He turned a simple SEO service into a $70 million business.

And rebuilt the agency model into something that actually scales.

Today’s guest is Joe Davies — founder of FatJoe, a productized SEO platform doing $15 million a year, trusted by thousands of agencies and in-house teams around the world.

In this episode, we unpack:

🔥 Why Joe stopped thinking like an agency — and rebuilt FatJoe as an e-com store selling digital products.

🔥 Why FatJoe chose to serve agencies instead of end clients — and how that unlocked cleaner margins and simpler delivery.

🔥 How selling units of work (not retainers or consulting) made costs predictable and operations scalable.

🔥 And how a no-sales-call, no-negotiation checkout still drives 70%+ repeat monthly customers.

If you want to understand how to turn services into a scalable, defensible platform — without bloated teams or constant client management — this episode is for you.

Chapters:

00:00 - Building a $70M SEO marketplace

02:05 - Origin of the name "Fat Joe"

03:25 - From agency chaos to eCommerce marketplace

06:35 - Productising services for predictable margins

09:00 - Why traditional SEO agencies break

11:21 - Agency vs in-house: which actually wins?

12:51 - Protecting margins while scaling

15:16 - Building systems that create consistent delivery

18:18 - Productisation without sacrificing customer experience

23:18 - Why most brands misunderstand backlinks

25:42 - Revenue streams and upsells that increase LTV

29:45 - How Fat Joe is structured to scale

33:30 - Managing a large team without losing control

35:10 - Hiring operators, not just marketers

40:40 - The sales engine behind predictable growth

44:09 - Anatomy of a high-converting sales call

47:57 - Lead generation channels that actually work

50:47 - Events as a brand-building strategy

52:45 - Advertising success and Google Ads strategy

55:50 - Pricing strategy and increasing LTV

58:41 - Creating a chrome extension for SEO

01:00:52 - Leadership roles and responsibilities

01:02:48 - What Joe actually works on day-to-day

01:05:43 - When to double down vs pivot

01:07:29 - The metrics that determine real success

01:10:24 - Marketplace economics explained

01:11:51 - The future of SEO in an AI world

Building a $70M SEO Marketplace | Joe Davies