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Mar 27, 2020 · 15m · top-founders

1707 How He Cheated Growth With $5k Acquisition on Day 1

Craig Hewitt · 7m spoken Nathan Latka · 5m spoken
0:00 / 0:00

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

Nathan Latka interviews Castos founder Craig Hewitt on how he bootstrapped a podcast hosting platform to $20,000 in monthly recurring revenue by acquiring an existing WordPress plugin with 15,000 active installations.

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 42.7% of the talking time here. How this is scored →

Nathan as informed peer 5.2 Guest teaching 3.8 Guest disagreement 1.4 Nathan pushing back 3.4
05100:0010:000:47–2:51 · Nathan as informed peer 5/10 Growth Strategy Through WordPress Plugin Acquisition Nathan inquires into the plugin acquisition metrics and assumes the installs came with customer email addresses. Craig clarifies that WordPress plugin installs do not provide direct user contact information.2:52–6:49 · Nathan as informed peer 6/10 Product Offerings and Subscription Tiers Nathan probes Castos' pricing tiers, MRR trajectory, and notes his team encountered website loading issues. Craig walks through why standard storage-based podcast pricing across the industry is broken compared to bandwidth costs.6:54–9:21 · Nathan as informed peer 4/10 Sponsor Segment: F5 Cloud Services Following the sponsor break, Nathan asks about customer niches and team composition. Craig notes churches are a major segment and breaks down his team split between Castos and his agency Podcast Motor.9:21–13:25 · Nathan as informed peer 7/10 Industry Outlook and Audio Search Indexing Nathan brings up technical comparisons to Google's PageRank and challenges how Castos will compete with Patreon. Craig details his roadmap involving automated transcription APIs and integrating directly with Patreon feeds.13:25–14:35 · Nathan as informed peer 4/10 The Famous Five Fast-Paced Questions Nathan rapid-fires the Famous Five questions, catching a slight contradiction when Craig describes a peer founder as both bootstrapped and funded.0:47–2:51 · Guest teaching 5/10 Growth Strategy Through WordPress Plugin Acquisition Nathan inquires into the plugin acquisition metrics and assumes the installs came with customer email addresses. Craig clarifies that WordPress plugin installs do not provide direct user contact information.2:52–6:49 · Guest teaching 4/10 Product Offerings and Subscription Tiers Nathan probes Castos' pricing tiers, MRR trajectory, and notes his team encountered website loading issues. Craig walks through why standard storage-based podcast pricing across the industry is broken compared to bandwidth costs.6:54–9:21 · Guest teaching 3/10 Sponsor Segment: F5 Cloud Services Following the sponsor break, Nathan asks about customer niches and team composition. Craig notes churches are a major segment and breaks down his team split between Castos and his agency Podcast Motor.9:21–13:25 · Guest teaching 5/10 Industry Outlook and Audio Search Indexing Nathan brings up technical comparisons to Google's PageRank and challenges how Castos will compete with Patreon. Craig details his roadmap involving automated transcription APIs and integrating directly with Patreon feeds.13:25–14:35 · Guest teaching 2/10 The Famous Five Fast-Paced Questions Nathan rapid-fires the Famous Five questions, catching a slight contradiction when Craig describes a peer founder as both bootstrapped and funded.0:47–2:51 · Guest disagreement 1/10 Growth Strategy Through WordPress Plugin Acquisition Nathan inquires into the plugin acquisition metrics and assumes the installs came with customer email addresses. Craig clarifies that WordPress plugin installs do not provide direct user contact information.2:52–6:49 · Guest disagreement 1/10 Product Offerings and Subscription Tiers Nathan probes Castos' pricing tiers, MRR trajectory, and notes his team encountered website loading issues. Craig walks through why standard storage-based podcast pricing across the industry is broken compared to bandwidth costs.6:54–9:21 · Guest disagreement 2/10 Sponsor Segment: F5 Cloud Services Following the sponsor break, Nathan asks about customer niches and team composition. Craig notes churches are a major segment and breaks down his team split between Castos and his agency Podcast Motor.9:21–13:25 · Guest disagreement 2/10 Industry Outlook and Audio Search Indexing Nathan brings up technical comparisons to Google's PageRank and challenges how Castos will compete with Patreon. Craig details his roadmap involving automated transcription APIs and integrating directly with Patreon feeds.13:25–14:35 · Guest disagreement 1/10 The Famous Five Fast-Paced Questions Nathan rapid-fires the Famous Five questions, catching a slight contradiction when Craig describes a peer founder as both bootstrapped and funded.0:47–2:51 · Nathan pushing back 3/10 Growth Strategy Through WordPress Plugin Acquisition Nathan inquires into the plugin acquisition metrics and assumes the installs came with customer email addresses. Craig clarifies that WordPress plugin installs do not provide direct user contact information.2:52–6:49 · Nathan pushing back 4/10 Product Offerings and Subscription Tiers Nathan probes Castos' pricing tiers, MRR trajectory, and notes his team encountered website loading issues. Craig walks through why standard storage-based podcast pricing across the industry is broken compared to bandwidth costs.6:54–9:21 · Nathan pushing back 2/10 Sponsor Segment: F5 Cloud Services Following the sponsor break, Nathan asks about customer niches and team composition. Craig notes churches are a major segment and breaks down his team split between Castos and his agency Podcast Motor.9:21–13:25 · Nathan pushing back 5/10 Industry Outlook and Audio Search Indexing Nathan brings up technical comparisons to Google's PageRank and challenges how Castos will compete with Patreon. Craig details his roadmap involving automated transcription APIs and integrating directly with Patreon feeds.13:25–14:35 · Nathan pushing back 3/10 The Famous Five Fast-Paced Questions Nathan rapid-fires the Famous Five questions, catching a slight contradiction when Craig describes a peer founder as both bootstrapped and funded.

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

0:00 · Nathan 46.8% · guest 53.2%0:00 · Nathan 46.8% · guest 53.2%3:00 · Nathan 38% · guest 62%3:00 · Nathan 38% · guest 62%6:00 · Nathan 49.2% · guest 50.8%6:00 · Nathan 49.2% · guest 50.8%9:00 · Nathan 44.7% · guest 55.3%9:00 · Nathan 44.7% · guest 55.3%12:00 · Nathan 33.5% · guest 66.5%12:00 · Nathan 33.5% · guest 66.5%15:00 · Nathan 76% · guest 24%15:00 · Nathan 76% · guest 24%
Sharpest disagreement ▶ 8:08 Countering church budget assumptions

Craig playfully pushes back against Nathan's remark about needing low pricing for churches, pointing out that US churches often have substantial budgets.

 Hardest push from Nathan ▶ 12:51 Pressing on Patreon competition

Nathan challenges Craig on how Castos can possibly compete with Patreon's dominant market position in gated creator content.

 Biggest teaching moment ▶ 2:26 Explaining WordPress plugin install data

Craig educates Nathan that acquiring a WordPress plugin with 15,000 installs does not provide an email list or direct customer contact information.

 Nathan holds their own ▶ 10:13 Comparing podcast discovery to Google PageRank

Nathan demonstrates high-level industry synthesis by comparing the audio search discovery problem to early web indexing solved by Google's PageRank.
the scores for every segment, with the reasoning behind each
ChapterTopicNathan as informed peerGuest teachingGuest disagreementNathan pushing backWhy
Growth Strategy Through WordPress Plugin Acquisition 5513 Nathan inquires into the plugin acquisition metrics and assumes the installs came with customer email addresses. Craig clarifies that WordPress plugin installs do not provide direct user contact information.
Product Offerings and Subscription Tiers 6414 Nathan probes Castos' pricing tiers, MRR trajectory, and notes his team encountered website loading issues. Craig walks through why standard storage-based podcast pricing across the industry is broken compared to bandwidth costs.
Sponsor Segment: F5 Cloud Services 4322 Following the sponsor break, Nathan asks about customer niches and team composition. Craig notes churches are a major segment and breaks down his team split between Castos and his agency Podcast Motor.
Industry Outlook and Audio Search Indexing 7525 Nathan brings up technical comparisons to Google's PageRank and challenges how Castos will compete with Patreon. Craig details his roadmap involving automated transcription APIs and integrating directly with Patreon feeds.
The Famous Five Fast-Paced Questions 4213 Nathan rapid-fires the Famous Five questions, catching a slight contradiction when Craig describes a peer founder as both bootstrapped and funded.

Statements from this episode (7)

Assertion Supported
Castos Acquired a WordPress Plugin With 15,000 Active Installs
“So the plugin had about 15,000 active installs in WordPress at the time.”
Craig Hewitt Mar 27, 2020 ▶ 2:05
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Castos Has Just Under 1,000 Paying Customers
“We have just under a thousand paying customers now.”
Craig Hewitt Mar 27, 2020 ▶ 4:56
Insight
Podcast Hosting Storage-Based Pricing Is Broken
“And for us, you know, it's kind of a funny business because the storage, you know, doesn't really cost anything. It's the bandwidth for us to send files out. So I think the pricing just in the industry is broken or a little funny.”
Craig Hewitt Mar 27, 2020 ▶ 6:20
Disclosure
Castos Operates With a Four-Person Remote Contractor Team
“We're four people. All contractors and, you know, getting up to full time. So that includes myself. Two developers, a support rep and myself.”
Craig Hewitt Mar 27, 2020 ▶ 8:21
Disclosure
Hewitt Focuses Primarily on Castos Despite Podcast Motor Being Larger
“Podcast Motor, does you know, podcast editing and production services for podcasters, and it's still bigger than Castos, but Castos is kind of where I focus most all my time now.”
Craig Hewitt Mar 27, 2020 ▶ 8:51
Prediction Partly held up
Google Will Soon Index Audio, Massively Boosting Podcast SEO
“No, but I think if you're a betting man, betting person, you would say Google will start indexing audio very soon, and that's what we think. So the SEO impact of podcasting will get massive, you know, for folks that have hundreds of shows.”
Craig Hewitt Mar 27, 2020 ▶ 10:42
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Castos Monthly SaaS Logo Churn Is Below 6%
“We're kind of a B to prosumer B to B to C kind of model and our SAS is below six percent on a monthly basis.”
Craig Hewitt Mar 27, 2020 ▶ 11:26
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