Building a Media-First SaaS Agency, Why We Love Texas and WTF is Waifu? ep. 22

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WORK IN PROGRESS

Wes Botman, Ian Piepenbrock

22 episodes

1 week ago

WORK IN PROGRESS is a raw, unfiltered look at the grind of building and scaling in tech and services. Hosted by founders Ian Piepenbrock and Wes Botman, it’s for those in the trenches—still learning, still failing, still pushing. Each episode dives into the reality of running a business: the wins, the losses, and the lessons earned through hard work and constant experimentation. If you’re scaling, building, or just obsessed with the process, WORK IN PROGRESS delivers insights from founders in it, day in and day out.

Entrepreneurship

Business

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All content for WORK IN PROGRESS is the property of Wes Botman, Ian Piepenbrock and is served directly from their servers with no modification, redirects, or rehosting. The podcast is not affiliated with or endorsed by Podjoint in any way.

Entrepreneurship

Business

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Building a Media-First SaaS Agency, Why We Love Texas and WTF is Waifu? ep. 22

WORK IN PROGRESS

1 hour 31 minutes 6 seconds

3 months ago

Building a Media-First SaaS Agency, Why We Love Texas and WTF is Waifu? ep. 22

After a deal-closing trip to Dallas and Austin, Ian and Wes dive into cultural differences between the US and Europe, the boldness of American founders, and why Austin might be the ultimate tech base for their next wave of growth.

They also reveal Noco’s new Webflow Enterprise Partner status, unpack the playbook to build a $10M ARR AI agent business, and debate whether media should become the business itself.

Chapters:

(0:00) - Intro & why we vanished
(2:00) - Texas trip recap: Dallas, Austin, Shake Shack & ClearBlade
(5:00) - US vs Europe mindset: opportunity vs risk
(10:30) - Coffee, roadside diners, and cultural details
(13:50) - Austin impressions & Waymo weirdness
(19:00) - Comedy clubs, nightlife, and 6th Street observations
(24:00) - Why Austin might be our new business base
(29:00) - Noco’s local targeting strategy explained
(34:00) - Eli5’s bottlenecks and growth constraints
(38:30) - The content pivot & lead magnet strategy
(42:00) - Greg Isenberg’s playbook breakdown
(48:00) - Putting media before services: the hard shift
(53:00) - Why personal brand still matters (but has limits)
(58:00) - The Every.to model and what we’re building
(1:04:00) - Noco updates: Webflow Enterprise Partner status
(1:08:00) - CRO dashboard and automation at Noco
(1:14:00) - GROK, AI companions & MechaHitler mode
(1:22:00) - Final thoughts: summer planning & European maximalism

The WORK IN PROGRESS podcast hosted by Ian Piepenbrock and Wes Botman, two founders who are scaling and refining their businesses every day.

Wes Botman is founder and CEO at ⁠⁠Eli5⁠⁠ (https://eli5.io), a software studio making complex ideas simple and accessible.

Ian Piepenbrock is CEO at ⁠⁠Noco⁠⁠ (https://noco.agency), an agency dedicated to helping B2B SaaS and tech companies grow through strategic web design and branding.

Watch/listen on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/2cOqBRM...

Wes: ⁠⁠@wesbotman⁠⁠ (https://x.com/wesbotman)
Ian: ⁠⁠@lamswolprins (https://x.com/lamswolprins)