StarZero All shows Try the podcast clipper →

Sep 23, 2020 · 15m · top-founders

Doka Image Editor SDK Sells $120k Licenses

Rick Schennink · 6m spoken Nathan Latka · 5m spoken Eric Yuan · 4s spoken Vivek Bhaskaran · 2s spoken
0:00 / 0:00

gold bands on the timeline = statements, start to end. Hover to read, click to jump. CC turns on captions

In this interview, host Nathan Latka speaks with solo Dutch developer Rick Schennink about bootstrapping PQINA and Doka to over $120,000 in annual revenue using open-source funnels and technical SEO.

How this conversation actually went

Every chapter scored 0–10 on four independent dynamics. Hover any point for the reasoning behind the score. Nathan holds 47.1% of the talking time here. How this is scored →

Nathan as informed peer 4.2 Guest teaching 0.4 Guest disagreement 0.4 Nathan pushing back 2.6
05100:0010:000:20–4:06 · Nathan as informed peer 4/10 Latka Subscription and Private RSS Feed Promotion Latka opens with an intro promo for the Latka subscription before transitioning into interviewing Rick Schennink. Latka gives light pushback when Rick cannot remember the exact founding date of his business.4:06–8:36 · Nathan as informed peer 5/10 Financial Performance, Pricing Structure, and Revenue Growth Latka drills into Rick's revenue numbers, monthly run rate, and pricing tiers when Rick struggles to present exact year-to-date sales figures. Rick remains cooperative and explains his bootstrap solo setup and family dynamics comfortably.8:39–11:52 · Nathan as informed peer 6/10 Sponsor Message: Design Pickle Segment starts with a sponsor read for Design Pickle, followed by a discussion of Rick's products Filepond and Doka. Latka demonstrates SaaS and product architecture understanding, suggesting Rick is leaving money on the table by not offering backend usage tiers.11:53–14:40 · Nathan as informed peer 6/10 Search Engine Optimization and Customer Acquisition Strategy Latka checks Rick's keyword rankings in real-time, pointing out paid competitor ads and Rick's top organic position for JavaScript image editor keywords, before moving to the standard Famous Five questions.14:40–15:09 · Nathan as informed peer 0/10 Interview Recap and Final Thoughts Latka delivers the closing solo recap of Rick's business model, run rate, and product offerings.0:20–4:06 · Guest teaching 0/10 Latka Subscription and Private RSS Feed Promotion Latka opens with an intro promo for the Latka subscription before transitioning into interviewing Rick Schennink. Latka gives light pushback when Rick cannot remember the exact founding date of his business.4:06–8:36 · Guest teaching 1/10 Financial Performance, Pricing Structure, and Revenue Growth Latka drills into Rick's revenue numbers, monthly run rate, and pricing tiers when Rick struggles to present exact year-to-date sales figures. Rick remains cooperative and explains his bootstrap solo setup and family dynamics comfortably.8:39–11:52 · Guest teaching 1/10 Sponsor Message: Design Pickle Segment starts with a sponsor read for Design Pickle, followed by a discussion of Rick's products Filepond and Doka. Latka demonstrates SaaS and product architecture understanding, suggesting Rick is leaving money on the table by not offering backend usage tiers.11:53–14:40 · Guest teaching 0/10 Search Engine Optimization and Customer Acquisition Strategy Latka checks Rick's keyword rankings in real-time, pointing out paid competitor ads and Rick's top organic position for JavaScript image editor keywords, before moving to the standard Famous Five questions.14:40–15:09 · Guest teaching 0/10 Interview Recap and Final Thoughts Latka delivers the closing solo recap of Rick's business model, run rate, and product offerings.0:20–4:06 · Guest disagreement 1/10 Latka Subscription and Private RSS Feed Promotion Latka opens with an intro promo for the Latka subscription before transitioning into interviewing Rick Schennink. Latka gives light pushback when Rick cannot remember the exact founding date of his business.4:06–8:36 · Guest disagreement 1/10 Financial Performance, Pricing Structure, and Revenue Growth Latka drills into Rick's revenue numbers, monthly run rate, and pricing tiers when Rick struggles to present exact year-to-date sales figures. Rick remains cooperative and explains his bootstrap solo setup and family dynamics comfortably.8:39–11:52 · Guest disagreement 0/10 Sponsor Message: Design Pickle Segment starts with a sponsor read for Design Pickle, followed by a discussion of Rick's products Filepond and Doka. Latka demonstrates SaaS and product architecture understanding, suggesting Rick is leaving money on the table by not offering backend usage tiers.11:53–14:40 · Guest disagreement 0/10 Search Engine Optimization and Customer Acquisition Strategy Latka checks Rick's keyword rankings in real-time, pointing out paid competitor ads and Rick's top organic position for JavaScript image editor keywords, before moving to the standard Famous Five questions.14:40–15:09 · Guest disagreement 0/10 Interview Recap and Final Thoughts Latka delivers the closing solo recap of Rick's business model, run rate, and product offerings.0:20–4:06 · Nathan pushing back 4/10 Latka Subscription and Private RSS Feed Promotion Latka opens with an intro promo for the Latka subscription before transitioning into interviewing Rick Schennink. Latka gives light pushback when Rick cannot remember the exact founding date of his business.4:06–8:36 · Nathan pushing back 5/10 Financial Performance, Pricing Structure, and Revenue Growth Latka drills into Rick's revenue numbers, monthly run rate, and pricing tiers when Rick struggles to present exact year-to-date sales figures. Rick remains cooperative and explains his bootstrap solo setup and family dynamics comfortably.8:39–11:52 · Nathan pushing back 3/10 Sponsor Message: Design Pickle Segment starts with a sponsor read for Design Pickle, followed by a discussion of Rick's products Filepond and Doka. Latka demonstrates SaaS and product architecture understanding, suggesting Rick is leaving money on the table by not offering backend usage tiers.11:53–14:40 · Nathan pushing back 1/10 Search Engine Optimization and Customer Acquisition Strategy Latka checks Rick's keyword rankings in real-time, pointing out paid competitor ads and Rick's top organic position for JavaScript image editor keywords, before moving to the standard Famous Five questions.14:40–15:09 · Nathan pushing back 0/10 Interview Recap and Final Thoughts Latka delivers the closing solo recap of Rick's business model, run rate, and product offerings.

speaking balance: gold is Nathan, purple is the guest (3 minute bins)

0:00 · Nathan 67.9% · guest 32.1%0:00 · Nathan 67.9% · guest 32.1%3:00 · Nathan 28.6% · guest 71.4%3:00 · Nathan 28.6% · guest 71.4%6:00 · Nathan 26.8% · guest 73.2%6:00 · Nathan 26.8% · guest 73.2%9:00 · Nathan 63.1% · guest 36.9%9:00 · Nathan 63.1% · guest 36.9%12:00 · Nathan 46.2% · guest 53.8%12:00 · Nathan 46.2% · guest 53.8%15:00 · Nathan 95.2% · guest 4.8%15:00 · Nathan 95.2% · guest 4.8%
Sharpest disagreement ▶ 3:05 Rick defends casual origin of his business

When Latka expresses disbelief that Rick doesn't know his exact founding year, Rick calmly pushes back that he drifted into it from a side project to stash freelance income.

 Hardest push from Nathan ▶ 5:05 Latka presses on unknown revenue numbers

Latka directly confronts Rick for not knowing his top-line sales figures for the current year, prompting Rick to calculate from his monthly average.

 Biggest teaching moment ▶ 10:29 Rick clarifies Filepond vs Doka relationship

Rick clarifies that Filepond is a distinct free upload tool rather than just a free trial of Doka, educating Latka on how the two integrate together.

 Nathan holds their own ▶ 12:32 Latka checks live SERP competition

Latka demonstrates real-time market knowledge by citing paid competitors and verifying Rick's number one organic search rank for JavaScript image editors.
the scores for every segment, with the reasoning behind each
ChapterTopicNathan as informed peerGuest teachingGuest disagreementNathan pushing backWhy
Latka Subscription and Private RSS Feed Promotion 4014 Latka opens with an intro promo for the Latka subscription before transitioning into interviewing Rick Schennink. Latka gives light pushback when Rick cannot remember the exact founding date of his business.
Financial Performance, Pricing Structure, and Revenue Growth 5115 Latka drills into Rick's revenue numbers, monthly run rate, and pricing tiers when Rick struggles to present exact year-to-date sales figures. Rick remains cooperative and explains his bootstrap solo setup and family dynamics comfortably.
Sponsor Message: Design Pickle 6103 Segment starts with a sponsor read for Design Pickle, followed by a discussion of Rick's products Filepond and Doka. Latka demonstrates SaaS and product architecture understanding, suggesting Rick is leaving money on the table by not offering backend usage tiers.
Search Engine Optimization and Customer Acquisition Strategy 6001 Latka checks Rick's keyword rankings in real-time, pointing out paid competitor ads and Rick's top organic position for JavaScript image editor keywords, before moving to the standard Famous Five questions.
Interview Recap and Final Thoughts 0000 Latka delivers the closing solo recap of Rick's business model, run rate, and product offerings.

Statements from this episode (10)

Assertion Not checkable as stated
Schennink: Average PQINA customer pays around $200 per year
“Around 200 US dollars, I guess.”
Rick Schennink Sep 23, 2020 ▶ 2:44
Disclosure
Rick Schennink: PQINA has made 300 to 400 sales year-to-date in 2020
“Like the total since, I guess it's around 300 maybe 400 sales.”
Rick Schennink Sep 23, 2020 ▶ 4:47
Disclosure
PQINA charges $129 for developer licenses and $500 for company licenses
“They're like one 29 for a normal developer license and 500 bucks for a company license.”
Rick Schennink Sep 23, 2020 ▶ 5:10
Disclosure
Rick Schennink: PQINA averages roughly $10,000 in monthly revenue
“No, well, I have a, I don't have a number like at the forefront of my head, but like the average revenue a month is like 10 K 10 K. So multiply that by six or seven.”
Rick Schennink Sep 23, 2020 ▶ 5:25
Assertion Not checkable as stated
PQINA Sales Dropped 30% to 40% Since June 2020
“It's not like the company's going under or something, but it's just like, 30%, 40% drop in sales since June.”
Rick Schennink Sep 23, 2020 ▶ 7:48
Disclosure
PQINA Is Fully Bootstrapped Without Outside Capital
“It's bootstrapped.”
Rick Schennink Sep 23, 2020 ▶ 8:07
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Schennink: FilePond Is Free and Serves Primarily as Marketing Funnel
“Yeah, it's completely free. So it's mostly a marketing product. So it's a free, free library for developers to use.”
Rick Schennink Sep 23, 2020 ▶ 10:00
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Schennink: Doka Image Editor Generates the Most Revenue for PQINA
“It's Doka. Doka image editor.”
Rick Schennink Sep 23, 2020 ▶ 10:16
Assertion Supported
Schennink: Doka Runs Fully in Browser Without Server Infrastructure
“No, it's completely contained like the package runs in the browser. There's no server there.”
Rick Schennink Sep 23, 2020 ▶ 11:30
Disclosure
Schennink: 50% of Doka customers come from Google, rest from open-source tools
“I think 50% Google and the rest is like via Filebond and other open source products that I sell or sell. I have available.”
Rick Schennink Sep 23, 2020 ▶ 11:56
Made with StarZero

Turn any episode into a week of clips.

This entire site, over 2,600 episodes transcribed, diarized, checked and made playable, runs on the StarZero media pipeline. Drop in your own episode and the podcast clipper finds the moments worth sharing, cuts them, captions them, and reframes them for every feed.

Try the podcast clipper Learn more