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

• Twitter
• 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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