Jake Ward

Started an SEO agency in 2019. Making $20M/yr for Contact.so clients. Also building: Mentions.so Byword.ai Kleo.so

I’m 27 with 4 businesses and no home.

Here’s how I got here:

Age 0-15:

Spent early life growing up in a hippie commune.

Raised by an incredible single mother who wore both hats. Gave everything to support me.

Overly shy and didn’t speak much.

Seen as a problem by a teacher who suggested there was something wrong with me.

Age 16:

First job stacking supermarket shelves.

Completed high school with bang-average grades.

Started sixth form college.

Age 17:

Quit sixth form college after 3 months due to illness.

Doctor said I was 24 hours away from dying.

Spent my 17th birthday in hospital, tubes everywhere.

Became an apprentice at a print marketing agency. Learnt my way around Adobe’s design suite.

Started doing bits of design work on the side.

Age 18-19:

Discovered search marketing to help get more clients for the print marketing agency.

Became obsessed with SEO. Spent my free time messing around with the websites I built.

Age 20:

Wanted to take marketing more seriously. Quit my job to start a marketing degree.

Quit after 2 weeks.

Started an apprenticeship at an SEO agency where I managed 25 clients and attended college part-time.

Quit after 9 months.

Realised traditional education sucks. I learnt 100x more (and quicker) through self-education.

Went all-in on learning and building whilst living at home with my mum and 2 young siblings.

£0 income.

Age 21:

Got my first 2 freelancing clients on Upwork. They referred me to other clients.

Built a 6-figure business by the end of the year.

Age 22-23:

Started a podcast side project and quickly reached 300,000 listeners per month. Sold it for 5 figures.

Bought and sold 5 websites.

Maxed out my freelancing capacity.

Age 24:

Founded Content Growth and built a team to help companies turn their blog into a 7-figure sales channel.

Started posting on LinkedIn.

Grew revenue by over 200% in 6 months.

Age 25:

Co-founded Byword and launched a platform to help marketers generate articles at scale for SEO.

Sold my belongings, moved out of London and started travelling the world.

Merged Content Growth with Contact Studios to take the SEO agency to the next level.

Helped my mum quit her 15-year corporate job.

Age 26:

Lived out of a suitcase and travelled around 16 countries.

Grown the userbase of my SaaS tools to over 130,000.

Helped multiple unicorn companies scale their SEO with our 25-person team at Contact.

Age 27:

Continuing to levelling up, exploring, following my curiosities, collaborating with great people, and helping family and friends along the way.

Founder

We help software companies get more qualified traffic, sales and revenue through conversion-focused SEO and content marketing. Turn your blog into a 6 figure sales channel.

POV: Building a startup with your friends in London.

I met Lara Acosta on LinkedIn 3 years ago:

- Under 10,000 followers each
- Glorified freelancers grinding it out solo
- No team, no investment... we just had time

But a lot has changed since then:

- 500K+ combined followers
- Multiple 7-figure businesses
- DMs with people we want to talk with
- Inbound opportunities we have to turn down
- Speaking gigs, partnerships, collabs flowing in

All because of posting daily LinkedIn content.

This platform is undefeated for those who want to build a profitable online business in 2026 organically.

And yes, LinkedIn has changed massively since we started 3 years ago.

The algorithm's different. The audience's expectations are different. The competition's different.

But we just spent the last 3 months figuring out what actually works today.

The new playbook for 2026:

- How to get more reach and views
- How to grow your authority organically
- How to get inbound leads from content

All still just through content. And we're going live showing you exactly what we found...

So if you want to know what's actually working on LinkedIn right now, Lara and I are running a free webinar next week (22nd Jan).

It's called "Content to Clients" and we'll walk through the exact strategies we're using in 2026.

We're only letting 1,000 people in, so RSVP here: https://lnkd.in/eUMHYExB

CraftSchoolship

Create a marketing strategy that includes end-to-end ownership of the product, the positioning, the marketing tech, the personnna, the messaging, and a hypothesis (framework / KPIs for success).

Fractional CMO 

Operations School

- Built Startup OS-X; designed for startups who have found a product-market-fit, and want to reliably scale things up.
- Built GTM with cold and warm outreach sequences, generating 500+ B2B leads within 2 months. This invovled using AI-based outreach using JoinValley.co, Lemlist, Apollo, Clay, and a few other tools.
- Create a marketing strategy that includes end-to-end ownership of the product, the positioning, the marketing tech, the personnna, the messaging, and a hypothesis (framework / KPIs for success).

Founder (Fractional COO/CMO Services)

Creatiphe

- Built a roadmap and blueprints to become sustainable in such a short time that we realized we very quickly realized won't work.
- Built internal business evaluation framework and playbooks to launch startup within 4 weeks. 
- Launched 4 ideas, and generated over $400K in revenue.

Chief of Staff

KodeKloud

Taking a proactive approach to revenue-focused initiatives, I successfully established and expanded the marketing team, achieving notable milestones:

> Secured a seven-figure (SGD) revenue during the Black Friday sales period.
> Created the marketing team from the ground up, overseeing the recruitment and initiation of efforts in key areas such as YouTube, SEO, and Paid Media.
> Effectively managed critical marketing technology projects, including the seamless transition of our Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system.
> Achieved an impressive 4x increase in Annual Recurring Revenue (ARR) throughout our tenure at KodeKloud.
> Launched and executed multiple impactful Free Weeks campaigns, resulting in the acquisition of over 60,000 additional users.

Chief Revenue Officer

In my capacity as Chief Operations Officer, I made significant contributions to KodeKloud in accomplishing their objectives:

> Facilitated the recruitment process for eight critical positions, including the Chief Product Officer, Enterprise Growth Manager, and Head of Content.
> Led the enhancement of EOS Checkup scores, elevating them from a low 30 to the high 75s.
> Effectively oversaw the execution of three rock cycles, ensuring seamless project delivery.
> Orchestrated our inaugural Leadership event in Dubai, followed by the successful execution of the Leadership Meet and Company-wide All-Hands in Bali.
> Spearheaded pivotal initiatives as the COO, including comprehensive preparations for Black Friday, coordination for the release of KodeKloud's product version 3, and a smooth transition to ClickUp.

Chief Operations Officer

Implementing the Entrepreneurial Operating System with a mission to make KodeKloud an awesome workplace. My goals for this period was to: 

> Create and establish our VTO. 
> Build a Leadership Team and bring Org Structure. 
> Run first round of rocks to set up the team for a successful Black Friday (2..25x Rev Growth)

Fractional COO & EOS Integrator 

ProtagonistPRO

I acted as a Culture Manger & Primary Investor for a new startup Protagonist Pro. The startup aligned with my purpose of life - comverting more people into portagonists from NPC (non-player-characters). 

As a Culture Manager - I helped setup EOS, Org Structure, In-Person L10s, and Team Goals.

Investor & Culture Manager

ENTRE Institute

As the Director of Technology, I fulfilled various responsibilities encompassing multiple facets. My principal contributions entailed:

> Providing comprehensive technical leadership for the Research and Development of EntreSoft, encompassing crucial determinations concerning user experience (UX) and product pricing.
> Spearheading punchlists for the successful launch of Entresoft, actively supporting the live launch process until we achieved a seven-figure Annual Recurring Revenue (ARR).
> Architecting pivotal projects for the technology team, including the establishment of streamlined processes to mitigate security risks and ensure compliance adherence.
> Implement EOS practices in the Tech Team to support transition towards EOS.

Director of Technology

I became a technical Project Manager at ENTRE, playing a vital role in connecting the leadership and the tech team. Throughout my tenure, I contributed to numerous projects, which involved:

> Leading the implementation of the new ENTRE UI.
> Overseeing the development of the fresh ENTRE Branding.
> Rectifying various backend bugs and enhancing the overall customer experience.
> Strategizing the inclusion of gamification elements to boost course completion rates.

Project Manger

121 Viral - Digital Media Agency

I served as A-S-A-D (A Serial Ads Designer), passionate about using elements of gamification to create captivating campaigns with user-generated content. I worked with 5+ different clients with 121 Viral, but my favorite was ITCN Asia (eCom Gateway) 2018: 

Task: Within 3 weeks promote their upcoming premier IT event to tech gurus and entrepreneurs within the city. 
Results: ITCN Asia 2018 held the biggest conference in its 18-year history having 400+ participants show up before the event.

Chief Ads Strategist 

TEDDICT

I had the privilege of overseeing the end-to-end ownership of an acclaimed peer-to-peer learning platform that revolutionizes collaborative learning in a secure gamified environment. 

Key highlights of my involvement with the product include:

> International recognition at the prestigious APICTA ICT Awards (2015 - Colombo, Sri Lanka) for our groundbreaking research and development in School Projects, among receiving multiple other accolades.
> During the research phase, we conducted extensive testing with a vibrant user base of over 400 individuals, generating more than 1,300 dynamic discussions within just one week of the platform's launch.
> The platform incorporated engaging gamification elements, such as points and badges, to enhance user motivation and foster a sense of achievement.

Co-Founder - Product Owner

ELLTA Association

I have had the privilege of providing technical support to ELLTA, a global network of scholars representing 70+ countries. The flagship event in AIT Thailand had participation from 42+ countries. 

My contributions have spanned various areas, including:

> Website design and management, ensuring a seamless online experience for users.
> Expertise in email communications and customer service, ensuring efficient and effective communication channels.
> Executing large-scale email campaigns to send over 500,000 personalized invites.

IT Project Manager

I'm an expereinced EOS Integrator (eosworldwide.com), and fractional Chief Operations Officer for EdTech / SaaS / online education startups.

Here's what sets me apart from most of the other candidates.

> I understand the Hybrid work model - and provide on-site training, operations support, leadership meetings, and even hosted a couple of all-hands.
> I have primarily worked CEOs directly to help them scale and build the right team. For my last company, I built the whole leadership team from scratch.
> I have a really broad skill set, which sets me up as a unique COO. I've looked at profit and loss statements, fixed up basic Zapier integrations, made some FIGMA variations, done SOPs, and written technical requirements doc, created curriculum and course objectives; I can do 2/3rd of all the tasks (other than programming) at my last company.
Beyond the measurable outcomes, Asad’s standout qualities include his exceptional intellect, quick problem-solving, and an innate ability to motivate and bring out the best in his team. Often, I found myself describing him as a 'genie out of the bottle' for his innovative solutions in challenging situations. I am confident in recommending Asad, a professional who embodies dedication and talent, and who will undoubtedly bring tremendous value to any organization fortunate enough to have him."

For change management, and culture developement - I've worked on:

1. Integration of new culture initiatives - helping remove companies scale.

> Orchestrated KodeKlouds' inaugural Leadership event in Dubai, followed by the successful execution of the Leadership Meet and Company-wide All-Hands in Bali. (added in Portfolio)
> Implemented EOS (Entrepreneurial Operating System) and increased the operations score (check-up provided at EOS) from the low 30s to the high 80s.
> Setup a structure of ClickUp and SOPs documentation

Helping teams design operations and SOPs. Some of my favorite SOPs are:

> The SOP (defined as the Spirit Of the Program) - for the Coaches
This process was to handle an internal growth project for the team.

> The D.A.M.N Principle.
How to start your day at KodeKloud? Follow DAMN methodology - Direct Messages, Assigned Tasks, Mail, and Notifications (ClickUp)

> The 8-Step SOP guide
This guide was built for department managers to help create their SOPs.

Let's chat if you're trying to fix a systems problem.

taplio

The Battle

Jake Ward

Asad Babur

Followers

Posts

Engagements

Likes

Performance ScoreJake Ward's LinkedIn Performance

Ready to grow your LinkedIn presence?

taplio

The Battle

Jake Ward

Asad Babur

Followers

Posts

Engagements

Likes

Performance Score.css-goub6s{font-size:var(--chakra-fontSizes-md);font-weight:500;color:var(--chakra-colors-gray-600);display:block;margin-top:var(--chakra-space-1);}Jake Ward's LinkedIn Performance

Ready to grow your LinkedIn presence?

Performance ScoreJake Ward's LinkedIn Performance