Table of Contents
- Tell us about your product and what inspired you to start it?
- How long did it take you to acquire your first 50 customers, and what was your growth strategy?
- Which technology stack are you using and what challenges and limitations does it pose?
- What are some of the most essential tools that you use for your business?
- What have been some of the biggest insights you've gained since starting your entrepreneurial journey?
- Your recommended books/podcasts/newsletters etc.:
- What other products are you working on?
Marc Beinder is the founder of Podtrics - powerful podcast hosting for creative people
Tell us about your product and what inspired you to start it?
Podtrics was started out of a few different projects, all of which failed. It is because of those failures however, that I believe I can build Podtrics into a wonderful tool for Podcast Creators.
Podtrics began as side project that I would work on here and there. Eventually it became my Practicum Capstone project during my final semesters at Lindenwood University in St. Charles, Missouri. About 30 minutes west of St. Louis, Missouri. Through that project I built out the web application, marketing site, and business strategy. Even though I have since graduated from Lindenwood, I continue to iterate on the foundation I built while there.
How long did it take you to acquire your first 50 customers, and what was your growth strategy?
Podtrics is still working towards getting the first 50 customers. Podtrics has tried Google Ads, Twitter Ads, Email Marketing, and Direct Outreach.
Each channel has had varying levels of success. Currently, Podtrics is focusing on strategic partnerships and integrations into the tools that Creators are already using.
Which technology stack are you using and what challenges and limitations does it pose?
Podtrics isn't built on anything fancy. It's a PHP Web Application with a MySQL Database backend. At it's core, Podtrics is just an API with a user interface painted on top of it.
The main limitation that Podtrics faces from it's technology is the need to for back end batch processing. Podtrics does a lot of calculations on the fly when running analytic reports. This causes a problem when running reports on large date ranges. The analytics engine is currently being rewritten to allow for more insights to be added quicker and to be more detailed.
What are some of the most essential tools that you use for your business?
Podtrics utilizes a lot of tooling to understand how the product is being used and who our customers are.
Podtrics utilizes HubSpot at our CRM and integrates the product into HubSpot to get a central data view of the current state of the Creators using the tool.
Podtrics also uses Matomo Analytics and Mautic Marketing Automation to understand our Creators and reach out to them at the right time. All the data from the various tools is aggregated into a big MySQL database and loaded into Microsoft Power BI to visualize trends and insights. It may sound like Podtrics has it all figured out, but trust me when I tell you we are still learning something new every single day.
What have been some of the biggest insights you've gained since starting your entrepreneurial journey?
Believe it or not, I have the ability to be wrong. Being a successful founder will look different at different stages of startup growth. Podtrics is still very early on, and there have been many times where my assumptions and even my data have led me down one path only for the exact opposite to be the case.
Your recommended books/podcasts/newsletters etc.:
One of my favorite podcasts is Out of Beta by Matt Wensing of Summit (usesummit.com) and Peter Suhm of Reform (reform.app). Their journey has been one that I look to when exploring what some of my next objectives should be. Not that I am near their level of growth, but seeing how they have handled different trials has been informative to what I consider when making decisions.
A book I recommend is The Ride of a Lifetime by Bob Iger, the former CEO of The Walt Disney Company. Seeing how he grew Disney into the empire it is today inspires me to not give up despite the challenges I may face.
What other products are you working on?
I have edgrRADIO.com as a side project. It doesn't make any type of income, just something I like to hack away on whenever time allows.
