I had the chance to sit down with Alexander Sora, the creator of Unicorn Platform, which he sold to John Rush for $800,000. We dive into the story behind that acquisition, what it felt like to go through it, and everything that came before.

Alexander also built 8+ directories, including one that sold for $10k.

His approach to building directories is completely different from mine. While I focus on SEO-driven, location-based directories, Alex builds around his own pain points often in product-focused niches. He doesn’t rely on SEO the way I do, which makes for a really fun contrast in our philosophies.

This is a super casual conversation where we bounce between directories, startup life, bootstrapping, finding purpose after selling a business, and what’s next for him.

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Timestamps

03:47 How Alexander built & sold his directory for $10k
11:40 How Alexander drives traffic to his directories
12:24 The problem Alexander solved with his directory
13:43 Finding ideas by “scratching your itch”
17:14 How Alexander approach product-based directories (Data collection + build)
20:31 Other directories Alexander has built
23:55 The story behind Unicorn Platform
27:00 Thoughts around vibe coding
30:59 Most builders fail a lot before hitting success - what # of business was Unicorn platform?
32:26 Should you quit your job, then build a startup?
36:21 Loss of purpose + His viral tweet after selling UP for $800k
38:32 Lifestyle inflation + Why Alexander chose to stay frugal
41:24 What Alexander’s working on next (UP for video)

🔧 Tools FAQs:

Which ahrefs plan do I use? Ahrefs lite
Which google maps scraper do you use? https://outscraper.com/refer?referrer...
How do you automate data enrichment? https://www.enrich.directory
What CMS and plugins do you use? Wordpress, Elementor Pro and a combination of Geodirectory or JetEngine + WP All Import