Nicholas Spyer
A working profile · Issue 14
I am an independent strategy partner. I help founders, editors, and content leaders turn a vague ambition into a plan they can actually execute. Below is how I work, who I work with, and what the last twelve years have looked like — written plainly, in the first person.
Chapter one · Origin
Most of the work I do begins with a conversation that goes the same way. A founder or a content leader sits across from me — on a Zoom, usually, less often at a coffee bar in Fort Greene — and describes a thing they want to build. The ambition is usually large. The actual written-down plan, more often than not, is missing.
Twelve years ago I was a staff editor at a magazine that did not survive the 2014 print collapse. When it folded I went to a digital publication, then to a brand team at a Series B SaaS company, and somewhere along the way I realized that the work I was best at — translating between what a leader wants to say and what an audience will actually read — was not a job anyone was hiring for under that name. So in 2018 I founded the practice.
The decision to stay independent was less romantic than it sounds. It was practical. I did not want to build an agency, and I did not want to take a full-time role where my closest collaborator would be a calendar invite. I wanted to write one document per engagement that someone could actually print out and act on Monday morning.
The work has not changed much since then. The clients are sharper. The deadlines are tighter. The documents, I hope, are better.
Across 71 client engagements in 9 countries — average value $28,400, net promoter score 74 across 2023 and 2024 — the through line is the same. A small team, a fixed shape, a document that ships inside thirty days. No retainer traps, no quarterly check-ins, no slide decks pretending to be strategy.
I rebuilt the content engine for four Series B SaaS companies and watched organic traffic lift an average of 3.1x in the six months that followed. The case studies I am proudest of are not in any portfolio deck. They are the working notes the teams still use.
Chapter two · The practice
01
I work with two senior collaborators — an editor and a researcher I have worked with for years. There is no junior bench, no agency overhead, no account manager between us and the work. When you hire the practice, you are hiring the three of us, on the days we said we would be on it.
Capacity is deliberately capped at six clients per quarter so the work stays focused.
02
Every engagement starts with a one-page memo I write before any contract — no sales call required. If we agree on the problem, the next thirty days look like this: week one is listening and reading; week two is the working draft; week three is the decision-ready document; week four is the handoff and the walk-through.
You receive one document, not a deck. It is written to be read once and acted on.
Chapter three · Outside the room
Teaching
Guest lecturer on editorial strategy at the Columbia Journalism School, 2022–2024.
Press
Work and writing cited in The Verge, Stratechery, and A Media Operator. Named to Editor & Publisher's Innovators in Media shortlist, 2021.
Speaking
22 industry events including Newsrewired, The Information's Creator Summit, and SaaStock.
Public clients
Substack, Maven, The Browser, and two stealth-mode AI startups. A longer list is available on request.
Direct line
I read everything that arrives at the address below. If a thirty-minute call would be more useful, book one. If you would rather send a few paragraphs of context and wait for a written reply, that works too — there is no funnel on the other end.
If this is the right fit
Two slots remain for Q1 2026. Calls run on Tuesdays and Thursdays, Eastern time. If none of the open windows fit, write to me and we will find one.
Book a strategy call