Alex West

Alex West is a British-Greek entrepreneur, software founder, and author best known for establishing CyberLeads, a lead-generation business that began as a newsletter for identifying recently funded startups and later expanded into managed outbound campaigns. After numerous unsuccessful software projects, he launched CyberLeads in February 2020 and grew it from ten initial subscribers to approximately $40,000–$50,000 in monthly revenue. He became self-employed in January 2021 and later built a small team around the company.[2][3][4][8][9][11]

West has also developed software intended to protect people with photosensitive epilepsy, worked as a software engineer for the medical-technology company Empatica, and launched more than 20 independent internet projects. His public daily writing, begun during his early product-building years, became the thirteen-volume autobiographical series Not Business Advice. The books chronicle the creation, growth, and eventual contraction of CyberLeads alongside his changing views about work, money, travel, and entrepreneurship.[1][2][10][11][12][13]

Born in Watford, England, West is of British and Greek nationality. He studied computer science at a public university in Greece before moving to Italy for his first full-time technology position. He later established his business base in Cyprus and lives in Limassol.

Early life and education

West began studying computer science in Greece but initially had little interest in entrepreneurship. During his first year at university, when he was 20, his father encouraged him to meet a neighbor’s son who had moved from Greece to San Francisco and founded a technology company. Their conversation introduced West to the idea that practical projects could provide a different form of education from academic study. He began teaching himself mobile application development and decided that he wanted to create a technology company.[1]

His first major project was City Vibes, a mobile application through which bars and clubs could upload real-time photographs and users could view nearby venues on a map. West spent approximately two years developing and refining the application, kept the idea largely private, and delayed marketing until the product was nearly complete. City Vibes struggled to attract users and generated no revenue. Its marketplace structure required participation from both venues and consumers, and advisers concluded that the business would require funding and large-scale network effects. West discontinued the project but treated the experience as the beginning of his entrepreneurial career.[1]

Fighting career

Alex began training kickboxing and Muay Thai while in school, after an street fight at 13 ended up sending him to the hospital with a brain hemorrhage. Years later, during his time in university, he competed and fought multiple times in kickboxing and BJJ. His final fight was in Muay Thai against a world title holder, where he lost on points.[12]

Early product launches

On January 1, 2018, West began building independent software products systematically. He initially followed what he called a shotgun strategy: developing and launching many small products, observing which attracted attention, and concentrating on any that showed early traction.[1][11]

His first projects included MMAmatchups, a website for proposing and voting on potential UFC fights; MultiNewTab, a browser extension that allowed several new-tab extensions to operate together; TalentShare, a candidate-sharing marketplace; and RemoteJuniorClub, an online community for junior remote developers. MMAmatchups attracted approximately 300 visitors and 30 registrations but was abandoned after a month. MultiNewTab obtained more than 100 users following its Product Hunt launch. TalentShare and RemoteJuniorClub encountered the same marketplace problem as City Vibes: without an existing community, the products offered little value to early users.[1]

In May 2018, West launched GitGardener, a small application that created automated GitHub commits. The project placed third for the day on Product Hunt, brought approximately 4,000 visitors and 400 signups, and increased his Twitter audience. He introduced a $5 monthly feature for users who wanted the automated activity applied to private repositories. On June 1, 2018, two users subscribed, producing his first revenue from a software product. GitGardener grew from $50 per month in its first week of monetization to approximately $130 per month after private GitHub repositories became more widely available.[1][11]

West’s next project, MakerFeed, was a directory for finding software makers who shared their work publicly on Twitter. It ranked first for the day on Product Hunt and received more than 350 votes, but West did not see a clear path to monetization and moved on. He subsequently developed Telemonetize, a platform that automated billing and access for paid Telegram groups. The technically complex product combined subscription management, Stripe payments, Telegram bots, landing pages, and automated access controls. It eventually obtained two customers and approximately $58 in monthly revenue, but many prospective users operated businesses West regarded as questionable. He discontinued the service.[1]

Other experiments included CryptoSubscriptions, a cryptocurrency-payment system separated from Telemonetize; Orthios, an uptime-monitoring service for chatbots; LocalTweetTime, an extension that translated Twitter timestamps into the viewer’s local time; IndieChannels, a directory of distribution channels for independent founders; and the browser experiments DuckDuckSometimes and Splash Search. IndieChannels placed second for the day on Product Hunt with more than 500 votes but was not developed into a commercial business.[1]

Epilepsy Blocker

In late 2018, West began developing Epilepsy Blocker, a browser extension designed to identify and hide flashing images, videos, and animations that could trigger seizures in people with photosensitive epilepsy. The concept followed reports of people being deliberately exposed to seizure-inducing media online. West used image processing and browser technology to conceal potentially dangerous material before it became visible.[1]

The product’s public launch attracted approximately 100,000 social-media views, although this attention did not translate into a substantial customer base. West initially charged for the application but found that many prospective users could not justify a recurring fee. He eventually made it free and explored possible uses among nonprofit organizations, neurological clinics, television companies, and designers.[1]

Epilepsy Blocker nevertheless changed the direction of his career. It attracted the attention of Empatica, a medical-technology company with ties to MIT researchers and work involving organizations including NASA. The company developed medical devices for neurological conditions and maintained offices in Boston, Milan, and Seoul. Empatica offered West a software-engineering position in Milan, which he accepted after completing his university obligations.[1][2]

Employment in Milan

West moved to Milan on January 4, 2020. Empatica represented his first substantial full-time technology role and provided a salary of approximately €2,000 per month after taxes. Working inside a funded company altered his view of business competition. He observed that organizations could spend significant amounts on services and that even well-funded teams moved more slowly than an individual founder working on a narrowly defined product.[2]

The role also clarified his professional interests. West concluded that he enjoyed creating products but did not regard software engineering itself as his central vocation. He was more interested in positioning, customer problems, product direction, and business strategy than in maintaining internal systems or optimizing technical infrastructure.[4]

He continued working on independent products before and after his workday. Rather than beginning with a personal idea and searching for a market, he studied established markets in cybersecurity, recruitment, and lead generation. His experiments included Cyberflake, a collaboration concept for penetration testers; Scrapcat, an uptime monitor for web scrapers; Cyberhound, a platform for finding software developers and their contact information; and Birdleads, a concept for monitoring relevant conversations on Twitter. None developed into a viable business.[2]

Founding CyberLeads

While researching lead-generation businesses, West encountered demand for information about startups that had recently raised investment. Such companies were actively hiring, purchasing services, and attempting to grow, making them valuable prospects for agencies and vendors. West found numerous businesses already selling this information and interpreted their existence as evidence of a functioning market rather than as a reason to avoid the idea.[2]

He chose a newsletter model because it required little software development. CyberLeads would provide subscribers with a monthly collection of recently funded startups, including company, financing, and contact information. Customers could use the data to identify companies likely to purchase their services.[2]

West launched CyberLeads on Product Hunt on February 14, 2020, before compiling the first complete list. Ten customers subscribed at $29 per month, creating approximately $290 in monthly recurring revenue. He spent the following two weeks gathering, checking, and organizing the promised information and delivered the first edition on March 1.[2][11]

The initial launch was followed by cancellations, and revenue fell toward $100 per month. On April 22, however, a short post celebrating his first $50-per-month customer attracted around 100,000 impressions and brought ten additional subscribers. A subsequent monthly update reached the front page of Hacker News, was read by tens of thousands of people, and produced another ten customers. West began concentrating on Twitter and public progress reports as his principal distribution system.[2][11]

CyberLeads reached approximately $1,500 per month four months after launch and $2,000 per month after six months. West studied which subscribers stayed longest and paid the most, then narrowed the company’s positioning toward agencies. He increased prices, added testimonials and agency-specific features, and introduced a $299 annual plan. The changes increased both pricing and conversion rates.[2][3]

In November and December 2020, West participated in an affiliate promotion to a community of more than 30,000 founders. CyberLeads offered lifetime access for $1,000, and more than ten customers purchased the plan. The promotion generated more than $10,000 in revenue, with 30 percent paid to the affiliate partner. CyberLeads first surpassed West’s salary on July 27, 2020 and subsequently produced more than his employment income for six consecutive months.[3][4][11]

Self-employment

West decided to leave Empatica near the end of 2020. He cited CyberLeads’ sustained revenue, his declining interest in engineering work, and the difficulty of performing well in both his job and business simultaneously. He also had savings and believed that returning to employment would remain possible if the company failed.[4]

January 6, 2021 was his first day of self-employment. He later relocated from Milan to Sicily on March 22. The transition created difficulties involving business registration, banking, taxes, housing, and the absence of externally imposed structure. CyberLeads grew to approximately $5,000–$6,000 per month, but attempts to find another reliable growth channel repeatedly failed.[5][6][11]

West experimented with turning CyberLeads into a software database, but the test performed worse than the newsletter. He also tried search-engine optimization, upsells, affiliate programs, lead magnets, broader positioning, customer referrals, and partnerships between agencies. None produced the step change he sought.[6]

Managed service and incorporation in Cyprus

On November 1, 2021, a conversation with an experienced founder led West to reconsider the reasons CyberLeads customers cancelled. Subscribers often valued the data but lacked the time or knowledge to configure and send outbound campaigns. The founder asked why CyberLeads did not send the emails for them.[6][11]

West tested the idea through a single email to existing customers. Eight expressed interest. The first accepted a price of $2,000 per month, and two others subsequently agreed to pay approximately $1,500 per month. The service produced roughly $5,000 in contracted monthly revenue within a week, matching what had taken West four years to achieve with software products. He agreed to begin the campaigns in the new year and formally started the managed service on February 1, 2022.[6][7][11]

In January 2022, West incorporated his business in Cyprus and made the country his business and tax base. Cyprus offered a bilingual English- and Greek-speaking environment, membership in the European Union, proximity to Britain and Greece, and flexibility for international travel.[7]

The new CyberLeads combined the original information product with campaign delivery. The team selected target companies, configured email systems, wrote outreach messages, monitored replies, and forwarded qualified opportunities to clients. Early delivery proved far more difficult than West expected. Onboarding the first client took approximately 45 days, campaign performance varied widely, and four clients cancelled within two weeks, removing about $100,000 in annualized revenue.[8]

West responded by simplifying operations. CyberLeads reduced campaigns from multiple channels to email alone, stopped conducting weekly client meetings, concentrated on English-language outreach to funded startups, and replaced numerous specialized campaigns with broader use of its core database. Processes were documented and automated, reducing later onboarding time to approximately ten days.[8]

As more clients obtained leads and closed deals, the business grew rapidly. The original newsletter reached approximately $20,000 per month, while the managed service produced more than $20,000 per month. CyberLeads therefore reached roughly $500,000 in annualized revenue during 2022.[8][10]

Building a team

The growth of CyberLeads created a second form of dependence for West: although he had left employment, the company required constant attention. He began hiring staff despite initially intending to remain a solo founder. His first hire, Nneka, assisted with operations. Joel later joined to manage clients, and additional employees supported research and campaign delivery.[9]

West gradually distanced himself from direct client communication and day-to-day team supervision. Jonathan Garces, who had already worked with the company, became its operator and West’s business partner. Garces took responsibility for operational problems and sales calls, while other team members assumed campaign and client functions. By the end of this transition, the company could operate with substantially less direct involvement from West.[9]

The delegation supported West’s long-standing ambition to operate a technology business while traveling. In 2022 and 2023 he used Cyprus as a base and traveled internationally, including through Europe, Asia, and the United States. This period also produced extended reflections on reading, attention, online life, and the costs and benefits of constant movement.[7][9][10]

First cumulative million

On June 1, 2024, West calculated the total revenue generated by his products and businesses since his first GitGardener subscriptions six years earlier. The total reached $1 million. The anniversary connected several milestones in his career: beginning bootstrapping on January 1, 2018; making his first dollar on June 1, 2018; launching CyberLeads on February 14, 2020; surpassing his salary on July 27, 2020; becoming self-employed on January 6, 2021; and starting the managed service on February 1, 2022.[11]

At its peak, CyberLeads reported more than $1 million in cumulative revenue and monthly revenue near $50,000. West treated the result as both a personal achievement and evidence that financial milestones did not remove uncertainty. His writing from the period contrasted the immediate satisfaction of hitting numerical targets with the more difficult question of how to organize a sustainable life and business.[11][12]

Decline and restructuring of CyberLeads

CyberLeads subsequently suffered a rapid decline. Revenue fell from approximately $50,000 to $25,000 per month within several months. West and Garces examined more than 30 metrics across marketing, sales, fulfillment, churn, margins, traffic, and conversion. They attempted to restore the indicators associated with the company’s peak, but improvements in individual metrics did not reverse the overall trend.[12]

West returned to client interviews and sales calls and reassumed a more direct founder role. Over several months, CyberLeads was extensively redesigned. The result did not restore the previous growth trajectory, and the continuing decline placed West under increasing strain.[12][13]

He eventually discontinued the larger managed-service offer, removed it from the company’s website, notified clients, issued refunds, and reduced the organization. He parted ways with Garces, gave Nneka several months of salary, and retained Joel and Rayvin to assist with a smaller operation.[13]

West returned CyberLeads to a combination of its original newsletter and a limited consulting service. The consulting offer generated approximately $20,000 in its first month and later stabilized near $8,000 per month, equivalent to roughly $100,000 per year. The smaller business required fewer expenses and less management, allowing him to step back from the intensive service model.[13]

Writing

West began writing daily public notes during his early years of product development. The entries documented launches, failures, revenue figures, personal doubts, travel, employment, and the operational development of CyberLeads. He ultimately accumulated more than 1,000 posts.[1][13]

During the period following CyberLeads’ restructuring, West took what he called a reverse sabbatical. Instead of pausing a conventional career to travel, he reduced travel and business activity in order to live simply, train, spend time with friends, and complete his writing.[13]

He reorganized his daily posts into Not Business Advice, a thirteen-volume autobiographical series. Screaming into the Void covers City Vibes and the early sequence of unsuccessful products. Breaking Through the Ceiling recounts the launch of CyberLeads, while Learning Through Scars and Burning the Boats follow its early growth and West’s departure from employment. Into the Wild, Breaking the Frame, and Setting Up My Base cover self-employment, the discovery of the managed-service model, and incorporation in Cyprus.[1][2][3][4][5][6][7]

Paying the Cost and Building a Machine describe the operational challenges of service delivery and team building. Disconnecting shifts toward travel, reading, and attention. Highest Highs, Lowest Lows includes West’s first cumulative million in revenue. Looking for Answers and Castles in the Sand recount CyberLeads’ decline, attempted reinvention, and restructuring.[8][9][10][11][12][13]

West presents the series as a personal record rather than a formula for entrepreneurship. The books retain accounts of failed products, incorrect predictions, client losses, burnout, and changes in his thinking. His website reports more than 49,400 downloads across the thirteen volumes.[1][13]

Personal life

West lives in Limassol, Cyprus and identifies as British and Greek. He speaks English and Greek and has lived in Greece, Italy, and Cyprus while traveling extensively elsewhere.[2][7][10]

His athletic activities have included kickboxing, Muay Thai, Brazilian jiu-jitsu, powerlifting, marathon running, and triathlon. He has written about using combat sports and endurance training as ways to manage stress and to frame the uncertainty of entrepreneurship. Reading and writing also became increasingly central to his life, especially during periods when he reduced travel and disconnected from social media.[1][3][10][12][13]