Latest / Glovisor Podcast / Ep. 35: He Builds the Software… You Build the Million-Dollar Business | Silvio Porcellana

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Ep. 35: He Builds the Software… You Build the Million-Dollar Business | Silvio Porcellana · Glovisor Podcast

• Joe: What if the digital product that you've been dreaming about has already been built and all you're missing is the right partnership to launch it? Welcome to the Globisor Podcast, where we explore business growth, communication, and personal development through real conversations with people that make a difference. Our guest is a developer, marketer, and digital product builder who creates a full business system, not just the software. He's the mind behind many platforms, all built through powerful partnerships that combine technology with an entrepreneur mindset. The mission is simple. He builds the product, you bring the market, and together you launch a business. Globizor welcomes Silvio Porchellana. Silvio Porcellana: Well, first of all, thank you all for being here. Thank you, Joe, for saying my name, my last name the correct way. That is perfect, awesome. That is that really great introduction. Yes, exactly. you said it perfectly in all throughout my career, positioning myself at the intersection of technology. Entrepreneurship and marketing to do exactly what you said. Find partnerships, find entrepreneurs who want to build a product, a digital product, you know, leveraging the fastest and biggest market in the history of humanity, the web. And then we do it together. We build it together, as I've done with many, many partners across the world. As you can tell from my accent, I'm European, actually, I'm Italian. but we've done it obviously in the US, which is our largest market, in Australia, here in Europe and so on. So thank you all for being here and I look forward to a very interesting and nice conversation. Joe: now that you gave us an intro to what you do, you know, let's get into a little bit more specific. what type of businesses is it the systems that you're building and the business partnerships that you have currently? Silvio Porcellana: let's say that I've started with the idea that the best, you know, better, the the the whole you know concept from which I've started is that the web should be and could be like the largest platform on which you could build your business, right? given that, also given my background, as you said, I'm essentially I started as a programmer, so my background is technical. I decided essentially to build a platform, so a software, which is sold as a service. So there we go. I mean, the first you know acronym that we can use, the SaaS. So I help entrepreneurs build recurring revenues and possibly as much as possible automatic and passive revenues and income by creating SaaS, so software as a service. Around certain topics and around certain problems or certain communities that they have access to. The main example and the main platform that I propose to the whole market that I sell throughout different countries is a platform that helps web marketers, web entrepreneurs, individuals build websites. All this was born a long time ago, I would say 20 years ago more or less. When the mobile web was about to start, or better when you know people were starting to think and talk about the mobile web. So I said to myself, you know, as a developer, every developer in his lifetime has created a CMS. Well, a CMS is basically a way to build websites, right? So we are tasked usually for building websites. And so what we do is instead of building a website, we build a software that builds websites. That's like a reflex that every programmer, every developer. So I did the same thing, but at the time I actually bought a book which was called The Mobile Web. And this is before the iPhone came out, actually, before Mark Zuckerberg understood that there would have been a mobile web and so on, right? So I said, okay, what wouldn't it be cool if the websites that we build would be available also on mobile? So that's where my idea started. From there, This platform that I currently bring to market and sell and build partnerships with was started, right? With the idea that I would make it white label, so white labeled that I wouldn't have to do marketing and sales, because that would be outsourced in quotes to my partners. And I would be able to focus only on the things that I think and I hope I do best, which is maintaining the platform. Creating new features, adding new software, solving customer problems, and so on. So that is what I do right now. I have this platform, which obviously in time has evolved to offer a very wide variety and range of services from obviously mobile first websites, but which are extremely good and nice looking also on desktop, which are very, very fast because at the beginning, you know, the mobile web idea was that the website had to be very fast, right? So that was an is still. One of our initial hoods. It can build or better, it can transform the websites that you build into progressive web apps. Then we added an academy so you can build, co build, and sell courses with this platform. In time, we also had some products that have been discontinued but that show the flexibility of the platform. For example, around 2017, messenger, Facebook Messenger chatbots were all the rage, and so we built A module we built a feature within the platform that allowed people to build and create chatbots. Then we had a Twitter marketing automation system, for example, way before you know mask bought it and transformed it into X and so on. Natively, this platform is white label, and what I mean by that is that I searched for Partners which are entrepreneurs, which are people which are very strong in sales and marketing, which already have a community, which already own a market, for example, even a niche. And then at that point, we brand this platform, we give it a custom domain, a custom logo, custom pricing, everything customized. And then at that point, along with that partner, we target and we market for that specific niche, for that specific market, that specific community, language, you know, age bracket, for example. For example, in the US, for various reasons, I was approached by a marketer, by a pretty famous marketer, which owned or better, was customers were mostly seniors, right? For example. So that is a demographic that we let's say target a lot. And in a way that also helped me keep the platform very simple, because as you can imagine, the majority of these people don't have a very strong technical background. So that helped us and allowed us to have a community that forced us to be very simple, very straightforward, very seamless, where everything that we would develop was as simple and as effective as possible. Right. So that allowed us to you know make this platform evolve into what it is now, obviously fully integrated with AI. We have for example, an AI agent builder. So you basically tell the system what the website is about, or better what the business is about, and the system generates the website for you. Then you can customize it either manually or using the agent and all this kind of stuff, which is very, very fun to develop, very fun to talk about, Joe: I appreciate it. You gave us a lot to work with there. but you know, the way that you explained it at the very beginning, it's almost like you created a production line for mass production and you systemized the whole thing. So that way people don't have to redo it over and over again. was that your goal? Silvio Porcellana: yeah, and yeah, that was exactly my goal. And it's something that has also evolved in time because this you know white label approach is multi-layered, multi-level. I don't wanna I don't like to use that term because it has a little bit, you know, of a not very nice vibe around it, but it's literally multi-level in a sense that I usually talk with partners, with high level partners, right? That as we said, target certain markets. certain demographics, certain languages, certain countries, and so on. On their own, they can then resell that platform to further resellers, right? Which can be web agencies, for example, which can be also individuals or other entrepreneurs who then resell the platform on their own to the actual end customer, to the final customer. So let's say there's this, you know, this this construction which is cre which is built, let's say, on different layers which allows every step of you know this ladder, every step to you know concentrate on what they do best, right? So that is exactly the goal. I want to concentrate on maintaining the platform and offering the best technology possible to my partners. My partners are very good at selling, they're very good at taking to market a product, a digital product, so they concentrate on that. They find people who are very good, for example, at finding small businesses. And so they are this kind of agency, right? These resellers who resell our products and their products in reality to their audience, to their market. And in the end, the end consumer, which can be a local business, let's say the websites that we build, the products that we build are very, I mean, are for everything. We do e-commerce, we do, you know. very large blogs and so on. But they are especially effective for local, small and local businesses. We have, I don't know, restaurant, a restaurant menu widget, we have loyalty cards, coupons, small e-commerce, food ordering. For example, during COVID, we developed a very complete and effective food ordering system to replace or let's say work alongside those more expensive like Uber Eats or here in Europe we used to have just it, you know, that kind of stuff. We have, for example, what we call a BMB widget, which again replaces if you want to, or you know, sits aside of Airbnb and booking for small like BMBs, for small apartments and so on. So all throughout this list chain, as you said, everything is automated. I'm alone. I'm basically alone. So I maintain all of this thing on my own. So let's say I think that I started thinking in a gentic terms much, much sooner than agents were even a thing, right? I try to automate automate as much as possible emails, man maintain maintenance of the platform, customer support, and all that. So I try to automate what can be automated, delegate to whoever is best at doing something, whatever that can be delegated, and then focus on what I think I do best, Joe: Before we get into a little bit more of the specifics, which I definitely want to get into, let's find out a little bit more about Silvio. Cause you just brought a couple of things there. You're the guy behind the curtain making all this magic happen. That's a lot of work. I can already tell you're very inspired, you're very dedicated, you have all of that, and the energy is there. But what were some of the issues that you had to bring it to market? Silvio Porcellana: let's put it this way. I think the entrepreneur is I think there's an expression in in in the US a jack of all trades, right? In a sense that you have to wear i that that you want it or not, you have to wear different hats, a lot of different hats, right? Especially when you are a solopreneur like I am and you are bootstrapped. Like I am, in a sense that I never received any external funding. I'm thinking about it now, but that's another story now that you know it's a little bit more established and everything else. This being said, that means that you could have been woken up in the middle of the night because an SMS arrived and your platform went down, right? To having to manage all of these problems, you had to manage the orchestration of all of these problems. So I think that was the hardest, but at the same time, the most fun part, right? Because I think, you know, I'm a person that gets, I wouldn't say bored very quickly, but in general, that loves to have different, you know, things, different, you know, interests and different things to pay attention to. And you never get When you do something like what I do, right? Joe: yeah, like we say, the flexibility of being a solopreneur is that you get to pick a w which 80 hours you work a week. That's really it. You know. Silvio Porcellana: Yes, yeah, exactly. Exactly, Joe: you had the opportunity to turn this platform and make it directly and sell it directly to customers. Instead, you chose to white label it. Silvio Porcellana: Yeah. Joe: and sell it through partnerships. What was that decision making? Silvio Porcellana: Well, first of all, let me tell you where it happened and why. I had read a book which was called The Pumpkin Plan, which I strongly recommend to your viewers. unfortunately at the moment I don't remember the the author. It was like a Polish sounding, I mean it's an American guy with a polish sounding last name. But if you search for if people search for the Pumpkin Plan, that's a great book, I think a great business and also personal book. And so I started to envision this system. The reason why I wanted to do this was because I banged my head so many times against go-to-market strategies. I'm not good at go-to-market. in a sense that you know, you could do SEO, you could do ads, you could do launches, whatever. I tried everything, and at some point I said, hold on. I'm good at building products and writing code which runs, which is already something good, you know, which delivers what it's supposed to deliver. Let me focus on that. So, how can I do that? I can find a co-founder. Okay, that was one route. Let's try to build something which can be taken by somebody else, made it as if it was theirs, but in reality, the core is mine, right? The core is this platform, this system that I run, that I make happen every day, that everybody can actually white label, can you know customize and can bring to market. In a in a revenue sharing agreement, we always I always do revenue sharing, right? When I do this kind of partnership, because I think we need to succeed together, right? Let's do revenue sharing. We grow together, we define the strategy strategy together, right? So we understand together, we spend a lot of time making this partnership successful. So it's also almost a little bit like you know being friends with benefits. That's a little bit how. Joe: Yeah. Silvio Porcellana: In a way I would say, right? Not a wife, but you know, friends with benefits. Joe: So if one of our listeners wanted to work with you, can you explain to us what that process would look like? Silvio Porcellana: Yes, well, let's say that obviously I love to talk with anybody. I love to, you know, exchange ideas and feedback with anybody. I would say that this being said, an initial let's say precondition is that you should have an either an idea or possibly an actual existing audience, right? Or existing target markets. So my ideal partners are entrepreneurs or Salespeople who come from an existing like market, right? so you already work with real estate agencies, for example. I do this example because that's what happened in Australia. Or the the main my main partner in the US is somebody who used to sell BNWs, right? So they have a strong sales approach, and he has a lot of connections with existing digital marketers and all that. So let's say that you have that. You have also Also, as niche, a small market. That's I mean, the size is not that important, but you need to have somewhere to start from. At that point, we define what the offering can be. My platform is very modular, right? So you could say, okay, let's start offering websites only, or let's do the whole thing. So websites, progressive web apps, academy, and all that. Let's try selling all websites to you. Users and consumers, so local businesses. Let's build the whole thing. So let's try to sell also to agencies or better to resellers who will then sell to their own customers. That obviously let's say that the flexibility of the platform is in the product, in the pricing, in the plans. Because you could say, okay, let's do a one-time payment, let's do a subscription-based monthly, weekly, quarterly, yearly, that amount, that other amount, and all the Stuff. So in general, do you want to start a web digital business selling websites or selling a platform that allows people to build and sell websites? Let's talk. I usually work on a revenue sharing agreement, but you need to invest in marketing. Right. So do you have salespeople? You want to do affiliate marketing? Do you want to do ads? You want to do, I don't know, SEO, whatever you want to do. the level of investment that you have in mind is not necessarily but usually correlated to the success that we can have. So it makes sense to you know have this thing because otherwise starting it takes time a little bit, not too much, but it takes a little bit of time because To define a branding, right? So a logo, you know, set up all of the emails and all that. Then you need to prepare most likely a landing page or a website for promoting your business. Then you need to start engaging with your target market. You don't see the results in one mod, you say this is a failure. So we I usually try to talk, and it's literally a partnership. It's a joint venture, let's say technically, but it's more of a partnership. Right. So we try to understand what is the best way to target and to get into the market that you wanna that you want to that you want to target, that you want to reach. Joe: Solidifies that relationship for sure. Silvio Porcellana: Yeah, I want to work with a very limited number of partners, obviously, because the the relationship is so strong that you know I talk a couple of hours with my Italian partner, then as soon as you know the Italian you know, the the day is is over, I talk with the US partner, a couple of US partners, and then actually before the the Italian partner, I talk with the Australian partner. Obviously, we where the day starts even sooner. and all that. So I want to build very strong, very successful, a limited number of relationships. Joe: Now, not many people have the history that you have, nor the ramp looking ahead that you have as well. So looking forward, what do you see that is going to be coming down in the future that is going to change everything? But you know, we don't have it here today, but you can see it that it's coming and that you're probably preparing for it now. Silvio Porcellana: I I might be, you know, a little bit counter I mean swimming against the the current a little bit, but for example, I don't see AI as a big, you know, factor changing much of what we do and how we do it now. In a sense that I see it as a very powerful, a very impactful tool for making what we do now better, faster, more precisely, or you know. amplifying our potential. I don't see that when I saw again, not the iPhone, because I saw the mobile web before the iPhone. But when I saw that you could browse the web on a device device that you could have always with you, I thought this this is life changing. I mean this is something that's gonna change the world totally. That's why I I I try to surf that wave. I don't see that now. I might be wrong. I might be older, What I strongly believe in is the the web. And I wanna you know take just a second to you know make this you know a little bit my an important point for me. The reason one of the reasons why I keep working on the web and I love working on the web is that it is an open standard. I think what we as Netisance, that's a term that you know was used thrown around 20-25 years ago. people that live on the web, we should really try to keep the web open. That is what allows it to become literal really this bazaar, this this huge market when we're you know, small-time guys like me, along with partners, which are not you know big corporations, can thrive, can build their success, can build Their future, that of their families, and all that. So rather than you know, something that will change, I would like for something that we have now not to change. Because there's this danger. I see a lot of this danger. Luckily, app stores were not able to totally kill it. And you know, I what when I started working on the mobile web, people kept asking, why don't you build native apps? Right. And F first of all, I didn't like the technology at all. But above all, I didn't want to, you know, use and and empower another walled garden, you know, because that that was something that Apple and Google owned, totally owned. So what I really hope is we achieved this incredible technology, which is not just a technology, but which is something that changed the way we Communicate, we talk with people, we do business and change it from the bottom up, right? Let's try not to change it, not to lose it, because then once it's lost, it's gonna be a little bit of a problem. And on my part, I'm doing it and probably that's you know, I do obviously I do it for business purposes. I mean, I want to earn money by you know providing values to my customers, but allowing people To build success. And when I see a web agency, or even better, I see somebody who says, okay, let me try this. And again, I I work with a lot of seniors of people who are retired or are over 60, 65, and they start, you know, building a website and then they sell it to like a local business and they earn those, I don't know, $2,000 or whatever it is. And they, I mean, that changes their lives. That is something that really tells me, okay. I've done something. I I put my very small, I mean, almost I mean, unnoticable, but there's that little dent in in in the universe, the little thing that changed a little bit of you know this person's life. And that is what I why I do this stuff. Joe: Good point. can you share a client success story of someone that you've worked with? Silvio Porcellana: Yeah, sure. Well, there are many. Again, from small ones to to very large ones. I I think that one of the ones that I'm more happy about. Well, let's say that when we I mean launching in the US was we decided with the part okay, my partner, and then obviously we agreed on that, that we would use affiliate marketing, right? So finding affiliates. Who would promote our brand and launch our brand. And there was a website, you know, that is used to manage all of these let's say affiliates. I mean, we had some pretty big launches. We were able to to involve somebody which you know became famous at the time and was actually famous, is he was the meteorologist that announced the storm of the century. I don't know if you remember there was this movie with George Clue and which was called which was called the perfect storm, I guess, So we were able to have on board on the team the actual meteorologist that you know announced and that was in the movie. And when we launched our products, and we did it multiple times, right. we were the top sellers in in the website in that website where you know that collected and that you know functioned as a as a you know host and as a community for the for the affiliate marketers. that was the moment where I realized I said, wait a second, the people are actually using my product. I mean, they they are paying and they like what I'm building. And again, that is what you know we we we live for in reality. Recognition of our work, of our job. And that's something that I have almost on a daily basis. Joe: if listeners remember one thing from your episode, what would you want it to be? Silvio Porcellana: You can do it. in the AI world now where you know the big companies, the big CEOs, they are presenting this thing as a Very complex thing as an incredibly dangerous if you think about it, and very I mean, you don't understand it, you have no idea what that's behind. Trust us, okay? That's not the case. with a little bit of effort, with a little bit of study. You can be part of that word too, which maybe will not become the main part of your life, but can be a very interesting and very powerful and very satisfactory element and part. So my idea is that I want to democratize technology and make it accessible, not only for using it, but also for leveraging it to become more financially successful. Joe: So where can our audience connect with you and find out more and continue this conversation? Silvio Porcellana: Well, yeah, very simply. You said, I mean, the the last name perfectly. It's Silvio Porchellana.com. I guess you know I'll you share maybe the link. So it's Silvio S-I-L-V I O and then Porchellana P-O-R-C-E-L-L-A-N-A.com. Just go there. You're gonna see a little bit of what I've done. There's a form, a contact form. You can reach out to me there. You can search for me also on LinkedIn if you want to, but you know, the website is best place. I also have a YouTube channel, you can search. game, Silvio Porchellana underscore com, where I publish weekly YouTube videos about the platform. For example, I just published yesterday one about SEO and Geo, so generative engine optimization. I did one last week for a tool that we have that let's say a chatbot that you can add on the website. So technology, but you know applied to real world, real world problems with actual real results. Joe: Well Silvio, thank you so much for joining us today and sharing your insights. We appreciate your time. Silvio Porcellana: Joy, it was really a pleasure and I hope I didn't bore your your listeners too much and it was really, really fun for me. Thank you very much. Joe: Thank you. Thanks everyone for listening. If this episode inspired you, share it with someone who needs it. And don't forget to follow the Globizor podcast for more conversations that make an impact. Till the next time.