Taking on Google with Fathom Analytics and growing a course to $150k - Jack Ellis, Fathom

10/28/21 • 15 min

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Jack Ellis is the co-founder of Fathom Analytics, started with Paul Jarvis in 2019. Jack handles the technical side of the business, but isn't afraid to get on the mic on their podcast, Above Board, or send out some spicy tweets. Jack also runs the Serverless Laravel course, which he launched back in 2020. After this conversation Jack has turned into a true friend, speaking with me for several hours after, a genuinely nice chap. You’re going to want the same thing after listening to this pod. Jack talks with great wisdom on how to approach bootstrapping a SaaS company and taking on a huge incumbent.

➡️ Here's my course on starting a podcast in 2 hours or less (use "bites" for $10 off)

What we covered in this episode:

What is Fathom Analytics
Joining as a co-founder after the company was founded
How Fathom started
How did they know Fathom was going to work
What growth tactics did Fathom use to grow?
How did they convince people to pay for analytics?
The trade-off of free software
How do you compete in a market with a huge incumbent
Starting a medium competitor, Pico
Benefits of having a co-founder
Quitting a job for Jack's first side-project
Starting a course (Serverless Laravel) that made $150,000

Recommendations

Book: 7 Habits of Highly Effective People
Podcast: Huberman Lab
Indie Hacker: N/A

Follow Jack

Follow Me

Sponsor - Part Time Tech Jobs

Thank you to my friend Charlie from Weekend Club for sponsoring this episode, with his new project Part Time Tech Jobs, which is a fantastic site for finding and posting, you guessed it, part time tech jobs
If you’re looking to transistion from a full-time role to indie hacking, finding a part time role might be just the thing for you to de-risk that transition. And on the other side, if you’re looking to hire great entrepreneurial talent without breaking the bank, this is where you should post.

So if you’re looking for a part time tech job, head to parttimetechjobs.co or if you’re looking for tech talent, use the code INDIEBITES for 80% off all featured posts.

➡️ Here's my course on starting a podcast in 2 hours or less (use "bites" for $10 off)

What we covered in this episode:

What is Fathom Analytics
Joining as a co-founder after the company was founded
How Fathom started
How did they know Fathom was going to work
What growth tactics did Fathom use to grow?
How did they convince people to pay for analytics?
The trade-off of free software
How do you compete in a market with a huge incumbent
Starting a medium competitor, Pico
Benefits of having a co-founder
Quitting a job for Jack's first side-project
Starting a course (Serverless Laravel) that made $150,000

Recommendations

Book: 7 Habits of Highly Effective People
Podcast: Huberman Lab
Indie Hacker: N/A

Follow Jack

Follow Me

Sponsor - Part Time Tech Jobs

So if you’re looking for a part time tech job, head to parttimetechjobs.co or if you’re looking for tech talent, use the code INDIEBITES for 80% off all featured posts.

Previous Episode

Building a portfolio of projects to $6k in one month - Pete Codes, No CS Degree

Pete runs No CS Degree, among other things, sharing stories of people who have made it as a developer, without going down the traditional route of getting a computer science degree, showing how it's possible to earn a nice salary without going to university. He has also started High Signal, a community for revenue verified entrepreneurs, a site for finding fully remote companies (sold) and finally made 2 courses where you'll learn how to both monetize and grow your newsletter.

➡️ Here's my course on starting a podcast in 2 hours or less.

What we covered in this episode

Pete's crazy backstory
How he got into entreprenuership
Most inspiring story from No CS Degree
How does Pete get revenue
Getting a sponsor for a course
How do you grow a newsletter
Launching a monetize your newsletter course
Doing a bundle deal with other indie hackers
Starting the High Signal community
Why some paid communities are bad
Pete's nifty pricing trick
Launching a job board

Recommendations

Follow Pete

Follow Me

Thanks to this episode's sponsor, Churnkey

It can be a huge challenge to keep churn down when your SaaS product starts to see traction. The founders of Churnkey know exactly how much of a challenge this can be, having collectively grown three SaaS companies to over $4m in ARR.

They realized that they were thinking about cancellations all wrong. A relationship with a customer doesn’t stop with the “Cancel” button. So they built Churnkey, which reduces churn by up to 42% with custom cancellation flows. For every customer who clicks “Cancel,” Churnkey offers up dynamic offers that encourage customers to stay subscribed.

Just connect Stripe and plug in a small bit of code. In minutes, you’ll be reducing churn by immediately unlocking subscription pauses, dynamic offers, and cancellation insights.

See how much revenue Churnkey can recover for you. Visit churnkey.co to start your free trial.

Next Episode

From $500k to $1m in 6 months with a podcast agency - Harry Morton, Lowerstreet

Harry Morton is the founder of Lower Street Media, a podcast production agency that specialises in premium podcasts for ambitious companies. Lower Street are the agency behind top shows such as Secret Leaders, Technology Untangled and WFH Daily. Harry's business has skyrocketed since COVID, doubling in size of revenue and headcount in the last 6-months as more companies start to realise how effective podcasting can be. Harry also runs Single Track Conf, a 3-day mountain-biking founder retreat.

➡️ Here's my course on starting a podcast in 2 hours or less (use "bites" for $10 off)

What we covered in this episode:

Why start an agency? it's not exactly a dream business to start.
How Harry grew Lowerstreet through cold outreach
- 1st client, Ultimate Leadership Podcast
Why the productising model didn't work out for Lowerstreet
What Harry did in the early days for growth
How losing 30% of revenue was a catalyst for growth
Doubling the agency revenue in 6 months
Quitting his job with no savings to start Lowersteet
Not knowing what to do when starting the company
Addressing shiny object syndrome
Why focus vs portfolio of projects argument is BS
The secret sauce for making a sh*t hot podcast
How to make a show that stands out
Starting a mountain bike community

Recommendations

Book: Out on The Wire by Jessica Abel
Podcast: Startup
Indie Hacker: Andrew Wilkinson

Follow Harry

Follow Me

Sponsor - 2 Hour Podcast

Yes, that's right, I'm sponsoring my own show 🤯

After producing hundreds of podcasts for myself and clients, I've been pouring all of my knowledge into my new course, 2 Hour Podcast, which shows you how to start, grow and monetize a podcast that takes you less than 2 hours per week.

I know lots of people who want to start a pod and reap the rewards, but struggle to find the time, which is exactly why I made this course.

I've taken a three-pronged approach to making a podcast efficiently. The first is a step-by-step video guide to creating your show, covering everything from branding, to editing to hosting. The second part is a 90 minute tutorial where I make a my own podcast completely from scratch, recording the first episode with Arvid Kahl, using the tips from part 1. The final prong is my full Notion system for creating my show, including my episode CRM, guest and outreach templates, plus an episode briefing doc.

Head to 2hourpodcast.com to get the full course and get $10 off with the code "bites" at checkout.