Vibecast

I sold my side-project, Vibecast.

https://www.indiehackers.com/product/vibecast

As I've nearly finished handing it over to the new owner (who will keep it running as it is), and in the spirit of remaining open about Vibecast, here are some positive unintended consequences that happened from running a side hustle.

Although I can't (NDAs) breakdown the exact figures, Vibecast as a side project earned me almost £50k (around $65k) over two years split between three areas:

• 18-months of monthly revenue.
• The final sale price.
• I sold two licences to use some of the code for non-competing industries.

The sale of the licences was a complete surprise. One was a church website builder and the other for a Podcast application. Both were US companies who approached me directly after launching.

Money aside, the value that Vibecast has given and still gives me is enormous.

• Constant freelance offers, which started before I launched it.

• Headhunted for awesome web application projects.

• A ton of consultancy work.

• I'm currently building the 2021 McDonald's Monopoly website and app (using the same technology).

• My next consultancy gig is for a big ticketing company, allowing users to create event landing pages.

None of the above would be possible without Vibecast.

And my next project, similar in spec but different in design and market, will be infinitely easier to create while armed with a wealth of knowledge, experience and resources. I have no doubt I'll benefit directly from Vibecast for many more years to come.

It's not all been plain sailing though, on several occasions, it almost broke me. But sometimes, bending yourself out of your comfort zone is the biggest lesson you can learn. And if what your creating was easy, everyone would be doing it.

It took a long time to build as I designed and developed it part-time while freelancing, and I had no idea what I was doing initially. Now I see Vibecast as the university degree I never had, and I will always be grateful for that.

Huge thank you to everyone close to me over the late 2010s for putting up with "The Vibecast Show" while I was building it. Your relentless ear-bashing never went unnoticed.

My first project down, and it didn't tank - thank god! Now on to the next.

And cheers to becoming a tech "thousandaire". 😂

🥂 🍾

Here's the original open letter when I put it up for sale a few months ago https://jackbarham.medium.com/vibecast-is-looking-for-a-new-owner-is-that-you-c7cb0973ba56

It took just under five months to clear the first £1000 net and a little over five weeks to get the second! From a relatively low subscription price ($8pm / $72py - I class it as a consumer product), it seems the exponential nature of a subscription model is beginning to show it's hand.

Also, hit the £3000 per year recurring (£250pm) and generated £478 over the last 30 days alone.

The net income is still tiny, but there are a few more partnerships in progress, all while freelancing full-time and without investment.

It's going to be an exciting year 🎧 🤓

https://www.dropbox.com/s/a0gp2frfok74zcu/IH-feb-revenue.png

I've secured Vibecast's first partnership with London Sound Academy (LSA), a DJ and Production course based in London and other cities in the UK.

Vibecast offers a free one year account (DJ or Producer website) for anyone who graduates from an LSA Advanced or Elite three-day course.

In return, LSA has a paragraph about Vibecast with a link back to our website in each course page, explaining what Vibecast is, and that it's free when finishing a course.

This partnership is fantastic for exposure, links, SEO and overall acknowledgement and legitimacy for Vibecast. DJs searching for a course (they are top of Google searches for DJ courses locally) might not buy one from LSA, will still see Vibecast mentioned in a good light.

Also, they've done a great job pushing us across their socials as we have the same users, and we mutually benefit each other.

On top of all that, we'll periodically give them free accounts to give away in competitions, and they give us free courses to do the same. Also, we'll run joint competitions for DJ sets at Ministry of Sound, Printworks, The Egg and other major London nightclubs.

It's amazing such an established brand has this much faith in Vibecast, and they will recommend Vibecast as part of their advanced courses on promoting yourself.

Now that LSA is confirmed, we're looking for more partnerships with similar schools in other major cities across the world. We're also looking to partner with online DJ equipment retailers too.

Fingers crossed this will be the marketing we need without having a marketing budget.

Read the announcement: https://www.londonsoundacademy.com/blog/build-a-dj-website-with-vibecast

Vibecast generated £826.10 (approx. $1060,00 USD). I'm keeping all my revenue in Stripe until I've hit an amount that I feel is a good start to activate the Vibecast Ltd business account.

Revenue is collected as monthly or yearly plans with a total of 15 subscribers:

• Monthly $8 (7 subscribers)
• Yearly $72 (8 subscribers)

Subscriptions started in August, but the majority came on board in the last few months. I've had zero subscriptions cancelled, and two have switched to yearly from monthly (it's three months free).

I'm also predicting new subscribers over the next 10 days, as those that are still on the 30-day free trial around 10-15 of them have created a full website and presumably will continue with a subscription.

I'm not sure how to post a picture on here: https://www.dropbox.com/s/sx9m4trqa3172qr/revenue-1000.png

On Friday I was interviewed by Data Transmission's Graham Farmer on the BOOST DJ podcast.

We talk about why artists need a website, how I built the platform single-handedly based on my own DJ experiences, and why I'm avoiding early investment because Vibecast is about quality, not quantity.

https://datatransmission.co/learn/boost-podcast/why-you-need-an-artist-website-with-jack-barham-vibecast/

As Vibecast is a website builder for DJs, I thought I would post it in the /r/DJs subreddit this morning. It got some traction and a few comments (all positive).

Then a mod allowed it to stay as apparently promoting business is not allowed (I was not aware of this), but as I was engaging in comments and posted as a genuine DJ and want to help other DJs, it was allowed to stay.

Once that happened it starting getting a load of likes and even more positive comments. Now it's trending and at the top of /r/DJs.

https://www.reddit.com/r/DJs/comments/d90s0u/ive_created_a_website_builder_designed_for_djs/

Today I'm super stoked that Vibecast, the website builder designed for DJs has been hunted on Product Hunt.

Please do join the conversation as I'd love to get your feedback.

View the Product Hunt page here: https://www.producthunt.com/posts/vibecast