that are large, so you can’t iterate as quickly.
My first few clients were SaaS businesses, so I compare my business to software a lot. In software, you can iterate very quickly because you have a one-to-many business model. You can have a well-defined team work on a product that you then sell to many people. So you can scale customer acquisition at a more rapid pace than you scale the labor inside of your business.
On the operations side, it’s just a lot different with an agency because there aren’t the same economies of scale as you have with a business like software when scaling up a service. When you sell a service, it’s more one-to-one, so as you scale up your customer acquisition, you end up scaling up your operations as a direct byproduct of that because you need to hire more people.
Not only that, but you often have to hire people ahead of when you need them to get them trained, and account for learning and development during their first few months at work.
These are some of the most shocking things I ran into when running an agency.
Q: How did you overcome these challenges?
I hired consultants to teach me operations and develop me into the leader I needed to be. I went through Niche In Control, which is basically an operations bootcamp for agencies. They helped me get over some hurdles, and were great for me getting through the “I don’t know the first thing about this” phase of my learning.
I went on to hire consultants to help me with continued operations work. When I have questions, I hire a COO level freelancer for a few hours on Upwork. I do this with lots of areas in my business when I’m stuck because I can spend a few $100 and learn from people who went to school for this stuff and do it professionally.
Q: What were some of the key learnings you gained during your entrepreneurial journey?
Focus on profit first. This is what’s best for everyone in the business, including your employees. You need to be able to take the blow of service overages, refunds, and other unexpected things you’ll need to pay for as a business.
Business Strategies and Success
Q: What are your key business strategies that have contributed to your success?
I focus on scalable marketing channels like outbound, SEO, and paid advertising. Social media and email marketing are great as well, but they don’t really bring in the top of funnel traffic. I call them nurturing channels, because they’re used to communicate with people who already know you. The scalable channels help you get known in the first place.
Q: Can you share a specific success story or milestone that you’re particularly proud of?
When we grew our first client to 1 million monthly visitors, that was when I got very excited about the potential of selling this as a service. The mission has always been to build a company that grows companies, and we were able to pull that off. It was awesome.
Q: What do you believe sets your business apart from competitors?
Lots of SEO agencies pay for links or focus on deliverables. We focus on aiming our work to achieve real business outcomes, meaning sustainable sales and revenue.
Wisdom and Advice
Q: What is the most valuable piece of business advice you’ve ever received?
Mark Cuban said on Shark Tank once that ‘it’s gotta be a hell yeah or a no‘. He was using this to gauge investment advice, but I’ve applied it to literally everything in my life, and that made most things better.
Q: What advice would you give to aspiring entrepreneurs who are just starting out?
Do what others aren’t. You have to stand out. Focus on how you’re unique, and push that, even if it’s something small.
Q: What is your message to other business owners who may be facing challenges?
Find some support from another business owner who has faced similar challenges, even if you need to pay them for their time.
I don’t think people can really understand what it’s like to own a business unless they’ve done it. You risk running into people who are used to chasing financial targets that are too small.
As a business owner, your financial targets need to be bigger because you need to support the lives of your team and their families.
Q: Looking back, what would you do differently if you could start over?
Chase bigger targets. I took advice to chase customers that would pay me $500/month because “if I can just get X I can survive” was my thinking. It became too expensive to chase them, and I ended up losing money trying.
The size of the target that you’re chasing needs to make sense versus what you’re spending on marketing and fulfilling the sales.
Additional Questions
Q: How has technology (such as Generative AI) impacted your business?
It hurt us a lot in 2025 when it first came out. Investors and businesses started to see that generative AI was being used as a search engine, and started searching for AI SEO agencies. It’s odd because with all this shift in the SEO industry, it ended up being that these AI search engines operate in a very similar way to traditional search engines.
Q: What role has mentorship or networking played in your success?
It’s huge. I go to subject matter experts whenever I have a question that I’m not an expert on. Knowing yourself is so important. You need to know your weaknesses to know where to seek help. If you aren’t an expert and you execute alone, your risk of loss is greater.
If you have no money, DIY things, but pay a consultant a few $100 for a call to check that you’re doing the things.
Q: What are your future goals and aspirations for your business?
I want the business to be able to operate without my involvement while achieving real business outcomes for our clients.
As a CEO, my best place is working with the team. I’ve made it to the point where I can hire a fractional CFO, and that’s been awesome, and I want to get to the point where I’m able to make our team stronger with focused recruitment, training, and development.
Are you an aspiring entrepreneur? Nicholas’s story reminds us that success isn’t always about having a perfect plan from day one. It’s about the willingness to learn, adapt, and seek help when you need it.
Share your story and inspire others! Contact us today to be featured in our “From Dreamers to Doers” series. Let’s celebrate your success together.
