Podbit · The Hidden Third
Michelle now works with White Star Consulting, a Texas-based elite firm led by John Lehman. They take cases that no other investigator or agency can resolve — the hardest, most complex disappearances in the business.
Where this was said
At 1:06:59 · chapter starts 1:06:20
The episode winds down with a sobering update: Alex Janous is serving 25 years at the Three Rivers federal facility, but the case is far from closed [1] — Mariana van Zeller "Alex Janous sentenced to 25 years in prison: Alex Georges Janous, the fake 'Prince of Dubai' who scammed multiple victims out of hundreds o…" 1:06:19 . His family — mother, father, brothers — are believed to be involved, and Michelle has not yet met several key witnesses who live just 45 minutes away from her. She also reveals that Ryan Mullen went back to prison for additional crimes after his Louisiana arrest, and that she believes Louisiana's political corruption runs deep around his case — with politicians protecting him in exchange for money, sex, and access to trafficking victims. Michelle says she still has text messages from Mullen's phone that she believes point to child sex trafficking. She is currently working a cartel case involving a figure she calls 'La Tía,' and knows exactly where the target is. Mariana and Michelle close the episode by joking that the investigative journalist now has a skip tracer on staff — and the skip tracer has a journalist. The dirty world out there, they agree, is their oyster.
SiteGPT attracted over 1 million visitors and $500K in total revenue without spending a cent on paid marketing. The secret: engineering as marketing — building free tools that rank on Google.
Bhanu quit his first job after just 8 months, moved back to his parents' house to cut costs, and started building. One product sold for $250K; the next hit $10K MRR in its first month.
90% of SiteGPT's Google search traffic comes not from the main product but from ~50 free tools Bhanu built. Each tool targets a low-competition keyword and funnels users back to the paid product.
50,000 monthly visitors become 200 leads, 60 trials, and roughly 15–24 new customers per month at ~$100 average revenue each. Add a $1,700–$1,800 LTV and you have a very healthy SaaS.
Start with a blank Ahrefs search, layer in keyword filters (include term, KD < 10, volume > 1,000), list candidates in Notion, design a CTA linking to your main product, then score by volume, difficulty, build effort, and product relevance. That's the whole playbook.
Marketing feels painful for most builders. Engineering as marketing flips the script: instead of writing cold emails or blog posts, you build things — and those things rank on Google forever.
Don't spend months perfecting before launch. Ship the core feature, get real users, and let their feedback dictate the product roadmap. Premature polish is a trap.
SiteGPT launched and hit $10,000 MRR within its first month. That momentum was so overwhelming that Bhanu sold his existing SaaS, Feather, for $250,000 to free up all his time.
PropGPT launched with 20 downloads a day and strong influencer marketing but hit a ceiling at $1,000–$2,000 MRR. High download numbers masked a critical flaw: almost nobody stuck around after the free trial ended.
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