Startups For the Rest of Us

In episode 710, join Rob Walling for another solo adventure where he answers listener questions. He answers whether you need a burning passion to be successful in entrepreneurship, and how that relates to developing a product alongside a day job. Rob also discusses competing against VC-backed companies, learning to code in the age of AI, and how much risk lies in IP theft when building your SaaS. Episode Sponsor: Is your outsourced development team dropping the ball? Maybe you’ve worked with a team that just couldn't grasp your vision and needed constant oversight because they weren’t thinking strategically. Or maybe you ended up wasting hours micromanaging, often needing to jump on late-night calls across massive time zone differences to get alignment. And in the end, they delivered a sluggish app with a frustrating UI that didn’t come close to the solution you had envisioned. If any of that sounds familiar, you need to reach out to our sponsor - DevSquad. DevSquad provides an entire development team packed with top talent from Latin America.  Your elite squad will include between 2 to 6 Full Stack Developers, a technical product manager, plus experts in product strategy, UI/UX design, DevOps, and QA - all working together to make your SaaS Product a success. You can ramp up an entire product team fast, in your timezone, and at rates 75% cheaper than a comparable US-based team. And with DevSquad, you pay month to month with no long-term contracts.  Get the committed, responsive development team that your business deserves.   Visit DevSquad.com/startups and get 10% off the first three months of your engagement. Topics we cover:  3:00 – Reacting to needing a burning desire for entrepreneurship 5:20 – Maintaining a day job to enable space for entrepreneurial pursuits 8:52 – Balancing build speed vs. scalability with your tech stack 10:30 – The April Fools Episode 12:55 – Competing against VC-backed companies in a “hot” space 18:34 – Is learning to code dead? 27:33 – Risk in SaaS of IP theft Links from the Show:  MicroConf Connect Episode 704 | Landing Pages, Buying a SaaS, the Right Tech Stack, and More Listener Questions Episode 706.5 | Rethinking My Most Common Advice The SaaS Playbook by Rob Walling Start Small Stay Small by Rob Walling TinySeed Episode 688 | Growing Boot.dev From $6k to $110k in Monthly Revenue in 15 Months Ask a Question on SFTROU

In episode 709, join Rob Walling for a solo adventure as he shares his story of growing his personal wealth over the past few decades. Selling companies was the major driver of wealth, but he also explores the role of cryptocurrency, running profitable companies, and angel investing. Rob emphasizes the power of entrepreneurship in achieving financial freedom, while acknowledging there are ways to do so while keeping risk relatively low. Episode Sponsor: We have been partnering with Lemon.io for several years, and they’ve proven to be a great choice when it comes to hiring for a highly skilled developer to work on your project. Here are five reasons why you should consider working with Lemon.io. The time from your request to getting a candidate is just 48 hours. Developers have previously worked with tech giants such as Apple, Google, Netflix, Airbnb, Intel, and LEGO.  They only provide senior devs, with an average of 7 years' experience. Their talent pool covers more than 300 dev languages & frameworks. Your hire comes with a zero-risk, replacement guarantee. Customers of Lemon.io typically stick around for at least a year, proving they know how to gain your trust by delivering consistent results. Quit wasting time searching for a solid developer at a great price. Get in touch with Lemon.io. As a bonus for our podcast listeners, you’ll get a 15% discount on your first four weeks of working with a developer at lemon.io/startups. That’s lemon.io/startups Topics we cover:  2:50 – A lesson on how to build wealth 4:31 – Entrepreneurship was our biggest tool 6:37 – Building, acquiring, then selling companies 10:45 – Building slowly while staying risk-averse 13:27 – Investing in riskier assets like cryptocurrency 19:39 – Running profitable companies 20:56 – Angel investing, and WP Engine 23:44 – Traditional, salaried employment 24:53 – Typical investments: stocks, bonds, REITs 27:36 – Real estate investing Links from the Show:  MicroConf Connect Christopher Gimmer (@cgimmer) | X Christopher’s tweet Sherry Walling (@sherrywalling) | X The Stair Step Method of Bootstrapping Start Small Stay Small by Rob Walling This Took 11 Years to Be An "Overnight Success" - SaaS Exit Strategy Zen Founder The SaaS Playbook by Rob Walling WP Engine TinySeed Barbell Strategy Explained for Stock and Bond Investors If you have questions about starting or scaling a software business that you’d like for us to cover, please submit your question for an upcoming episode.

In episode 708, Rob Walling and Derrick Reimer tackle listener questions about building development skills vs. business skills and strategies for entering competitive markets. They also chat about building on top of AI services, addressing the risks of platform dependency and the importance of managing infrastructure costs.  Episode Sponsor: Is your outsourced development team dropping the ball? Maybe you’ve worked with a team that just couldn't grasp your vision and needed constant oversight because they weren’t thinking strategically. Or maybe you ended up wasting hours micromanaging, often needing to jump on late-night calls across massive time zone differences to get alignment. And in the end, they delivered a sluggish app with a frustrating UI that didn’t come close to the solution you had envisioned. If any of that sounds familiar, you need to reach out to our sponsor - DevSquad. DevSquad provides an entire development team packed with top talent from Latin America.  Your elite squad will include between 2 to 6 Full Stack Developers, a technical product manager, plus experts in product strategy, UI/UX design, DevOps, and QA - all working together to make your SaaS Product a success. You can ramp up an entire product team fast, in your timezone, and at rates 75% cheaper than a comparable US-based team. And with DevSquad, you pay month to month with no long-term contracts.  Get the committed, responsive development team that your business deserves.   Visit DevSquad.com/startups and get 10% off the first three months of your engagement. Topics we cover:  02:38 - Should you build technical skills or business skills? 11:41- Entering a competitive market 21:14 - Building a valuable analytics dashboard tool 29:29 - When should a solo founder hire for marketing roles? 36:29 - The rare skillset of a full-stack marketer  38:18 - Implications of building on openAI and scaling infrastructure costs Links from the Show:  Register for MicroConf US in Atlanta, April 2024 Rob Walling | X Derrick Reimer | X Derrick Reimer SavvyCal Start Small Stay Small by Rob Walling The SaaS Playbook by Rob Walling Devin AI If you have questions about starting or scaling a software business that you’d like for us to cover, please submit your question for an upcoming episode. We’d love to hear from you! Subscribe & Review: iTunes | Spotify

In episode 707, Rob Walling, alongside guests Tracy Osborn and Einar Vollset, give their hot takes on some recent news in the world of SaaS. They discuss Once.com’s launch, liquidation preference nuances in startup buyouts, with moving from open source to full time income and more.  Episode Sponsor: Find your perfect developer or a team at Lemon.io/startups The competition for incredible engineers and developers has never been more fierce. Lemon.io helps you cut through the noise and find great talent through its network of engineers in Europe and Latin America. They take care of the vetting, interviewing, and testing of candidates to make sure that you are working with someone who can hit the ground running. When it comes to hiring, the time it takes to write your job description, list the position, review resumes, schedule interviews, and make an offer can take weeks, if not months. With Lemon.io, you can cut down on a lot of that time by tapping into their wide network of developers who can get started in as early as a week. And for subscribers of Startups For the Rest of Us, you can get 15% off your first 4 week contract with a developer by visiting lemon.io/startups Topics we cover:  2:18 - Once.com and the Implications of One-Time Software Sales 10:39 - Liquidation Preferences in Startup Acquisitions 21:59 - Turning an open source project into a business 24:32 - Book recommendations 30:30 - Is building a startup actually hard? 32:46 - Startups vs. lifestyle businesses Links from the Show:  Register for MicroConf US in Atlanta, April 2024 Once.com Campfire Venture Deals: Be Smarter Than Your Lawyer and Venture Capitalist by Brad Feld Never Split the Difference by Chris Voss The Anomaly by Herv Le Tellier The Art of Learning by Josh Waitzkin The Beginning of Infinity by David Deutsch TinySeed Einar Vollset (@EinarVollset) | X Tracy Osborn (@itsTracyMakes) | TikTok If you have questions about starting or scaling a software business that you’d like for us to cover, please submit your question for an upcoming episode. We’d love to hear from you! Subscribe & Review: iTunes | Spotify | Google

In episode 706.5, join Rob Walling as he reconsiders some of his most common advice. He explores why lowering prices might make sense and discusses the benefits of a B2C business model. Rob also walks back his prior advice on bootstrapping two-sided marketplaces and launching multiple products to see what sticks.  Topics we cover:  1:04 – What would happen if you lowered prices? 3:56 – Benefits of a B2C approach 7:05 – Two-sided marketplaces allow to reach two audiences 8:47 – Launch a bunch of products to see what sticks 10:52 – This episode was released April 1, 2024 Links from the Show:  The SaaS Playbook Rob Walling (@robwalling) | X If you have questions about starting or scaling a software business that you’d like for us to cover, please submit your question for an upcoming episode. We’d love to hear from you! Subscribe & Review: iTunes | Spotify | Google

MicroConf US in Atlanta is here in just a couple weeks, and this is your last call to buy tickets. We've sold more than 90% of the tickets, and we will sell this event out as we have for many years. The event is April 21st through the 23rd in Atlanta, Georgia at the amazing Starling Atlanta. There are going to be 200-ish of your closest bootstrapped and mostly bootstrapped founder friends who are showing up to hear talks from folks like Rand Fishkin of SparkToro, Asia Orangio of DemandMaven. I'm giving a talk as well, and Dr. Sherry Walling will be talking about staying motivated as an entrepreneur. We have a special guest MC, Lianna Patch, and we'll have a very special guest who has never appeared on the MicroConf stage before- Ben Chestnut, the co-founder of MailChimp. Get all the details and secure your ticket before they run out at microconf.com/americas.

In episode 706, join Rob Walling for a solo adventure where he discusses a variety of topics. He starts with why it’s important to both consider and credit “prior art” in business. Rob outlines his 2/20/200 idea validation framework used to repeatedly evaluate ideas. He also covers why, though there are some advantages, designing by committee has some significant downsides.  Episode Sponsor: Is your outsourced development team dropping the ball? Maybe you’ve worked with a team that just couldn't grasp your vision and needed constant oversight because they weren’t thinking strategically. Or maybe you ended up wasting hours micromanaging, often needing to jump on late-night calls across massive time zone differences to get alignment. And in the end, they delivered a sluggish app with a frustrating UI that didn’t come close to the solution you had envisioned. If any of that sounds familiar, you need to reach out to our sponsor - DevSquad. DevSquad provides an entire development team packed with top talent from Latin America.  Your elite squad will include between 2 to 6 Full Stack Developers, a technical product manager, plus experts in product strategy, UI/UX design, DevOps, and QA - all working together to make your SaaS Product a success. You can ramp up an entire product team fast, in your timezone, and at rates 75% cheaper than a comparable US-based team. And with DevSquad, you pay month to month with no long-term contracts.  Get the committed, responsive development team that your business deserves.   Visit DevSquad.com/startups and get 10% off the first three months of your engagement. Topics we cover:  2:37 – Learning from, and crediting, prior art 10:27 – The 2/20/200 Idea Validation Framework 16:03 – Be wary when designing by committee 21:09 – When to crowdsource feedback Links from the Show:  Register for MicroConf US in Atlanta, April 2024 Do Things That Don’t Scale by Paul Graham David Sacks (@DavidSacks) | X Hackers and Painters by Paul Graham Episode 705 | From Bootstrapped to Mostly Bootstrapped Episode 628 | The 5 P.M. Idea Validation Framework Use This PROVEN Formula to Validate Your Next Startup Idea Validate Your SaaS Idea FAST (Step-by-Step SaaS Validation Process)✅ Start Small Stay Small by Rob Walling Metallica: Some Kind of Monster If you have questions about starting or scaling a software business that you’d like for us to cover, please submit your question for an upcoming episode. We’d love to hear from you! Subscribe & Review: iTunes | Spotify | Google

In episode 705, Rob Walling interviews Braden Dennis, co-founder and CEO of FinChat. They discuss Braden’s journey going from fully bootstrapped, all the way to taking venture capital as FinChat scaled. Braden shares his experience in initially launching to an audience, how they successfully launched a second product, and how FinChat operates well with multiple co-founders. Episode Sponsor: Find your perfect developer or a team at Lemon.io/startups The competition for incredible engineers and developers has never been more fierce. Lemon.io helps you cut through the noise and find great talent through its network of engineers in Europe and Latin America. They take care of the vetting, interviewing, and testing of candidates to make sure that you are working with someone who can hit the ground running. When it comes to hiring, the time it takes to write your job description, list the position, review resumes, schedule interviews, and make an offer can take weeks, if not months. With Lemon.io, you can cut down on a lot of that time by tapping into their wide network of developers who can get started in as early as a week. And for subscribers of Startups For the Rest of Us, you can get 15% off your first 4 week contract with a developer by visiting lemon.io/startups Topics we cover:  2:55 – What does FinChat look like today? 4:00 – Starting with an audience and building a SaaS 6:40 – Formulating the product and moving upmarket 8:35 – Launching a second product 12:25 – The common pitfall of launching a second product 16:25 – How FinChat found explosive growth 19:27 – Deciding to take venture funding  26:13 – Making hard decisions with incomplete information 30:31 – Working with multiple co-founders Links from the Show:  Register for MicroConf US in Atlanta, April 2024 Apply for Director of Marketing and Operations for MicroConf MicroConf YouTube Channel TinySeed Braden Dennis (@BradoCapital) | X FinChat (@finchat_io) | X FinChat Episode 681 | Why Launching a Second Product is Usually a Bad Idea If you have questions about starting or scaling a software business that you’d like for us to cover, please submit your question for an upcoming episode. We’d love to hear from you! Subscribe & Review:

In episode 704, join Rob Walling for another solo adventure where he answers listener questions. He weighs in on buying a SaaS, how to validate ideas using landing pages, and what tech stack to choose. Rob also provides guidance for those considering leaving their comfortable day jobs in favor of being a founder. Episode Sponsor: Is your outsourced development team dropping the ball? Maybe you’ve worked with a team that just couldn't grasp your vision and needed constant oversight because they weren’t thinking strategically. Or maybe you ended up wasting hours micromanaging, often needing to jump on late-night calls across massive time zone differences to get alignment. And in the end, they delivered a sluggish app with a frustrating UI that didn’t come close to the solution you had envisioned. If any of that sounds familiar, you need to reach out to our sponsor - DevSquad. DevSquad provides an entire development team packed with top talent from Latin America.  Your elite squad will include between 2 to 6 Full Stack Developers, a technical product manager, plus experts in product strategy, UI/UX design, DevOps, and QA - all working together to make your SaaS Product a success. You can ramp up an entire product team fast, in your timezone, and at rates 75% cheaper than a comparable US-based team. And with DevSquad, you pay month to month with no long-term contracts.  Get the committed, responsive development team that your business deserves.   Visit DevSquad.com/startups and get 10% off the first three months of your engagement. Topics we cover:  4:00 – Comparing your business to successful outliers 9:50 – Exploring business outside of a comfortable day job 15:45 – Early access landing pages prior to development 20:00 – How do you vet SaaS businesses that you are trying to acquire?  27:16 – Evaluating a seller’s intentions 29:50 – Choosing a tech stack for your SaaS Links from the Show:  MicroConf Remote – Early Stage Saas Strategies Register for MicroConf US in Atlanta, April 2024 Apply for Director of Marketing and Operations for MicroConf MicroConf Connect Startups For The Rest of Us – Ask a question 37signals 7 Proven Ways to Create Profitable SaaS Ideas EVERY Time The SaaS Playbook Quiet Light Acquire.com The Stair Step Method of Bootstrapping If you have questions about sta

In episode 703, Rob Walling interviews Jordan Hansen, founder of Cobalt Intelligence. They dive into Jordan's unexpected journey into SaaS and the growth of his company, which specializes in business verification through API. Jordan reflects on quitting his job to pursue his startup and the benefits of community and mentorship he has received from TinySeed.  Episode Sponsor: Find your perfect developer or a team at Lemon.io/startups The competition for incredible engineers and developers has never been more fierce. Lemon.io helps you cut through the noise and find great talent through its network of engineers in Europe and Latin America. They take care of the vetting, interviewing, and testing of candidates to make sure that you are working with someone who can hit the ground running. When it comes to hiring, the time it takes to write your job description, list the position, review resumes, schedule interviews, and make an offer can take weeks, if not months. With Lemon.io, you can cut down on a lot of that time by tapping into their wide network of developers who can get started in as early as a week. And for subscribers of Startups For the Rest of Us, you can get 15% off your first 4 week contract with a developer by visiting lemon.io/startups Topics we cover:  2:30 – What does Cobalt Intelligence offer? 5:45 – Team scale, market, and business origins  9:55 – Starting YouTube and finding motivation to continually publish 13:27 – Working with a savings runway and applying to TinySeed 23:50 – Finding product-market fit 26:58 – Unlisting content to align with business goals 31:50 – “Accidental” SaaS founder Links from the Show:  Register for MicroConf US in Atlanta, April 2024 TinySeed The SaaS Playbook Jordan Hansen (@JordBHansen) | X Cobalt Intelligence (@CobaltIntell) | X Cobalt Intelligence  Lianna Patch (@punchlinecopy) | X The Stair Step Method of Bootstrapping Soft Skills: The software developer's life manual by John Sonmez  Episode 698 | How to Launch a Million Dollar Business (With Noah Kagan)

In episode 702, join Rob Walling for another solo adventure where he answers listener questions. He answers how to introduce friends to bootstrapping, when to lower your prices, and addresses the difference in revenue and profit multiple valuations. Rob also offers advice when weighing a career move versus building side projects and scaling your MVP. Episode Sponsor: Is your outsourced development team dropping the ball? Maybe you’ve worked with a team that just couldn't grasp your vision and needed constant oversight because they weren’t thinking strategically. Or maybe you ended up wasting hours micromanaging, often needing to jump on late-night calls across massive time zone differences to get alignment. And in the end, they delivered a sluggish app with a frustrating UI that didn’t come close to the solution you had envisioned. If any of that sounds familiar, you need to reach out to our sponsor - DevSquad. DevSquad provides an entire development team packed with top talent from Latin America.  Your elite squad will include between 2 to 6 Full Stack Developers, a technical product manager, plus experts in product strategy, UI/UX design, DevOps, and QA - all working together to make your SaaS Product a success. You can ramp up an entire product team fast, in your timezone, and at rates 75% cheaper than a comparable US-based team. And with DevSquad, you pay month to month with no long-term contracts.  Get the committed, responsive development team that your business deserves.   Visit DevSquad.com/startups and get 10% off the first three months of your engagement. Topics we cover:  3:15 – How to introduce friends to entrepreneurship and bootstrapping  6:00 – When to focus on profit vs. top-line revenue 10:40 – Considerations for building, scaling, and differentiating an MVP 15:45 – Rare circumstances where you should lower prices 20:25 – Pursuing career moves vs. building on the side 23:43 – Managing cap tables and equity vesting Links from the Show:  MicroConf Remote – Early Stage Saas Strategies TinySeed The Stair Step Method of Bootstrapping Start Small, Stay Small The SaaS Playbook MicroConf YouTube Channel: Building Your First SaaS: The Ultimate Crash Course SFTROU Greatest Hits Episode 222 | The Stair Step Approach to Launching Products What is a SAFE? If you have questions about starting or scaling a software business that you’d like for u

In episode 701, Rob Walling interviews Matt Wensing, founder of Summit, a SaaS platform for lead scoring and qualification. Matt shares insights on finding product-market fit, the importance of following customer workflows to get there, and the challenges of marketing and positioning. Rob asks about his choice to raise venture capital, and how keeping a lean team maximizes that opportunity. Episode Sponsor: Find your perfect developer or a team at Lemon.io/startups The competition for incredible engineers and developers has never been more fierce. Lemon.io helps you cut through the noise and find great talent through its network of engineers in Europe and Latin America. They take care of the vetting, interviewing, and testing of candidates to make sure that you are working with someone who can hit the ground running. When it comes to hiring, the time it takes to write your job description, list the position, review resumes, schedule interviews, and make an offer can take weeks, if not months. With Lemon.io, you can cut down on a lot of that time by tapping into their wide network of developers who can get started in as early as a week. And for subscribers of Startups For the Rest of Us, you can get 15% off your first 4 week contract with a developer by visiting lemon.io/startups Topics we cover:  2:27 – “Traveling many H1’s”, refining a target market  5:44 – Moving back to a self-serve model 10:52 – Niching down to achieve stronger product-market fit 12:53 – Tactics that Matt used to achieve traction 16:54 – Lead scoring by behavior and persona-fit  19:20 – Scoring as a whole product vs. as only a feature 23:31 – Pursuing VC with a lean team 29:09 – Who is your ideal customer profile? Links from the Show:  Apply for Tinyseed Feb 12th through Feb 25th MicroConf Remote – Early Stage Saas Strategies Matt Wensing (@mattwensing) | X Summit Episode 696 | The Truth about Product-Market Fit + Doing Sales as an Introvert (With Ruben Gamez) Out of Beta Episode 633 | Building SaaS Plus a Two-Sided Marketplace The SaaS Playbook "How I Sold My SaaS in An 8-Figure Exit" with Matt Wensing If you have questions about starting or scaling a software business that you’d like for us to cover, please

In episode 700, Rob goes solo to celebrate another milestone of Startups For the Rest of Us. He reflects on playing the long game and doing so publicly enough to create larger luck surface area. He also emphasizes building skills in the process, and highlights several founders who have done this well. Episode Sponsor: Is your outsourced development team dropping the ball? Maybe you’ve worked with a team that just couldn't grasp your vision and needed constant oversight because they weren’t thinking strategically. Or maybe you ended up wasting hours micromanaging, often needing to jump on late-night calls across massive time zone differences to get alignment. And in the end, they delivered a sluggish app with a frustrating UI that didn’t come close to the solution you had envisioned. If any of that sounds familiar, you need to reach out to our sponsor - DevSquad. DevSquad provides an entire development team packed with top talent from Latin America.  Your elite squad will include between 2 to 6 Full Stack Developers, a technical product manager, plus experts in product strategy, UI/UX design, DevOps, and QA - all working together to make your SaaS Product a success. You can ramp up an entire product team fast, in your timezone, and at rates 75% cheaper than a comparable US-based team. And with DevSquad, you pay month to month with no long-term contracts.  Get the committed, responsive development team that your business deserves.   Visit DevSquad.com/startups and get 10% off the first three months of your engagement. Topics we cover:  2:41 – Balancing short vs. long term thinking and decision making 7:30 – Examples of founders leaning into the long game 12:18 – Putting in the time, and doing it publicly (enough) 16:42 – Lucky or smart? 21:22 – How do I know if I’m playing the correct long game? 23:54 – Acquiring skills as you play the long game 27:13 – Cheers to 700! Links from the Show:  Apply for TinySeed Spring 2024 MicroConf TinySeed Start Small, Stay Small by Rob Walling Gather TinySeed Tales S2E1 | Introducing Gather Lucky or Smart? by Bo Peabody If you have questions about starting or scaling a software business that you’d like for us to cover, please submit your question for an upcoming episode. We’d love to hear from you! Subscribe & Review: iTunes | Spotify |

In episode 699, Rob Walling chats with fan favorite Derrick Reimer, the founder of SavvyCal, about scaling products tastefully. Derrick offers his perspective on maintaining a tidy UX and deciding which features to implement. They also cover best practices for maintaining knowledge bases, changelogs, and documentation. As a bonus, Rob and Derrick offer podcasting advice to their past selves. Episode Sponsor: Find your perfect developer or a team at Lemon.io/startups The competition for incredible engineers and developers has never been more fierce. Lemon.io helps you cut through the noise and find great talent through its network of engineers in Europe and Latin America. They take care of the vetting, interviewing, and testing of candidates to make sure that you are working with someone who can hit the ground running. When it comes to hiring, the time it takes to write your job description, list the position, review resumes, schedule interviews, and make an offer can take weeks, if not months. With Lemon.io, you can cut down on a lot of that time by tapping into their wide network of developers who can get started in as early as a week. And for subscribers of Startups For the Rest of Us, you can get 15% off your first 4 week contract with a developer by visiting lemon.io/startups Topics we cover:  2:35 – Establish design systems and language as you scale your product 8:36 – Building out a front-end directory to maintain consistency 10:17 – Truly understand how customers are moving through your product 16:28 – Naming convention dilemmas, industry norms vs. accuracy 19:22 – Hiding product features with feature flags 23:04 – Scaling new products that serve different verticals 31:12 – Best practices for maintaining a product knowledge base 37:11 – Bonus: What advice would you give to your prior self starting a podcast? Links from the Show:  Register for MicroConf US in Atlanta, April 2024 The SaaS Playbook Derrick Reimer (@derrickreimer) I X SavvyCal  Allen D King (@allendking) | X FunJoin FullStory Episode 681 | Why Launching a Second Product is Usually a Bad Idea Help Scout Knowledge Base Headway Changelog

In episode 698, Rob Walling interviews Noah Kagan, CEO of AppSumo. They discuss the importance of eliminating distractions, cover strategies that led to growth in Noah’s businesses, and share insights from growing YouTube channels. Noah also shares why he decided to write his new book, Million Dollar Weekend. Episode Sponsor: Is your outsourced development team dropping the ball? Maybe you’ve worked with a team that just couldn't grasp your vision and needed constant oversight because they weren’t thinking strategically. Or maybe you ended up wasting hours micromanaging, often needing to jump on late-night calls across massive time zone differences to get alignment. And in the end, they delivered a sluggish app with a frustrating UI that didn’t come close to the solution you had envisioned. If any of that sounds familiar, you need to reach out to our sponsor - DevSquad. DevSquad provides an entire development team packed with top talent from Latin America.  Your elite squad will include between 2 to 6 Full Stack Developers, a technical product manager, plus experts in product strategy, UI/UX design, DevOps, and QA - all working together to make your SaaS Product a success. You can ramp up an entire product team fast, in your timezone, and at rates 75% cheaper than a comparable US-based team. And with DevSquad, you pay month to month with no long-term contracts.  Get the committed, responsive development team that your business deserves.   Visit DevSquad.com/startups and get 10% off the first three months of your engagement. Topics we cover:  2:38 – Making good decisions, consistently 5:47 – Noah’s disappointment in selling Sumo 13:20 – Strategies and decisions that led to growth 15:46 – Focus on eliminating distractions 20:15 – Noah returns as AppSumo CEO 23:20 – Making the mistake of not listening to customers 26:55 –Growing a YouTube Channel to 1M+ subscribers  35:03 – The role of YouTube content in supporting AppSumo 37:11 – Building a million dollar business in a weekend Links from the Show:  Register for MicroConf US in Atlanta, April 2024 Million Dollar Weekend by Noah Kagan Noah Kagan (@noahkagan) | X Born Standing Up: A Comic's Life by Steve Martin Sumo AppSumo TidyCal SendFox KingSumo Noah’s YouTube Channel If you have questions about starting or scaling a software business that you’d like for us to cover, please submit

In episode 697, join Rob Walling for a solo adventure where he makes predictions for SaaS in 2024. His predictions focus on Vertical SaaS, emerging markets, the professionalization of No-Code, subscription fatigue,  AI and more. At the end of the episode, he evaluates predictions he made over the past 10 years to see if they held up. Episode Sponsor: Find your perfect developer or a team at Lemon.io/startups The competition for incredible engineers and developers has never been more fierce. Lemon.io helps you cut through the noise and find great talent through its network of engineers in Europe and Latin America. They take care of the vetting, interviewing, and testing of candidates to make sure that you are working with someone who can hit the ground running. When it comes to hiring, the time it takes to write your job description, list the position, review resumes, schedule interviews, and make an offer can take weeks, if not months. With Lemon.io, you can cut down on a lot of that time by tapping into their wide network of developers who can get started in as early as a week. And for subscribers of Startups For the Rest of Us, you can get 15% off your first 4 week contract with a developer by visiting lemon.io/startups Topics we cover:  1:32 – Opportunity in vertical SaaS 3:48 – SaaS will continue to grow in emerging markets 5:08 – Twitter changes hands in 2024? 6:56 – Subscription fatigue has little impact on adoption of B2B SaaS 8:13 – No-Code and Low-Code will undergo “professionalization” 10:24 – Is it hype, or is it not? How AI will continue to develop this year 14:11 – Will Stripe go public? 17:08 – Revisiting past predictions: SaaS, Twitter, VR, crypto, markets, & gadgets Links from the Show:  Call for Pitches TinySeed Portfolio Start Small Stay Small Dave Kellett (@davekellett) | X Once.com If you have questions about starting or scaling a software business that you’d like for us to cover, please submit your question for an upcoming episode. We’d love to hear from you! Subscribe & Review: iTunes | Spotify | Google

In episode 696, Rob Walling and Ruben Gamez cover a variety of topics. They discuss how product market fit is achieved across customer segments and use cases, not simply broadly. Ruben shares how he approaches effective decision making and sales as an introvert. They wrap up by sharing how they evaluate candidates when hiring to build their teams. Topics we cover:  4:47 – Product market fit, increasing average revenue per customer 7:58 – When did you know you had product market fit? 11:03 – Product market fit is a continuum, and use case specific 14:27 – Making hard decisions around product market fit 19:01 – Getting better at prioritizing and making hard decisions 27:38 – Doing sales as an introvert 33:09 – Building a functional team that gets stuff done 40:10 – Evaluating potential hires Links from the Show:  MicroConf Sponsorships Microconf Connect Ruben Gamez (@earthlingworks) | X SignWell Episode 695 | Ideal Customers, Moving from B2C to B2B, and More Listener Questions (with Asia Orangio) The SaaS Playbook Dynamite Jobs Who: The A Method for Hiring by Geoff Smart, Randy Street Crucial Conversations by Joseph Grenny, Kerry Patterson, et al.  If you have questions about starting or scaling a software business that you’d like for us to cover, please submit your question for an upcoming episode. We’d love to hear from you! Subscribe & Review: iTunes | Spotify | Google

In episode 695, Rob Walling and Asia Orangio answer listener questions. They take questions about ideal target customers, moving from B2C to B2B, and how to advertise for a product in a new space. They wrap up discussing the challenges of making freemium work while bootstrapping. Episode Sponsor: Find your perfect developer or a team at Lemon.io/startups The competition for incredible engineers and developers has never been more fierce. Lemon.io helps you cut through the noise and find great talent through its network of engineers in Europe and Latin America. They take care of the vetting, interviewing, and testing of candidates to make sure that you are working with someone who can hit the ground running. When it comes to hiring, the time it takes to write your job description, list the position, review resumes, schedule interviews, and make an offer can take weeks, if not months. With Lemon.io, you can cut down on a lot of that time by tapping into their wide network of developers who can get started in as early as a week. And for subscribers of Startups For the Rest of Us, you can get 15% off your first 4 week contract with a developer by visiting lemon.io/startups Topics we cover:  4:06 – Adjusting your target customers to chase an opportunity 11:58 – Is translating marketing or educational content worth it? 16:46 – Moving from B2C to B2B 25:53 – Defining a cross-channel marketing approach 33:22 – Advertising for a product in new product category 41:40 – The issues with making freemium work while bootstrapping. Links from the Show:  State of Independent SaaS Report MicroConf Mastermind Program Asia Orangio (@AsiaOrangio) | X DemandMaven Episode 681 | Why Launching a Second Product is Usually a Bad Idea User Interviews Episode 685 | 7 Things You Should Never Do (A Rob Solo Adventure) Four Fits for $100M+ Growth by Brian Balfour Brian Balfour (@bbalfour) | X Reforge Continuous Discovery Habits by Teresa Torres If you have questions about starting or scaling a software business that you’d like for us

In episode 694, join Rob Walling as he recaps 2023. He reflects on growing TinySeed, MicroConf, the YouTube channel and this podcast. Rob also addresses his struggle with "arrival fallacy" and the continuous journey of success. Alongside the growth, he describes seeing burnout on the horizon, emphasizes the importances of addressing that early, and what it means for him and his team in 2024. Episode Sponsor: Going from an idea sketched on the back of a napkin to a robust, stable product requires a wide range of skills. You can spend ages looking for a one-in-a-million developer who can do it all, or you can quickly ramp up an entire product team to help you build and launch your product with our sponsor - DevSquad. DevSquad provides an entire development team packed with top talent from Latin America.  Your elite squad will include between 2 to 6 Full Stack Developers, a technical product manager, plus experts in product strategy, UI/UX design, DevOps, and QA - all working together to make your SaaS Product a success. You can ramp up an entire product team fast, in your timezone, and at rates 75% cheaper than a comparable US-based team. And with DevSquad, you pay month to month with no long-term contracts.  Take the hassle out of assembling and managing a sprawling team of freelancers and work with a group that’s ready to hit the ground running. Visit DevSquad.com/startups and get 10% off your engagement.  Topics we cover:  4:20 – 2023 growth, launch of The SaaS Playbook 6:04 – Audience growth and supporting the mission 7:24 – Seeing burnout on the horizon, content calendars, and travel 11:49 – Dealing with burnout if you are experiencing it 14:18 – Adjusting travel schedules and amount 15:39 – Doing the things that “give me life”, sustainably Links from the Show:  TinySeed Get Your tickets for MicroConf Atlanta State of Independent SaaS Report The SaaS Playbook Subscribe to the MicroConf YouTube channel Start Small Stay Small Episode 670 | Relying on Luck, Avoiding Burnout, and Bad Player vs. Bad Instrument (A Rob Solo Adventure) The Entrepreneur’s Guide to Keeping Your Sh*t Together The Zen Founder Guide to Founder Retreats If you have questions about starting or scaling a software business that you’d like for us to cover, please submit your question for an upcoming episode. We’d love to hear from you!</

In episode 693, Rob Walling interviews Grant McConnaughey, founder of Postpone, a social media scheduling tool. They discuss the app's growth from inception to mid six figures, early growth tactics, a successful price increase, and platform risks with Reddit and Twitter. Grant also shares his experience going all-in on one idea, joining TinySeed, and reveals what he can still improve upon. Topics we cover:  2:04 – Postpone starts off as part of a New Year’s resolution 4:13 – Validating and building the MVP to schedule content for Reddit  6:44 – Launching lean to slow growth in the beginning 9:10 – Doing things that don’t scale  10:53 – What were the reasons for joining TinySeed 13:06 – Full time focus and pricing changes enabled strong growth for Postpone 17:15 – Initial hesitation for raising prices at first 22:08 – Experiencing and overcoming Reddit platform risk 26:00 – What could Grant be doing better? Links from the Show:  MicroConf Connect TinySeed Grant McConnaughey (@gmcconnaughey) | X Postone’s MRR graph | X Postpone Adam Wathan (@adamwathan) | X Traction by Gabriel Weinberg and Justin Mares If you have questions about starting or scaling a software business that you’d like for us to cover, please submit your question for an upcoming episode. We’d love to hear from you! Subscribe & Review: iTunes | Spotify | Google