Founder Of The Week: Andrew Barrow

• Andrew Barrow built Revenue Arc on clear values: remote-first work, honesty in advertising, and giving everyone access to top-tier tools for free.
• He drove expansion through a bold revenue-sharing model, betting on trust and partnerships over big budgets.
• For Barrow, success is steady income for partners and clients, powered by genuine results and referrals.

 

 

Tell Us About Yourself and What Inspired You To Start Revenue Arc

 

My name is Andrew Barrow and I founded an agency called Revenue Arc on a key set of principles. One is that we are remote-first. Mostly because it’s a poor business decision to force workers into an office space you have to pay for which just bleeds your company of profit and people. Second was that we are truth tellers and are brutally honest about what it takes for an advertising campaign to do well. And third is that everyone should have access to the best in industry ad solutions. To do that we offer our services free of cost to all. In fact we offer a ton of advanced dashboards and reporting tools that are also free for as long as you are live with us.

 

What Has Been Your Biggest Challenge So Far? How Did You Overcome It?

 

Growth was the biggest problem. So to do that we pay 50% of our gross revenue to our agency partners and 25% to our agency partners. It did so well all of our growth has been from word of mouth and a micro targeted ad campaign.

 

 

Can You Describe A Pivotal Moment That Significantly Shaped the Direction of Revenue Arc?

 

The model of sharing our growth in revenue with our partners became the biggest growth driver and totally changed the trajectory of our company. I mean, who says no to free money?

 

How Do You Define Success? 

 

For Your Business: We define success as are our clients recommending us. And that’s driven nearly half of all our growth.

As A Founder: For myself is that I can provide a steady stream of income or revenue to our partners and team by delivering real world results. 

 

What Advice Would You Give To Someone Considering Launching Their Own Startup?

 

I would advise anyone that ironically enough you shouldn’t run ads at first. Without organic growth you won’t be sure if you can grow with ads. Ads are the steroids of marketing. They can make you do more for longer but without a good base proven out by organic it is like taking steroids then sitting on the sofa.

 

What’s Next For NearSt? Are There Any Exciting Developments We Should Keep An Eye Out For?

 

Next is a new self service version of our model for those who want to have more hands on control. 

 

Want to be featured as TechRound’s Founder of the Week? Find out more about this weekly feature and how to get involved here.

 

Founder’s Five with Andrew Barrow

 

Business achievements tell only part of the story. To understand what truly drives innovation, we turned our attention to the mind behind one of London’s fastest-growing startups. Meet Andrew Barrow, the founder of Revenue Arc, in this edition of our exclusive “Founder’s Five.

 

1. Favourite Business Tool?

AgencyAnalytics. They really built out something amazing, cheap and scalable which we offer for free to our clients. 

 

2. One Lesson You’ve Learned the Hard Way?

Never work on something that might generate money. No matter how obvious or big the opportunity it could end up draining all your bandwidth with nothing to show for it.  

 

3. A Future Trend You’re Watching?

The world building AI apps. In the future there you could see full scale universes built with prompts.

 

4. One Quote You Live By?

Equity is a lotto ticket that will never pay. Only ever take revenue. Equity is only ever worth something to people way bigger and more powerful than you will ever be. And even then it’s a 1 in a million chance that you have the chance to potentially lose everything because a PE came in and said so. 

 

5. A book/podcast you recommend?

“World War Z”, the book. It has nothing to do with the movie but gives a good perspective on global relations and so much more set in the backdrop of zombies but that’s just the background which is not the purpose or focus of the story.

 

Want to be featured as TechRound’s Founder of the Week? Know someone who deserves to be recognised as a founder making waves in the startup landscape? Find out more about this weekly feature and how to get involved here.