Case study · Setare · 2015–2024
A media company built to 15 million visitors a month
I co-founded Setare and ran growth with the full P&L. We built a Farsi digital magazine people found on search: a large library, a team of about 50, and an advertising business where we were the publisher. It reached about 15 million visitors a month. In 2024 the company was acquired by Yektanet, and setare.com ↗ still runs on the platform I built.
- Co-Founder & Head of Growth
- Setare · Farsi media company
- Founded 2015 · acquired 2024
- Top 20 Farsi Website
Visitors, rank and team are on my CV ↗. Dashed notes are still to confirm before this page is public.
My role
I built the company, then automated it
I co-founded Setare and hired it into a company of about 50: editorial, SEO, engineering and a commercial team. I owned the plan and the P&L. Everyone worked from one view of what to publish, what it earned, and whether it was working.
- Editorial
- SEO
- Engineering
- Ad sales
One operating plan
What to publish, what it earns, and what to change next.
- Partnerships
- Product
- Data
- Lifecycle
How the library grew
One planning loop for every category
Health, parenting, beauty, travel, literature, sport: different desks, the same way of deciding what to make. Keyword research set the demand. Writers and SEO worked from one brief. The numbers came back into the next plan.
- 01DemandWhat people search for, and which categories can win it.
- 02BriefA piece planned for the query, the reader, and the page it has to beat.
- 03PublishInto a library of about 80,000 resources and 900+ categories.
- 04LearnRank, engagement and revenue, read together, then fed into the next plan.
The business
An audience, then a publisher’s P&L
Search brought people in. The company made money by selling that attention: display, native ads, push, email and affiliate. I ran Setare as the publisher, and I negotiated the partnerships that paid for the newsroom.
01 · Find
Search demand
- Queries worth winning
- Pages built to answer them
- A library that keeps ranking
02 · Make
One newsroom
- Writers, editors and SEO on one calendar
- Original pieces, planned from the query
- Templates tested, then made the standard
03 · Sell
Setare as the publisher
- Display and native inventory
- Push and email to people who opted in
- Affiliate where a recommendation earns
04 · Read
One set of numbers
- Rank, engagement and ad yield together
- What to produce more of
- What to rewrite or retire
Next month’s calendar comes from what those numbers showed.
What I did
Six parts of one company
The company
From a few people to a company of 50
The first job was the company. I hired editors, SEO specialists, copywriters, engineers and a commercial team, and I wrote how they planned together: one marketing plan, one content standard, one set of numbers.
The weekly meeting sat on the research, the brief and the result. The newsroom could get bigger because the standard did not depend on me reading every piece.
- 50
- people across editorial, SEO, engineering and commercial
Search and the library
A library built to be found
Setare was a digital magazine: articles, guides and resources across health, parenting, beauty, travel, literature and sport. Keyword research set the demand. Writers and SEO worked from one brief, and a piece had to deserve its place.
I read rank, engagement and revenue in one view, and I changed templates when a test showed a clearer page. New work ranked because the library already had trust. That is how the site reached the top 20 in Iran and about 999th in the world.
- ~80,000
- resources across 900+ categories
- ~85%
- of traffic from organic search
Scale
What the audience looked like at full scale
Search was the audience. The counts below are one window of Google Search, and one afternoon when thousands of people were reading at once, nearly all of them on a phone.
- 14.9M
- Google Search clicks in a peak December
- 1.9B
- search impressions over 16 months
- ~5,000
- people on the site at once
The publisher business
Selling the attention
The audience was the product. Once the site was in the top 20, ad platforms bought the audience. I negotiated display and native inventory, push and email to readers who had opted in, and affiliate where a recommendation could earn.
I reported it as a business: global rank, engagement, and what each channel paid, in one view. The newsroom made more of what earned, and rewrote the sections that had gone quiet.
The platform
The whole library, moved onto a stack we owned
The site had outgrown the news CMS it started on. I led the move onto WordPress, on AWS servers we ran ourselves. The articles, the categories and the rankings had to come through the move intact.
Server cost fell about 40%. The new site passed Core Web Vitals, with a PageSpeed score over 90, and the newsroom could publish on a system we controlled.
- −40%
- server cost after the move
- 90+
- PageSpeed score, Core Web Vitals passing
The exit
Built so a buyer could take it over
I ran Setare so the value sat in the company: a team with a way of working, a library that ranked, a publisher business, and a platform we owned. That is what an acquirer buys.
In 2024 the company was acquired by Yektanet, Iran’s largest online advertising platform. setare.com ↗ is still live on the publishing system from that build.
- 2024
- acquired by Yektanet
What I bring
What this means for your team
The same work fits a media company, a marketplace, or any business that has to turn a catalog into demand and demand into revenue.
Company building
I hire the team, set how it plans, and own the P&L, from a handful of people to about 50.
Search as an operating system
I plan what to publish from real demand, hold one standard, and read rank and traffic as the score.
Publisher monetization
I sell attention through display, native, push, email and affiliate, and I negotiate the partnerships.
A company a buyer can take
I leave a team, a system and a set of numbers, so the value sits in the company.
Questions
What was Setare?
A Farsi digital magazine I co-founded. It published a large library across everyday topics, including health, parenting, beauty, travel, literature and sport, and it made money as a publisher. It is still online at setare.com ↗.
What was your part?
I co-founded it and ran growth, with the P&L. Editorial, SEO, engineering and commercial leads ran their desks. My job was the plan, the hiring, the partnerships and the numbers. About 50 people at full scale.
What happened to the company?
In 2024 it was acquired by Yektanet, Iran’s largest online advertising platform. I had built it to run without me in every decision. The site is still live on that platform.
Does this apply outside media?
Yes. Rank the demand, give every team one plan, sell the attention, and keep what the numbers prove. It is the same loop I used across video, search and commerce at CNET, and the one I run now at TripWays. Setare is where I first owned the whole company, through to a sale.
Want a growth system like this on your team?
I’m open to growth leadership roles, and I run fixed-price AI growth sprints for companies in any industry.