💵 🤖 Getting Your Agents Paid

Hey there 👋,

I was short on time last week so used Claude to write this intro section - did you notice?

I gave it a perspective, told it to summarize and blend three related stories, then lightly edited the result.

This simple workflow mirrors what we're building at LetterOperators, except our customer solutions are much more sophisticated, combining RAG knowledge bases with custom prompts to create perfectly structured content that matches each client's unique voice and needs.

Right now my biz partner Maciej has to manually run the workflows for each customer at the newsletter agency, but soon this will be all automated for us by the work my other business partner Ryan is doing for us at AgentStacker.

Here is a sneak peek of the V1 of our internal dashboard:

But after seeing the launch of Paid.ai yesterday (the business engine for AI agents), perhaps we turn the business into a startup, make this dashboard customer facing and get paid based on how many newsletters our customers send. Indeed, we are no longer just running weekly newsletters, some customers are asking for twice weekly, and some just monthly so it would make sense.

Paid's platform offers a solution for pricing, packaging, billing, and margin management for AI agent workflows. Their approach lets developers (everyone is a developer now with AI) track and adjust workflow margins in real-time, moving beyond simple usage or outcome-based pricing.

This aligns perfectly with what I wrote about SaaS dismantlement a few weeks ago. Paid’s ‘AI Agent Builder’s Manifesto’ takes an even stronger stance, stating the traditional SaaS business model isn’t just dying, it’s already irrelevant:

Manny Medina, previously the founder of Outreach.io and now CEO of Paid, told EU Startups that just as cloud computing turned software into services, we’re now seeing ‘service-as-software,’ where AI agents transform traditional services into scalable products.

In his Techcrunch interview, Manny went further stating that agents are not just replacing jobs but entire roles.

This is precisely what we're building at LetterOperators: a complete replacement for the newsletter operator role.

However, I still believe that ultimately companies will want their own custom workflows built for them that they own, rather than off-the-shelf solutions, which is what we’re doing at AgentStacker.

In other news, I’ve partnered up with Danny at Cloudica (today’s sponsor) to relaunch my previous free Skool community and make it for remote business owners, here’s the announcement post:

And talking about Skool, I spoke with Ryan Darani today (who I mentioned in this issue) who has recently launched a paid community around leveraging AI called Scaled that’s well worth checking out.

📰 Top News Stories

✉️ Forwarding emails in Substack can result in you getting billed - Link

🐝 beehiiv is not lying when they say no longer just a newsletter platform - Link

📈 Reddit’s traffic +26% from March update - is $RDDT ( ▼ 2.29% ) a buy? - Link

🖼️ OpenAI releases image editing with GPT-4o to create infinite ads - Link

🧠 ChatGPT’s new image generator can also create thumbnails & memes - Link 

💰 VCs wake up to vibe marketing which is reshaping $250B Industry - Link 

🎯 How to become a vibe marketer and build your first AI workflow - Link

🕹️ GameStop’s board unanimously approves Bitcoin treasury strategy - Link

🌍 Smarter Remote Team Management

Keeping remote teams productive and accountable—without micromanagement—can be a challenge. Cloudica is a powerful remote employee monitoring tool designed to enhance efficiency, not just track hours.

Why Cloudica?

✅ Designed for remote teams – Trusted by businesses to streamline workflows.
✅ Real-time insights, zero intrusion – Monitor productivity while maintaining trust.
✅ Efficiency, not surveillance – Actionable data to optimize team performance.
✅ Automated timesheets & attendance – Simplify tracking, reporting, and compliance.

Whether you’re managing a small team or a global workforce, Cloudica helps you stay on top of productivity—without the guesswork.

Try it free for 15 days—no credit card needed.

👉 Sign up now!

🔓 Top Flippa Deals Unlocked 

Below are my thoughts on four listings which Flippa selected, some of which were Confidential and/or First Access which I unlocked using my Flippa Premium membership. You can get 3 months of access for free using this link and bypass NDA approval.

🌐 Website: I know of this well established crypto digital media and data platform, founded in 2014. This DR 70s domain brings in over 400K visits a month from serach according to Ahrefs. The site generates $1.4M/year with 92% profit margins from ads, sponsored content, and affiliate deals. Includes premium domain, content library, email list, trademarks, and tech. Turnkey, low-overhead operation with team and SOPs in place. Making $60K/m profit, $10M asking price - Listing URL

💻 Software: High-margin SaaS business launched in 2023, built on GoHighLevel for real estate pros. Offers sales & marketing automation on a monthly subscription basis, generating $480K TTM revenue, $216K SDE, and 75% gross margins. Operates with 10 hrs/week and a skilled support team. Low churn (8%) and high annual plan retention. Making $13.5K/m profit with a $595K saking price - Listing URL

💼 Digital Agency: AI-driven digital agency focused on local page building & location-based marketing, founded in 2017. Serves 200K+ businesses across 8 countries, with 65K paying clients via a major domain partner. Generates $52K AUD MRR, $28K AUD profit, and runs with low overhead using an offshore team. Revenue from subscriptions, freemium, and partnerships. Making AUD $25K/m profit with a USD $555K asking price. - Listing URL

▶️ YouTube: Channel focussed on the mystery & cryptid content niche launched in 2023. Earning $274K in the past year with an RPM of $14. Focuses on mystery & cryptid content for a primarily U.S. male 45+ audience. Managed by a 6-person team, with low production costs (~$1.3K/month). Growth potential in daily uploads, brand deals, and 3D product sales. Making $18K/m profit, $350K asking price - Listing URL

🛠️ Top Tools & Solutions

👀 YOUR NEWSLETTER, RUN FOR YOU - ​​​​ LetterOperators runs your newsletter on beehiiv so you don’t have to. Content sourcing, creation and publishing, with calls-to-action for your products and services. Weekly sending at just $500/m.

🤖 LEARN HOW TO LEVERAGE AI AGENTS – Get lifetime access to my info product and private Discord community for just $97. Automate tasks, optimize marketing, and enhance crypto trading with AI. Join now!

🐝 THE NEWSLETTER PLATFORM BUILT FOR GROWTH - Created by the early Morning Brew team and now powering the world's top newsletters, I’ve been an early user (and investor). Get 20% OFF for 3 months as a Digital Asset Investor Reader!

📣 Sponsor This Newsletter

As we learned in business school, the Rule of Seven states that a prospect needs to interact with a brand at least seven times before they’re likely to take action or make a purchase. In reality, it could be as many as 23 times as Neil Patel states.

I provide influencer marketing and sponsorship opportunities for trusted products, allowing them to leverage my brand and reach my audience of 10K entrepreneurs and investors. Sponsorship packages start at $1,250:

I sell visibility, not clicks - if you are looking for lead gen, Facebook and Google would be a better fit.

Get featured in this newsletter

Read The Daily Upside. Stay Ahead of the Markets. Invest Smarter.

Most financial news is full of noise. The Daily Upside delivers real insights—clear, concise, and free. No clickbait, no fear-mongering. Just expert analysis that helps you make smarter investing decisions.

Join 1M+ readers today.

That’s it for this week, until next time, buy my product and catch me in the community!

Cheers!

Richard (@richardpatey)

Disclaimer: Nothing in this email is financial advice and I am not a professional investment adviser. I send weekly updates on digital asset news and what I'm doing personally - consider it informational and for entertainment purposes only. There are native ad sponsorships from the beehiiv ad network (such as The Daily Upside in today’s issue) and ones I source independently via Passionfroot (such as Cloudica in today’s issue). Plus I often add affiliate links to software I use and website marketplace listings such as Flippa who also pay me to feature listings.