People mocked me and said my essay-writing business was screwed when ChatGPT came out. So I fought like hell.
- Killer Papers is an online tutoring and essay-writing website.
- KP, the founder of the company, writes that they were afraid ChatGPT would kill their business, but they adapted.
Editor's note: The author wrote under the pseudonym of "KP" out of concern for their privacy. Insider has verified their identity.
When people ask me what I do for work, I tell them I work in education. That usually bores them enough not to probe further, and I like that.
Because when people find out what I actually do, I'm bombarded with questions: "Is that legal?" Yep. "How much money do you make?" A lot more than my friends who went to medical school.
But at the end of November 2022, friends, family, followers and competitors were curious about one thing, and a new question became the most popular:
"How has ChatGPT affected your business?"
I've been asked this one at least 500 times, and they all want to know, did ChatGPT kill my essay writing service?
My name is KP and I'm the founder of Killer Papers, a Canada-based online essay-writing and tutoring website for high school, college and graduate students.
KP is both a nickname and an alias given to me by my customers over the years. I've stuck with it and enjoy having privacy in this crazy industry. There are vehement detractors who say my business is unethical, as well as ruthless overseas competitors who routinely slander and attack my business with fake reviews, impersonation sites, and even DDOS attacks.
Some think that I'm helping rich, lazy students cheat. But in my opinion, my services are helping level the college playing field. Most of my clients work part- or full-time jobs, and many have children or come from disadvantaged backgrounds. They use Killer Papers to help them compete against students who don't need to work, have less responsibilities, had private tutors in the past, or attended better schools.
Everyone has an opinion, but over the past six years, my business has never stopped growing.
Then ChatGPT was released. Students could generate high-quality, plagiarism-free writing in seconds (and for free). I thought my business was about to crumble, and so did everyone else.
I started this career in high school where I wrote papers for my classmates
Some students whispered that I was just as important to our school's athletic program as the quarterback or starting point guard — not because I was on the team, but because while the players were busy practicing, playing "Call of Duty," and getting drunk, I was writing their papers on Napoleon Bonaparte and "The Kite Runner."
For $20-30 apiece, athletes and rich kids had me write their papers. Everyone was happy. I was making money doing what I loved, and they stayed in good academic standing. Business boomed, but as word spread, I eventually found myself sitting in the principal's office facing serious consequences.
I narrowly avoided any trouble and decided to close up shop.
Six years later, I graduated college and, with my finance degree in hand, landed a prestigious job in banking. Like many other young guys, I watched "The Wolf of Wall Street" and thought working in finance would be glamorous and exciting.
Turns out, eight hours of making spreadsheets and a brutal commute wasn't what I wanted to do with my life. I hated it and decided it was time to start my own business.
This was in 2016, when social media advertising was becoming popular. I realized I could reach millions of college students with just a few hundred bucks.
What could I sell them? That's right: essays.
I fired up the old business, ran some ads, and wrote 100 papers for free to build up a reputation on social media. Fast forward another six years, I found myself doing seven figures in annual revenue at the end of November 2022 and cash flowing more money than I could have ever imagined. Q4 was wrapping up since students would soon be on winter break, Christmas was around the corner, and life was good.
Then, on November 30, ChatGPT came out and changed everything. Everyone in the writing industry, be it academic ghostwriting, copywriting, or even Hollywood screenwriting, was hit with an atomic bomb.
My first feeling was panic, sheer and utter panic
Killer Papers had survived the COVID-19 pandemic, which destroyed thousands of businesses, and the subsequent challenging economy where inflation soared and consumer sentiment tanked. Startups I once envied went bust, and many public companies saw their stock plummet 80-90%.
Through all this, Killer Papers continued to grow and saw a 70% year-over-year revenue growth from 2021 to 2022. We benefitted from strong virtual tutoring services during the pandemic (when most in-person tutoring and writing centers were closed).
We weren't just surviving. We were thriving.
But ChatGPT's launch posed a significant threat to certain industries, and no business was more in its crosshairs than an essay-writing service.
The day ChatGPT was released, I received over 150 messages through our company's Instagram page asking about it or, as you might imagine, making fun of me.
My first move after reading some of the messages was to ask ChatGPT to write me a 500-word summary of "Romeo and Juliet." Thirty seconds later, I had a piece of writing that could pass a 9th grade literature course.
I asked my professor buddy, Alan, to scan it on TurnItIn, the leading anti-plagiarism software. I was curious if the ChatGPT-written summary would set off its plagiarism detector.
The essay passed with flying colors.
Alan said it best: "You're fucked." And others agreed.
I was already in panic mode, and now I had the added displeasure of being mocked by hundreds of people online
When ChatGPT was released in November, our busy season was almost over. Many students had not yet adopted AI writing or were afraid to try it, and December sales rose about 50% from the year prior. We capped off a successful 2022 calendar year.
But, trouble loomed. January and February were solid months, but trended toward lower levels of growth. Then, in March, the growth disappeared. From March through mid-May, sales started declining year-over-year, and April was the worst: we saw revenue drop a staggering 28%.
For a business that hadn't stopped growing in six years, this felt apocalyptic. And I wasn't just worried about the present, but I was thinking about what the future would look like with AI.
It was all happening so damn fast. Public companies began integrating with it or making their own AI-powered tools. Venture capital flooded into the AI sector like Niagra Falls. With each passing day, not only was AI getting better, but the pace at which it was improving was increasing.
It was a dark time for me and it felt like my future and life plans were disappearing before my eyes.
Things were tough for my competitors, too
Several of them reached out and introduced themselves to ask how Killer Papers was being affected by AI. I had never spoken with them prior to this, but everyone was in panic-mode and dealing with challenges.
Tutoring services were also struggling. Even Chegg, a billion-dollar homework help site, saw its stock drop almost 50% in a single day.
Despite all of that, I'm not the kind of guy to stay down when life kicks me in the nuts. Back when I first started Killer Papers, people told me it would never work, and I was able to prove them wrong.
Although I was genuinely terrified of what AI could do (and was doing) to my business, I knew crying about it wouldn't do any good. I was either going to adapt or die, but I was determined to prove people wrong again.
My mom said it best, "Fight like hell to keep what you've built."
So I did.
Here's how I've adapted to ChatGPT
1. I made fun of myself on social media
I admitted that ChatGPT posed a severe threat to my business. People loved the honesty, and some even rallied to my defense.
- I adjusted spending around my company
I cut "nice-to-haves," eliminated bonuses, and negotiated lower rates for some of the software products we used or influencers we marketed with.
With that savings, I increased our marketing spend by 2x and blasted out discount codes in greater value and frequency than ever before. In this new marketing plan, I focused on what was selling: 1-on-1 virtual tutoring, projects with longer page requirements and word counts, complex source requirements and career-related offerings including resumes, cover letters and even mock interviews.
Additionally, some clients started asking us to edit or expand upon work that AI had created for them. For instance, clients generated outlines or thesis statements using AI, and then ask us to find supporting sources and build out the writing further.
- I used AI for some tasks
Finally, we embraced AI in a limited capacity to assist with some administrative work, including payroll and accounting, to help save time and money.
A combination of events put our business back on track
During the time we were making these changes, educators seemingly woke up, too. Assignments became more complex, and warnings were given at most major universities that educators would run all completed assignments through AI detection software.
Additionally, during the summer of 2023, distinguished computer scientists from Stanford and UC Berkeley found that ChatGPT's response quality and performance degraded over time.
Some combination of the above put the business back on track. From June 1st through August 25th of this year, revenue at Killer Papers grew almost 35% yearly.
At the time of writing, August is on track for 40% revenue growth, with virtual live-tutoring services representing their greatest share of sales ever.
While the new fall semester will be more indicative of a clear return to growth, I'm cautiously optimistic that 2023 will close as our best year yet.
I'm excited that business has returned, but I'm still worried about what's coming
AI isn't going anywhere, even if it's in a lull for now. There are substantial financial incentives to advance AI, with public and venture capital flowing into the sector, and we've yet to see the biggest changes when it comes to AI-generated writing.
For now, I'll continue to focus on differentiating Killer Papers, adding new products and services, and adapting to changes in academia. I'm anticipating that as AI advances, educators will have no choice but to eventually embrace it. If and when that happens, we'll embrace it, too, if that's what clients want.
To any writers out there, whether you're in your parents' basement working on your novel or in Hollywood striking for better pay and AI regulation, I urge you to roll with the punches, because the punches are coming. Public companies like Microsoft have made AI their highest priority, and they're just getting started.
I love writing, and it's a shame that robots are replacing writers. Nothing is more human than writing, and I hope there's still a place for us in the future, even as AI becomes part of the process.
For writers, it's not just about dodging these AI curveballs but hitting them out of the park. The key lies in finding the silver lining, embracing change, and redefining what it means to be a writer in the digital age. Somewhere along the way, we'll find out how Killer Papers fits into this new AI landscape as well.
KP is the founder of Killer Papers, a Canada-based online essay writing and tutoring website.