The whole Transistor team got together for a retreat in Montréal. Jon, Justin, Helen, and Jason chat about the experience. (00:00) - Introduction (01:18) - What was everyone's highlight? (04:55) - Why we went to Montreal (08:44) - Daily retreat schedule (17:06) - The big questions we tried to answer (24:03) - What changes did we make because of the retreat? (29:16) - What could we improve for future retreats? (42:50) - Thanks to our supporters! What should we talk about next? Twitter: @buildyoursaas, @mijustin, @jonbuda, @jsonpearl, and @helenryles Leave a review/comment on Podchaser; it's like Reddit, but for podcasts. Email us: support@transistor.fm Thanks to our monthly supporters: Jason Charnes Mitchell Davis from RecruitKit.com.au Marcel Fahle, ​​wearebold.af Alex Payne Bill Condo Anton Zorin from ProdCamp.com Harris Kenny, Intro CRM podcast Oleg Kulyk Ethan Gunderson Ward Sandler, Memberspace Russell Brown, Photivo.com Noah Prail Colin Gray Austin Loveless Michael Sitver Paul Jarvis and Jack Ellis, Fathom Dan Buda Darby Frey Adam DuVander Dave Giunta (JOOnta) Kyle Fox GetRewardful.com Check out Simon and Volkan’s new bootstrappers podcast: https://shipsaasfaster.com/  ★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★

It's the fourth anniversary of Transistor's public launch! This is part 2 of "Jon and Justin answer your questions." (00:37) - When did you start paying yourself how much you wanted to make? (01:39) - Any broad advice for startups? (11:43) - How did you decide on your tech stack? (14:21) - How did you prioritize features? (15:54) - Were you embarrased by the first version you shipped? (17:53) - How did you decide on pricing? (21:12) - How would you have found employees without your network? (27:30) - Do you have more or less freedom or stress in your lives? What should we talk about next? Twitter: @buildyoursaas, @mijustin, @jonbuda, @jsonpearl, and @helenryles Leave a review/comment on Podchaser; it's like Reddit, but for podcasts. Email us: support@transistor.fm Thanks to our monthly supporters: Jason Charnes Mitchell Davis from RecruitKit.com.au Marcel Fahle, ​​wearebold.af Alex Payne Bill Condo Anton Zorin from ProdCamp.com Harris Kenny, Intro CRM podcast Oleg Kulyk Ethan Gunderson Ward Sandler, Memberspace Russell Brown, Photivo.com Noah Prail Colin Gray Austin Loveless Michael Sitver Paul Jarvis and Jack Ellis, Fathom Dan Buda Darby Frey Adam DuVander Dave Giunta (JOOnta) Kyle Fox GetRewardful.com Want to start a podcast on Transistor? Justin has a special coupon for you: get 15% off your first year of hosting: transistor.fm/justin ★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★

It's the fourth anniversary of Transistor's public launch! In this two-part series, Jon and Justin answer your questions. 01:22 - Our history 14:51 - What is the secret to running Transistor as a company? See our values here. 21:19 - What was the most challenging aspect of the past 4 years? 22:14 - Where do you see Transistor at 5 or 10 year? 26:19 - Do you ever feel like you're not doing enough? Book: Running the Dream. 32:09 - Have we reached peak podcast? 34:36 - What's something you've gotten better at over the past 4 years? 38:23 - What was the lowest point in Transistor's history? 40:09 - What have you learned about partnership? 43:17 - What has been the most fun memory of your journey? 47:04 - What is the definition of enough for Transistor? 50:49 - What are your thoughts on open startups vs private? 52:25 - What are the most impactful decisions you've made? 56:34 - How has your job changed year to year? What should we talk about next? Twitter: @buildyoursaas, @mijustin, @jonbuda, @jsonpearl, and @helenryles Leave a review/comment on Podchaser; it's like Reddit, but for podcasts. Email us: support@transistor.fm Thanks to our monthly supporters: Jason Charnes Mitchell Davis from RecruitKit.com.au Marcel Fahle, ​​wearebold.af Alex Payne Bill Condo Anton Zorin from ProdCamp.com Harris Kenny, Intro CRM podcast Oleg Kulyk Ethan Gunderson Ward Sandler, Memberspace Russell Brown, Photivo.com Noah Prail Colin Gray Austin Loveless Michael Sitver Paul Jarvis and Jack Ellis, Fathom Dan Buda Darby Frey Adam DuVander Dave Giunta (JOOnta) Kyle Fox GetRewardful.com Want to start a podcast on Transistor? Justin has a special coupon for you: get 15% off your first year of hosting: transistor.fm/justin ★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★

Baptiste Jamin co-founded Crisp with a friend he met in high school. Highlights (go straight to 🔥 for the best stuff): 1:42 – Crisp competes with massive companies: Zendesk, HelpScout, Intercom 2:52 – How did Crisp get started? (they started young!) 4:40 – The key insight that lead them to start Crisp 🔥 7:03 – "Being young and in France, how much did you know about the startup ecosystem?" 9:39 – How they bootstrapped Crisp in their twenties 🔥 12:52 – Market insights and how they found their first customers 🔥 16:02 – How they got a surge of new customers 🔥 22:39 – Why Crisp charges LESS than their competitors 🔥 30:14 – What it's like to have a customer base that is comprised of many niches 🔥 32:30 – How does a small team ship such high-quality software? 🔥 35:06 – Marketing strategy and tactics for small SaaS companies 🔥 40:36 – Key insight on Crisp's "job to be done." 🔥 45:52 – Crisp's simple sales trick for closing more deals 🔥 50:58 – Why some EU countries have an advantage in product differentiation 🔥 1:01:54 – Emerging global SaaS markets you might not have heard about What should we talk about next? Twitter: @buildyoursaas, @mijustin, @jonbuda, @jsonpearl, and @helenryles Leave a review/comment on Podchaser; it's like Reddit, but for podcasts. Email us: support@transistor.fm Thanks to our monthly supporters: Jason Charnes Mitchell Davis from RecruitKit.com.au Marcel Fahle, ​​wearebold.af Alex Payne Bill Condo Anton Zorin from ProdCamp.com Harris Kenny, Intro CRM podcast Oleg Kulyk Ethan Gunderson Ward Sandler, Memberspace Russell Brown, Photivo.com Noah Prail Colin Gray Austin Loveless Michael Sitver Paul Jarvis and Jack Ellis, Fathom Dan Buda Darby Frey Adam DuVander Dave Giunta (JOOnta) Kyle Fox GetRewardful.com Want to start a podcast on Transistor? Justin has a special coupon for you: get 15% off your first year of hosting: transistor.fm/justin ★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★

Dave Zohrob is the co-founder of Chartable (a podcast analytics startup), talks about selling his company to Spotify in February 2022. Highlights (go straight to 🔥 for the best stuff): 1:00 – What's the Spotify office in New York like? 5:24 – Dave's first startup: he started an indie record label (Tellall Records) 7:12 – Founding in Chartable in 2017 8:00 – Behind the scenes: talking to Chris Enns (our editor at Lemon Productions) 9:50 – Dave's first business as a kid: publishing programming tutorials on the internet (Qbasic.com) 12:25 – What made you want to make money on the internet? 14:25 – Do all geeks have the intuition to start a business? (Justin's tweet) 🔥 19:23 – What's your real motivation for building a startup? 🔥 24:28 – Side-projects vs Bootstrapping vs Venture Funding (VC) 🔥 30:12 – Once you choose the VC-funded path, what's it like? 🔥 32:00 – The huge risk/cost for founders with families 🔥 34:30 – Public health insurance is the best way to boost entrepreneurship 36:30 – Bootstrappers and VC-funded founders have this same anxiety 🔥 40:00 – What it's like joining a massive company as a small 11-person company? 🔥 48:10 – What's next in podcast ad tech, analytics, and attribution 🔥 What should we talk about next? Twitter: @buildyoursaas, @mijustin, @jonbuda, @jsonpearl, and @helenryles Leave a review/comment on Podchaser; it's like Reddit, but for podcasts. Email us: support@transistor.fm Thanks to our monthly supporters: Jason Charnes Mitchell Davis from RecruitKit.com.au Marcel Fahle, ​​wearebold.af Alex Payne Bill Condo Anton Zorin from ProdCamp.com Harris Kenny, Intro CRM podcast Oleg Kulyk Ethan Gunderson Ward Sandler, Memberspace Russell Brown, Photivo.com Noah Prail Colin Gray Austin Loveless Michael Sitver Paul Jarvis and Jack Ellis, Fathom Dan Buda Darby Frey Adam DuVander Dave Giunta (JOOnta) Kyle Fox GetRewardful.com Want to start a podcast on Transistor? Justin has a special coupon for you: get 15% off your first year of hosting: transistor.fm/justin ★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★

Patrick Campbell just sold his startup, ProfitWell, to Paddle for $200 million.Highlights (go straight to 🔥 for the best stuff): 0:00 – "My problem is I'm always curious if other people are living a better dream than me." 1:30 – The major downside to bootstrapping is the lack of network 2:20 – Selling ProfitWell to Paddle, and integrating the two teams. 4:15 – How ProfitWell got started (2012) 6:00 – Initially three co-founders (Crunchbase) 7:20 – Patrick's background (what he did before ProfitWell) 10:10 – What did bootstrapping ProfitWell look like? (How much did each founder invest?) 14:15 – Do you want to be a lifestyle company or a "big ass company?" 🔥 15:55 – What salary did Patrick pay himself? (Tweet) 🔥 18:25 – Differences between Patrick (ProfitWell) and Josh Pigford (Baremetrics) 🔥 21:45 – Should bootstrapped companies go freemium and try to "win the market?" 🔥 26:40 – The characteristics of your market determine most of your outcomes 🔥🔥 29:24 – "Don't underestimate the velocity and size of your market." 🔥 34:35 – What doe the average SaaS company spend on sales and marketing? 🔥 37:39 – Pricing your SaaS discussion 🔥 42:45 – Why competitors entering a new market can be better for your company. 🔥 47:10 – Should bootstrapped companies try to "own the market?" 🔥 52:10 – "We're in the second phase of SaaS: here's what's coming next." 🔥 61:53 – Did ProfitWell employees have equity? What should we talk about next? Twitter: @buildyoursaas, @mijustin, @jonbuda, @jsonpearl, and @helenryles Leave a review/comment on Podchaser; it's like Reddit, but for podcasts. Email us: support@transistor.fm Thanks to our monthly supporters: Jason Charnes Mitchell Davis from RecruitKit.com.au Marcel Fahle, ​​wearebold.af Alex Payne Bill Condo Anton Zorin from ProdCamp.com Harris Kenny, Intro CRM podcast Oleg Kulyk Ethan Gunderson Ward Sandler, Memberspace Russell Brown, Photivo.com Noah Prail Colin Gray Austin Loveless Michael Sitver Paul Jarvis and Jack Ellis, Fathom Dan Buda Darby Frey Adam DuVander Dave Giunta (JOOnta) Kyle Fox GetRewardful.com Want to start a podcast on Transistor? Justin has a special coupon for you: get 15% off your first year of hosting: transistor.fm/justin ★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★

Philippe Lehoux and his two co-founders started working on Missive around 2015, and just passed $2 million in annual recurring revenue. 0:00 – Getting to know Philippe, and what it's like living in Quebec 3:09 – How Missive got started: "how can we quickly collaborate on an email as a team?" 8:15 – How they get most of their customers 10:30 – How their first product (Conference Badge), funded the development of Missive 13:55 – How the market dictates most of your success 16:30 – How they deal with competitors 28:00 – Another example: Crisp is competing head-to-head with Intercom 30:25 – Why indie startups should compete on price What should we talk about next? Twitter: @buildyoursaas, @mijustin, @jonbuda, @jsonpearl, and @helenryles Leave a review/comment on Podchaser; it's like Reddit, but for podcasts. Email us: support@transistor.fm Thanks to our monthly supporters: Jason Charnes Mitchell Davis from RecruitKit.com.au Marcel Fahle, ​​wearebold.af Alex Payne Bill Condo Anton Zorin from ProdCamp.com Mitch Harris Kenny, Intro CRM podcast Oleg Kulyk Ethan Gunderson Chris Willow Ward Sandler, Memberspace Russell Brown, Photivo.com Noah Prail Colin Gray Austin Loveless Michael Sitver Paul Jarvis and Jack Ellis, Fathom Dan Buda Darby Frey Brad from Canada Adam DuVander Dave Giunta (JOOnta) Kyle Fox GetRewardful.com Want to start a podcast on Transistor? Justin has a special coupon for you: get 15% off your first year of hosting: transistor.fm/justin ★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★

Taylor Otwell, is the founder of Laravel, a programming framework for PHP. But he's also one of the most successful indie SaaS operators I know. In this episode we discuss: 0:30 – Taylor is changing how he hires and manages people at Laravel 6:01 – How Taylor is finding new employees to work on Forge, Vapor, and his other products 7:34 – The Laravel ecosystem has incubated incredible talent: Miguel Piedrafita, Caleb Porzio, Adam Wathan, Aaron Francis, Jack Ellis... 10:03 – More and more indie SaaS apps are being built in Laravel 10:48 – When is the next Laracon conference? 13:11 – Taylor Otwell has the classic bootstrap success story 14:28 – Laravel has been running too lean 17:00 – What's it like to work as a developer at Laravel? (pair programming) 18:33 – How Taylor does product development 22:08 – "I haven't told anyone this yet, but I actually considered selling Laravel this past year." Here's why Taylor decided not to sell. 26:30 – How do you deal with internet fame, and being a "known person?"  28:59 – Dealing with haters on Twitter 31:50 – What is the future of web development, and the full-stack developer? What is the future of Ruby on Rails and Laravel? 35:53 – Building excitement around PHP and Laravel with young people. 42:13 – What inspires kids to get into programming? When it's fun, easy, accessible. This is why so many people started with Hypercard, Microsoft Access, PHP, Adobe Flash... What should we talk about next? Twitter: @buildyoursaas, @mijustin, @jonbuda, @jsonpearl, and @helenryles Leave a review/comment on Podchaser; it's like Reddit, but for podcasts. Email us: support@transistor.fm Thanks to our monthly supporters: Jason Charnes Mitchell Davis from RecruitKit.com.au Marcel Fahle, ​​wearebold.af Alex Payne Bill Condo Anton Zorin from ProdCamp.com Mitch Harris Kenny, Intro CRM podcast Oleg Kulyk Ethan Gunderson Chris Willow Ward Sandler, Memberspace Russell Brown, Photivo.com Noah Prail Colin Gray Austin Loveless Michael Sitver Paul Jarvis and Jack Ellis, Fathom Dan Buda Darby Frey Brad from Canada Adam DuVander Dave Giunta (JOOnta) Kyle Fox GetRewardful.com Want to start a programming podcast on Transistor? Justin has a special coupon for you: get 15% off your first year of hosting: transistor.fm/justin ★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★

Helen and Justin talk about the importance of customer support for indie SaaS companies. 1:08 The hardest part about podcasting is doing it every week 1:38 We just launched the new podcast website themes feature. 2:24 Getting feedback, or seeing people use your product, is fuel for indie makers 6:08 Helen's experience doing Customer Success for other companies: education, ConvertKit, MakerPad. 8:53 Justin's tweet: "Customer Support is the most under-appreciated role in SaaS." 10:00 The different forms of customer support: pre-sales, in-depth bug fixing, answering questions. 12:45 How does the Transistor team differ when we do support? 14:39 What Justin's learned from Helen in terms of giving better customer service 17:25 People expect us to be bots 17:45 The number of tickets we get each week: it's about ~100 conversations per week: 60-70% of those are new conversations, 30-40% is us responding to existing threads. 18:55 How we manage live chat so we can answer people fairly quickly 29:10 More tips for indie hackers who are doing customer support What should we talk about next? Twitter: @buildyoursaas, @mijustin, @jonbuda, @jsonpearl, and @helenryles Leave a review/comment on Podchaser; it's like Reddit, but for podcasts. Email us: support@transistor.fm Thanks to our monthly supporters: Mitchell Davis from RecruitKit.com.au Marcel Fahle, ​​wearebold.af Alex Payne Bill Condo Anton Zorin from ProdCamp.com Mitch Harris Kenny, Intro CRM podcast Oleg Kulyk Ethan Gunderson Chris Willow Ward Sandler, Memberspace Russell Brown, Photivo.com Noah Prail Colin Gray Austin Loveless Michael Sitver Paul Jarvis and Jack Ellis, Fathom Dan Buda Darby Frey Brad from Canada Adam DuVander Dave Giunta (JOOnta) Kyle Fox GetRewardful.com Want to start a podcast on Transistor? Justin has a special coupon for you: get 15% off your first year of hosting: transistor.fm/justin ★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★

Helen, Jason, Jon, Justin, all squeezed into the podcasting closet to make an episode 0:55 Jason's first podcast ever 1:12 Helen's been on other podcasts: Startups for the Rest of Us, Indie Bites, Indie Worldwide 3:06 Should we invest in the "auto publish to YouTube" feature?Tom Webster: why would people listen to podcasts on YouTube? 13:32 The best features the ones that feel like "magic" when a customer uses them 18:46 The "wait and see" product development philosophy 20:15 A new podcast website builder CMS and website designs 23:34 Writing a new templating language in Liquid (Shopify) 26:23 Our new CLI tool: receiver (built with Go) 31:30 Making a few new podcast website themes 31:57 Adding language localization for podcast websites (English, French, Spanish) 34:30 How we run our weekly team meetings 35:44 New podcast website themes are out! (YouTube demo) 40:39 For next week: what questions do you have for @jsonpearl and @helenryles? 42:16 Patreon shout outs What should we talk about next? Twitter: @buildyoursaas, @mijustin, @jonbuda, @jsonpearl, and @helenryles Leave a review/comment on Podchaser; it's like Reddit, but for podcasts. Email us: support@transistor.fm Thanks to our monthly supporters: Mitchell Davis from RecruitKit.com.au Marcel Fahle, ​​wearebold.af Alex Payne Bill Condo Anton Zorin from ProdCamp.com Mitch Harris Kenny, Intro CRM podcast Oleg Kulyk Ethan Gunderson Chris Willow Ward Sandler, Memberspace Russell Brown, Photivo.com Noah Prail Colin Gray Austin Loveless Michael Sitver Paul Jarvis and Jack Ellis, Fathom Dan Buda Darby Frey Brad from Canada Adam DuVander Dave Giunta (JOOnta) Kyle Fox GetRewardful.com Want to start a podcast on Transistor? Justin has a special coupon for you: get 15% off your first year of hosting: transistor.fm/justin ★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★

Jon and Justin recorded this episode sitting on the same couch! Photo of the Coeur de Boeuf The last time we were together in person: April 30, 2019 [Photo] 2022 roadmap planning. We're exploring what we'd like to accomplish this year.  Update and improve the podcast website builder Build new podcast website templates based on Liquid Add tools that help podcasters promote their show Continue to improve our Dynamic Audio Insertion features Create new features that help podcasters monetize their show Sales/marketing planning: Reaching out to major affiliates to see how we can better partner with them Looking at ways of rewarding our customers for referring through Rewardful Freemium? Employees/company stuff  Options: Carta Benefits Possible hiring Future:Long-term, we’re looking at an acquisition: what do we need to do to build up to that? What should we talk about next? Twitter: @buildyoursaas, @mijustin, @jonbuda Leave a review/comment on Podchaser; it's like Reddit, but for podcasts. Email us: mail@transistor.fm Thanks to our monthly supporters: Marcel Fahle, ​​wearebold.af Alex Payne Bill Condo Anton Zorin from ProdCamp.com Mitch Harris Kenny, Intro CRM podcast Oleg Kulyk Ethan Gunderson Chris Willow Ward Sandler, Memberspace Russell Brown, Photivo.com Noah Prail Colin Gray Austin Loveless Michael Sitver Paul Jarvis and Jack Ellis, Fathom Dan Buda Darby Frey Brad from Canada Adam DuVander Dave Giunta (JOOnta) Kyle Fox GetRewardful.com Want to start a podcast on Transistor? Justin has a special coupon for you: get 15% off your first year of hosting: transistor.fm/justin ★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★

Jon and Justin reflect on 2021 and get excited about 2022: Rework podcast episode: the word "startup" Should we rename the show "Maintain your SaaS"? ;) Biggest highlights: hiring Helen and Jason Giving employees generous bonuses Justin's list of non-alcoholic drinks Captivate (one of our competitors) was just acquired Different types of founder stress Should we sell our company? Our friends at Rewardful were just acquired Plans and features for 2022 What happened in 2021? January: Clubhouse got popular March 2021: send private podcast episodes by email April 2021: we hired Helen April-May: new API updates (analytics) July: new podcast analytics charts + compare episodes July: add transcripts to episodes August 2021: we hired Jason Sept: first release of DAI Oct: Descript integration Nov: DAI mid-rolls Black Friday. Worth it? Riverside integration What should we talk about next? Twitter: @buildyoursaas, @mijustin, @jonbuda Leave a review/comment on Podchaser; it's like Reddit, but for podcasts. Email us: mail@transistor.fm Thanks to our monthly supporters: Marcel Fahle, ​​wearebold.af Anton Zorin from ProdCamp.com Mitch Harris Kenny, Intro CRM podcast Oleg Kulyk Violette Du Geneville Take It EV podcast Ethan Gunderson Diogo Chris Willow Borja Soler Ward Sandler, Memberspace Eric Lima James Sowers (like Flowers) Travis Fischer Matt Buckley Russell Brown Evandro Sasse Pradyumna Shembekar (PD) Noah Prail Colin Gray Josh Smith Ivan Curkovic Shane Smith Austin Loveless Simon Bennett Michael Sitver Paul Jarvis and Jack Ellis,  Dan Buda  Darby Frey Samori Augusto Dave Young Brad from Canada Sammy Schuckert Mike Walker Adam DuVander Dave Giunta (JOOnta) Kyle Fox GetRewardful.com ★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★

In this guest episode, Justin chats with Brian Casel. Bootstrapped Web podcast ZipMessage Brian's other projects What should we talk about next? Twitter: @buildyoursaas, @mijustin, @jonbuda Leave a review/comment on Podchaser; it's like Reddit, but for podcasts. Email us: mail@transistor.fm Thanks to our monthly supporters: Anton Zorin from ProdCamp.com Mitch Harris Kenny, Intro CRM podcast Oleg Kulyk Violette Du Geneville Take It EV podcast Ethan Gunderson Diogo Chris Willow Borja Soler Ward Sandler, Memberspace Eric Lima James Sowers (like Flowers) Travis Fischer Matt Buckley Russell Brown Evandro Sasse Pradyumna Shembekar (PD) Noah Prail Colin Gray Josh Smith Ivan Curkovic Shane Smith Austin Loveless Simon Bennett Michael Sitver Paul Jarvis and Jack Ellis,  Dan Buda  Darby Frey Samori Augusto Dave Young Brad from Canada Sammy Schuckert Mike Walker Adam DuVander Dave Giunta (JOOnta) Kyle Fox GetRewardful.com Want to start a podcast on Transistor? Justin has a special coupon for you: get 15% off your first year of hosting: transistor.fm/justin ★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★

In this bonus episode, Justin interviews his 18-year-old daughter, Sadie, about: A Gen Z perspective on podcasting Why women are the future of podcasting: Edison Research "Now, look at the rookies – 47% are men, but the majority, 53% are women." "Most women get their podcast recommendations from Spotify, social media, or their friends." We talk a lot about podcast advertising, podcast ads, and how the adtech industry should think differently about how they target women."Most podcast ads are just men talking to men." What should we talk about next? Twitter: @buildyoursaas, @mijustin, @jonbuda Leave a review/comment on Podchaser; it's like Reddit, but for podcasts. Email us: mail@transistor.fm Thanks to our monthly supporters: Anton Zorin from ProdCamp.com Mitch Harris Kenny, Intro CRM podcast Oleg Kulyk Violette Du Geneville Take It EV podcast Ethan Gunderson Diogo Chris Willow Borja Soler Ward Sandler, Memberspace Eric Lima James Sowers (like Flowers) Travis Fischer Matt Buckley Russell Brown Evandro Sasse Pradyumna Shembekar (PD) Noah Prail Colin Gray Josh Smith Ivan Curkovic Shane Smith Austin Loveless Simon Bennett Michael Sitver Paul Jarvis and Jack Ellis,  Dan Buda  Darby Frey Samori Augusto Dave Young Brad from Canada Sammy Schuckert Mike Walker Adam DuVander Dave Giunta (JOOnta) Kyle Fox GetRewardful.com Want to start a podcast on Transistor? Justin has a special coupon for you: get 15% off your first year of hosting: transistor.fm/justin ★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★

This week Jon and Justin discussed: Tweet: what should we talk about? Justin's daughter wrote an article for the Transistor blog: https://transistor.fm/gen-z/  Customer case studies Dynamic audio insertion Integration with Descript Book: Range by David Epstein What should we talk about next? Twitter: @buildyoursaas, @mijustin, @jonbuda Leave a review/comment on Podchaser; it's like Reddit, but for podcasts. Email us: mail@transistor.fm Thanks to our monthly supporters: Anton Zorin from ProdCamp.com Mitch Harris Kenny, Intro CRM podcast Oleg Kulyk Violette Du Geneville Take It EV podcast Ethan Gunderson Diogo Chris Willow Borja Soler Ward Sandler, Memberspace Eric Lima James Sowers (like Flowers) Travis Fischer Matt Buckley Russell Brown Evandro Sasse Pradyumna Shembekar (PD) Noah Prail Colin Gray Josh Smith Ivan Curkovic Shane Smith Austin Loveless Simon Bennett Michael Sitver Paul Jarvis and Jack Ellis,  Dan Buda  Darby Frey Samori Augusto Dave Young Brad from Canada Sammy Schuckert Mike Walker Adam DuVander Dave Giunta (JOOnta) Kyle Fox GetRewardful.com Want to start a podcast on Transistor? Justin has a special coupon for you: get 15% off your first year of hosting: transistor.fm/justin ★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★

This week Justin chats with Michele Hansen, founder of Geocodio. I got fired up about interviewing customers!  Get Michele's new book! Deploy Empathy Listen to Michele's podcast: Software Social "Empathy is a skill you can learn." Get Michele's newsletter "There's so much shame in the tech community." What are the boundaries for deploying empathy? When, and how, do we deliver critiques? Podcast: a respectful interview with a flat-earther  "This book isn't just about deploying empathy to customers, it's also about learning to be more empathetic to your family, friends, coworkers." 31:30 – we start discussing customer interviews "It was easier for me to learn how to have empathy for customers than it was to have empathy for myself." 42:27 – "how does empathy help businesses attract new customers, build better products?" 46:53 - "Why don't you bring Jon in on those interviews?" What should we talk about next? Twitter: @buildyoursaas, @mijustin, @mjwhansen Email us: mail@transistor.fm Thanks to our monthly supporters: Anton Zorin from ProdCamp.com Mitch Harris Kenny, Intro CRM podcast Oleg Kulyk Violette Du Geneville Take It EV podcast Ethan Gunderson Diogo Chris Willow Borja Soler Ward Sandler, Memberspace Eric Lima James Sowers (like Flowers) Travis Fischer Matt Buckley Russell Brown Evandro Sasse Pradyumna Shembekar (PD) Noah Prail Colin Gray Josh Smith Ivan Curkovic Shane Smith Austin Loveless Simon Bennett Michael Sitver Paul Jarvis and Jack Ellis,  Dan Buda  Darby Frey Samori Augusto Dave Young Brad from Canada Sammy Schuckert Mike Walker Adam DuVander Dave Giunta (JOOnta) Kyle Fox GetRewardful.com Want to start a podcast on Transistor? Justin has a special coupon for you: get 15% off your first year of hosting: transistor.fm/justin ★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★

This week Jon and Justin discussed: Our values determine how we make decisions Hiring FT: we hired Jason Pearl! Summer SaaS slowdown Tweet: worst month ever ConvertKit’s public numbers What should we talk about next? Twitter: @buildyoursaas, @mijustin, @jonbuda Leave a comment on PodHunt; it's like Reddit, but for podcasts. Email us: mail@transistor.fm Thanks to our monthly supporters: Mitch Harris Kenny, Intro CRM podcast Oleg Kulyk Violette Du Geneville Take It EV podcast Ethan Gunderson Diogo Chris Willow Borja Soler Ward Sandler Eric Lima James Sowers (like Flowers) Travis Fischer Matt Buckley Russell Brown Evandro Sasse Pradyumna Shembekar (PD) Noah Prail Colin Gray Josh Smith Ivan Curkovic Shane Smith Austin Loveless Simon Bennett Michael Sitver Paul Jarvis and Jack Ellis,  Dan Buda  Darby Frey Samori Augusto Dave Young Brad from Canada Sammy Schuckert Mike Walker Adam DuVander Dave Giunta (JOOnta) Kyle Fox GetRewardful.com Want to start a podcast on Transistor? Justin has a special coupon for you: get 15% off your first year of hosting: transistor.fm/justin ★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★

This week Spencer Fry, founder of Podia.com, joins Justin Jackson to talk about venture capital and bootstrapping. Spencer's tweet: "The hostility that the bootstrapper community has towards the VC community continues to perplex me." Justin's interview with Jason Calacanis (2013) VC brags Roy Bahat on Big Technology Podcast: Why VCs are mad 06:30 "Capital changes lots of dynamics in society. It's not neutral." – Justin Jackson Silicon Valley: No Revenue (video) Blog post: Podcasts and capital How venture capitalists make money The rise and fall of Quibi: from raising $1.75 billion before launch to shutting down just 6 months later Tweet: the negative effects of overcapitalization Tweet: Big-name VCs, and their hypocrisy, give VCs a bad name. Techcrunch: "The meeting that showed me the truth about VCs" Adii Pienaar on venture capital: Raising Anxiety Blog post: The hidden cost of bootstrapping What should we talk about next? Twitter: @buildyoursaas, @mijustin, @jonbuda, @spencerfry Email us: mail@transistor.fm Thanks to our monthly supporters: Mitch Harris Kenny, Intro CRM podcast Oleg Kulyk Violette Du Geneville Ethan Gunderson Diogo Chris Willow Borja Soler Ward Sandler Eric Lima James Sowers (like Flowers) Travis Fischer Matt Buckley Russell Brown Evandro Sasse Pradyumna Shembekar (PD) Noah Prail Colin Gray Josh Smith Ivan Curkovic Shane Smith Austin Loveless Simon Bennett Michael Sitver Paul Jarvis and Jack Ellis,  Dan Buda  Darby Frey Samori Augusto Dave Young Brad from Canada Sammy Schuckert Mike Walker Adam DuVander Dave Giunta (JOOnta) Kyle Fox GetRewardful.com Want to start a podcast on Transistor? Justin has a special coupon for you: get 15% off your first year of hosting: transistor.fm/justin ★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★

This week Jon and Justin discussed: Basecamp Note: we recorded this before Casey Newton's second article on Basecamp came out. Also: this article is a really thoughtful take on the whole situation. Ruby/Rails open source world. https://discuss.rubyonrails.org/t/effect-of-the-last-week-on-ruby-on-rails/77702  SO EXCITED: HELEN IS ON THE TEAM! 🎉 https://transistor.fm/helen/  Cost/benefit analysis It’s really difficult to make that calculation: should we commit to this? How do we know that the cost will be worth the benefit? For example, we could invest $100k + 6 months of time into building a mobile app for private podcasts, under the assumption that it will increase the number of private podcast customers we get. But what you don’t see is: How much time + energy does it really take to build it? Does it attract the wrong customers? How much time + energy does it take to support it? How does it affect the fun + calm of running the app? Is all that effort really worth it? Apple’s latest release is bad So many bugs from Apple: https://transistor.fm/apple-podcasts-problem/  One bug in Spotify: https://transistor.fm/spotify-bug/  What should we talk about next? Twitter: @buildyoursaas, @mijustin, @jonbuda Leave a comment on PodHunt; it's like Reddit, but for podcasts. Email us: mail@transistor.fm Thanks to our monthly supporters: Mitch Harris Kenny, Intro CRM podcast Oleg Kulyk Violette Du Geneville Take It EV podcast Ethan Gunderson Diogo Chris Willow Borja Soler Ward Sandler Eric Lima James Sowers (like Flowers) Travis Fischer Matt Buckley Russell Brown Evandro Sasse Pradyumna Shembekar (PD) Noah Prail Colin Gray Josh Smith Ivan Curkovic Shane Smith Austin Loveless Simon Bennett Michael Sitver Paul Jarvis and Jack Ellis,  Dan Buda  Darby Frey Samori Augusto Dave Young Brad from Canada Sammy Schuckert Mike Walker Adam DuVander Dave Giunta (JOOnta) Kyle Fox GetRewardful.com Want to start a podcast on Transistor? Justin has a special coupon for you: get 15% off your first year of hosting: transistor.fm/justin ★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★

This we, we chatted about: Evil Crypto Teletubbies Voltswagon Fathom has acquired Google Jon is trying out a new private office, in a coworking space (Deskpass) Justin had a quick chat with Derrick Reimer, SavvyCal Tweet: Two years ago (March 2019), Justin posted a screenshot of our revenue numbers and we were just about to hit $10k in MRR. Jason Fried: Your company history is a myth Justin went full-time the next month (April 2019). Tweet: A mere six months after hitting $10k (April 2019), we hit $30k MRR (Oct 2019). This little business has given us more than we ever imagined. It’s changed our lives. Jon Youngfook is building Bannerbear Peter Suhm is building Reform Simon Bennett is building SnapShooter Tweet: There are so many productivity gurus, tips, hacks; lots of advice on how to "get more done in less time."  "Not Tamagotchi. The tomato technique. Ack, what's that called?" We're fine with getting a few good things done every day. "Gen Z is coming online now as potential customers. A whole new generation of kids is becoming adults." New releases on Transistor.fm: Private podcasts can receive email + play on the web Automatic tweet Two-factor authentication Import improvements What should we talk about next? Twitter: @buildyoursaas, @mijustin, @jonbuda Leave a comment on PodHunt; it's like Reddit, but for podcasts. Email us: mail@transistor.fm Thanks to our monthly supporters: Harris Kenny, Intro CRM podcast Oleg Kulyk Violette Du Geneville Take It EV podcast Ethan Gunderson Diogo Chris Willow Borja Soler Ward Sandler Eric Lima James Sowers (like Flowers) Travis Fischer Matt Buckley Russell Brown Evandro Sasse Pradyumna Shembekar (PD) Noah Prail Colin Gray Josh Smith Ivan Curkovic Shane Smith Austin Loveless Simon Bennett Michael Sitver Paul Jarvis and Jack Ellis,  Dan Buda  Darby Frey Samori Augusto Dave Young Brad from Canada Sammy Schuckert Mike Walker Adam DuVander Dave Giunta (JOOnta) Kyle Fox GetRewardful.com Want to start a podcast on Transistor? Justin has a special coupon for you: get 15% off your first year of hosting: transistor.fm/justin ★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★