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. Follow Sammi Cohen on Instagram Subscribe to the Social Currency newsletter This episode was brought to you by Flodesk. Check out their tools to help you grow your business 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 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices