The goal isn't just to build one successful app,
you know, one that captures some fleeting hype.
No, it's way bigger than that. It's about constructing
a whole portfolio. Yeah. Maybe three, maybe four
apps. And all of them generating over $200 ,000
every single month, predictably. Welcome to this
deep dive. Today, we're unpacking the strategy
of an Australian founder named Mike. He's built
this significant and really consistent wealth.
by focusing on the world of software as a service.
Or SUS, which for our purposes just means software
you pay for monthly. It's a subscription. And
that subscription model is really the engine
behind his success. Right. And we've basically
synthesized his entire playbook, the exact steps
he uses for every single launch. It's a very
low risk, high stability approach. So we're going
to explore his philosophy of boring, the surprisingly
rigid four -person team structure, that critical
$10 ,000 monthly revenue goal, and then the full
10 -step launch playbook. Yeah, the mission here
is to really extract the system. So you can see
how it works and how it might apply to a niche
that you're interested in. Okay, so let's start
with the founder himself. Mike is interesting
because he really tries to distance himself.
from that Silicon Valley genius archetype. Oh,
totally. He's very open about it. He says he
started as, and this is a quote, one of the worst
developers. Right. But he mastered one thing,
which was focused non -glamorous problem solving.
And that's the key. Right. He's not chasing what's
sexy. No. He's chasing what's needed. His whole
strategy is a holding company that just owns
several small, profitable software businesses.
That's it. And if you look at the portfolio,
I mean, it is the definition of boringly reliable.
It really is. Take curator .io. All it does is
help websites display social media posts. Simple.
Then there's frill .co, which is a customer feedback
and roadmap tool. He has Juno for digital signage.
Like in a gym or a cafe. Exactly. And Fluke,
which helps you build simple website how -to
guides. None of these are going to be front page
news. But they all solve a real billable pain
point for businesses who are already paying somebody
else for a solution. And when you add all these
low drama tools up, that's where you get that
incredible number, over $200 ,000 a month. And
he's so confident in it. He says, I expect every
single one of our businesses to be successful.
He sees it as a formula. It's a recipe. If you
follow the recipe, you get the cake. You're not
gambling. So if you approach business as a recipe,
How crucial is it to just actively resist that
pressure to invent the next big thing, the next
Facebook? Oh, it's everything. Focusing on boring
markets just eliminates all the unknown variables.
You can focus purely on execution. That makes
perfect sense. OK, let's talk about the team,
because this is where most startups die, right?
Yeah, it's not the idea. It's founder fights,
burnout, arguments over who gets what. And Mike's
solution for this is, well, it's non -negotiable.
He calls it the power of four. Every single venture
is launched with exactly four founders covering
four distinct roles. What are those four pillars?
So first you have your two technical pillars.
Founder 1 is the front -end developer. That's
what the user sees, what they click on. Founder
2 is the back -end developer. They handle the
brains of the operation, the servers, the databases,
the logic. Then Founder 3 is the designer. They're
making sure the whole thing looks good and is
simple to use, which is huge when you're competing
in these so -called boring spaces. For sure.
And then Founder 4 is the generalist. That's
probably you, the listener, the person handling
marketing, sales, customer service. project management
the glue. And here's the part that I think is
the most controversial. The equity split is 25
percent for everyone period. And that's the genius
of it. That's what solves the conflict problem.
You don't get to argue about who had the idea
or who thinks they worked harder last week. Everyone's
an equal owner. Right. It feels like it just
removes that constant draining negotiation. It
does. And from a practical standpoint it ensures
survival. If one person needs to take a long
vacation or get sick. The business doesn't just
fall apart the other three can keep it going.
He also has a great hiring advice He says you
should only work with people you genuinely like
people you'd happily have a beer with yeah Because
if the team clicks the work is better and small
problems don't blow up. So does that strict 25
% split? Really remove the difficulty of you
know, constantly judging each founders output.
Absolutely Equal ownership just promotes a shared
responsibility for the health of the business
All right, let's pivot to the money. The goal
for almost every venture -backed startup is growth
at all costs, right? Aiming for that huge sale.
Mike's goal is the complete opposite. He's building
businesses to keep, to generate income from day
one. And that brings us to the most important
financial target. Yeah. $10 ,000 in monthly recurring
revenue, MR. And why 10 ,000? Because with that
super lean team of four, that amount pretty much
covers all your basic costs. Your servers, your
software subscriptions. So once you cross that
$10 ,000 MRR line, you're profitable. That's
the success moment. From that point on, the founders
just split the profit equally. They don't do
mass hiring. They don't do huge ad spends. The
goal is a high salary for themselves. It's all
about personal wealth and freedom, not market
hype. Whoa. And just think about scaling that.
Imagine you have three of these businesses. Each
one is kicking off $10 ,000 in pure profit for
you every single month. That compounding effect
is incredible. It's financial independence built
one solid piece at a time. So why is generating
that predictable profit for founder salaries
superior to just aiming for a quick, risky sale?
Because keeping costs low prioritizes your own
financial stability over chasing a market valuation
that might never happen. Sponsor. Okay, so we've
laid the groundwork. We have the low risk philosophy,
the solid team structure, and that clear financial
goal. Now for the most important part, the actual
core of the system. The 10 -step launch playbook
he uses for every single business. Let's get
into it. Step one. Step one is pick an idea that
has been done before. You have to resist that
urge to be some wild innovator. Competition is
a good thing. It's confirmation. that people
are already paying to solve this problem. And
the method for finding the gap is so specific.
You go to review sites, like Captera or G2, find
the big players in a boring niche. And then you
filter for the one -star and two -star reviews.
Exactly. That's where the gold is. You read what
makes users angry. This is too complicated. The
design is ugly. Their support never gets back
to me. Your business just becomes the solution
to those specific complaints. OK, that leads
to step two, which is all about speed. build
a good enough MVP. MVP, minimum viable product.
Right. And this should take what, two or three
months? Maximum? You have to be ruthless, build
only the three core features everyone needs,
and just ignore everything else. That speed then
lets you get to early cash flow. Step three is
to offer a lifetime deal, an LTD. There's a one
-time fee, right? Maybe $99, and the user gets
access forever. And that does two things for
you immediately. First, cash. 100 of those sales,
and you've got $10 ,000 in the bank. Second,
it gets you your first serious committed users.
Which you need for step four. Never give away
free accounts. Free users just don't provide
good feedback. They don't have any skin in the
game. But paid users, even at a low price, are
invested. They'll tell you what's wrong. I still
wrestle with feature creep myself, wanting to
add too many bills and whistles early on. Me
too. That's why getting that paid feedback is
so critical. It keeps you honest. Step five is
the hustle part. Sell your private LTD. This
means going into niche Facebook groups, Slack
communities. And finding people on Twitter complaining
about your competitors. You engage with them,
you ask for advice, and then you gently sell
them on your lifetime deal. Okay, now we shift
to the long game. Step six. Start writing content.
immediately. Yes. Content marketing blog posts,
guides, comparison articles. It takes months
for Google to start trusting you. So you have
to start on day one. Once the product is stable,
step seven is the big one. Launch on AppSumo.
AppSumo is a huge marketplace for these kinds
of software deals. It gives you a massive boost
in exposure. And the goal here is... pretty ambitious,
raise $100 ,000. And that hundred grand, that
becomes the war chest. Right. That money is what
lets you survive for the next one to two years
while you transition from those one -time LTD
buyers to stable monthly subscribers. Okay, step
eight is pure psychology. Do one final closing
soon campaign. It's classic FOMO, fear of missing
out. You send an urgent email. 48 hours left
before the price switches to the higher monthly
subscription forever. And step nine is about
building trust. Get honest reviews. Social proof
is absolutely everything. You have to ask those
loyal LTD buyers to go write reviews on G2, Captera,
and Trustpilot. For sure. And finally, step 10,
answer questions on Reddit. You monitor industry
keywords. You provide... You have to be helpful,
not salesy. So that $100 ,000 Apsuma war chest,
is that the true pivot point from a side project
to a sustainable business? It is. That lump sum
provides the stability you need to survive that
tough transition from one -time cash to predictable
monthly growth. Mike has a 100 % success rate,
which is just unheard of. And it's because he
deliberately avoids two huge catastrophic risks.
The first one he calls platform risk. Right.
You should never, ever build an app that relies
entirely on another company. If you build a tool
just for, say, Twitter, and they change their
API rules... Your business dies overnight. Instantly.
And the modern version of that risk is avoid
AI wrappers. These are those simple tools built
as a thin layer over something like ChatGPT.
Mike avoids these completely, and the reason
is so clear. OpenAI could release an update tomorrow
that just includes your exact feature and your
app. becomes totally obsolete. It's too vulnerable.
It just brings you back to the main conclusion.
Choose boring problems. Choose problems that
will never go away. Invoicing, scheduling, documentation.
Solve one of those just a little bit better and
you create lasting value. It's probably worth
noting too that they keep the technology stack
really simple. Yeah, nothing fancy. Well established
tech like Vue or React on the front end, stable
Laravel and PHP on the back end. Why do that?
Because it's reliable. It's cheap. and it's easy
to hire developers for. And they use simple tools
like Framer for their websites, so the non -technical
founders can make changes without needing a developer
every time. It's all about reducing risk. Given
how fast AI is moving, how long can an AI wrapper
realistically survive before it just gets absorbed
by the tech it's built on? I mean, that's the
thing. Dependence on external APIs creates this
inherent instability. Your business has to own
its own core value. So to wrap this up, The core
idea from Mike is that you don't need some lightning
strike of genius. No, you need a system. You
need low market risk, and you need a small trusted
team operating on a clear recipe. We've pulled
out the key numbers. The power of four founders,
that non -negotiable 25 % split. and the $10
,000 MRR goal that really defines freedom. It's
all built on stability and ownership, not on
chaotic growth. So for your action plan, we'd
really recommend you start exactly where Mike
does. Go to Capterra or G2. Look at some of those
boring business software categories. Things like
digital signage or asset management or form builders.
And just start reading the one -star and two
-star reviews. Because that deep understanding
of what's already frustrating people in the market...
That's the first real step. It's the first step
toward building something profitable that you
can actually be proud to own. Thank you for joining
us for this deep dive. We'll catch you next time.
Outtiro music.