Fuck Up Night Madrid: what I learned when my business collapsed

From a restaurant's website to affiliate marketing

This starts in 2018. I was 22 and working at a restaurant with my girlfriend — let's call her Elena.

We'd built the restaurant's website and it had worked really well. So well that we thought: what if we built something of our own?

That's how we discovered affiliate marketing: you recommend products and get a commission. The question was which products. We looked at a lot of markets and decided mattresses were ours. Mattresses, pillows, sleep products.

We started with Amazon because it's dead easy: you sign up and you can start recommending right away. That's how I became a mattress influencer.

The first two years: almost nothing

We created a huge amount of content on the website and on the YouTube channel. That content attracted people, we sent them to Amazon, and if they bought, we got a commission.

The first year we made basically nothing. The second, in 2019, around a thousand euros a month. Not much, but it was growing. Not enough for two people.

That year Elena and I broke up as a couple, though we stayed on as business partners.

The turning point: when the brands call you

2019 wasn't a great year financially, but something happened that changed everything.

Two brands reached out to us: you're already recommending our products on Amazon, why don't you send us the traffic directly and we'll pay you more?

We did it and it worked. And for us it was a huge shift in mindset: we realized our customers were the brands, not the users.

Negotiating was dead easy because I'd propose getting paid only after they got paid first. Within a few months we were already working with more than 20 brands.

2020: the lockdown hit us head-on

When the coronavirus arrived, that was a problem for almost every business. Not for ours: it was online, and suddenly everyone was scrambling to be on the internet.

We grew month after month. Brands kept sending us products non-stop, we tried them out and created content about them.

The mattress that fell apart, and the legal notice

One of those brands sent us a mattress. Within a few months it started falling apart on its own.

So we did what you're supposed to do: give users an honest review and stop recommending that brand.

And then a legal notice arrived. Take that content down or we'll take you to court.

I ignored it and moved on. That was my mistake.

2021: the best year, and the first cracks

We made €240,000 in revenue. To me that was unimaginable.

And by the way, if anyone's wondering: money does buy happiness. I'm not going to lie to you.

But problems started with Elena. We weren't aligned on how we worked or on the direction we wanted for the company. We kept trying to make it work.

February 2022: the lawsuit begins

Right when the war in Ukraine started, so did mine. The brand in question was serious about the threat.

A real legal process opened up and we had to hire lawyers to defend ourselves.

By the end of that year my relationship with Elena was broken and the situation was unsustainable. In 2023 I even negotiated my own exit from the company with her.

The call: 1.8 million euros

Until she called me: Albert, I just spoke with the lawyers. We lost the lawsuit. We have to pay 1.8 million euros.

I was in shock. I was scared and I cried a lot.

I called the lawyers and the answer was simple: either you reach a settlement, or you close the company.

Elena decided to leave. I decided to stay, because I thought I could save it.

While I was negotiating, they took all the money out of the bank accounts. I was left literally at zero.

December 2023: the settlement

I fought hard and got the settlement. And it worked.

The company was able to fulfill it — it consisted of free advertising, by the way —, could pay all the costs of the lawsuit and the lawyers, and the problem with Elena got resolved.

And in the end there was something left. Not like before, but something to pay myself. It was incredible.

And then a Google core update hit

I was pretty happy, until Google decided it was the perfect time to roll out a major update.

My website's main source of traffic was Google. That update destroyed almost all of my traffic.

And I still had to keep fulfilling the settlement, now with only paid traffic, through Google Ads.

I tried as hard as I could. I kept trying until 2025, when I realized it just wasn't sustainable. I decided to close the company and close that chapter.

What I'm taking away from it

It was a really tough experience. Difficult, frustrating, with moments of fear and shock. I was carrying a huge amount of weight on my shoulders.

And now I feel unstoppable, because problems feel like jokes to me. I feel like I have the tools to deal with whatever comes.

That's what I wanted to share.

(Joke: "If a big company tells you to shut up, you shut up.")