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Startups For the Rest of Us
Author: Rob Walling
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© 2023 Startups For the Rest of Us
Description
The original podcast for bootstrapped and mostly bootstrapped startups, this show follow the stories of founders as they start, acquire, and grow SaaS companies. Hear when they fail, struggle, succeed, and take you with them through the tumultuous life of a SaaS founder. If you like Mixergy, This Week in Startups, or SaaStr, you’ll enjoy Startup for the Rest of Us.
371 Episodes
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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:
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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!
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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!
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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!
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this is a great podcast but i think you guys should engage with the topic first and then at the end of the show discuss how your lives are going and recent events etc.
this is awesome !
It's actually scary, and quite shocking, how little these guys know about GDPR. What a waste of listening time! You really shouldn't discuss a topic you know so little about.