Slashing half the newsletter, Strategic Circle update, business pushed to Q1

First, thanks to the 6,900 subscribers reading the Growth Blueprint 🙏 You’re a quiet cohort I give you that, but considering the book, advisory, directory ecosystem, and M&A campaigns, I know you’re reading this one regularly.

Some business updates

That said, since the charts and S&P data and inflation/employment reports didn’t get any votes in to stay, I’m dropping them off the weekly issue. If you feel strongly against that, it’s extra work for my team to pull and prep charts and confirm the analysis - I’ll only add them back if there’s intrinsic value here.

So we’re sticking to my business overview of the week, resources I’ve posted on social, interviews, podcasts; and some great reads out of the B2B ecosystem (running 30+ sites inevitably leads to guides from different teams from my portfolio product suite).

And keeping some M&A or investment opportunities as they come up - but really the best picks I’ve found interesting myself.

I’ll also post a brief recap on LinkedIn (high level bullets) but not the full one. It’s time/resource optimization internally as LinkedIn started to render 400 views per newsletter issue with 4,800 subscribers there and 20,000+ followers to my account. Thanks, but the view count is not worth it.

The Strategic Circle campaign worked well

I went a little harder on the advisory campaign this time as one of my “how does Black Friday work for B2B services” experiments (as we do loads of these here for a living - it’s one of the top DevriX services in demand).

So the way this one played out is:

• Early beta for newsletter readers

• A super premium fee for the first 10 sign ups

• 50% off for the rest of the Black Friday deal

• Several emails (3-4 standalone + 2 newsletter updates)

• Multiple social reminders with sales screenshots or testimonials or sneak peeks from Slack (anonymous) to spark up interest and get DMs

Starting with email first, refining the value prop, then putting up the standalone Strategic Circle page.

Eventually, we closed 21 new members to the group. If you’re reading the newsletter, welcome aboard again!

Over 700 visits to the landing page (most lurking around), 30+ showing interest, not everyone buying.

I pulled some of the growth tricks up my sleeves, but I haven’t pushed super hard because it takes up my personal time (most valuable asset) at a fraction of the cost (I can’t serve infinite people at this rate).

It’s really designed for highly determined founders of $100k - $500k companies (startups, agencies, solopreneurs with effective businesses) that need proper goal-setting, prioritization, connections, some added exposure and boost to cross into the 7 figures. Some may work with DevriX or my regular $1,800/mo async offer, some won’t - but as long as the focus is there, it’s a long-term investment on both ends.

December cohort can join at the $297/mo rate now - I’ll throw in a book copy your way or a public mention if you want some extra exposure for your business.

December closed for business

After a mighty November with some deals closing, starting Thanksgiving, it’s been primarily pushing contracts to Q1.

Contract work dried out in the process while getting ready for the new contracts starting Jan 15. So the team is focused on launching more tools internally, competitor research apps, business analysis frameworks, social cross-posting workflows, Reddit and X analysis apps and more.

It’s usually a January project here, but right now contracts are signed for Jan and Dec is slower - so reversing the trend!

With all automation in place, the agency services are becoming more competitive - smaller retainers are now more empowering than large ones due to hundreds of thousands of dollars in tooling we’ve invested in on the agency front. Now a $3K retainer can deliver what $7K or even $10K/mo were bringing in for some accounts who are open to relying on more scraping, research, automation, and GPT in the mix.

That’s especially valid for launching new products, offers, channels, brands, accounts - our GTM solution.

B2B ecosystem bumping up

We have 3 tools/teams in the works for directory submission and link building active right now. I had to stop the forwarders to some of my names after receiving 1200+ new emails over the Thanksgiving weekend!

Social is going on and we have existing clients/partners/peers already paying for tools or submitting directory data. As soon as domain authority picks up and we get a bit further with internal links, this project is going to space.

Combining all channels together is no easy feat - especially for 25 different projects. It takes time and costs capital.

But imagine having an entire media network of directories, content sites, a service arm, and AI SaaS tools working together toward the same ICP.

You can tank a single business or a small cohort of 2-3, but good luck annihilating a diversified portfolio of SaaS, service, media, and classifieds. That’s valid for Google, social, buying behavior, and pretty much everything.

Yes, that’s what I’ve been busy with this year… And even in its early days, it’s getting better by the day and we’re Customer Zero and onboarding the inner circle for now.

Look up the new format below and let me know if you see anything that’s missing!

Yours,

Mario

✍️ B2B SaaS golden era over? Every ecosystem goes through ups and downs, or the bell curve of emerging, growing, peak, declining, and disappearing. Some categories never reach a full dip or emerge into something else. Here’s B2B SaaS.

✍️ Should B2Bs tap into Black Friday deals - the Strategic Circle program brought a lot of new lessons I uncovered in my LinkedIn post - check it out.

✍️ Landing Page FYI joining the B2B Ecosystem - one of the exciting additions to our portfolio of directories, agencies, tools, and blogs. Landing Page FYI is an epic directory with over 5,000 monthly visitors and 1,500 subscribers:

✍️ Why our consulting retainers aren’t going anywhere - the era of AI is here, but it’s still about starter projects. prototyping - and using by professionals. Most intranet tools can be built by non-professionals, but good luck scaling a replacement into the enterprise. That’s why.

✍️ What are the core three pillars for B2B scale in 2025 - lead generation, personalization, ROI management.

📧 How CEOs Build Networking Plans - Learn how top executives structure their networks to support business objectives. Implement strategies that drive expansion and capitalize on new opportunities.

📧 Building Competitive Intelligence with SWOT - See how SMEs utilize SWOT analysis with competitive insights to evaluate their standing, mitigate risks, and pursue growth avenues.

📧 CRM Integration: Best Practices Guide - Discover key tools and practical advice for integrating your CRM smoothly, improving workflows, and increasing operational efficiency. Explore our detailed marketing funnels article.

📧 Campaign Tracking Tools: Features Checklist - Identify must-have campaign tracking solutions and actionable advice to enhance your marketing strategies. Choose the perfect tool from our selected top marketing analytics options.

📧 Implementing Flexible Pricing: 5 Steps - Use real-time data to adjust prices, boost revenue, and stay competitive. Implement effective strategies and manage market changes seamlessly. Learn more about flexible pricing.

📃 Nasdaq reaches record high. Yesterday, Dec 3, the Nasdaq hit a record high as Big Tech stocks drove the S&P 500 to a new all-time peak. Meta, Apple, Amazon, and Nvidia led the gains, while the Dow Jones edged down slightly.

📃 Intel CEO resigns amid struggles. Intel CEO Pat Gelsinger resigns amid declining stock and AI setbacks against rivals like Nvidia. Interim co-CEOs will lead restructuring efforts to regain semiconductor competitiveness and address manufacturing delays.

📃 PlayStation balances AI and creativity. PlayStation leaders assert AI will transform gaming without replacing human creativity. Despite successes like the PS5 and Astro Bot, Sony faces job cuts and project setbacks while expanding into films and enhancing handheld gaming with cloud streaming.

📃 FTC launches Microsoft probe. The FTC has launched a comprehensive antitrust investigation into Microsoft’s expansive AI and cloud initiatives, highlighting intensified regulatory scrutiny on major tech conglomerates.

📃 South Korea Defense Minister resigns. South Korea’s Defense Minister Kim Yong-hyun resigned amid backlash over his martial law declaration, potentially blocking the Democratic Party's impeachment move against President Yoon Suk Yeol.

Let’s see the latest offers from Flippa. Don’t forget to sign up for their newsletter for daily/weekly/monthly offers such as these.

Virtual Celebrity Live Streaming App - This entertainment app giving users the ability to create a celebrity-like livestream has been featured on the My First Million Podcast and has generated a TTM revenue of $750K.

• Monthly profit: $39,054

• Average monthly downloads: 70,000

• Business age: 3 years

Sleep and Focus App - This app which produces brown and white noise to assist in sleeping and focus includes 7.5K paying subscribers.

• Monthly profit: $8,178

• Monthly downloads: 4,800

• Business age: 6 years

Established Tech News Blog - This well-established tech news blog includes a strong backlink profile and has generated a TTM revenue of $146K.

• Monthly profit: $12,183

• Monthly page views: 494,294

• Business age: 6 years

Need My Help?

Keeping myself busy - here are the main projects I focus on:

🌐 Scaling WordPress past 100M views? DevriX provides martech retainers to SMEs, publishers, eCommerce, SaaS, and more. Our plans start from $1,200/mo to $40K/mo and we manage high-traffic platforms, B2B SaaS apps, partnership management solutions, supporting $10M - $250M businesses with scalability, custom funnels, CRO, big data augmentation, AI-driven processes, HubSpot workflows, programmatic SEO - and everything a modern business requires in digital in 2025.

🚀  Work 1:1 with me? At Growth Shuttle, I run two popular plans: Async Advisory for $3M - $30M founders and executive teams and the smaller Strategic Growth Circle for $100K - $500K entrepreneurs, agency founders, scale ups.

📈 International founder looking into US LLCs? Check out doola and their “Business in a Box” model. Suitable for both foreigners and US citizens and both for residents and non-residents.

📊 Into digital M&A? I work closely with Flippa’s marketplace. They offer a vast variety of online businesses for any buyer’s interest. Or if you’re ready for an exit, Flippa provides the tools to list your business and close the deal.

💼 Looking for investment opportunities? Check out SeedBlink and use Equity to manage your ESOP tables in-house.