Copyright Inc. Magazine
How can one person take an idea and turn it into one of the fastest-growing companies in America? With a whole lot of freelancers in some cases, and in other cases, just grit and determination. But the bigger question? Why? Inc. asked three solo operators from the 19 solopreneurs on the 2025 Inc. 5000 list about the method to their madness, and why they choose to go solo. Here’s what they said. Hear Your Story, No. 131 As Jeffery Mason’s father struggled with Alzheimer’s, Mason realized there was a lot he didn’t know about his dad. Growing up, his father worked, provided, taught, but didn’t share about his childhood. Mason wrote down questions he wanted to ask his father. Featured Video An Inc.com Featured Presentation Those questions are now writing prompts in 27 different journals that Mason’s Elk Grove, California-based business, Hear Your Story, sells to customers trying to capture their loved ones’ memories. The company launched in 2020. The business has grown revenue from around $500,000 to over $14 million in revenue in just a year. TikTok’s been a part of that growth, and Hear Your Story had the sixth- and seventh-highest-selling books on the Amazon Books chart in 2024. The books went from boutiques to Target and Barnes and Noble. He formed an imprint with Source Books which allowed him to expand his operations. “This time last year, I’d be in the garage every day packing books,” Mason said. Mason brought in freelance talent to handle his design, social media marketing, and even sales. He’s now in the process of trying to bring them on with W2s and making them officially part of the company. Eighty percent of Mason’s books are printed in the U.S., insulating him from tariff uncertainty. But many of his products are sold in boutiques and other small businesses, and he’s noticed sales have decreased from where they were at this point last year. “Typically right now, people would already be buying for the fourth quarter,” Mason said. “So people are keeping their cash flow careful.” Mason’s currently beginning the process of bringing a few employees onboard full-time, he says, despite the economic uncertainty. The freelancers he’s worked with have been a huge part of his growth in the past year, and now, his business has outpaced what one person can do alone. Guru of Insurance, No. 2,488 David Rao started his Ninde, Virginia-based insurance company, Guru of Insurance, right before the Covid-19 pandemic. He opened up in-person offices, which he quickly closed. He used to travel a lot for work. Thanks to the pandemic’s normalizing online work, he meets mostly on Microsoft Teams and Zoom. “I get to see my kids wake up every morning. I get to put them to bed every night,” Rao said. The company has generated over $2 million in revenue in the past year. Rao services 50 to 75 different clients, and he says he’s never spent a dollar on marketing. His leads come through referrals, and he doesn’t have to make cold calls. Rao saves the money on overhead by working entirely from home. He’s leveraged tools like Excel to automate his claims process, but hasn’t had to use AI implementations to grow his business. While he’s not against AI, he sees customer service as a key factor of his brand as an insurance benefits provider. Rao doesn’t want to expand his employee count. He doesn’t outsource to freelancers, and, he says, he “doesn’t intend to.” When he used to work at a bigger brokerage firm, he had plenty of employees under him, but says at the end of the day, he made $10,000 less. “I was taking phone calls left and right, day in, day out, midnight, everybody was calling me and I had to answer to be able to help,” Rao said. He likes the white-glove and hands-on approach he can provide his clients now. And, despite the fact that Guru of Insurance is a one man show, Rao “has no inclination” of stopping his growth soon. Ocean Audit, No. 3,130 After decades in the container shipping industry, Steve Ferreira saw invoice errors left and right. He started Fort Lauderdale, Florida-based Ocean Audit 20 years ago with the goal of resolving those billing errors. Ferreira’s had a busy few years. Across the backdrop of international trade war and shipping crises caused by Covid, Ocean Audit has thrived. As a logistics auditing tool, it’s positioned in a unique spot, where more uncertainty is actually beneficial for the company, Ferreira said. “It’s a little selfish, but I believe that the more volatility there is, the better it is for my business, because obviously customers want to be on the front side of correcting the volatility,” Ferreira said. Will Ocean Audit scale up its workforce? Ferreira says no. He’s comfortable with the direction of the company, and making the Inc. 5000 was a goal of his when he started, a goal he’s finally achieved. The company’s revenue in 2024 was just over $2.2 million. Ferreira’s son interned for him this summer, and Ferreira was impressed with how his son’s technical prowess in AI made an impact on Ocean Audit’s operations. He finds freelance talent on Upwork who’ve helped him on branding and scheduling, but the auditing is all performed by him, with the help of organization software like Airtable and Zapier. His mindset remains on being solo. “It’s not ‘Ocean Audit’—it’s ‘Ocean Audit by Steve Ferreira,’” Ferreira said.
