David vs. Goliath: Justin Ferriman on How Underdog Entrepreneurs Can Overpower Bigger Software Competitors

04/02/24 • 49 min

Justin Ferriman is the founder and former CEO of LearnDash, a platform that he grew from a simple blog to one of the leading solutions in the LMS space through a mixture of aggressive marketing and clever ‘guerilla’ tactics that helped him take on bigger competitors. He’s a non-technical founder who approaches business with a competitive streak that’s seen him go from underdog to top dog in the eLearning industry.

At the height of LearnDash’s success, Justin sold the company at 32% YoY growth with a whopping 76% profit margin. He’s since settled into the role of elite business coach at his company BrightGrowth, where he nurtures and guides the star entrepreneurs of the future.

Thanks to a combination of savvy business instincts, constant content creation, and confident competitiveness, Justin has realized great success. In this episode, we examine the specific strategies and tactics he used to take on bigger competitors with more resources to emerge as the victor.

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Thanks to Justin for joining us and providing such valuable advice about building successful distributed companies. Join us next week with Amir Helzer, the founder of OnTheGoSystems. His company is responsible for WPML, the leading multilingual plugin used by more than a million websites.

plugin.fm is brought to you by Freemius, your all-in-one payments, subscriptions, and taxes platform for selling software, plugins, themes, and SaaS. If you enjoyed this episode, head over to plugin.fm to check out previous episodes.

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Previous Episode

Bootstrapping in the Spotlight: Arvid Kahl on How Software Creators Can Perfect the Art of Building in Public

Arvid Kahl co-founded FeedBack Panda, which he bootstrapped and later sold for a life-changing amount to SureSwift Capital. He is also a published author and writes extensively about entrepreneurship and bootstrapping.

But he’s much more than a software creator and value-driven entrepreneur: Arvid is passionate about sharing the journey. His openness, honesty, and transparency during product development and beyond have rightfully positioned him as a passionate advocate of the ‘build in public’ movement.

In this episode of plugin.fm, Arvid shares his insights about how software product founders can tread the fine line between transparency and business strategy. More than this, we explore the profound impact that building in public can have on software product makers' lives and careers.

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Thanks to Arvid for joining us and providing such valuable advice about building successful distributed companies. Join us next week with non-technical founder Justin Ferriman as he discusses how underdog entrepreneurs can overpower bigger software companies.

Next Episode

Freemium to Premium: Amir Helzer Reveals Key Lessons from WPML's Business Model Transformation

Amir Helzer is the founder of OnTheGoSystems, the company behind WPML, a leading multilingual plugin used by over a million websites. Originally, WPML was a freemium plugin, but due to unfortunate — even somewhat controversial — circumstances, Amir and his team decided to make the product paid only. This business model shift would end up transforming his company for the better.

In this episode, we dive into the challenges and dynamics of taking a product from freemium to premium successfully, from community buy-in and market positioning to pricing models and retaining users. Whether you're a seasoned developer or a budding entrepreneur, this episode is a must-listen for anyone navigating the ever-changing landscape of software monetization.

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Thanks to Amir for joining us and providing such valuable advice about building successful distributed companies. Join us next week with Yoast founder Joost de Valk for his insights about the power of raising funds in bootstrapping ecosystems.