Jerad Maplethorpe

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.Chapters00:00 Introduction and Welcoming Jerad00:18 Guiding Principles in Business01:19 Discussing SaaS Product Hypertext01:43 Jerad's Background and College Days03:12 Early Web Development and Projects05:12 First Successful Product: Narrow08:11 Challenges and Lessons Learned09:19 Introduction to Hypertext10:49 Target Audience and User Experience23:18 Validation and Market Fit25:58 Competitors and Market Position31:27 Business Progress and Future Plans39:42 Understanding Customer Profiles40:01 The Benefits of Structured AI Tools42:10 Challenges in Marketing and Conversion42:49 Initial Trials and Marketing Strategies46:38 Building and Iterating the Product50:39 Tech Stack and Development Insights52:28 Key Wins and Learning from Failures01:01:27 Future Plans and Philosophies01:07:45 Advice for Aspiring FoundersJerad's LinksHypertxt: https://hypertxt.aiNewsletterOps: https://newsletterops.aiLinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/in/maplethorpe/X: https://x.com/maplethorpej Rob's LinksTrial to Paid: https://trialtopaid.ioLinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/in/rbdmorgan-----Music: "Nightfall" by OlexandrMusic (https://soundcloud.com/olexandrmusic)