The Advantage with Mike Wystrach

Episodes

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  Navigating the Creator Economy | Vitalii Dodonov, Stan 12.08.2026 49m

  Vitalii Dodonov is the co-founder and CTO of Stan, a creator commerce platform that's generated over $600M for it's creators. Every other platform in the category takes 10 to 20 percent of what a creator sells. Stan takes nothing.Presented by Proppel. Hire A-player marketing and ops talent from the US and LATAM, and get 10% off your first hire: https://www.weareproppel.com/theadvantageMike's IG: https://www.instagram.com/mikewystrach/In late 2022 Stan was doing roughly $1 million a year, and a slice of that was commission. They had added the cut for the reason everyone adds it: the rest of the category had one. Then Vitalii and his co-founder John Hu built the spreadsheet that killed it. They deleted transaction fees entirely and put the business on a flat $30 a month. Revenue went from $1 million to $15 million to $27 million.Giving up a take rate at $1 million ARR means giving up the fastest-compounding line in the business. Mike walks him back into the room where that call was made, who pushed back, and what settled it. Vitalii is also clear that removing the fee is not what caused the 8.5x. The growth came from building a product people talked about, on no marketing budget.A team of 30 changes the operative question: it stops being what to build and becomes what to refuse to build. And the thesis underneath is strange for a monetization company. Monetization was never the hard part. Attention is easy to accumulate and almost nobody knows what to do with it. Distribution is the bottleneck, and creator churn is structural rather than a product failure. That produced Stanley, the AI head of content Stan built in 14 days.Chapters00:00:00 Introduction00:07:46 He Turned Down A Mid-Six-Figure Amazon Offer00:14:01 Time In The Arena Beats Founder Dating00:17:56 What Do You Do With The Attention?00:21:50 They Added A Commission Because Everyone Else Had One00:22:29 The Spreadsheet That Killed The Commission00:24:26 Removing The Fee Was Not What Drove The Growth00:27:38 $1M To $15M To $27M00:29:54 Crossing $30M ARR With Fewer Than 30 People00:30:14 No Marketing Budget, And Gas In A Tank00:32:49 What A Personal Head Of Content Actually Does00:39:31 Every Founder Is About To Need A Digital Identity00:43:48 At 30, Optimize For The Rooms You Sit InVitalii DodonovStan: https://stan.storeLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/vitddnv/IG: https://www.instagram.com/vitddnv/PRESENTED BY PROPPELYour business is only as good as the people in it, and finding real A players is one of the hardest things you'll do. Proppel specializes in marketing and operations talent, placing top people from the US, LATAM and beyond.Whether you need video editors, graphic designers, or media buyers from LATAM, or managers, directors, heads of department and VPs in the US, they'll help you build the team you actually need to grow.It's all performance-based. You pay a one-off fee only once you actually hire someone, so no retainers and no ongoing costs. Every hire comes with a three-month guarantee.Get 10% off your first hire: https://www.weareproppel.com/theadvantage
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  The Best Hire beehiiv Almost Never Made | Daniel Berk 05.08.2026 52m

  Daniel Berk is giving you the Owned Audience Playbook · beehiiv's first sales hire on betting on yourself Presented by Proppel · A-player marketing and ops talent, 10% off your first hire → https://www.weareproppel.com/the-advantage-proppelDaniel Berk built a $78,000-a-year podcast working one hour a week. He learned the system as beehiiv's first sales hire, joining at 12 employees and under $1M in revenue. The company now reports $30M ARR. This conversation covers the entire playbook: the offshore clipping engine, packaging your personal audience for sponsors, why guests outperform banter, the first-dollar principle, and the AI agents that clip his videos, draft his posts, and watch his bank accounts.⏱️ CHAPTERS00:00:00 Trailer00:00:38 Meet Daniel Berk, beehiiv's First Sales Hire00:02:06 From Mowing Lawns at 12 to $2.5M of Sneeze Guards00:05:46 Rejected for Employee #1, Hired 7 Months Later00:07:32 Building beehiiv's Sales Motion From Zero00:10:20 A Reported $30M ARR and a Self-Given C-Suite Title00:13:27 The Podcast That Started With One DM00:14:15 The Clipping Engine: $78K on One Hour a Week00:17:53 90% of Podcasts Die Before Episode 2000:18:51 Turning Down $300K to Bet on Himself00:21:24 MoneyWise, Local Newsletters and a Micro SaaS Bet00:23:06 Every Single Person Starts at Zero00:24:48 Commit to 10 Years or Don't Start00:26:55 The Threshold Number: When More Money Stops Mattering00:30:06 Your First Dollar Online Changes Everything00:31:43 Build the Marketing Machine Before the Product00:35:26 The Lawn-Mowing YouTuber Making $100K a Video00:40:00 A Claude Agent That Clips, Writes and Posts for Him00:43:50 Be an AI Super User or Compete With One00:47:52 Practical Edges: Claude, Wispr Flow and Building Apps🔗 DANIEL BERKWebsite: https://danielberk.comX: https://x.com/danielcberkLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/danielberkMoneyWise: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCfszC9-H9y38eA-h77OzJhw⚡ PRESENTED BY PROPPELFinding real A players is one of the hardest things you'll do. Proppel places marketing and operations talent from the US, LATAM and beyond: video editors, graphic designers and media buyers from LATAM, or managers, directors, heads of department and VPs in the US.Performance-based, one-off fee only when you hire, no retainers. Every hire comes with a three-month guarantee.Get 10% off your first hire → https://www.weareproppel.com/the-advantage-proppel🎙️ More of THE ADVANTAGEAll episodes: https://mikewystrach.com/podcastInstagram: @mikewystrach — https://instagram.com/mikewystrachNewsletter:https://mikewystrach.com/newsletter