E06 w/ Bryce Adams: Pivoting his strategy into his strengths
Download MP3Carl Alexander built Ymir — a serverless AWS platform that deploys WordPress and PHP applications onto a customer's own AWS account — and the twenty-five customers who run production stores on it never leave. They also all pay $39 a month, and nobody new signs up.
Did four years falsify the market, or was it the wrong buyers?
It's the second one. The $39, the self-serve signup, the WordPress developer he kept aiming at — every piece of the offer points away from the thing he's world-class at, which is teaching people how this works.
Cohost Bryce Adams bootstrapped Metorik on the same platform, and he's been telling Carl to charge more for years. He and I dig into who the buyer actually is, and what Carl should be selling him.
A candid working session including:
- five years of talks, zero customers
- $39 versus "bet our company on it"
- the joke tier he shouldn't have deleted
- what Metorik charged from day one
- should he stop going to conferences?
ME ME ME!!!
Subscribe on YouTube
📘 Get my book 📘
My bio + 20 years of articles
Twitter | LinkedIn
STARRING CARL ALEXANDER
Ymir
Ymir Reports
Blog
Twitter | LinkedIn
WITH COHOST BRYCE ADAMS
Metorik
Twitter
REFERENCED IN THIS EPISODE
"Using the Needs Stack for Competitive Strategy"
"SaaSocalypse" video by Jesse Hanley
TIMESTAMPS
Did four years falsify the market, or was it the wrong buyers?
It's the second one. The $39, the self-serve signup, the WordPress developer he kept aiming at — every piece of the offer points away from the thing he's world-class at, which is teaching people how this works.
Cohost Bryce Adams bootstrapped Metorik on the same platform, and he's been telling Carl to charge more for years. He and I dig into who the buyer actually is, and what Carl should be selling him.
A candid working session including:
- five years of talks, zero customers
- $39 versus "bet our company on it"
- the joke tier he shouldn't have deleted
- what Metorik charged from day one
- should he stop going to conferences?
ME ME ME!!!
Subscribe on YouTube
📘 Get my book 📘
My bio + 20 years of articles
Twitter | LinkedIn
STARRING CARL ALEXANDER
Ymir
Ymir Reports
Blog
Twitter | LinkedIn
WITH COHOST BRYCE ADAMS
Metorik
REFERENCED IN THIS EPISODE
"Using the Needs Stack for Competitive Strategy"
"SaaSocalypse" video by Jesse Hanley
TIMESTAMPS
- (00:00) - A business customers love but that nobody buys - framing the puzzle, then Carl Alexander and cohost Bryce Adams (Metorik)
- (04:08) - Diagnosing 4 years of failed WordPress-developer marketing - and proving the market already exists
- (12:40) - Rejecting the succession-plan fix, then hunting the buyer pattern in Carl's 4 paying customers
- (17:22) - Engaged developers aren't buyers: why the "resonating" marketing wasn't actually working
- (22:45) - Finding the real decision-maker: not the developer who claps, the CTO who signs
- (26:40) - The $39/mo price that contradicts "mission-critical, dependable"
- (40:10) - "Carl as a service": the $20K consulting offer bundled with $500/mo software
- (54:29) - Landing on $1,000/mo, validated by Bryce's own Metorik pricing history
- (59:32) - Redefining the ideal customer: a $5M+ GMV WooCommerce store
- (01:09:29) - Sell to agencies, not individual stores
- (01:19:25) - The ICP crystallizes: an agency already committed to AWS that just needs expert help
- (01:31:25) - The conference rule: only go for leads or credibility
- (01:37:56) - Carl commits to raise the price before this episode airs
- (01:40:29) - Closing: the WordCamp party story
