#30 Selling your startup and buying it back with Steve Ridout

In this episode, we're talking to Steve Rideout, founder of ReadLang, who turned his own struggle with learning Spanish into a successful language learning product.

We dive into his journey of building ReadLang from a simple translation tool to a $10K+ MRR business, including its unexpected detour through Duolingo - where Steve not only sold his company but also helped create Duolingo Stories, before buying ReadLang back at a quarter of the original price.

Other topics include how Steve achieves growth purely through word of mouth, his experience with freemium pricing from $10/year to $48/year, and how he's managing to thrive in an increasingly AI-dominated language learning space.

We also talk about the challenges of being a solo founder, when to focus on product versus marketing, and the surprising observation that his best revenue months coincide with when he works the least.

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Steve's Website: https://steveridout.com/

Steve's Twitter: https://x.com/Steve_Ridout

Readlang Website: https://readlang.com/

My own website: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://icebearlabs.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

You can find this podcast on: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://codeandconquer.fm⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

Find our product here: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.repodcasted.com/