E06 w/ Bryce Adams: Pivoting his strategy into his strengths

Carl Alexander built Ymir — a serverless AWS platform that deploys WordPress and PHP applications onto a customer's own AWS account — and the twenty-five customers who run production stores on it never leave. They also all pay $39 a month, and nobody new signs up. Did four years falsify the market, or was it the wrong buyers? It's the second one. The $39, the self-serve signup, the WordPress developer he kept aiming at — every piece of the offer points away from the thing he's world-class at, which is teaching people how this works. Cohost Bryce Adams bootstrapped Metorik on the same platform, and he's been telling Carl to charge more for years. He and I dig into who the buyer actually is, and what Carl should be selling him. A candid working session including: - five years of talks, zero customers - $39 versus "bet our company on it" - the joke tier he shouldn't have deleted - what Metorik charged from day one - should he stop going to conferences? ME ME ME!!! Subscribe on YouTube 📘 Get my book 📘 My bio + 20 years of articles Twitter | LinkedIn STARRING CARL ALEXANDER Ymir Ymir Reports Blog Twitter | LinkedIn WITH COHOST BRYCE ADAMS Metorik Twitter REFERENCED IN THIS EPISODE "Using the Needs Stack for Competitive Strategy" "SaaSocalypse" video by Jesse Hanley TIMESTAMPS (00:00) - A business customers love but that nobody buys - framing the puzzle, then Carl Alexander and cohost Bryce Adams (Metorik) (04:08) - Diagnosing 4 years of failed WordPress-developer marketing - and proving the market already exists (12:40) - Rejecting the succession-plan fix, then hunting the buyer pattern in Carl's 4 paying customers (17:22) - Engaged developers aren't buyers: why the "resonating" marketing wasn't actually working (22:45) - Finding the real decision-maker: not the developer who claps, the CTO who signs (26:40) - The $39/mo price that contradicts "mission-critical, dependable" (40:10) - "Carl as a service": the $20K consulting offer bundled with $500/mo software (54:29) - Landing on $1,000/mo, validated by Bryce's own Metorik pricing history (59:32) - Redefining the ideal customer: a $5M+ GMV WooCommerce store (01:09:29) - Sell to agencies, not individual stores (01:19:25) - The ICP crystallizes: an agency already committed to AWS that just needs expert help (01:31:25) - The conference rule: only go for leads or credibility (01:37:56) - Carl commits to raise the price before this episode airs (01:40:29) - Closing: the WordCamp party story