#359 - Interviewing Craig Hewitt on International Expansion, AI and Raising Funds While Building Castos

I chat with Craig Hewitt , founder of Castos. We talk about his journey from running a podcast editing agency to building a SaaS hosting platform. We cover the challenges of bootstrapping, raising funds, and going international. Craig shares how he uses distribution channels, how AI affects small teams, and what it’s like to scale in a niche market. We end with advice for indie founders on picking business models, taking risks, and keeping up with tech changes.

My twitter: https://x.com/wbetiago

About Craig Hewitt

Twitter: https://x.com/TheCraigHewitt

Podcast: https://roguestartups.com/

Timestamps by Podsqueeze

Greg’s Background and Starting Podcast Motor (00:01:02)

Getting First Clients and Sales Approach (00:06:29)

US vs. Europe: Customer Acquisition Differences (00:08:25)

Localization and Multi-Currency Pricing (00:13:18)

Transition from Agency to SaaS: Castus (00:16:30)

Distribution Channels and Product Positioning (00:19:06)

Impact of AI on Team and Product Development (00:25:28)

Bootstrapping vs. Raising Money: Tiny Seed Experience (00:30:25)

Agency vs. SaaS: Which to Start First? (00:31:33)

Tiny Seed Accelerator: Value and Learnings (00:35:55)

Distribution, Churn, and Growth Challenges (00:38:56)

Balancing Family, Agency, SaaS, and Accelerator (00:41:05)

Using Investment to Scale and the Realities of Raising Money (00:44:05)

Investor Returns and Exit Expectations (00:51:19)

Podcasting Market Realities and Churn (00:54:10)

Pricing, Retention, and Content Marketing Plateau (00:57:23)

What to Do When Growth Plateaus (01:00:59)

AI’s Impact on SaaS and the Economy (01:10:21)

US vs. Europe: Entrepreneurial Mindset Differences (01:14:53)

Conclusion and Where to Find Greg (01:17:58)

Links and Mentions

Tools and Websites

"Castos": "00:01:02"

"Podcast Motor": "00:01:02"

"Audacity": "00:05:40"

"Ecom from Skype": "00:05:40"

"Blueberry": "00:05:50"

"Buzzsprout": "00:05:50"

"Seriously Simple Podcasting": "00:17:36"

"HubSpot": "00:19:14"

"Cursor": "00:15:11"

"Zencastr": "00:22:33"

"Zoom": "00:22:33"

"Figma": "00:24:26"

"Cursor": "00:27:41"

"TinySeed": "00:30:25"

"11 Labs": "00:26:30"

"Claude": "00:26:30"

"Marnus": "00:26:30"

"TinySeed": "00:48:33"

"WordPress": "00:51:19"

"Podsqueeze": "00:54:10"

"Apple Podcast Connect": "00:55:13"

"Rogue Startups": "01:17:58"

Books

"Steal Like an Artist": "00:19:31"

Videos and Podcasts

"Nathan Barry's Podcast": "01:08:40"