Founder Playbook · Starter Story
9 tactics from Katie
I Make $150K/Month From 20 Tiny Apps
Watch the full episode“we do have more paying customers than that because that doesn't include people who bought a lifetime deal which is about 15% of our revenue”
Offer Lifetime Deals as 15% of Revenue Without Cannibalizing Subscriptions
Katie deliberately caps lifetime deals at roughly 15% of revenue, using them as a parallel pricing tier rather than a fire-sale tactic. This lets her monetize buyers who would never commit to a subscription while protecting the predictable recurring base. The two-tier structure (annual + lifetime) expands the addressable market without undermining subscription pricing.
“There used to be a website called the Woo Commerce ideas forum and we chose an idea that lots of people were voting for.”
Mine a Public Ideas Forum to Validate Demand Before Building Anything
Katie's first plugin came directly from a public forum where real users voted on missing features — pre-validated demand with zero customer interviews needed. Finding a forum, marketplace, or community where your target users actively request features collapses validation time to near zero because the votes are a live signal of willingness to pay.
“customers started sending us requests for new features in that plug-in and sometimes it was best to achieve that not through a feature but a completely different plug-in”
Let Customer Requests Reveal Your Next Product, Not a Planning Session
Katie never sat down with a list of 19 ideas — the portfolio grew organically from listening to paying users. Spinning a frequently requested feature into a separate product keeps the core plugin lean while creating a new revenue stream the customer already wants to buy.
“I started publishing blog posts and tutorials about how to password protect categories in Woo Commerce and because it was unique we got to the top of Google straight away and we got our first sales within a few days.”
Writing the Only Tutorial for an Unsolved Problem Gets You to Page One Fast
Because Katie's plugin solved a problem nobody else had solved, publishing tutorials about that exact problem produced immediate first-page rankings and sales within days of launch. Writing the only tutorial for an unserved keyword means Google has nothing else to rank, making the path to position one almost trivially short.
“We've always been very good at producing genuinely helpful unique content about a wide range of use cases relating to our plugins.”
Cover Every Use Case in Content to Multiply Your Organic Entry Points
Rather than relying on product pages alone, Katie's team systematically covered the many different scenarios where each plugin could be useful. Each use-case article captures a distinct long-tail search query, multiplying the total surface area of organic traffic. This approach turns a single plugin into dozens of SEO entry points, each pulling in visitors with high purchase intent.
“after 3 days following the purchase we send an email offering them 50% off their next plug-in”
Send a 50% Off Email to Existing Customers Exactly 3 Days Post-Purchase
Katie triggers a cross-sell email at day 3, after the customer has had time to install and experience the plugin but before the initial excitement fades. The 50% discount lowers the barrier to a second purchase and turns single-product buyers into multi-product customers, directly compounding LTV across the portfolio.
“prioritize the ideas that have overlapping market so that you get that cross promotion opportunity”
Build Overlapping-Market Products to Make Cross-Promotion Automatic
Katie's portfolio isn't random — every plugin targets the same WordPress/WooCommerce customer. When product audiences overlap completely, cross-selling becomes a built-in distribution channel rather than extra effort, and each new product strengthens the existing ones.
“Don't build multiple products and launch them all at once because every time you build a product you need to give it a decent amount of time to do the marketing and grow it without distractions.”
Launch One Product Fully Before Adding a Second — Never Split Focus
Katie's explicit playbook step is to build and launch only one product first, giving it dedicated time for marketing and user feedback before starting the next. Splitting attention across multiple simultaneous launches dilutes both the marketing effort and the feedback signal from early users, making it harder for any single product to gain traction.
“once you get something out into the world then opportunities start coming your way even if your first product isn't a success you'll learn a huge amount from the experience”
Once You Launch the First Product, Opportunities Start Coming to You
Katie's mindset reframes shipping as an information-gathering act, not a do-or-die bet. Getting a product live puts you in contact with real users whose feedback and requests become the roadmap for every subsequent product — staying in planning mode permanently cuts off that signal entirely.