A lot to unpack starting the new month and heading for Q4 – dive in
There’s a LOT to cover today, as last week has been as turbulent as it gets!
Also, it’s my birthday 🎂today (Oct 2) – if you feel generous, gift “MBA Disrupted” to an entrepreneur friend or a college student today (or just invite them to check out the YouTube channel as we’re nearing 4,500 subscribers 🎥)
We also launched an AI B2B GTM short newsletter with my friend and veteran tech writer Mukund Kapoor – two issues are already out, join for more at b2bdisrupted.com
Let’s dive in!
Tech turbulence all week
A detailed summary by John Rush in this long-form X post:
Some key takeaways to reflect on:
- The indie/solopreneur tech market is facing some disagreements around Product Hunt and launching new startups, the value of Vercel as a Next hosting provider (and potential vendor lock in), and some seemingly friendly creator startups aren’t as generous toward their staff contributions outside of hours
- WordPress is getting some backlash between Matt Mullenweg (co-founder of WP and CEO at Automattic) and WP Engine over licenses/trademarks and various practices that aren’t aligned between the parties. It’s been a combat in that realm for the past 2 weeks though the open-source WordPress project is safe and sound at the time.
- OpenAI’s Sam Altman trying to shift to a for-profit company with a leadership team swap and claiming equity rights. This may impact the future of the company, future funding rounds, and how competitors stack up to that.
John said he’ll be covering these weekly so follow him and expect more commentaries here too.
SEO groundbreaking updates
Similar style updates on the SEO front, too – Mark Williams-Cook featured:
My thoughts:
- The Aug 15 update led to some major recoveries for DevriX (we jumped from 4k to 8.3k keywords indexed in a month), and some losses for directories. But the community sees some reversal of certain sites over the past week – keeping an eye here.
- Major directories like reddit and Quora are finally seeing some declines after a crazy year of growth. If you haven’t been following the trends, reddit’s traffic bumped basically 10 times in some cases since last September. Who wouldn’t love a 10X growth of their traffic overnight? So there’s a dip starting on Sep 27 that we monitor, too.
- Forbes Advisor lost 1.7 million queries previously ranking in the first results. There’s been a “parasite SEO” conversation rolling online from a third-party specializing in ranking all sorts of products based on Forbes’s authority (compared to actual niche authority sites)
- Cloudflare is testing an AI Audit solution that would enable site owners to charge AI bots for crawling their content. We know that most of the AI-fed content has been scraped for free (i.e. everyone’s own public work) and the ability to scrape future content is likely to turn into a subscription model.
Like I said, a lot is going on under the hood. If you like this new format (commentaries or long summaries), hit Reply or DM me online and I’ll keep it coming.
X-POLE success story
Our martech teams at DevriX have worked with X-POLE for years – the #1 leader in pole and aerial fitness.
Among the global sites operated (on top of WordPress) among the US, Mexico, Canada, and India, we went through a series of hoops to run a handful of parallel payment gateways based on requirements in every region. Always happy to bend what’s possible with WordPress and WooCommerce – especially before the Q4 shopping season!
Podcast scaling well!
I launched the first podcast episode of the B2B Growth Hacking Playbook on Aug 27 and we’re already 6 episodes in – the last one featuring Chris Henrotin of Playbook Media discussing performance marketing, overcoming growth in competitive industries, and strategic guidance for businesses:
The podcast is also available on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Amazon, and the other public networks 🙂
If you’ve missed the previous episodes and want to see if there’s anything interesting here:
- #1 discussed B2B podcasts as a growth channel with Ryan Sullivan of Podcast Principles
- #2 covered email courses and LinkedIn ghostwriting with Alexander Dimitrov of Amused
- #3 on B2B analytics, smart event tracking, and publishing LTV with Gareth Glaser of Gamera (exited RTK to Rubicon)
- #4 with Flippa CEO Blake Hutchison on M&A and data trends for digital acquisitions
- #5 on B2B newsletters with Emanuel Cinca, founder of the Stacked Marketer
Two new episodes already recorded and two more interviews coming up.
Bottom line – Q4 is starting busy and I’m focused on scaling all businesses in parallel with the newsletter, the YouTube channel, and Slack. Stay tuned for more.
Yours,
Mario
My Take
✍️The Key to Finding Perfect Leads & Avoid Time Wasters – Not all leads are created equal, and knowing how to separate serious clients from the tyre kickers can make or break your business. I break down practical ways to vet leads quickly, identify your ideal customers, and build lasting relationships with those who truly matter. We’ll explore strategies to ask the right questions, present case studies, and collect feedback that builds trust and credibility. From testimonials to press features, validation is the secret sauce that converts leads into loyal clients.
✍️“ MBA Disrupted” on eCommerce Fastlane – I’m excited to have again worked with the eCommerce Fastlane folks and provide insights from my book “MBA Disrupted” for their recent article on ECommerce trends that will impact holiday sales. What better way to start Q4?
✍️Growth Blueprint Podcast #6 Strategy and Performance Marketing – How to overcome the digital noise in crowded and oversaturated markets? Discussing agency strategy, performance marketing, omnichannel tips this week with Chris Henrotin, Director of Business Development at Playbook Media, a seasoned expert and former Google executive (one of the first 1,000 hires there), as he shares invaluable insights on navigating product market fit and the evolving landscape of performance marketing.
Newsletter Recommendations
📧 Business Briefs – Business Briefs is exactly what it sounds like – a bite-size newsletter that takes just five minutes to read, delivered to your inbox every morning. It is uniquely positioned to give you the highlights of the news without the need to wade through thousands of articles or spreadsheets. Sign up Here!
📧 WorkLife News – @worklife_news on hiring trends, remote, any worldwide tendencies of human capital and employment. Sign up Here!
📃New bidding options have arrived at Google Ads. Starting September 2024, you’ll find optional target fields under the Maximize leads bid strategies. While these offer customization, automated bidding (Maximize leads) without targets remains our top recommendation for optimal performance for advertisers. Introducing target cost-per-load bidding.
📃Cerebras files for IPO. The AI chips developer trying to wrestle market share from Nvidia has confidentially filed with securities regulators for an initial public offering. They’ve also notified Delaware, the incorporated state, that it is creating preferred shares priced at a deep discount.
📃The Hispanic Market in 2030. Claritas’ annual 2024 Hispanic Market Report estimates the Hispanic population has grown by nearly 6.4 million since 2020, while the non-Hispanic White population decreased by nearly 4.4 million in the past 5 years. The company’s 2030 projection estimates an increase of 7.4 million Hispanics. Yet another reason to think of multilingual services.
📃Dockworkers strike and retail prices. U.S. ports from Maine to Texas shut down Tuesday when the union representing about 45,000 dockworkers went on strike for the first time since 1977. Workers began walking picket lines early Tuesday, picketing near ports all along the East Coast. Workers outside the Port of Philadelphia walked in a circle and chanted, “No work without a fair contract.” A lengthy shutdown could raise prices on goods around the country and potentially cause shortages and price increases at big and small retailers as the holiday shopping season and a tight presidential election.
📃UK stopping coal reliance after 142 years. The UK is about to stop producing any electricity from burning coal – ending its 142-year reliance on fossil fuel. The country’s last coal power station, at Ratcliffe-on-Soar, finishes operations on Monday after running since 1967. This marks a major milestone in the country’s ambitions to reduce its contribution to climate change. Coal is the dirtiest fossil fuel producing the most greenhouse gases when burnt. Nothing is evergreen, no industry is forever.
Global News
📈 Famed hedge-fund manager David Tepper made waves last week by not just saying how much he liked assets tied to China — “everything,” he kept repeating — but also how aggressively he was taking the position. He said the new size of his China position was twice the previous one, and without precisely nailing that down, suggested it now was more than 20% of his fund.
- S&P 500: $5,708(-0.94%)
📈 Average mortgage rates sunk across the board from a week ago, according to Bankrate data. Rates for 30-year fixed, 15-year fixed, 5/1 ARMs and jumbo loans all dropped.
- 30-year mortgage rate: 6.26%(+0.03)
- 15-year mortgage rate: 5.47%(-0.05)
📈Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell signalled Monday that more interest rate cuts are in the pipeline but suggested they would occur at a measured pace intended to support a still-healthy economy.
His comments, at a conference of the National Association for Business Economics in Nashville, Tennessee, disappointed the hopes of many investors that the Fed would implement another steep half-point reduction in its key rate before the end of the year. The Fed cut its rate by a larger-than-usual half point earlier this month as it has moved past its inflation fight and pivoted toward supporting the job market.
The broad S&P 500 stock index initially fell 0.6% after his remarks but recovered afterwards to close about 0.4% higher.
📃 Here are some of the most prominent headlines this week:
- Sean “Diddy” Combs is facing dozens of new allegations of sexual assault in a series of civil lawsuits. A Texas-based attorney says he is representing 120 accusers with allegations against the entertainment mogul that occurred over 20 years.
- Iran has launched ballistic missiles at Israel, the IDF says. U.S. officials say Iran is expected to target military and government sites.
- A judge has struck down Georgia’s six-week abortion ban, allowing the procedure to resume and making it legal up to 22 weeks of pregnancy.
Investment News
📈September 2024’s Portfolio Success stories from SeedBlink – We’ve featured many of these companies throughout these months. If any of them have caught your eye, you can have a look at how they’re doing in SeedBlink’s latest article.
- Questo– the travel startup used by 500,000 people worldwide, is raising €630,000 in funding round to scale its gamified event solution.
- I Love Failure – raising €300,000 to expand its platform dedicated to personal and professional growth.
- Maskots – raising €200,000 to expand its pet care app, helping pet owners keep their animals happy and healthy.
Note: Got a round going that you want to feature – your own business or a portfolio company? Get in touch.
There’s an exciting Flippa update I want to share with you. They’ve now created a category for digital agencies.
The global market for them was estimated in 2021 at about $4.2B and is expected to double by 2027. As part of the digital agency community for about 15 years, exciting times are up ahead!
Prop Trading SaaS Product and Service – This business offers trading education and a trading platform has generated a staggering $970.7K in revenue in one year of operation.
- Monthly profit: $54,074
- Profit margin: 68%
- Client value: up to $20K
AI Meeting and Notetaking Tool – This AI SaaS tool featuring a meeting recorder and notetaker has grown primarily through word of mouth.
- MRR: $2,032
- CLTV: $537
- Business age: 2 years
Chatbot Digital Product Store – This ecommerce business sells multiple digital products for business uses including ChatGPT prompts, Whatsapp tools, and ready-made website templates.
- Monthly profit: $488
- Refund rate: 1%
- Business age: 2 years
Need My Help?
I’m involved with a number of initiatives – here’s what I can do to help you:
🌐Scalable and secure WordPress? DevriX provides WordPress retainers to SMEs, publishers, eCommerce, SaaS, and more. Our plans start from $1,200/mo to $40K/mo for anything from support through engineering, CRO, performance, security, to fractional CXO services and managing the data stacks of large corps.
🚀Want to scale and optimize your business? Growth Shuttle offers personalized advisory plans starting at $600/hr. Tap into my personal pool of business know-how and my data warehouse of industry data.
🎥Want access to my blueprints/books and a weekly Slack planning session? Join my Community and grab my Entrepreneurship book.
📈Looking to start a US company? Check out doola and their “Business in a Box” model. Suitable for both foreigners and US citizens and both for residents and non-residents.
📊Have you tried buying and selling digital property? Have a look at Flippa’s marketplace. They offer a vast variety of online businesses for any buyer’s interest. Or if you’re ready for an exit, Flippa provides you with the necessary tools to list your business and close the deal.
💼Looking for investment opportunities? Check out SeedBlink and use Nimity to manage it.
💡Eager to incorporate my recommended solutions? Track my angel investments. Sharing, applying for open roles, or writing reviews helps a ton. And anything else I try to publish on my blog and my courses here!