Explore the four types of leverage in business as outlined by Naval Ravikant. Gain insights on each leverage type and discover how I achieved business profitability using free Media and affordable Code, without Capital. Simple and effective strategies for leveraging what you have to reach new heights.

1. Labor
2. Capital
3. Code
4. Media

There are four types of leverage in your business, according to Naval Ravikant. If you don’t know who Naval is, then we have very different media diets. That’s fine, now you’ll know:

Naval Ravikant is an entrepreneur and investor. He is the co-founder, chairman and former Chief Executive Officer of AngelList. He has invested early-stage in Uber, FourSquare, Twitter, Postmates, SnapLogic, and Yammer.

Nava’s 2018 viral tweet (X) thread “How to Get Rich (without getting lucky)” is famous for a reason. Go read it if you have a few minutes. It will prime you for the four levers below. Or skip for now and read on, either way.

Further recommended reading if you like Naval’s ideas. Eric Jorgenson’s “The Almanack of Naval Ravikant: A Guide to Wealth and Happiness”:

• Paperback, Audible, or Kindle version – Amazon
• Audiobook: free on Spotify Premium (at least in the US)

Under 5 hours long. Naval has been on most of the top business and mindset and wealth podcasts, you can go listen to him on Rogan etc. He’s thoughtful, has a unique POV, and has the track record and results. That sets him apart from 95% of content creators, influencers, or writers at this point.

I am only interested in business advice from people who’ve done it, rather than people who’ve thought about it.

Anyway, Naval’s four levers are famous, especially in the tech and startup world. They are a highly useful framework through which to view most business or marketing challenges and expected returns.

Two of the levers, Media and Code, are permissionless and therefore most powerful. Here’s the list, with my takes and insights. And because your time is valuable and you may not know me, one reason I have insights worth reading: I founded two profitable companies including a bootstrapped SaaS AI voice marketing app that’s now five years old so I understand these levers (especially Media).

August 11, 2025 – post date note: I just wrote and published this blog post today. You’ll notice that the podcast episode embedded below is a couple years old; it’s evergreen and obviously still on my mind but that explains the difference in dates.

1) Labor: Hire people.

This refers to the leverage gained from employing others. Their work contributes to your overall output, multiplying your efforts.

“Faster alone, but further together.” However, other people will never care about your business as much as you do.

People are inherently self-interested. That’s fine. It’s not to say you can’t hire great people; people are what have BUILT all the great companies. But we are not here to laud or critique employment, rather to evaluate the leverage of laborers.

We have to be real about human nature, our understandably self-serving nature, our self-preserving nature. Plus, those realities of typical worker mentality as evidenced by trends like quiet quitting, are not even beginning to touch on the untenable economics of most 9-5 paychecks amidst inflation, higher-than-ever home ownership costs, higher-than-ever student loan debt, etc.,.

We have unprecedented low rates of home ownership and achieving American Dream related milestones that Boomers and Gen X could. Millennials and Gen Z widely, fiscally, cannot today as reality of math. And so, you are employing and paying them but are they really that motivated when it seems like the only way to build real wealth is to own a business? As Sue Ellen Crandall said, “It’s a rat race Kenny, and it sucks.”

Most companies are stage 2 or stage 3 Tribes (see: Tribal Leadership book info – LinkedIn post), rarely do you get a 4 or 5 like a Zappos where you have true tribal cohesion, buy-in, taking responsibility, mission-driven enthusiasm and a sense of ownership. More often you have a culture closer to the DMV.

Two more points:

• Speaking from experience, some years you earn your paycheck and some years you don’t.
• I also have never been able to un-hear my friend Mitch Joel’s conversation with Seth Godin, it must have been 10-15 years ago but it’s still somewhere on YouTube.  Mitch explains the mindset of many employees as “a culture of allowance”. I.e. as a kid, your parents gave you allowance. As an adult, your employer gives you a paycheck, which is your adult allowance. Oh, you want a new MacBook? And you asked your boss to buy it for you? They are not your parent. Go buy your own MacBook. — I am summarizing from memory but that was the gist and allowance has been rent-free since.

2) Capital: Deploy others’ money or your money.

This involves using money to generate more money. It can include investments, where your capital works for you, or using capital to scale business operations.

Today I see less need for outside investment for early stage companies, especially in tech, than ever before, mostly due to technology and AI. I’ve seen so many startups waste money and burn runway. This was more of a 2010s trend perfectly satirized on Silicon Valley. Gen Z seems to be better at the ultra lean approach of the one-person business, the AI entrepreneur, the low-cost scale. That said, The Lean Startup is an old concept at this point. SaaS for one got super frothy in the pre-Covid era with insane multiples, like 30x average for SaaS valuations. I remember Kate Bradley Chernis telling me about that and saying it wouldn’t last when I was considering getting investors for WealthVoice. Suffice it to say those valuations dried up. Perhaps in part due to waste. I see downsides to accepting capital, espeically early on. I explain why in the video:

I bootstrapped my startup in 2020. With tech advancements today I could have gone further, faster, with even less of the investment of my own money. While I don’t think no-code and AI agents could actually have coded WealthVoice, there are other ways AI might have saved me time/money the first year (2020).

I don’t think you really need much investment to create proof of concept and get customers and revenue. Scaling may be another discussion especially when you need to make certain senior hires. But there are unicorns that were bootstrapped like Calendly, Atlassian, and many more I cover in the video.

To bottom line it and make a bold statement, I think you should be able to start a profitable business without any outside capital using purely media and branding (mainly content, which is #4). I might caveat this for physical products requiring investment in inventory (e.g. paying for the first run of clothing or detergent).

3) Code (software): One-time build, infinite users.

Potentially low overhead depending on type of product and required headcount. Digital real estate is unlimited and 24/7. Generates MRR and ARR, subscriptions, yes I’m talking SaaS, and this is becoming exponentially cheaper in the mid-2020s because of AI coding.

This leverage comes from software and technology that can automate tasks and operate 24/7, serving customers and generating value without direct, ongoing human input.

⚡️Excellent leverage⚡️

4) Media: Create content and build a brand.

One-time content creation, potential millions of impressions, build brand and establish subject matter expertise. Build SEO / AI SEO (often called GEO – Generative Engine Optimization). Build audience and trust, which you can monetize later.

Includes: Owned, earned, and paid media. Video, voice, and written. Social media, email, comms, PR, publications, etc.

Discovery and targeting play in concert with algorithms that create daily realities, perception, awareness, and priming for purchase decisions. Of the four levers, media is the most of this time, of this cultural and economic moment.

This involves leveraging the power of content creation and distribution to reach a wider audience and build a brand.

🚀Highest leverage🚀

More on #4 Media as leverage:

(from my conversation with Tom Lydon on Bangers Only – Upgrading Your Personal Virtual Brand)

By understanding and utilizing these different forms of leverage, individuals and businesses can achieve greater success and impact with less. #Leverage.

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