ABOUT THIS EPISODE
In this episode, Marko Saric shares how the project grew from a solo developer’s side hustle into a profitable SaaS with over 15,000 paying customers all without ads, affiliates, or outside funding. He dives into their open-source journey, content-led marketing strategy, and why they’ve chosen a calm, independent path over hyper-growth.
About Marko Saric:
Marko Saric is the co-founder of Plausible Analytics, a lightweight, privacy-friendly alternative to Google Analytics. With a background in content marketing and a passion for open-source and ethical tech, Marko has helped scale Plausible into a profitable SaaS business without relying on ads, funding, or aggressive growth tactics.
Here is what we cover:
- Founding Story: Started by Uku; growth stalled until Marko joined via a blog post connection.
- Bootstrapped Growth: Now over $1M ARR, fully profitable with no investors.
- Open Source Shift: Transitioned to open source early on; tightened license after clones.
- Marketing Approach: Entirely content-driven; no paid ads or affiliates.
- Work Culture: 4-day workweeks, remote-first, and low-stress by design.
- Competing with Free: Users willingly pay for privacy, simplicity, and trust.
- Pricing Model: Starts at $9/month; many small customers keep them independent.
- Final Advice: Stay true to values, build long-term trust, and avoid chasing every growth channel.
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-------------------------- About Churnkey --------------------------
Churnkey is the retention automation platform that lowers your churn, boosts your MRR, speeds your growth, and launches your enterprise value to the moon. We help companies stop churn at the point of cancellation, recover failed payments, learn why customers are cancelling, and fix it. We don't just provide data. We take action.
