This man grew his LinkedIn to 272,000 followers in 14 months.

His X (Twitter) to 170,000 in 10 months.

And his Instagram to 710,000 in 11 months.

Today, this massive audience fuels his businesses, which make $9M+ per year.

All while he travels the world, working just 4 hours a day.

Meet Matt Gray.

At 18, Matt was kicked out of his family home.

With no job and no support, Matt paid for everything on credit. It wasn’t long before he was $15-grand in the hole. He felt hopeless. 

One day, he returned home to a vacuum cleaner exploding in his kitchen. Dust, debris, and filth coated everything – the furniture, the walls, every square inch of the crappy apartment he shared with a friend.

Matt had to get out. He had a panic attack in the street. He thought about taking his own life.

Growing up, Matt didn't have an unfair advantage – just ambition.

During school, Matt knew he wanted to build a business. 

He worked hard. But on graduating business school, Kraft Foods was the only job offer he received.

Matt felt scammed. Business school taught him nothing about business-building.

With no other options, Matt accepted the offer on the condition he could go travelling first. 

“Screw it,” he thought, “You’re only young once!”

Travelling gave Matt a taste of true freedom.

He made it his goal to take control over what he calls The 4Ws: 

To work…

1. WHERE he wants… 

2. On WHAT he wants…

3. With WHO he wants…

4. WHENever he wants

Upon returning to Canada, Matt began working for Kraft Foods. He knew the autonomy he yearned for wouldn’t come from this job. Fortunately, his days were mostly unsupervised.

Head Office had no clue what he was up to day-to-day. So rather than work 40h weeks, he worked 2h weeks.

He spent the rest of his time learning to code, reading business books, and listening to Tony Robbins

He didn’t overthink the choice to learn coding, he just knew he needed to pivot. During this time, Matt would jam on new business ideas with friends.

In 2012, one of their “experiments” took off. 

From speaking with numerous students, they knew there was demand. Matt hustled day and night, contacting hiring partners, instructors, and prospective students.

They sold 30 spots for $5k a pop before anything was ready.

It was a success. Around 90% of programme graduates were getting jobs at top tech firms. 

Within months, Bitmaker was doing $200k/month. 

Matt left Kraft. 

Things were going great.

Then, 7 months in…

Bitmaker were raided by the government

Two enforcement agents barged into their offices. Matt was told they were operating as an unregistered career college, giving people illegal degrees. 

(They weren’t)

He faced prison time and fines of up to $1 million.

He stayed up all night, emailing over 3000 people. Even reaching out to the likes of Chamath and Paul Graham.

A week later, the government backed off. 

Bitmaker was granted the only exemption for a business of its kind in Canada. They went on to train over 2000 software engineers over the next 2 years. 

Then, in 2013, Matt sold Bitmaker for 8-figures.

This came as a massive relief as he was experiencing burnout.

But Matt soon became restless. So he emailed over 5000 people asking for advice, opportunities, and connections.

He was convinced that one email could change everything

In 2014, it paid off.

Author Tucker Max offered Matt the opportunity to work on a small user-generated website and community – The Stoner’s Cookbook.

Matt eventually bought the business with the money he’d made from Bitmaker’s buyout. He rebranded it to Herb. And quickly took the site from 100k to over 14 million monthly visitors.

Herb became the No.1 digital marketing company in its niche. 

Offers to buy the company came flooding in, as much as $50 million. But Matt turned them all down.

Behind the scenes, Matt was worn out. Years of grinding had taken their toll

Matt had neglected his health.

Too much drinking.
And not enough sleep or exercise.

So, he prioritised his health.

His mood, energy, and focus all improved.

He also started journaling every morning, exploring what he wanted out of life.

Around this time, he came across the book ‘Ikigai’ (a Japanese concept that refers to your sense of purpose).

From reflecting on his Ikigai, Matt gained clarity and launched Founder OS – a community to help founders grow their businesses to $5M and beyond.

Today, Matt’s businesses do $9M+ a year. 

His content engine supports nearly 2 million followers across all platforms (including 624k on LinkedIn).

And he’s on a mission to inspire 100 million founders to accomplish their dreams with proven systems.