Today I’m joined by Val Sopi, the founder of Blogstatic, a lightweight blogging platform built to take on the likes of Ghost. Currently Val is sitting around $1k a month, but with a low-priced annual plans approach, he’s relying on new sign ups and plan upgrades instead of recurring subscriptions. So he’s at a crossroads of needing to pour fuel on the fire to grow his low-cost blogging platform, or attempt to build a B2B SaaS, which he believes is a much more sustainable option for an indie founder. Val has been hardened by business successes and failures, so I love his pragmatic approach to the decisions he’s making.
Timestamps
- 00:00 Intro
- 01:39 Val's background - web design shop to failed SaaS
- 04:10 Learning to code and starting Claritask
- 04:53 Selling Claritask
- 05:52 Launching Blogstatic
- 06:42 Taking a loan to bet on himself
- 07:40 The crossroads of stagnating growth
- 08:39 Being a low cost alternative in a competitive market
- 12:30 Why Val won't take VC
- 14:06 Why Val is trying B2B instead of B2C
- 15:45 Recommendations
Recommendations
- Book: The Inner Game of Tennis
- Podcast: Startups for the Rest of Us
- Indie Hacker: Joe Ashville
My links
- Indie Bites Twitter
- Indie Bites YouTube
- Join the membership
- Personal Website
- 2 Hour Podcast Course
- PodPanda (hire me to edit your podcast)
- This Indie Life Podcast
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