Founder profile · @Niche_Lion
Learned search by growing his own websites.Now he puts it to work for businesses.
Dan Shuttleworth runs Grizzly Agency, a web design and SEO agency in Sylvan Lake, Alberta. Since 2022 he has built and grown content sites of his own, one of which Cloudways wrote up after it reached 200K monthly pageviews. On X, 17K+ people follow him as @Niche_Lion.
One hour, one-on-one, on a video call. The discovery call is free, and every quote is fixed.
Follower count as of September 24, 2026. Site figures as published by Cloudways.
01The story so far
England → Sylvan Lake
Dan is originally from England and is now based in Sylvan Lake, the lake town just west of Red Deer in Central Alberta.
He studied Advanced Information and Communication Technology, and by his own description has been hooked on tech for more than twenty years.
Before the content sites, his web work was for other people: SEO, web development and hosting for agency clients.
2022the first niche site
In June 2022 Dan launched his first niche site: a website that earns from the readers search engines send it, not from clients. He fitted it around a full-time job, freelance local SEO and raising three kids.
It lived in evenings and spare hours. He later described the result on his newsletter page as growing a blog “from the side of my desk”.
2023six-figure niche site
In just over a year, a content site Dan built was pulling 200K pageviews a month and had reached a 6-figure valuation. Cloudways, the managed host it ran on, published those figures as a customer case study under his Niche Lion name.
Most of that case study is about speed. Dan told Cloudways he had used more than ten hosting companies and that his sites consistently passed Google’s Core Web Vitals checks. He still treats a slow page as lost traffic, on his own sites and on client builds.
2024SaaS
By his own account on X, 2024 was the year of a six-figure SaaS, a move from publishing into software.
2025AI
His bio sums up 2025 in two words: AI automations. That thread carries on at Grizzly, which offers AI automation to clients alongside websites and SEO.
2026Grizzly
By 2026 the work had come back round to where it started: other people’s businesses. Through Grizzly Agency, Dan builds websites for companies such as FlameTech Plumbing & Heating in Calgary, Aura Speech & Language in Sylvan Lake and VEMAG Australia.
The skills are the ones he sharpened on his own sites. The difference now is whose phone rings when the traffic arrives.
03In his words
As traffic equals money, I need a partner who can ensure a top level of performance at peak times.
I’ve grown a six-figure blog from the side of my desk.
04Now
Websites and SEO for businesses in Sylvan Lake, the rest of Central Alberta and Calgary. Each one is quoted at a fixed price before work starts, and clients deal with Dan himself instead of an account manager.
An hour with Dan on a video call, US$150 per hour, for anyone who wants to put their own SEO, website or growth questions to him directly.
US$150per hour
He posts about SEO and web growth on X as @Niche_Lion and sends the Niche Lion newsletter through Kit. He has also hosted the Friday Rumble, weekly X Spaces with people from the niche-site and SEO world.
06Questions
Daniel (Dan) Shuttleworth is the founder of Grizzly Agency, a web design and SEO agency in Sylvan Lake, Alberta. He comes from England. Since 2022 he has grown his own content sites, including one that Cloudways profiled after it reached 200K monthly pageviews and a 6-figure valuation. He writes about SEO and web growth on X as @Niche_Lion, where he has 17K+ followers.
Niche Lion is the name Dan uses for his niche-site work. It is his X handle (@Niche_Lion), the name of his newsletter on Kit, and the name on the Cloudways case study about his content site. He has also hosted the Friday Rumble, a weekly X Space for people building niche sites and doing SEO.
Grizzly Agency builds websites and does SEO for businesses, with Google Ads, social media and AI automation available alongside. It is based in Sylvan Lake and works across Central Alberta and Calgary, with a client as far away as Australia. Its website prices are published (fixed-price builds start at $2,500 CAD), and every quote is agreed before work begins.
Two ways. For a website or SEO project, get in touch through the contact page or book the free discovery call; you will get a fixed quote and work with Dan directly. If you want Dan's advice rather than a build, book a one-hour, one-on-one video consultation with him at US$150 per hour.
Advice
A consultationUS$150per hour
One hour, one-on-one, on a video call.
A finished project
A build with Grizzly
The discovery call is free, and every quote is fixed.