Rebecca Shostak (Flodesk) on Why “Marketing Is Dead,” Email Isn’t, and Building a Profitable SaaS in Two Weeks

Today Sammi sits down with Rebecca Shostak, co-founder and CEO of Flodesk—the email platform bootstrapped to profitability just two weeks after launch. In this conversation, Sammi and Rebecca trace the journey from Rebecca designing merch for Rihanna and Linkin Park, to running a Photoshop template shop, to finally fixing the “giant WTF” of ugly, broken email tools with Flodesk.

Then they get spicy: Rebecca explains why she thinks “marketing is dead” and the traditional funnel is over, why social media is just rented land, and why email—done right—is still the most resilient, highest-ROI channel you can own. She shares how moving to Vietnam to sit next to her 35-person engineering team led to a new AI-powered way to design emails (with multiple patents pending), how Flodesk is tackling feature creep while staying obsessively simple, and the metrics that actually matter for your list. 

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Here’s what Sammi covers today with Rebecca:

00:00 Rebecca Shostak’s Social Currency

02:55 The Origin Story of Flodesk

05:51 Building a Business: Challenges and Successes

11:09 Embracing AI

25:25 The Impact of the Pandemic on Small Businesses

27:40 Pricing Model Changes

29:43 Feature Creep vs. Focus in Email Marketing

32:05 Checkout and Sales Funnel Solutions

35:09 Why Email Marketing is the GOAT

41:12 Hot Takes on the Future of Marketing

43:22 Best Practices Email Marketing

45:55 Rebecca’s Leadership Systems 

48:12 Social Media Strategy and Brand Expression

51:22 Advice for New Founders 

53:25 How to Show Social Currency Some Love

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