Jun 9, 2020 · 18m · top-founders
"Ex VC Bootstrapping New G2 Competitor, 24 Customers, $12k MRR "
Phil Strazzulla · 11m spoken Nathan Latka · 5m spoken Frank Bien · 4s 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 Select Software Reviews founder Phil Strazzulla about transitioning from venture capital to bootstrapping an unbiased B2B software review platform. Phil breaks down his curated content strategy, SEO execution against industry giants like G2, and the CPC monetization engine driving $12,000 in monthly recurring revenue.
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 32.1% of the talking time here. How this is scored →
Nathan as informed peer 4.4 Guest teaching 4.2 Guest disagreement 1.8 Nathan pushing back 3.2
speaking balance: gold is Nathan, purple is the guest (3 minute bins)
Sharpest disagreement ▶ 5:37 Phil rejects the idea of a single definitive winner
When Nathan asks if his platform will give a single five-star recommendation, Phil pushes back directly, arguing software selection is contextual like NerdWallet.
Hardest push from Nathan ▶ 11:14 Nathan challenges Phil's ability to beat G2 on SEONathan questions how Phil can compete with a domain authority of only 35 against massive aggregators who could easily spin up competing landing pages.
Biggest teaching moment ▶ 2:38 Phil educates on the expected value curve of VC vs bootstrappingPhil lays out a clear breakdown of expected financial returns across VC, tech employment, and bootstrapping, explaining why bootstrapping suits most businesses.
Nathan holds their own ▶ 9:53 Nathan quotes Ahrefs data and specific ranking keywordsNathan showcases strong domain preparation by quoting Phil's exact target keywords and estimated traffic metrics from Ahrefs.
the scores for every segment, with the reasoning behind each
| Chapter | Topic | Nathan as informed peer | Guest teaching | Guest disagreement | Nathan pushing back | Why |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Phil Strazzulla's Career Path to Select Software | 4 | 5 | 3 | 4 | Nathan introduces Phil's VC background and asks if the secret to building companies is to bootstrap instead of raising VC. Phil explains the nuanced math between expected value and autonomy, comparing his approach to NerdWallet rather than giving singular definitive review scores. | |
| Monetization Framework and Acquiring Early Customers | 3 | 4 | 1 | 2 | Nathan asks how Phil monetizes and acquired his initial customers. Phil explains his cost-per-click (CPC) engine and how his personal brand generated initial organic interest from software vendors. | |
| Analyzing Monthly Revenue and Churn Dynamics | 7 | 5 | 2 | 5 | Nathan does live revenue math and cites specific search engine metrics from Ahrefs to query Phil's SEO beachhead strategy. Nathan presses on how Phil manages to outrank high-authority sites like G2 with a low domain rating. | |
| Content Scaling Challenges and the Expert Council | 6 | 5 | 2 | 4 | Nathan digs into Select Software's landing page content, naming specific tools and querying how the expert council functions. Phil clarifies that he personally writes all content and relies on the council purely for feedback. | |
| Famous Five Rapid-Fire Questions | 2 | 2 | 1 | 1 | Nathan runs through his standard rapid-fire Famous Five questions. Phil shares candid insights on why founders shouldn't obsess over daily metrics and reflects on career resilience. |
Statements from this episode (16)
Strazzulla: VC and Google offer higher expected value than founding unicorns
“I think the expected value, probably the highest expected value is working in venture. Then it's probably working at Google. And then it's probably starting a venture back to business that has the potential for a unicorn outcome.”
Strazzulla: Raising venture capital makes no sense for 99.99% of businesses
“And I think it's the right path also for 99.99% of businesses. There is like the basis point of businesses where it makes so much sense. You've got a huge market. You can have a high return on capital into sales and marketing, et cetera. But for most businesse…”
Phil Strazzulla: Most HR teams are ill-equipped to purchase software
“Most HR teams are not super well equipped to buy software.”
Strazzulla: First 200 ATS vendors on Capterra hold 4+ star ratings
“Last week I was on Capterra and I looked at the applicant tracking system page. The first 200 vendors have a four star and above rating.”
Strazzulla: Vendor-incentivized reviews ruin B2B software buying processes
“And the reality of how that happens is that the head of marketing and all these different vendors pays their customers to leave reviews when they have a positive interaction with their software, which they should do, right? It's like totally aligned with their…”
Strazzulla: CPC models scale and track ROI better for B2B demand gen
“And I just realized that the CPC is like the thing that scales and the thing that is really easy to track from an ROI perspective for these demand gen teams that just look at You know, we're paying X per MQL per SQL per, you know, dollar of new ACP.”
Phil Strazzulla claims his platform offers lower CPA than G2 and LinkedIn
“Your CPC, your CPA is much lower relative to AdWords, LinkedIn, Capterra, G two, sort of all the best alternatives.”
Strazzulla: Select Software Reviews customers pay around $500 monthly
“It's about 500 bucks a month.”
Phil Strazzulla: B2B software buyers convert in two-week windows every five years
“You need to get somebody right at the moment where they have super high intent and that there's only like a two week window for a given piece of software. So let's say like I'm the head of HR and I buy a new ATS every five years. There's two weeks in that five…”
Phil Strazzulla claims his platform outranks G2 on shared target search queries
“I am actually beating them on lots of relevant queries, and they are targeting the same exact queries.”
Strazzulla: Few domain experts can write and explain concepts clearly
“There's very few people that have domain expertise that can write, that can explain things.”
Phil Strazzulla runs his G2 competitor leanly with automation and contractors
“So I'm a full stack engineer as well. It's essentially me plus a ragtag crew of contractors that are helping out with various things that I've sort of like Automated for a better for lack of a better way to put it.”
Phil Strazzulla claims negative 30 to 40 percent annualized net revenue churn
“If I were to guess probably, you know, annualized, it's probably like a -30 or 40% net revenue churn.”
Strazzulla: Select Software Reviews is bootstrapped with no plans to raise
“It's totally bootstrapped. No intention to raise money. I've, you know, got some cash that I've made from investing as well as doing some advisory work. And so I'm using that to fund the business and I guess my lifestyle.”
Phil Strazzulla: Ignoring short-term revenue metrics improves founder focus and mental health
“Chris is like an amazingly smart guy and he's like a very sophisticated operator. He doesn't know for a reason. And that's because like he's focused on building a brand and an amazing product. And I think coming from the VC world, it's hard to let go of that s…”