Joost de Valk: How I Founded Yoast; The Ultimate Guide to SEO; The Threat of AI | E1000

ℹ️ EPISODE INFO

Released

April 12, 2023

Duration

1h 2m

Channel

The Twenty Minute VC

Watch on YouTube

▶ Open ↗

📝 EPISODE DESCRIPTION

Joost De Valk is one of the OGs of SEO. As the Founder of Yoast, he scaled what was a side project plugin into a multi-million dollar business, used by 13 million sites and selling to Newfold Media in 2021. As one of the early SEO pioneers he is also an extremely coveted angel investor and invests through his company, Emilia Capital. -------------------------------------- Timestamps: 0:00 Intro 0:47 Founding Story of Yoast 2:30 When did I know I could turn Yoast into a business 7:16 Why Open Source & Freemium models are difficult to make? 12:11 Developer-Led Brands 16:47 Biggest Product Mistake 18:32 How Freemium is changing 24:27 How to Invest in SEO 28:07 When’s the right time to invest in SEO? 29:16 Biggest Mistakes Founders Make in SEO 34:05 Budgeting for SEO 36:29 What do the Best and Worst SEO teams do? 40:13 How does AI change the way businesses create content? 46:38 The Problems with AI 49:40 AI Will Incrase Wealth Inequality 55:40 Angel Investing 57:45 Quick Fire Round -------------------------------------- In Today’s Episode with Joost De Valk We Discuss:

1. From Side Project to Multi-Million Dollar Business: Why and how did Joost create the first version of Yoast? When did he realise that this was not a side project and could be a big business? What does he know now that he wishes he had known when he started Yoast?

1. When, How and Why To Invest in SEO: When is the right time to invest in SEO? How should one determine how much budget to allocate to SEO? Once decided on budget, what are the first steps to investing in SEO? Which part of the org should SEO team specialists sit in? What are the biggest mistakes founders make when investing in SEO?

1. AI Changes The World of Context: How does AI change the way businesses create content? How can startups leverage AI to create and distribute more content for SEO? What are the biggest challenges/problems to leveraging AI for content creation?

1. Creating a Developer-Led Brand and Mastering PLG: What is the secret to creating the best developer-led brand? What are the biggest mistakes people make when marketing to developers? How does Joost navigate the balance between having enough value in a freemium product but also retaining enough value to be able to charge for the premium product? Is Joost concerned that budgets will revert back to CFOs and away from individual contributors with the financial downturn that is ensuing? -------------------------------------- Subscribe to our Newsletter: ⁠⁠https://www.thetwentyminutevc.com/contact⁠⁠ Subscribe on Spotify: ⁠https://open.spotify.com/show/3j2KMcZTtgTNBKwtZBMHvl?si=85bc9196860e4466⁠ Subscribe on Apple Podcasts: ⁠https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-twenty-minute-vc-20vc-venture-capital-startup/id958230465⁠ Follow Harry Stebbings on Twitter: ⁠https://twitter.com/HarryStebbings⁠ Follow Joost de Valk on Twitter: ⁠https://twitter.com/jdevalk⁠ Follow 20VC on Instagram: ⁠https://www.instagram.com/20vc_reels⁠ Follow 20VC on TikTok: ⁠https://www.tiktok.com/@20vc_tok⁠ Visit our Website: ⁠https://www.20vc.com -------------------------------------- #JoostdeValk #Yoast #HarryStebbings #SEOstrategy

🎤 SPEAKERS

• Joost de Valk

  guest

• Harry Stebbings

  host

🧾 EPISODE SUMMARY

In this episode of The Twenty Minute VC, featuring Joost de Valk and Harry Stebbings, Joost de Valk: How I Founded Yoast; The Ultimate Guide to SEO; The Threat of AI | E1000 explores yoast Founder on Freemium, SEO Fundamentals, and AI’s Real Threats Joost de Valk recounts building the Yoast SEO plugin from a side project into a 13-million-site staple, entirely bootstrapped and tightly coupled to WordPress’ growth. He explains why open source and freemium models are both powerful and structurally hard, emphasizing branding, defaults, and not over-serving power users. The conversation then dives into practical SEO: when and how to invest, common early-stage mistakes, the role of content and brand, and how to think about measurement. Finally, they explore how AI will reshape content, search, development, wealth distribution, and why transparency and regulation around large language models will matter.

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