In this episode of the Trial to Paid podcast, Rob Morgan chats with Jerad Maplethorpe, founder of Hypertxt, an AI-driven SEO article writing tool. Jerad shares his journey from ideating and building projects to focusing on creating profitable businesses. He delves into his guiding principles, his background in writing and web development, and the evolution of Hypertext. The conversation covers the successes and challenges Jerad faced, including targeting the right audience, pricing strategies, and the importance of user feedback. Despite facing hurdles such as churn and shifting user behaviour, Jerad highlights his ongoing passion for building products and his current work on a new tool aimed at simplifying the creation of newsletters. The episode is packed with valuable insights for aspiring founders, especially those interested in bootstrapping and indie hacking.
Chapters
00:00 Introduction and Welcoming Jerad
00:18 Guiding Principles in Business
01:19 Discussing SaaS Product Hypertext
01:43 Jerad's Background and College Days
03:12 Early Web Development and Projects
05:12 First Successful Product: Narrow
08:11 Challenges and Lessons Learned
09:19 Introduction to Hypertext
10:49 Target Audience and User Experience
23:18 Validation and Market Fit
25:58 Competitors and Market Position
31:27 Business Progress and Future Plans
39:42 Understanding Customer Profiles
40:01 The Benefits of Structured AI Tools
42:10 Challenges in Marketing and Conversion
42:49 Initial Trials and Marketing Strategies
46:38 Building and Iterating the Product
50:39 Tech Stack and Development Insights
52:28 Key Wins and Learning from Failures
01:01:27 Future Plans and Philosophies
01:07:45 Advice for Aspiring Founders
Jerad's Links
Hypertxt: https://hypertxt.ai
NewsletterOps: https://newsletterops.ai
LinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/in/maplethorpe/
X: https://x.com/maplethorpej
Rob's Links
Trial to Paid: https://trialtopaid.io
LinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/in/rbdmorgan
Chapters
00:00 Introduction and Welcoming Jerad
00:18 Guiding Principles in Business
01:19 Discussing SaaS Product Hypertext
01:43 Jerad's Background and College Days
03:12 Early Web Development and Projects
05:12 First Successful Product: Narrow
08:11 Challenges and Lessons Learned
09:19 Introduction to Hypertext
10:49 Target Audience and User Experience
23:18 Validation and Market Fit
25:58 Competitors and Market Position
31:27 Business Progress and Future Plans
39:42 Understanding Customer Profiles
40:01 The Benefits of Structured AI Tools
42:10 Challenges in Marketing and Conversion
42:49 Initial Trials and Marketing Strategies
46:38 Building and Iterating the Product
50:39 Tech Stack and Development Insights
52:28 Key Wins and Learning from Failures
01:01:27 Future Plans and Philosophies
01:07:45 Advice for Aspiring Founders
Jerad's Links
Hypertxt: https://hypertxt.ai
NewsletterOps: https://newsletterops.ai
LinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/in/maplethorpe/
X: https://x.com/maplethorpej
Rob's Links
Trial to Paid: https://trialtopaid.io
LinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/in/rbdmorgan
