Build Your SaaS

The whole team is on the show! Jon, Helen, Jason, Josh, and Justin are on the mics to discuss our recent team retreat to Nashville, Tennessee. If you're wondering what a retreat looks like for a remote team, you'll get a lot out of this episode. We also reveal some of our exploits in Music City:"Going to a Tiki Bar is usually a mistake."Highlights (00:10) - Welcome (01:15) - Highlights of our retreat in Nashville (13:00) - It's not easy to get everyone together (20:31) - Our schedule for the retreat (26:42) - Electrolytes are a good idea (32:08) - Things to improve or tips for other teams "For 51 weeks, our small team works efficiently. Our team retreat week is a culmination of celebrations, milestones, birthdays, and holidays we might have missed. It's special to condense these moments into one week and see everyone in person to celebrate our achievements from the previous year." – HelenLinks: Photos from our trip to Nashville.  PhotoWalk Nashville service. SurfOffice Location Finder: "Discover the optimal location to meet with your remote team. Results are sorted by average travel time per person, number of stopovers, and overall price." How to plan a team retreat: Planning a retreat can be a daunting task, so we wanted to share our learnings in the hopes that it’ll be helpful for other remote teams out there. Takeaways: The city you choose for your retreat will significantly influence the team's productivity and leisure activities. Be intentional and set aside time for planning and product discussions. A retreat is a great time for a remote team to celebrate milestones and achievements. Have a balance between work activities and fun activities. Simple activities like games or cards can be as fulfilling as fancy events. Thanks to our monthly supporters Pascal from sharpen.page Rewardful.com Greg Park Mitchell Davis from RecruitKit.com.au Marcel Fahle, wearebold.af Ethan Gunderson Bill Condo (@mavrck) Ward from MemberSpace.com Russell Brown from Photivo.com Evandro Sasse Austin Loveless Michael Sitver Dan Buda Colin Gray Dave Giunta 🎙️ Podcast hosting is provided by Transistor.fm.📺 Learn how to start your own podcast! ★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★

Justin catches up with his old internet friend Paul Jarvis. Today, Paul co-founded Fathom Analytics with Jack Ellis: a simple alternative to Google Analytics. Paul is also the author of the book "Company of One," which has influenced a whole generation of indie entrepreneurs (and has been reviewed by Cal Newport, Chris Guillebeau, Ben Chestnut, Tiago Forte, and more). Previously, Justin and Paul did a weekly mastermind, where they supported and encouraged each other around our indie businesses. They decided to do a catch-up call and recorded it so you could listen in. 👍Highlights: (00:10) - Intro (02:20) - Being off the internet (03:58) - What's a typical day for Paul? (06:21) - Looking back at our Mastermind call (08:08) - There's no beginning and no end (10:36) - Things that are out of your control affect your business (13:08) - Does Justin's surfing metaphor make sense to a surfer? (16:11) - How would you start an indie business in 2023? (22:05) - You've got to get in motion (25:08) - Using products in your category for a long time (27:53) - Is there still any room in Saas? (31:56) - The act of making the bet (38:45) - Is freelancing still viable in 2023? (42:55) - Company design is lifestyle design (45:00) - Worrying about being stagnant (47:20) - How do you handle customer feature requests? (52:08) - It's ok to be late to a shift in the market (58:24) - Caring is an indie advantage (01:05:05) - Collaboration is what gets us anywhere 🎙️ Podcast hosting is provided by Transistor.fm.📺 Learn how to start your own podcast!Links: Fathom Analytics (get $10 off) Book: Company of One Article: How to Start a Mastermind Wayback Machine: Mint Analytics Article: Why we moved from courses to SaaS Self-Publishing Hangout: Paul Jarvis, Nathan Barry, Sacha Greif, Justin Jackson Thanks to our monthly supporters Pascal from sharpen.page Rewardful.com Greg Park Mitchell Davis from RecruitKit.com.au Marcel Fahle, wearebold.af Ethan Gunderson Bill Condo (@mavrck) Ward from MemberSpace.com Russell Brown from Photivo.com Evandro Sasse Austin Loveless Michael Sitver Dan Buda Colin Gray Dave Giunta ★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★

Tim reached out after the Aaron Francis episode: "I wanted to pitch you on the idea of coming on the podcast and sharing my journey of building side projects for the last decade while raising a family. I can also share the guardrails I put in place before finally going full-time on T.LY."Highlights: (00:12) - Welcome (01:18) - Who is Tim Leland? (03:25) - What guardrails did you put in place? (06:29) - What's the sales funnel? (08:18) - Family as a motivator (16:26) - How would you describe your effort during this process? (20:11) - What about family boundaries? (23:30) - How do you manage your thoughts? (31:20) - How have you been able to manage the effort level? (34:49) - The pressure of cutting the cord from your job (38:21) - What's it been like being full time on t.ly? (40:04) - What's your SEO magic touch? Links: Tim's startup: T.LY Tim's Twitter Tim's blog: tools for marketers Thanks to our monthly supporters Pascal from sharpen.page Rewardful.com Greg Park Mitchell Davis from RecruitKit.com.au Marcel Fahle, wearebold.af Ethan Gunderson Bill Condo (@mavrck) Ward from MemberSpace.com Russell Brown from Photivo.com Evandro Sasse Austin Loveless Michael Sitver Dan Buda Colin Gray Dave Giunta 🎙️ Podcast hosting is provided by Transistor.fm.📺 Learn how to start your own podcast! ★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★

This week Jon and Justin are joined by Marcella Chamorro. Previously, she worked in startup marketing but has recently transitioned to coaching founders and teams. We discussed how startup founders and their team members can realize their full potential.Here are some highlights: (00:24) - Introducing Marcella (03:08) - How do you define your coaching? (05:15) - What do you see with rising stars? (09:42) - Do you navigate team dynamics or individual work? (14:45) - Any advice for founder's stress (23:27) - Personal lives do come to work (33:02) - The ability to have difficult conversations (47:23) - A lot of value in speaking to someone who's not you (50:44) - How can people reach out Marcella? Quote:"I think people who choose to do coaching want to be really good at what they do and they want to have a really good life. They are looking to optimize their time on planet Earth."  – MarcellaLinks: Subscribe to Marcella's newsletter Marcella’s coaching website Check out Marcella's articles Marcella on LinkedIn Marcella on Twitter Thanks to our monthly supporters Pascal from sharpen.page Rewardful.com Greg Park Mitchell Davis from RecruitKit.com.au Marcel Fahle, wearebold.af Ethan Gunderson Bill Condo (@mavrck) Ward from MemberSpace.com Russell Brown from Photivo.com Evandro Sasse Austin Loveless Michael Sitver Dan Buda Colin Gray Dave Giunta 🎙️ Podcast hosting is provided by Transistor.fm.📺 Learn how to start your own podcast! ★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★

In this podcast episode, Michele Hansen (Geocodio) gives us an update on Section 174 and provides her take on "bootstrapping with kids."Michele explains you can be a part of the Small Software Business Alliance, and fight Section 174. If you're in the USA, please contact Congress! In the second half of the episode, Justin and Michele talk about the challenges of balancing starting a business while you have young kids. For more on this topic, check out the last episode with Aaron Francis.For more context on Section 174, check out our previous episode with Michele. (00:12) - Welcome (01:44) - Quick refresher on section 174 (05:42) - Updates since last episode (09:09) - You can still help raise awareness (14:03) - What's happening next? (17:35) - How does this work on the accounting side? (20:24) - Anything else people can do? (22:41) - What advice do you give to people with families wanting to start a business? (26:44) - Did you try a few things on the side? (29:04) - Definition of success at the start (31:20) - Developing a business while raising a baby (35:13) - Survivorship bias in stories from new parents (37:52) - What should you consider when starting a business? (45:39) - Avoid magical thinking (51:44) - Some things are hard to think about until you experience them Thanks to our monthly supporters Pascal from sharpen.page Rewardful.com Greg Park Mitchell Davis from RecruitKit.com.au Marcel Fahle, wearebold.af Ethan Gunderson Bill Condo (@mavrck) Ward from MemberSpace.com Russell Brown from Photivo.com Evandro Sasse Austin Loveless Michael Sitver Dan Buda Colin Gray Dave Giunta 🎙️ Podcast hosting is provided by Transistor.fm.📺 Learn how to start your own podcast! ★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★

In this episode, Justin speaks with Aaron Francis about being a new parent and trying to bootstrap a startup. Aaron argued the other side of Justin's tweet thread: "Wait until your kids are older to start a company." Aaron is well-positioned to talk about this because he has twins and is also bootstrapping Hammerstone with his co-founder Colleen. The whole conversation is a nuanced take on the topic and full of important insights, especially on: the risks involved (especially if you're not working a full-time job) the kind of foundation (mentally, financially, emotionally, relationally) you need to be able to take the risk Highlights from this episode: (00:12) - Welcome Aaron (01:10) - Topic introduction (02:22) - What's Aaron's story? (05:28) - What is a maximum effort era? (10:56) - What are you willing to sacrifice? (15:17) - What's your daily routine like? (17:30) - Context matters in all of this (28:01) - Are you sacrificing social connections? (30:53) - Blind spots can affect you on your journey (33:23) - Pain vs risk (37:43) - Being on the same page as your partner (41:47) - Going to therapy sooner (43:51) - Building a good foundation (48:51) - Strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats (53:54) - Sometimes it's easier to try getting a better job (01:02:42) - Where can people reach Aaron? Thanks to our monthly supporters Pascal from sharpen.page Rewardful.com Greg Park Mitchell Davis from RecruitKit.com.au Marcel Fahle, wearebold.af Ethan Gunderson Bill Condo (@mavrck) Ward from MemberSpace.com Russell Brown from Photivo.com Evandro Sasse Austin Loveless Michael Sitver Dan Buda Colin Gray Dave Giunta 🎙️ Podcast hosting is provided by Transistor.fm.📺 Learn how to start your own podcast! ★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★

Jon and Justin welcome Joshua Anderton to the Transistor team! Josh is an amazingly talented full-stack web developer (Laravel, Rails, Tailwind CSS, Alpine, and more!) He's been helping us as a part-time contractor since Oct 2022, and we're excited to have him on board full-time! In this episode, we discuss why we hired another person and how we think about hiring at Transistor. (00:28) - 150! (01:32) - Trials into paid customers (09:22) - Hiring philosophy (27:45) - Hiring Josh (31:39) - Hiring people you know (40:35) - Product updates (43:54) - Patreon supporter thanks Links: Joshua's personal site Joshua's podcast: Getting to Ramen Jason Cohen's article Acquired.fm is now on Transistor! Thanks to our monthly supporters Pascal from sharpen.page Rewardful.com Greg Park Mitchell Davis from RecruitKit.com.au Marcel Fahle, wearebold.af Ethan Gunderson Bill Condo (@mavrck) Ward from MemberSpace.com Russell Brown from Photivo.com Evandro Sasse Austin Loveless Michael Sitver Dan Buda Colin Gray Dave Giunta 🎙️ Podcast hosting is provided by Transistor.fm.📺 Learn how to start your own podcast! ★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★

Michele Hansen (co-founder of Geocodio) is raising the alarm about Section 174. This legislation could dramatically increase your tax bill this year if you're a small software company in the USA. Michele is organizing a response through the Small Software Business Alliance.👉 ACT NOW: Sign up for Michele's list US citizens: tweet and call your Senators today. They need to know that this is a small business issue and that small businesses in their state are hurt by Section 174. Share the ssballiance.org URL with your founder friends. In this episode: (01:37) - What is section 174? (04:42) - What's the benefit to the government for this change? (09:03) - Section 174 is bad for every company that builds software (11:28) - Disclaimer: We're not tax accountants (12:21) - What is the SSB Alliance? (14:05) - Small businesses are the cute puppies of the policy world (22:05) - A practical example (25:30) - This is going to impact small software businesses (28:36) - What can we do? Thanks to our monthly supporters Pascal from sharpen.page Rewardful.com Greg Park Mitchell Davis from RecruitKit.com.au Marcel Fahle, wearebold.af Ethan Gunderson Bill Condo (@mavrck) Ward from MemberSpace.com Russell Brown from Photivo.com Evandro Sasse Austin Loveless Michael Sitver Dan Buda Colin Gray Dave Giunta 🎙️ Podcast hosting is provided by Transistor.fm.📺 Learn how to start your own podcast! ★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★

Jon's back from his first real vacation in years. In this episode, we discuss how we've been removing inactive accounts on Transistor, SVB, Section 174, Revin is shutting down their Merchant of Record service, SaaS sales tax compliance: (00:37) - Jon in vacation mode (02:35) - Kicking off inactive accounts (04:35) - Silicon Valley Bank (06:11) - What is Mercury bank? (13:21) - Section 174 in the USA (19:23) - Sales tax compliance update (26:14) - What could we do? (32:31) - Patreon integration update (35:15) - MyPodStudios (36:52) - Patreon Thanks Links: Matt Levin's excellent summary of the Silicon Valley Bank run Ian Landsman: "This is why I don't use startup-friendly banks (Mercury, etc)" Section 174: join ssballiance.org Revin has shut down its Merchant of Record service Flurly (another Merchant of Record) was shut down by Stripe From the Revin email:“The most relevant reason [we are closing] is that the Merchant of Record model is too risky for both sellers and the MOR operator. Sellers bear the risk of platform shutdown (as seen in the example of Flurly & Stripe), and the MOR operator could potentially become involved in illicit or illegal activities quickly, which could lead to all sorts of problems.Furthermore, it became increasingly clear that the Merchant of Record model primarily appeals to small-scale sellers or businesses with questionable and high-risk business models. This presents a significant challenge as we strive to move up the market.The recent change in Stripe's risk behavior has caused us to experience issues with keeping Stripe accounts live.” Thanks to our monthly supporters Pascal from sharpen.page Rewardful.com Greg Park Mitchell Davis from RecruitKit.com.au Marcel Fahle, wearebold.af Ethan Gunderson Bill Condo (@mavrck) Ward from MemberSpace.com Russell Brown from Photivo.com Evandro Sasse Austin Loveless Michael Sitver Dan Buda Colin Gray Dave Giunta 🎙️ Podcast hosting is provided by Transistor.fm.📺 Learn how to start your own podcast! ★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★

"I don't get it: if that money is for the government, how come the pizza place put it in their cash register?!?"(Jon is on vacation - our next real episode is coming soon!)Listen to our past episodes on the headache that is SaaS sales tax compliance: Part 1 Part 2 Thanks to our monthly supporters Pascal from sharpen.page Rewardful.com Greg Park Mitchell Davis from RecruitKit.com.au Marcel Fahle, wearebold.af Ethan Gunderson Bill Condo (@mavrck) Ward from MemberSpace.com Russell Brown from Photivo.com Evandro Sasse Austin Loveless Michael Sitver Dan Buda Colin Gray Dave Giunta ★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★

Last week's episode hit a nerve! "The idea that every small software company in the world will be able to be in perfect compliance will every foreign federal, provincial, state, and municipal government that imposes a sales tax is ridiculous. It's an impossible task. (00:11) - Follow up to previous episode (02:37) - Responses we got about sales tax (06:25) - A brief history of sales tax (09:01) - Many vendors aren't collecting sales tax (10:46) - What about Stripe Tax? (12:40) - It's new to North America (16:17) - How it affects subscription based businesses (19:35) - It's not clear who's liable (24:46) - Make it easier and gov't make more money (28:16) - What about Merchants of Record? (30:46) - Where is Stripe going? (35:35) - What are going to do now? (45:03) - Patreon supporters Broadly, there were a few different camps with the responses we received:  North American SaaS companies who have been using Stripe:  "Yes! Sales tax compliance for SaaS is brutal." European SaaS companies that have had to deal with VAT for a long time (many of whom use a Merchant of Record). Smaller North American solopreneurs and companies who had no idea they needed to collect and remit sales tax internationally. North American companies who have one-time sales and use Merchant of Record services. Responses from indie hackers: European: “Once again, I notice that the indie hacking community has a somewhat naïve approach to what running a business actually entails. As a European, not having a plan for sales tax is... mindboggling.” Cooper: “I think it might be a European perspective; we are dealing with VAT from day 1, so it's just one of the parts of running a business from the start, it can't really be neglected.” Edwin Saraccini: “To clarify, [for Canadians] this is absolutely new territory (Debated in parliament for years) and recently put to legislation in 2021.” Daniel Vassallo: “It's impossible to be compliant everywhere. The Kingdom of Tonga could tomorrow come up with an internet tax and require you to remit 25% of your sales to the tax office in person in their local currency. And they won't tell you about it. It's just a cost/benefit analysis.” Derrick Grigg: “How can they enforce tax collection on a business they have no jurisdiction over? Governments are shaking businesses down. I’m all for collecting and paying properly where you physically operate but collecting and remitting outside your province never mind nation is a stretch.” Derrick Reimer: “Dear Stripe: We SaaS founders are desperate for a full-stack global tax compliance solution without having to leave you for a merchant-of-record. Are you planning to solve this?” Did you know..."There are actually several different types of sales tax systems in use throughout the United States. The biggest difference is whether the seller or the purchaser is the main taxpayer. In some states, the tax is imposed on sellers, who then have the option of passing the tax along to their purchasers. In other states, the tax is imposed on the purchaser, with the seller being responsible for collecting the tax and remitting it to the state. And then there are other states where the liability for the tax is shared by sellers and purchasers." (Source)New thoughts on Sales tax compliance I still haven’t heard from anyone who has successfully migrated a “mature” SaaS from Stripe to Paddle or LemonSqueezy. These are no-gos: Can’t cause more churn. Can’t require customers to re-enter information. Can’t change our checkout experience. We might consider Paddle / LemonSqueezy if: Their fees were more affordable (compared to our existing fees it would be ~$63K year more, $5,250 per month more) Their dev experience had a better rating from the folks we know. I had heard from anybody who was at our stage and had actually migrated successfully. A few folks suggested Revin, which promises “simple global sales tax compliance for Stripe for only $499/month,”  but: They have to “create a new Stripe account for your brand.” Do they own your Stripe account? You’ll lose your historical stats and revenue analytics The current solution we’re considering is Stripe Tax + TaxJar (and start with US and Canadian tax remittance) Thanks to our monthly supporters Pascal from sharpen.page Rewardful.com Greg Park Mitchell Davis from RecruitKit.com.au Marcel Fahle, wearebold.af Ethan Gunderson Bill Condo (@mavrck) Ward from MemberSpace.com Russell Brown from Photivo.com Evandro Sasse Austin Loveless Michael Sitver Dan Buda Colin Gray Dave Giunta 🎙️ Podcast hosting is provided by Transistor.fm.📺 Learn how to start your own podcast! ★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★

Sales tax compliance: nobody in SaaS wants to talk about it. Jon and Justin tried to do something about it and it turned into a nightmare. According to Stripe Tax, there are about 90 different regions that software companies may have to register in, and then calculate, collect, and remit sales tax on their behalf. But in North America, many SaaS companies don't seem to care: many that we looked at weren't collecting sales tax at all, while a few had just started collecting in the US states. (00:13) - Welcome (01:54) - Benefits of podcasting for a small business (03:44) - New Year's update (05:59) - Patreon integration feature (10:23) - Dear listener... a request! (10:50) - Exciting! Sales Tax! Discussion! (29:01) - What have we tried (40:12) - A new issue that we can't make progress on (47:00) - Thanks to our Patreon supporters If you've been wondering about how sales tax applies to SaaS, listen to this episode.Thanks to our monthly supporters Pascal from sharpen.page Rewardful.com Greg Park Mitchell Davis from RecruitKit.com.au Marcel Fahle, wearebold.af Ethan Gunderson Bill Condo (@mavrck) Ward from MemberSpace.com Russell Brown from Photivo.com Evandro Sasse Austin Loveless Michael Sitver Dan Buda Colin Gray Dave Giunta 🎙️ Podcast hosting is provided by Transistor.fm.📺 Learn how to start your own podcast! ★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★

The whole Transistor team got together for a retreat in Montréal. Jon, Justin, Helen, and Jason chat about the experience. 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/  Thanks to our monthly supporters Pascal from sharpen.page Rewardful.com Greg Park Mitchell Davis from RecruitKit.com.au Marcel Fahle, wearebold.af Ethan Gunderson Bill Condo (@mavrck) Ward from MemberSpace.com Russell Brown from Photivo.com Evandro Sasse Austin Loveless Michael Sitver Dan Buda Colin Gray Dave Giunta 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! 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 Thanks to our monthly supporters Pascal from sharpen.page Rewardful.com Greg Park Mitchell Davis from RecruitKit.com.au Marcel Fahle, wearebold.af Ethan Gunderson Bill Condo (@mavrck) Ward from MemberSpace.com Russell Brown from Photivo.com Evandro Sasse Austin Loveless Michael Sitver Dan Buda Colin Gray Dave Giunta 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 Pascal from sharpen.page Rewardful.com Greg Park Mitchell Davis from RecruitKit.com.au Marcel Fahle, wearebold.af Ethan Gunderson Bill Condo (@mavrck) Ward from MemberSpace.com Russell Brown from Photivo.com Evandro Sasse Austin Loveless Michael Sitver Dan Buda Colin Gray Dave Giunta 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 Thanks to our monthly supporters Pascal from sharpen.page Rewardful.com Greg Park Mitchell Davis from RecruitKit.com.au Marcel Fahle, wearebold.af Ethan Gunderson Bill Condo (@mavrck) Ward from MemberSpace.com Russell Brown from Photivo.com Evandro Sasse Austin Loveless Michael Sitver Dan Buda Colin Gray Dave Giunta 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 Thanks to our monthly supporters Pascal from sharpen.page Rewardful.com Greg Park Mitchell Davis from RecruitKit.com.au Marcel Fahle, wearebold.af Ethan Gunderson Bill Condo (@mavrck) Ward from MemberSpace.com Russell Brown from Photivo.com Evandro Sasse Austin Loveless Michael Sitver Dan Buda Colin Gray Dave Giunta 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 Email us: support@transistor.fm Thanks to our monthly supporters Pascal from sharpen.page Rewardful.com Greg Park Mitchell Davis from RecruitKit.com.au Marcel Fahle, wearebold.af Ethan Gunderson Bill Condo (@mavrck) Ward from MemberSpace.com Russell Brown from Photivo.com Evandro Sasse Austin Loveless Michael Sitver Dan Buda Colin Gray Dave Giunta 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 Thanks to our monthly supporters Pascal from sharpen.page Rewardful.com Greg Park Mitchell Davis from RecruitKit.com.au Marcel Fahle, wearebold.af Ethan Gunderson Bill Condo (@mavrck) Ward from MemberSpace.com Russell Brown from Photivo.com Evandro Sasse Austin Loveless Michael Sitver Dan Buda Colin Gray Dave Giunta 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 Email us: support@transistor.fm Thanks to our monthly supporters Pascal from sharpen.page Rewardful.com Greg Park Mitchell Davis from RecruitKit.com.au Marcel Fahle, wearebold.af Ethan Gunderson Bill Condo (@mavrck) Ward from MemberSpace.com Russell Brown from Photivo.com Evandro Sasse Austin Loveless Michael Sitver Dan Buda Colin Gray Dave Giunta 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 ★