Rane what's your backstory?

I grew up in New Plymouth, New Zealand. It’s a fairly small city, so I moved away as soon as possible. I spent some time in Wellington, the capital, before moving to Melbourne, Australia, where I’ve been for the last 16 years. I earned a diploma in programming, with my first language being Java, and my first job was at a small startup in Wellington where I started as a tester and gradually moved into programming in both Java and Python.

After moving to Melbourne, I worked as a web developer for a company called Madman Entertainment. It was a fun role—Madman is a film distribution company specializing in anime and art house films. At the time, DVDs were still popular, so I gained heaps of experience in e-commerce, building both B2B and B2C websites. I also developed an internal system that managed to encode and export video and image assets for each of their licensors. One of my key achievements at Madman was building the MVP for Animelab, a VOD platform that, for a time, was preinstalled on every Apple TV device in the Australia and New Zealand region.

After Madman, I moved on to work for the Australian Football League (AFL), which is the biggest sport in this part of Australia, so it was an exciting time to be involved. During this period, I was diagnosed with stomach cancer and was told that my stomach had to be removed. It was a pretty rough time—there was a moment when a surgeon told me the cancer had spread to my lungs, and that I was essentially going to die.

Fortunately, he was completely wrong, and I’m still here today to tell the tale.

What is SoundMadeSeen and how did you come up with the idea?

Long winded story here, but my wife is a yoga teacher, and yoga was a big part of my recovery from the gastric surgery.  Because I found yoga so useful I decided to train to become a yoga teacher.  After I had finished my training, my wife and I started a podcast about yoga (The Flow Artists Podcast).

It's an audio-only podcast, and I found the process of creating promotional videos quite tedious, I wasn't happy with some of the competitors out there at the time.  It was possibly a silly move, but I decided to start working on SoundMadeSeen as a way to generate videos for my podcast.  Around the time I had this in place, LLMs (Large Language Models) became quite prevalent, so I figured it would be relatively easy to add some content analysis tools. Now, SoundMadeSeen can analyze the transcript of a podcast and work out the parts that would be best for sharing on social media, as well as helping to generate show notes and blog posts based on the transcription.

How did your web development skills influence the creation of SoundMadeSeen?

I have a fair bit of experience working with video, and I think this definitely helped me out. Honestly, though, I feel like my years of experience have mostly taught me lessons through the mistakes I’ve made—and I’m still here, making mistakes.

How did you acquire your first 20 users, and what strategies worked?

My first few users were some friends, but what helped me out was launching on AppSumo.

Selling Lifetime deals has both its pros and cons, but thanks to AppSumo, I've been able to continue working on SoundMadeSeen for the last year.

I've launched an affiliate program that has brought a few customers, but I'm still refining my marketing strategies.

What metrics or user feedback indicated that SoundMadeSeen had reached product-market fit?

One of the great things about AppSumo is that the users are very willing to offer feedback, which has helped shape my roadmap. I have a 4.8 out of 5 rating on AppSumo, which tells me I'm on the right path. But to be honest, I still don’t think I’m completely there with product-market fit.

Which distribution channels have been most effective, and how did you identify them?

Our affiliate channel has been fairly fruitful based on the number of subscribers.

We have a few lead generation tools, such as a "Free transcription tool" or a "Free recorder tool", but I've found these haven't worked particularly well. I've also tried PPC (Pay-Per-Click) campaigns with mixed results.

If you could pick one distribution channel for SoundMadeSeen, which would it be and why?

I’d choose affiliate, mainly because it would be the least work for me!

Why do users choose SoundMadeSeen over other audio-to-video tools?

SoundMadeSeen is like Wavve and Headliner—only turbocharged with AI. When I launched, those were the main players, but I saw an opportunity to take things further. SoundMadeSeen isn’t just about turning audio into video - it’s about making content creation super easy.

How did you determine your pricing strategy, and what has the response been?

This still needs refining, but basically, I looked at my main competitors and went for something close to their pricing. I’m also considering adding a higher-end price point as well.

Would love to know when someone signs up how do you onboard new customers?

When someone signs up, they’ll be asked a few questions, such as whether they’re a podcaster, what they intend to use the product for, and so on. After that, they’ll land on the dashboard, where they can watch a few tutorial videos. We also have a nurture email flow, with a 2-3 day gap between each email. The sequence includes:

• Welcome to SoundMadeSeen
• How to create your first video
• Feature highlight: "Transcription and analysis tools"
• Discount code offer email
• Discord invite
• Request for feedback
• Affiliate invite

How successful has your affiliate program been, and how do you attract affiliate partners?

I have a landing page for our affiliate program, which I link to in all of our internal pages, and have sent out a few invites as well as an email as part of our nurture flow.  We offer a generous 20% on the first 12 months of subscription payments.

How do you see the creator economy changing, and how does SoundMadeSeen fit into that?

I think faceless videos and YouTube channels are becoming more and more a thing, and I'm working towards being able to seamlessly being able to create interesting and engaging videos from start to finish.

People want to see good content and not just AI slop, so even though I include some of these tools, I want to do it in a way that enhances creativity rather than poorly replacing it.

What’s your plan for the future of SoundMadeSeen?

Eventually, I'd love for SoundMadeSeen to be able to handle the content creation process for podcasters, writers, and audio content creators from start to finish.

What’s it like running SoundMadeSeen as a solopreneur?

Running SoundMadeSeen as a solopreneur is fun and exciting, but it’s also challenging and, at times, scary. I think the hardest part of being a solo founder is the mental game. There are moments when everything is going great, and you feel amazing, but there are also times when it feels like you’re repeatedly running into a wall, which can be very demoralizing.

That said, I stay in touch with customers fairly regularly, and my mailing list is engaged and responsive. I find this really heartening, and it motivates me to work harder. I actually really enjoy responding to support requests—sometimes people seem surprised to get a prompt response, which makes me wonder what other founders are doing!

There have been times when people were having a negative experience with the software, but by being patient and empathetic, I was able to turn things around and make it a positive experience for everyone. I love it when that happens—maybe not so much the negative part, though.

What specific tools, software, or resources have been essential in growing SoundMadeSeen?

I host my sites on Linode/Akamai, and I think they’re a great hosting service. I use tolt.io for my affiliate program, and they make it so easy to manage. Stripe is also a must for payments, in my opinion.

Who are some recommended experts or entrepreneurs to follow for learning how to grow a business?

I listen to Rob Walling's podcast, Startups for the Rest of Us, religiously. I also like The SaaS Revolution Show.

What advice would you give founders on finding the right channels to attract clients?

My advice would be to focus on one or two channels until you’re pretty sure they either work or don’t. If they don’t work, try something else.

Any promotions you would like to add for Founderoo readers?

Use the code FOUNDEROO25 at our stripe checkout for a 20% discount on subscriptions for the first 12 months.

Any videos you want to add to the story?

What drives you to do what you do?

I just love building things. I love creating. As web developers, we have the power to make people’s lives so much easier if we do a good job. On the flip side, we can also make things very frustrating if we miss the mark. Ultimately, I want to help people out, and that’s why I do this.

Any quotes you live by?

A great quote I heard recently is from Shah Rukh Khan:

"Be a Funambulist," or tightrope walker.

I’m also resonating with the idea that it’s impossible to predict the future, so it’s important to take each moment as it comes. You never know—tomorrow, you could be diagnosed with terminal cancer.

Your links + socials

SoundmadeSeen website

SoundmadeSeen LinkedIn

SoundmadeSeen Facebook

SoundmadeSeen Instagram