Stair stepping to millions in SaaS revenue - Craig Hewitt, Castos

Stair stepping to millions in SaaS revenue - Craig Hewitt, Castos

Author: James McKinven March 8, 2023 Duration: 16:37

Craig Hewitt is the Founder and CEO of Castos, a bootstrapped podcast hosting and analytics platform with a services arm for podcast production. He’s been in podcasting almost a decade, having started his own show, Rogue Startups and his production service Podcast Motor (which he folded into Castos). Craig not only shares his ponderings on his show, but he also writes a weekly newsletter called Founder Insights.

What we covered in this episode:

  • Craig's background in sales
  • Launching a podcasting productized service in 2014
  • Stair stepping to SaaS
  • Acquiring Seriously Simple Podcasting
  • Product positioning
  • Growth and marketing for Castos
  • His approach to podcasting
  • Bootstrapping vs raising
  • Founder Insights newsletter

Recommendations

Follow Craig

My links

Sponsor - Ahrefs

Thank you to Ahrefs for sponsoring Indie Bites. Ahrefs is the most complete and valuable SEO tool on the market. Bootstrapped companies such as VEED and Transistor have used Ahrefs extensively to understand how to craft their SEO strategies, which have been such a pivotal part of their growth.

If you want to get more traffic from Google on your side-project, I’d recommend first trying out Ahrefs Webmaster Tools for free. You’ll see what keywords your pages are ranking for, understand how Google sees your content and discover what changes you need to improve your search ranking. You should also check out their YouTube channel to understand both the basics of SEO and some more advanced techniques.

To try out Ahrefs Webmaster Tools, head to ahrefs.com/webmaster-tools


Every Tuesday, James McKinven sits down for a short chat with someone who’s quietly building a business on their own terms. Indie Bites focuses on the real, often messy, beginnings of profitable, bootstrapped ventures. Instead of abstract theory, you’ll hear founders explain the exact moment an idea clicked, the scrappy ways they tested it without spending a fortune, and how they landed those crucial first few customers. The conversations are deliberately kept concise, getting straight to the practical insights that make a difference when you’re starting with limited time and resources. This podcast digs into the specifics of creating a sustainable income independently, covering the intersection of entrepreneurship, marketing, and hands-on business tactics. It’s for anyone who prefers learning from direct experience rather than corporate playbooks, offering a regular dose of motivation and actionable advice from people who are actually doing the work.
Author: Language: English Episodes: 100

Indie Bites
Podcast Episodes
Andrew Gazdecki on the best way to sell your indie SaaS business [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 16:36
Andrew Gazdecki is the founder of Acquire, previously known as MicroAcquire, the largest startup acquisition marketplace. I’ve spoken to many indie hackers about selling their businesses, many of whom have done so using…
How Tally grew to $150k MRR in 5 years - Marie Martens [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 17:24
Marie Martens is the co-founder of Tally, a form builder she started with her partner Filip, now used by half a million people and are over $150k MRR. Marie was on the pod 3 years ago when they’d scaled to 16,000 users a…
Why the Marketoonist is the dream indie business - Tom Fishburne [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 16:38
Tom Fishburne is the founder of Marketoonist, a bootstrapped marketing cartoon business he started in 2010. He started drawing and sharing cartoons in 2002, and it took him 8 years to make the leap, despite having a succ…
Why Jack Ellis acquired Fathom Analytics from his co-founder [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 14:10
Jack Ellis is the co-founder of Fathom Analytics, a simple, privacy focused analytics tool launched in 2019. I last spoke to Jack on the podcast in 2021, where he talked about the inception and growth of Fathom, taking o…
Typeshare's $34k MRR bootstrapped journey - Sam Shore [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 15:10
Sam Shore is the co-founder of Typeshare, a writing platform made to create and publish text across the internet. Typeshare has made over $1m in revenue since it was started in 2021, with over 80,000 user, currently $34k…
How to sell your indie business - Josh Peleg [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 15:10
Today I’m not actually joined by an indie hacker, but by someone who can help a lot of indies out there. Josh Peleg is the Head of Biz Dev and Mergers and Acquisitions at BlueThrone. Essentially, he knows all about how t…