Build Your SaaS

Bootstrapping a business is like getting a plane to lift off the ground. But what do you do once the plane is in the air?Dave Giunta and Justin Jackson recorded a recent phone call about maintaining motivation after the initial startup phase. How does founder energy shift once you've achieved your early goals? Dave prods Justin to find new sources of motivation – whether through mentoring junior team members, connecting with customers in fresh ways, or knowing when it's time to explore new horizons.They also discuss why Dave left Home Chef (after 8 years) and what he's doing next.Links:Follow Dave on BlueskyConnect with Dave on LinkedInFollow Justin on BlueskyHave feedback on this episode?👉 ​Leave a voicemail here​🦋 Reply on BlueskyTimestamps:00:00:17 - Giuuuuuunta00:01:15 - Chatting in Guatemala: maintaining motivation, remote work, career transitions00:02:12 - Motivation in early vs late stage startups00:06:00 - Challenges with maintaining motivation once the business is established00:15:35 - Working with different team member motivations00:26:42 - Importance of understanding individual team members00:29:20 - Remote work advantages and challenges00:35:35 - Working with junior team members and mentorship00:54:00 - Why Dave left Home Chef after 8+ years00:57:00 - Discussion of career transitions and giving yourself space to explore01:02:20 - Future plans and exploration after leaving long-term roleThanks to our monthly supporters Pascal from sharpen.page Rewardful.com Greg Park Mitchell Davis from RecruitKit.com.au Marcel Fahle, wearebold.af Bill Condo (@mavrck) Ward from MemberSpace.com Evandro Sasse Austin Loveless Michael Sitver Colin Gray Dave Giunta 🎙️ Podcast hosting is provided by Transistor.fm.📺 Learn how to start your own podcast! ★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★

How do founders of small bootstrapped companies hire new employees? Adam Wathan got over 1600 people who applied for two new roles at Tailwind Labs (a small team of six people). They ended up hiring two people, but neither of them actually applied. This wasn't how Adam expected (or hoped) this process would go. There were lots of surprising takeaways and lessons learned from the whole experience."If you figure we spend 5 minutes on every single application, that was like 133 hours straight reading applications. Processing these job applications was basically my full time job for 2 months." – Adam WathanLinks:Hackers Inc podcastTailwind job opening announcementDesign Engineer job postingStaff Software Engineer job postingReddit: 11 months of job searching visualizedHave feedback on this episode?👉 ​Leave a voicemail here​🐦 Reply on TwitterTimestamps:(03:40) - What's the size of Transistor and when did you last hire? (05:29) - How did you meet or find your employees? (07:17) - Adam's process for hiring (12:49) - The energy required to process applications (17:37) - What got people in to the 100 list? (21:08) - Did Adam get any videos in applications? (24:54) - Previous employment was a good indicator (30:21) - Painting a picture of what the position looks like (32:07) - The kinds of people who applied (34:57) - How did the application process work out? (38:57) - The kinds of questions we asked applicants (42:30) - Does a great conversation impact a hiring decision or not? (49:29) - Does having the position open in public help? (51:41) - How Adam was connected to the people they hired (59:36) - The importance of conference conversations (01:02:25) - Finding ways to share your work in public (01:06:16) - The process does work... just not this time (01:12:35) - Could I ever get comfortable with a 70% success rate? (01:20:58) - Bringing in someone you knew vs a fan (01:26:50) - Keeping a tab in different areas to pull from Thanks to our monthly supporters Pascal from sharpen.page Rewardful.com Greg Park Mitchell Davis from RecruitKit.com.au Marcel Fahle, wearebold.af Bill Condo (@mavrck) Ward from MemberSpace.com Evandro Sasse Austin Loveless Michael Sitver 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 ★

A panel discussion on 37signals' first ONCE product, the launch of Campfire ("pay for it once, install it, and run it on your own server"). Ian Landsman, Tyler Tringas, and Justin Jackson share what they expected to happen before the launch, what did happen, and what it means for indie hackers and bootstrappers who want to launch SaaS companies. Is this the end of SaaS?Links:Once landing pageCampfire sales pageDHH's tweet: "ONCE/Campfire hasn't even been for sale for a week, but we've already sold more than quarter of a million dollars."Tyler Tringas's videoI want to hear your thoughts:If you listen to the episode, I'd be curious to hear your thoughts:Can you think of a low-price, pay-once, on-prem software product that's succeeded? (The only one I could think of was ​Statamic CMS​)Do you think a different Once product might have made more sales? What kinds of products do you think might work?Did you buy Campfire? What did you buy it for? Are you using it as a chat tool for your company?Other thoughts on our discussion.👉 ​Leave a voicemail here​🐦 Reply on TwitterTimestamps:(00:00:00) - "I appreciate that 37signals exists."(00:01:58) - 37signals' influence in the bootstrapped startup space(00:03:58) - What did we expect from the Campfire/Once launch?(00:06:23) - DHH's tweet on Campfire sales – is that what we expected?(00:09:49) - The Once model, philosophy, and Campfire's history(00:17:21) - Misconceptions about what IT Managers want(00:19:49) - How Campfire was marketed and positioned(00:26:01) - Basecamp's PR, virality, and audience (00:28:29) - Can you do customer research to validate demand?(00:32:01) - The volume of sales as a success metric(00:33:33) - The Potential for Campfire's expansion(00:37:37) - Distribution opportunities with hosting providers00:39:31) - The intuition behind HEY Email's success(00:43:42) - The Value of an Audience and Customer Overlap(00:45:12) - The Compounding Advantage of Longevity(00:49:54) - ScorecardThanks to our monthly supporters Pascal from sharpen.page Rewardful.com Greg Park Mitchell Davis from RecruitKit.com.au Marcel Fahle, wearebold.af Bill Condo (@mavrck) Ward from MemberSpace.com Evandro Sasse Austin Loveless Michael Sitver Colin Gray Dave Giunta 🎙️ Podcast hosting is provided by Transistor.fm.📺 Learn how to start your own podcast! ★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★

Fast Company called Acquired "the #1 tech podcast sensation." I've been a huge fan of the show for years. So, I was surprised when they contacted me and wanted to switch to Transistor for podcast hosting!Since switching, they've had a breakout year. Their clips started showing up everywhere on my social media feed; they had chart-topping episodes on Nintendo, Nike, and Costco, and they interviewed the CEOs of NVIDIA, Uber, and Charlie Munger. And this was the year that Ben Gilbert and David Rosenthal (the co-hosts) both went full-time on the podcast. Podcasting is now their job.With all of that activity, I thought Build your SaaS listeners would be interested in hearing my interview with David about their entire story:How they got started, how they built momentum over time,how they were able to double their audience every single year since 2015, And how that momentum ended up Attracting an incredibly valuable audience that they've now monetized through sponsorships. This interview has so much that podcasters, creators, and indie entrepreneurs will find super helpful and inspirational.🔥 Key moments:(0:00:00) – A breakout year for Acquired(0:01:45) – What is the Acquired podcast about?(0:02:40) – How the Acquired podcast got started (origin story)(0:07:23) – How Ben and David's co-hosting relationship works(0:09:00) – The 3 big goals that made them want to start Acquired(0:11:38) – How did listeners respond to the first episodes?(0:14:55) – The best reason to start a podcast(0:15:30) – The secret to how Acquired attracts new listeners(0:18:13) – How they got featured in Apple Podcasts, Overcast, Pocket Casts, and Spotify(0:24:18) – How they got their first podcast sponsors (and why it wasn't about making money)(0:27:58) – Why they give their sponsors a white glove, 11-star experience(0:34:13) – How to get more word-of-mouth referrals for your podcast(0:37:00) – Acquired's unconventional approach to podcast ads(0:41:54) – How the Acquired podcast's growth machine works(0:48:05) – Why their NVIDIA podcast episode went viral(0:50:48) – Why they switched from Libsyn to Transistor for podcast hosting(0:57:18) – The rise of the "independent, boutique podcaster."(1:02:27) – "The future of podcasting doesn't belong to Gimlet, NYT, NPR..."(1:06:22) – David Rosenthal's advice to aspiring podcastersThanks to our monthly supporters Pascal from sharpen.page Rewardful.com Greg Park Mitchell Davis from RecruitKit.com.au Marcel Fahle, wearebold.af Bill Condo (@mavrck) Ward from MemberSpace.com Evandro Sasse Austin Loveless Michael Sitver 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 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 Bill Condo (@mavrck) Ward from MemberSpace.com Evandro Sasse Austin Loveless Michael Sitver 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 OneArticle: How to Start a MastermindWayback Machine: Mint AnalyticsArticle: Why we moved from courses to SaaSSelf-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 Bill Condo (@mavrck) Ward from MemberSpace.com Evandro Sasse Austin Loveless Michael Sitver 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.LYTim's TwitterTim's blog: tools for marketersThanks to our monthly supporters Pascal from sharpen.page Rewardful.com Greg Park Mitchell Davis from RecruitKit.com.au Marcel Fahle, wearebold.af Bill Condo (@mavrck) Ward from MemberSpace.com Evandro Sasse Austin Loveless Michael Sitver 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 newsletterMarcella’s coaching websiteCheck out Marcella's articlesMarcella on LinkedInMarcella 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 Bill Condo (@mavrck) Ward from MemberSpace.com Evandro Sasse Austin Loveless Michael Sitver 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 Bill Condo (@mavrck) Ward from MemberSpace.com Evandro Sasse Austin Loveless Michael Sitver 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 riskHighlights 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 Bill Condo (@mavrck) Ward from MemberSpace.com Evandro Sasse Austin Loveless Michael Sitver 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 siteJoshua's podcast: Getting to RamenJason Cohen's articleAcquired.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 Bill Condo (@mavrck) Ward from MemberSpace.com Evandro Sasse Austin Loveless Michael Sitver 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 listUS 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 Bill Condo (@mavrck) Ward from MemberSpace.com Evandro Sasse Austin Loveless Michael Sitver 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 runIan Landsman: "This is why I don't use startup-friendly banks (Mercury, etc)"Section 174: join ssballiance.orgRevin has shut down its Merchant of Record serviceFlurly (another Merchant of Record) was shut down by StripeFrom 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 Bill Condo (@mavrck) Ward from MemberSpace.com Evandro Sasse Austin Loveless Michael Sitver 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 1Part 2 Thanks to our monthly supporters Pascal from sharpen.page Rewardful.com Greg Park Mitchell Davis from RecruitKit.com.au Marcel Fahle, wearebold.af Bill Condo (@mavrck) Ward from MemberSpace.com Evandro Sasse Austin Loveless Michael Sitver 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 complianceI 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 analyticsThe 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 Bill Condo (@mavrck) Ward from MemberSpace.com Evandro Sasse Austin Loveless Michael Sitver 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 Bill Condo (@mavrck) Ward from MemberSpace.com Evandro Sasse Austin Loveless Michael Sitver 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 @helenrylesLeave a review/comment on Podchaser; it's like Reddit, but for podcasts.Email us: support@transistor.fmThanks to our monthly supporters:Jason CharnesMitchell Davis from RecruitKit.com.auMarcel Fahle, ​​wearebold.afAlex PayneBill CondoAnton Zorin from ProdCamp.comHarris Kenny, Intro CRM podcastOleg KulykEthan GundersonWard Sandler, MemberspaceRussell Brown, Photivo.comNoah PrailColin GrayAustin LovelessMichael SitverPaul Jarvis and Jack Ellis, FathomDan BudaDarby FreyAdam DuVanderDave Giunta (JOOnta)Kyle Fox GetRewardful.comCheck 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 Bill Condo (@mavrck) Ward from MemberSpace.com Evandro Sasse Austin Loveless Michael Sitver 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 @helenrylesLeave a review/comment on Podchaser; it's like Reddit, but for podcasts.Email us: support@transistor.fmThanks to our monthly supporters:Jason CharnesMitchell Davis from RecruitKit.com.auMarcel Fahle, ​​wearebold.afAlex PayneBill CondoAnton Zorin from ProdCamp.comHarris Kenny, Intro CRM podcastOleg KulykEthan GundersonWard Sandler, MemberspaceRussell Brown, Photivo.comNoah PrailColin GrayAustin LovelessMichael SitverPaul Jarvis and Jack Ellis, FathomDan BudaDarby FreyAdam DuVanderDave 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 Bill Condo (@mavrck) Ward from MemberSpace.com Evandro Sasse Austin Loveless Michael Sitver 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 history14:51 - 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 @helenrylesLeave a review/comment on Podchaser; it's like Reddit, but for podcasts.Email us: support@transistor.fmThanks to our monthly supporters Pascal from sharpen.page Rewardful.com Greg Park Mitchell Davis from RecruitKit.com.au Marcel Fahle, wearebold.af Bill Condo (@mavrck) Ward from MemberSpace.com Evandro Sasse Austin Loveless Michael Sitver 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, Intercom2:52 – 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 aboutWhat should we talk about next?Twitter: @buildyoursaas, @mijustin, @jonbuda, @jsonpearl, and @helenrylesLeave a review/comment on Podchaser; it's like Reddit, but for podcasts.Email us: support@transistor.fmThanks to our monthly supporters:Jason CharnesMitchell Davis from RecruitKit.com.auMarcel Fahle, ​​wearebold.afAlex PayneBill CondoAnton Zorin from ProdCamp.comHarris Kenny, Intro CRM podcastOleg KulykEthan GundersonWard Sandler, MemberspaceRussell Brown, Photivo.comNoah PrailColin GrayAustin LovelessMichael SitverPaul Jarvis and Jack Ellis, FathomDan BudaDarby FreyAdam DuVanderDave 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 Bill Condo (@mavrck) Ward from MemberSpace.com Evandro Sasse Austin Loveless Michael Sitver 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 20178:00 – 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 entrepreneurship36:30 – 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 @helenrylesLeave a review/comment on Podchaser; it's like Reddit, but for podcasts.Email us: support@transistor.fmThanks to our monthly supporters:Jason CharnesMitchell Davis from RecruitKit.com.auMarcel Fahle, ​​wearebold.afAlex PayneBill CondoAnton Zorin from ProdCamp.comHarris Kenny, Intro CRM podcastOleg KulykEthan GundersonWard Sandler, MemberspaceRussell Brown, Photivo.comNoah PrailColin GrayAustin LovelessMichael SitverPaul Jarvis and Jack Ellis, FathomDan BudaDarby FreyAdam DuVanderDave 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 Bill Condo (@mavrck) Ward from MemberSpace.com Evandro Sasse Austin Loveless Michael Sitver 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 network2:20 – 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 @helenrylesEmail 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 Bill Condo (@mavrck) Ward from MemberSpace.com Evandro Sasse Austin Loveless Michael Sitver 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 Quebec3:09 – How Missive got started: "how can we quickly collaborate on an email as a team?"8:15 – How they get most of their customers10:30 – How their first product (Conference Badge), funded the development of Missive13:55 – How the market dictates most of your success16:30 – How they deal with competitors28:00 – Another example: Crisp is competing head-to-head with Intercom30:25 – Why indie startups should compete on priceWhat should we talk about next?Twitter: @buildyoursaas, @mijustin, @jonbuda, @jsonpearl, and @helenrylesLeave a review/comment on Podchaser; it's like Reddit, but for podcasts.Email us: support@transistor.fmThanks to our monthly supporters:Jason CharnesMitchell Davis from RecruitKit.com.auMarcel Fahle, ​​wearebold.afAlex PayneBill CondoAnton Zorin from ProdCamp.comMitchHarris Kenny, Intro CRM podcastOleg KulykEthan GundersonChris WillowWard Sandler, MemberspaceRussell Brown, Photivo.comNoah PrailColin GrayAustin LovelessMichael SitverPaul Jarvis and Jack Ellis, FathomDan BudaDarby FreyBrad from CanadaAdam DuVanderDave 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 Bill Condo (@mavrck) Ward from MemberSpace.com Evandro Sasse Austin Loveless Michael Sitver 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 Laravel6:01 – How Taylor is finding new employees to work on Forge, Vapor, and his other products7:34 – 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 Laravel10:48 – When is the next Laracon conference?13:11 – Taylor Otwell has the classic bootstrap success story14:28 – Laravel has been running too lean17:00 – What's it like to work as a developer at Laravel? (pair programming)18:33 – How Taylor does product development22:08 – "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 Twitter31:50 – 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 @helenrylesEmail 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 Bill Condo (@mavrck) Ward from MemberSpace.com Evandro Sasse Austin Loveless Michael Sitver 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 ★

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 week1:38 We just launched the new podcast website themes feature.2:24 Getting feedback, or seeing people use your product, is fuel for indie makers6:08 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 service17:25 People expect us to be bots17:45 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 quickly29:10 More tips for indie hackers who are doing customer supportWhat should we talk about next?Twitter: @buildyoursaas, @mijustin, @jonbuda, @jsonpearl, and @helenrylesLeave a review/comment on Podchaser; it's like Reddit, but for podcasts.Email us: support@transistor.fmThanks to our monthly supporters:Mitchell Davis from RecruitKit.com.auMarcel Fahle, ​​wearebold.afAlex PayneBill CondoAnton Zorin from ProdCamp.comMitchHarris Kenny, Intro CRM podcastOleg KulykEthan GundersonChris WillowWard Sandler, MemberspaceRussell Brown, Photivo.comNoah PrailColin GrayAustin LovelessMichael SitverPaul Jarvis and Jack Ellis, FathomDan BudaDarby FreyBrad from CanadaAdam DuVanderDave 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 Bill Condo (@mavrck) Ward from MemberSpace.com Evandro Sasse Austin Loveless Michael Sitver 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 ★

We got the whole band together: Helen and Jason join Jon and Justin to talk about what it's really like to work at TransistorHelen, Jason, Jon, Justin, all squeezed into the podcasting closet to make an episode0:55 Jason's first podcast ever1:12 Helen's been on other podcasts: Startups for the Rest of Us, Indie Bites, Indie Worldwide3:06 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 them18:46 The "wait and see" product development philosophy20:15 A new podcast website builder CMS and website designs23:34 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 themes31:57 Adding language localization for podcast websites (English, French, Spanish)34:30 How we run our weekly team meetings35:44 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 outsWhat should we talk about next?Twitter: @buildyoursaas, @mijustin, @jonbuda, @jsonpearl, and @helenrylesLeave 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 Bill Condo (@mavrck) Ward from MemberSpace.com Evandro Sasse Austin Loveless Michael Sitver 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 ★

Jon and Justin recorded this episode sitting on the same couch!Photo of the Coeur de BoeufThe 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 builderBuild new podcast website templates based on LiquidAdd tools that help podcasters promote their showContinue to improve our Dynamic Audio Insertion featuresCreate new features that help podcasters monetize their showSales/marketing planning:Reaching out to major affiliates to see how we can better partner with themLooking at ways of rewarding our customers for referring through RewardfulFreemium?Employees/company stuff Options: CartaBenefitsPossible hiringFuture: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, @jonbudaLeave a review/comment on Podchaser; it's like Reddit, but for podcasts.Email us: mail@transistor.fmThanks to our monthly supporters:Marcel Fahle, ​​wearebold.afAlex PayneBill CondoAnton Zorin from ProdCamp.comMitchHarris Kenny, Intro CRM podcastOleg KulykEthan GundersonChris WillowWard Sandler, MemberspaceRussell Brown, Photivo.comNoah PrailColin GrayAustin LovelessMichael SitverPaul Jarvis and Jack Ellis, FathomDan BudaDarby FreyBrad from CanadaAdam DuVanderDave 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 Bill Condo (@mavrck) Ward from MemberSpace.com Evandro Sasse Austin Loveless Michael Sitver 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 ★

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 JasonGiving employees generous bonusesJustin's list of non-alcoholic drinksCaptivate (one of our competitors) was just acquiredDifferent types of founder stressShould we sell our company? Our friends at Rewardful were just acquiredPlans and features for 2022What happened in 2021?January: Clubhouse got popularMarch 2021: send private podcast episodes by emailApril 2021: we hired HelenApril-May: new API updates (analytics)July: new podcast analytics charts + compare episodesJuly: add transcripts to episodesAugust 2021: we hired JasonSept: first release of DAIOct: Descript integrationNov: DAI mid-rollsBlack Friday. Worth it?Riverside integrationWhat should we talk about next?Twitter: @buildyoursaas, @mijustin, @jonbudaLeave a review/comment on Podchaser; it's like Reddit, but for podcasts.Email us: mail@transistor.fmThanks to our monthly supporters:Marcel Fahle, ​​wearebold.afAnton Zorin from ProdCamp.comMitchHarris Kenny, Intro CRM podcastOleg KulykViolette Du GenevilleTake It EV podcastEthan GundersonDiogoChris WillowBorja SolerWard Sandler, MemberspaceEric LimaJames Sowers (like Flowers)Travis FischerMatt BuckleyRussell BrownEvandro SassePradyumna Shembekar (PD)Noah PrailColin GrayJosh SmithIvan CurkovicShane SmithAustin LovelessSimon BennettMichael SitverPaul Jarvis and Jack Ellis, Dan Buda Darby FreySamori AugustoDave YoungBrad from CanadaSammy SchuckertMike WalkerAdam DuVanderDave 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 Bill Condo (@mavrck) Ward from MemberSpace.com Evandro Sasse Austin Loveless Michael Sitver 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 ★

In this guest episode, Justin chats with Brian Casel.Bootstrapped Web podcastZipMessageBrian's other projectsWhat should we talk about next?Twitter: @buildyoursaas, @mijustin, @jonbudaLeave a review/comment on Podchaser; it's like Reddit, but for podcasts.Email us: mail@transistor.fmThanks to our monthly supporters:Anton Zorin from ProdCamp.comMitchHarris Kenny, Intro CRM podcastOleg KulykViolette Du GenevilleTake It EV podcastEthan GundersonDiogoChris WillowBorja SolerWard Sandler, MemberspaceEric LimaJames Sowers (like Flowers)Travis FischerMatt BuckleyRussell BrownEvandro SassePradyumna Shembekar (PD)Noah PrailColin GrayJosh SmithIvan CurkovicShane SmithAustin LovelessSimon BennettMichael SitverPaul Jarvis and Jack Ellis, Dan Buda Darby FreySamori AugustoDave YoungBrad from CanadaSammy SchuckertMike WalkerAdam DuVanderDave 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 Bill Condo (@mavrck) Ward from MemberSpace.com Evandro Sasse Austin Loveless Michael Sitver 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 ★

In this bonus episode, Justin interviews his 18-year-old daughter, Sadie, about:A Gen Z perspective on podcastingWhy 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, @jonbudaLeave a review/comment on Podchaser; it's like Reddit, but for podcasts.Email us: mail@transistor.fmThanks to our monthly supporters:Anton Zorin from ProdCamp.comMitchHarris Kenny, Intro CRM podcastOleg KulykViolette Du GenevilleTake It EV podcastEthan GundersonDiogoChris WillowBorja SolerWard Sandler, MemberspaceEric LimaJames Sowers (like Flowers)Travis FischerMatt BuckleyRussell BrownEvandro SassePradyumna Shembekar (PD)Noah PrailColin GrayJosh SmithIvan CurkovicShane SmithAustin LovelessSimon BennettMichael SitverPaul Jarvis and Jack Ellis, Dan Buda Darby FreySamori AugustoDave YoungBrad from CanadaSammy SchuckertMike WalkerAdam DuVanderDave 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 Bill Condo (@mavrck) Ward from MemberSpace.com Evandro Sasse Austin Loveless Michael Sitver 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 ★

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 studiesDynamic audio insertionIntegration with DescriptBook: Range by David EpsteinWhat should we talk about next?Twitter: @buildyoursaas, @mijustin, @jonbudaLeave a review/comment on Podchaser; it's like Reddit, but for podcasts.Email us: mail@transistor.fmThanks to our monthly supporters:Anton Zorin from ProdCamp.comMitchHarris Kenny, Intro CRM podcastOleg KulykViolette Du GenevilleTake It EV podcastEthan GundersonDiogoChris WillowBorja SolerWard Sandler, MemberspaceEric LimaJames Sowers (like Flowers)Travis FischerMatt BuckleyRussell BrownEvandro SassePradyumna Shembekar (PD)Noah PrailColin GrayJosh SmithIvan CurkovicShane SmithAustin LovelessSimon BennettMichael SitverPaul Jarvis and Jack Ellis, Dan Buda Darby FreySamori AugustoDave YoungBrad from CanadaSammy SchuckertMike WalkerAdam DuVanderDave 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 Bill Condo (@mavrck) Ward from MemberSpace.com Evandro Sasse Austin Loveless Michael Sitver 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 ★

This week Justin chats with Michele Hansen, founder of Geocodio. I got fired up about interviewing customers! Get Michele's new book! Deploy EmpathyListen 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, @mjwhansenEmail us: mail@transistor.fmThanks to our monthly supporters:Anton Zorin from ProdCamp.comMitchHarris Kenny, Intro CRM podcastOleg KulykViolette Du GenevilleTake It EV podcastEthan GundersonDiogoChris WillowBorja SolerWard Sandler, MemberspaceEric LimaJames Sowers (like Flowers)Travis FischerMatt BuckleyRussell BrownEvandro SassePradyumna Shembekar (PD)Noah PrailColin GrayJosh SmithIvan CurkovicShane SmithAustin LovelessSimon BennettMichael SitverPaul Jarvis and Jack Ellis, Dan Buda Darby FreySamori AugustoDave YoungBrad from CanadaSammy SchuckertMike WalkerAdam DuVanderDave 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 Bill Condo (@mavrck) Ward from MemberSpace.com Evandro Sasse Austin Loveless Michael Sitver 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 ★

This week Jon and Justin discussed:Our values determine how we make decisionsHiring FT: we hired Jason Pearl!Summer SaaS slowdownTweet: worst month everConvertKit’s public numbersWhat should we talk about next?Twitter: @buildyoursaas, @mijustin, @jonbudaLeave a comment on PodHunt; it's like Reddit, but for podcasts.Email us: mail@transistor.fmThanks to our monthly supporters:MitchHarris Kenny, Intro CRM podcastOleg KulykViolette Du GenevilleTake It EV podcastEthan GundersonDiogoChris WillowBorja SolerWard SandlerEric LimaJames Sowers (like Flowers)Travis FischerMatt BuckleyRussell BrownEvandro SassePradyumna Shembekar (PD)Noah PrailColin GrayJosh SmithIvan CurkovicShane SmithAustin LovelessSimon BennettMichael SitverPaul Jarvis and Jack Ellis, Dan Buda Darby FreySamori AugustoDave YoungBrad from CanadaSammy SchuckertMike WalkerAdam DuVanderDave 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 Bill Condo (@mavrck) Ward from MemberSpace.com Evandro Sasse Austin Loveless Michael Sitver 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 ★

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 bragsRoy Bahat on Big Technology Podcast: Why VCs are mad06:30 "Capital changes lots of dynamics in society. It's not neutral." – Justin JacksonSilicon Valley: No Revenue (video)Blog post: Podcasts and capitalHow venture capitalists make moneyThe rise and fall of Quibi: from raising $1.75 billion before launch to shutting down just 6 months laterTweet: the negative effects of overcapitalizationTweet: 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 AnxietyBlog post: The hidden cost of bootstrappingWhat should we talk about next?Twitter: @buildyoursaas, @mijustin, @jonbuda, @spencerfryEmail us: mail@transistor.fmThanks to our monthly supporters:MitchHarris Kenny, Intro CRM podcastOleg KulykViolette Du GenevilleEthan GundersonDiogoChris WillowBorja SolerWard SandlerEric LimaJames Sowers (like Flowers)Travis FischerMatt BuckleyRussell BrownEvandro SassePradyumna Shembekar (PD)Noah PrailColin GrayJosh SmithIvan CurkovicShane SmithAustin LovelessSimon BennettMichael SitverPaul Jarvis and Jack Ellis, Dan Buda Darby FreySamori AugustoDave YoungBrad from CanadaSammy SchuckertMike WalkerAdam DuVanderDave 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 Bill Condo (@mavrck) Ward from MemberSpace.com Evandro Sasse Austin Loveless Michael Sitver 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 ★

This week Jon and Justin discussed:BasecampNote: 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 analysisIt’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 badSo 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, @jonbudaLeave a comment on PodHunt; it's like Reddit, but for podcasts.Email us: mail@transistor.fmThanks to our monthly supporters:MitchHarris Kenny, Intro CRM podcastOleg KulykViolette Du GenevilleTake It EV podcastEthan GundersonDiogoChris WillowBorja SolerWard SandlerEric LimaJames Sowers (like Flowers)Travis FischerMatt BuckleyRussell BrownEvandro SassePradyumna Shembekar (PD)Noah PrailColin GrayJosh SmithIvan CurkovicShane SmithAustin LovelessSimon BennettMichael SitverPaul Jarvis and Jack Ellis, Dan Buda Darby FreySamori AugustoDave YoungBrad from CanadaSammy SchuckertMike WalkerAdam DuVanderDave 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 Bill Condo (@mavrck) Ward from MemberSpace.com Evandro Sasse Austin Loveless Michael Sitver 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 ★

This we, we chatted about:Evil Crypto TeletubbiesVoltswagonFathom has acquired GoogleJon is trying out a new private office, in a coworking space (Deskpass)Justin had a quick chat with Derrick Reimer, SavvyCalTweet: 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 mythJustin 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 BannerbearPeter Suhm is building ReformSimon Bennett is building SnapShooterTweet: 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 webAutomatic tweetTwo-factor authenticationImport improvementsWhat should we talk about next?Twitter: @buildyoursaas, @mijustin, @jonbudaLeave a comment on PodHunt; it's like Reddit, but for podcasts.Email us: mail@transistor.fmThanks to our monthly supporters:Harris Kenny, Intro CRM podcastOleg KulykViolette Du GenevilleTake It EV podcastEthan GundersonDiogoChris WillowBorja SolerWard SandlerEric LimaJames Sowers (like Flowers)Travis FischerMatt BuckleyRussell BrownEvandro SassePradyumna Shembekar (PD)Noah PrailColin GrayJosh SmithIvan CurkovicShane SmithAustin LovelessSimon BennettMichael SitverPaul Jarvis and Jack Ellis, Dan Buda Darby FreySamori AugustoDave YoungBrad from CanadaSammy SchuckertMike WalkerAdam DuVanderDave 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 Bill Condo (@mavrck) Ward from MemberSpace.com Evandro Sasse Austin Loveless Michael Sitver 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 ★

Real humans making a business together:Taking the leapWhy is Justin jealous of Ben?Pros and cons of building a remote company in 2021Limited exposure to your co-founderWhat would take to get Jon to move to Canada?Story: confronting a burglar with a crowbarThe algorithm rewards you for being earlySpending a lot of time on ClubhouseApple Podcasts going into subscription podcasts roundtable“Podcasting needs better distribution”“Podcasting needs better discoverability”“There needs to be the Adwords for Podcasting.”☝️ BE CAREFUL WHAT YOU WISH FORHow are we going to scale our SaaS?How does investing $500,000 in the podcast ecosystem change the ecosystem?Justin's talk with Jason CalacanisWhat should we talk about next?Twitter: @buildyoursaas, @mijustin, @jonbudaLeave a comment on PodHunt; it's like Reddit, but for podcasts.Email us: mail@transistor.fmThanks to our monthly supporters:Harris KennyTake It EV podcastEthan GundersonAnton ZorinBill CondoChris WillowMason HensleyBorja Soler teami.ioWard from MemberSpace.comTravis FischerMatt Buckley, from NiceThings.io Russell BrownEvandro SasseNoah Prail, eventOneHQ.comRobert Simplicio, Simplicio.comColin Gray alitu.comJosh Smith, hellosift.comShane Smith, dev.transistor.fmAustin LovelessMichael Sitver, letterjoy.coPaul Jarvis and Jack Ellis, usefathom.com Dan Buda danbuda.comDarby FreySamori Augusto, thebicrowd.comBrad from CanadaMike WalkerAdam DuVanderDave 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 Bill Condo (@mavrck) Ward from MemberSpace.com Evandro Sasse Austin Loveless Michael Sitver 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 ★

Jon's back! He and Justin share their feelings/thoughts about the new year:Closing the door on the pastExciting revenue milestonePodcast companies losing moneyhttps://podnews.net/update/pocket-casts-for-salehttps://www.cnbc.com/2021/01/15/spotifys-big-bet-on-podcasts-is-failing-citi-says.html https://www.macrumors.com/2021/01/15/apple-podcast-subscription-service/Twitter's Trump banhttps://twitter.com/evan_greer/status/1347948903921045511https://www.fastcompany.com/90592060/capitol-attack-fascism-surveillance-censorship https://medium.com/craft-ventures/section-230-mend-it-dont-end-it-e33799a43a5f https://twitter.com/Kasparov63/status/1348355023101685761https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2021/01/how-big-tech-impeached-donald-trump/617643/What should we talk about next?Twitter: @buildyoursaas, @mijustin, @jonbudaLeave a comment on PodHunt; it's like Reddit, but for podcasts.Email us: mail@transistor.fmThanks to our monthly supporters:Take It EV podcastEthan GundersonAnton ZorinBill CondoChris WillowMason HensleyBorja Soler teami.ioWard from MemberSpace.comTravis FischerMatt Buckley, from NiceThings.io Russell BrownEvandro SasseNoah Prail, eventOneHQ.comRobert Simplicio, Simplicio.comColin Gray alitu.comJosh Smith, hellosift.comShane Smith, dev.transistor.fmAustin LovelessMichael Sitver, letterjoy.coPaul Jarvis and Jack Ellis, usefathom.com Dan Buda danbuda.comDarby FreySamori Augusto, thebicrowd.comBrad from CanadaMike WalkerAdam DuVanderDave 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 Bill Condo (@mavrck) Ward from MemberSpace.com Evandro Sasse Austin Loveless Michael Sitver 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 ★

This week, Justin and Jason discuss the dynamics of market demand.Justin's original tweetJason's responseWhat should we talk about next?Twitter: @buildyoursaas, @mijustin, @jonbuda, @jasonfriedLeave a comment on PodHunt; it's like Reddit, but for podcasts.Email us: mail@transistor.fmThanks to our monthly supporters:Take It EV podcastEthan GundersonAnton ZorinBill CondoChris WillowMason HensleyBorja Soler teami.ioWard from MemberSpace.comTravis FischerMatt Buckley, from NiceThings.io Russell BrownEvandro SasseNoah Prail, eventOneHQ.comRobert Simplicio, Simplicio.comColin Gray alitu.comJosh Smith, hellosift.comShane Smith, dev.transistor.fmAustin LovelessMichael Sitver, letterjoy.coPaul Jarvis and Jack Ellis, usefathom.com Dan Buda danbuda.comDarby FreySamori Augusto, thebicrowd.comBrad from CanadaMike WalkerAdam DuVanderDave 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 Bill Condo (@mavrck) Ward from MemberSpace.com Evandro Sasse Austin Loveless Michael Sitver 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 ★

This week, Justin catches up with Simon Bennett of Snapshooter:Every once in a while, we highlight one of our listeners who are building their own SaaS.This week: Simon Bennett, comes back to tell us what's happened since he left his full-time job 7 months ago.Looking for automatic backups for Digital Ocean, AWS, WordPress, or Laravel? Check out https://snapshooter.io.Simon had just put his kids to bed (he's in the UK) and sat down in his office to have a chat with Justin.What should we talk about next?Twitter: @buildyoursaas, @mijustin, @jonbuda, @MrSimonBennettLeave a comment on PodHunt; it's like Reddit, but for podcasts.Email us: mail@transistor.fmThanks to our monthly supporters:Take It EV podcastEthan GundersonAnton ZorinBill CondoChris WillowMason HensleyBorja Soler teami.ioWard from MemberSpace.comTravis FischerMatt Buckley, from NiceThings.io Russell BrownEvandro SasseNoah Prail, eventOneHQ.comRobert Simplicio, Simplicio.comColin Gray alitu.comJosh Smith, hellosift.comShane Smith, dev.transistor.fmAustin LovelessMichael Sitver, letterjoy.coPaul Jarvis and Jack Ellis, usefathom.com Dan Buda danbuda.comDarby FreySamori Augusto, thebicrowd.comBrad from CanadaMike WalkerAdam DuVanderDave 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 Bill Condo (@mavrck) Ward from MemberSpace.com Evandro Sasse Austin Loveless Michael Sitver 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 ★

Justin is joined by everybody's favorite Twitter Uncle: Ian Landsman (founder of HelpSpot).Ian's encounter with his internet hero Joel SpolskyDo you get worried that this all going to go away?How scared should we be of the competition?How do you hedge your bets?We prognosticate about what our bootstrapper friends' blind spots are. 🤣We both ask for investors live, on air.How founders should manage their personal finances.How our past experience can make us blind to opportunities.How can devs connect with marketers?Which startups would we invest in.What should we talk about next?Twitter: @buildyoursaas, @mijustin, @jonbuda, @ianlandsmanLeave a comment on PodHunt; it's like Reddit, but for podcasts.Email us: mail@transistor.fmThanks to our monthly supporters:Take It EV podcastEthan GundersonHelmut IrleColt BorgMarc BeinderAnton ZorinBill CondoSofia QuinteroChris WillowMason HensleyBorja Soler teami.ioWard from MemberSpace.comTravis FischerMatt Buckley, from NiceThings.io Russell BrownEvandro SasseNoah Prail, eventOneHQ.comRobert Simplicio, Simplicio.comColin Gray alitu.comJosh Smith, hellosift.comBrian Rhea (Pronounced “Ray”)Shane Smith, dev.transistor.fmAustin LovelessMichael Sitver, letterjoy.coPaul Jarvis and Jack Ellis, usefathom.com Dan Buda danbuda.comDarby FreySamori Augusto, thebicrowd.comBrad from CanadaMike WalkerAdam DuVanderDave 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 Bill Condo (@mavrck) Ward from MemberSpace.com Evandro Sasse Austin Loveless Michael Sitver 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 ★

We're back! Justin's voice sounds terrible (sorry!)When is the next wave of economic despair going to happen?The maker/creator market is on 🔥 right now. How long will it last?How "soft" is the prosumer market? How fragile is it?A BUNCH OF NEW TRANSISTOR FEATURES:Zapier integrationPodcast:lockedEasily submit your podcast to the major podcast directories.Podcast distribution checklistHow do you work on your startup when you're feeling down?"There were weeks when I got almost nothing done because I was stressed out about the state of the world.""It's hard to force yourself to do creative work if you're not feeling good emotionally."What should we talk about next?Twitter: @buildyoursaas, @mijustin, @jonbudaLeave a comment on PodHunt; it's like Reddit, but for podcasts.Email us: mail@transistor.fmThanks to our monthly supporters:Take It EV podcastEthan GundersonHelmut IrleColt BorgMarc BeinderAnton ZorinBill CondoSofia QuinteroChris WillowMason HensleyBorja Soler teami.ioWard from MemberSpace.comTravis FischerMatt Buckley, from NiceThings.io Russell BrownEvandro SasseNoah Prail, eventOneHQ.comRobert Simplicio, Simplicio.comColin Gray alitu.comJosh Smith, hellosift.comBrian Rhea (Pronounced “Ray”)Shane Smith, dev.transistor.fmAustin LovelessMichael Sitver, letterjoy.coPaul Jarvis and Jack Ellis, usefathom.com Dan Buda danbuda.comDarby FreySamori Augusto, thebicrowd.comBrad from CanadaMike WalkerAdam DuVanderDave 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 Bill Condo (@mavrck) Ward from MemberSpace.com Evandro Sasse Austin Loveless Michael Sitver 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 ★

We have a bonus episode for you this week!Justin was on the Framework podcast.Check out the other Spec.fm showsSubscribe to Framework in OvercastWant to reply to something we said?Twitter: @buildyoursaas, @mijustin, @jonbuda, @tomcreighton, @therobhayesLeave a comment on PodHunt; it's like Reddit, but for podcasts.Email us: mail@transistor.fmThanks to our monthly supporters:Take It EV podcastEthan GundersonHelmut IrleColt BorgMarc BeinderAnton ZorinBill CondoSofia QuinteroChris WillowMason HensleyBorja Soler teami.ioWard from MemberSpace.comTravis FischerMatt Buckley, from NiceThings.io Russell BrownEvandro SasseNoah Prail, eventOneHQ.comRobert Simplicio, Simplicio.comColin Gray alitu.comJosh Smith, hellosift.comBrian Rhea (Pronounced “Ray”)Shane Smith, dev.transistor.fmAustin LovelessMichael Sitver, letterjoy.coPaul Jarvis and Jack Ellis, usefathom.com Dan Buda danbuda.comDarby FreySamori Augusto, thebicrowd.comBrad from CanadaMike WalkerAdam DuVanderDave 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 Bill Condo (@mavrck) Ward from MemberSpace.com Evandro Sasse Austin Loveless Michael Sitver 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 ★

Jon and Justin talk about "optionality" in bootstrapping. (Justin is concerned, Jon thinks we should just enjoy the moment).DHH: "Part of what gave us the confidence to turn down the whole world of venture capital was a small sale of equity to Jeff Bezos. That gave our personal bank accounts just enough ballast that the big numbers touted by VCs and acquisition hunters lost their lure."Are we at peak podcasting? Things are good right now - will they be good for 10 years? 20 years? Fred Wilson: "Taking money off the table."How much did the founders of Buffer, Robinhood, etc. take off the table? Article.Des Traynor: "A founder is spending 60 months of their best years in their startup (instead of their career). That is a substantial upfront investment; it's like a seed round, but instead of money, it's your life."How much richer than us is Jeff Bezos?Want to reply to something we said?Twitter: @buildyoursaas, @mijustin, @jonbudaLeave a comment on PodHunt; it's like Reddit, but for podcasts.Email us: mail@transistor.fmThanks to our monthly supporters:Helmut IrleColt BorgMarc BeinderAnton ZorinBill CondoSofia QuinteroChris WillowMason HensleyBorja Soler teami.ioWard from MemberSpace.comTravis FischerMatt Buckley, from NiceThings.io Russell BrownEvandro SasseNoah Prail, eventOneHQ.comRobert Simplicio, Simplicio.comColin Gray alitu.comJosh Smith, hellosift.comBrian Rhea (Pronounced “Ray”)Shane Smith, dev.transistor.fmAustin LovelessMichael Sitver, letterjoy.coPaul Jarvis and Jack Ellis, usefathom.com Dan Buda danbuda.comDarby FreySamori Augusto, thebicrowd.comBrad from CanadaMike WalkerAdam DuVanderDave 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 Bill Condo (@mavrck) Ward from MemberSpace.com Evandro Sasse Austin Loveless Michael Sitver 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 ★

Late-summer update! This week on the program, we bring you a super spicy interview that Justin did on the TechZing podcast.Do you really need to build an audience before you build your product?Justin's tweetThere's this idea that you need to grow an audience, talk to an audience, and then build something they want. Is that really necessary?IndieHackers interview with Vincent Woojustinjackson.ca/surfingTweet: what do we mean when we say "audience?"Want to reply to something we said?Twitter: @buildyoursaas, @mijustin, @jonbuda, @justinvincentLeave a comment on the TechZing episode page.Leave a comment on PodHunt; it's like Reddit, but for podcasts.Email us: mail@transistor.fmThanks to our monthly supporters:Helmut IrleColt BorgMarc BeinderAnton ZorinBill CondoSofia QuinteroChris WillowMason HensleyBorja Soler teami.ioWard from MemberSpace.comTravis FischerMatt Buckley, from NiceThings.io Russell BrownEvandro SasseNoah Prail, eventOneHQ.comRobert Simplicio, Simplicio.comColin Gray alitu.comJosh Smith, hellosift.comBrian Rhea (Pronounced “Ray”)Shane Smith, dev.transistor.fmAustin LovelessMichael Sitver, letterjoy.coPaul Jarvis and Jack Ellis, usefathom.com Dan Buda danbuda.comDarby FreySamori Augusto, thebicrowd.comBrad from CanadaMike WalkerAdam DuVanderDave 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 Bill Condo (@mavrck) Ward from MemberSpace.com Evandro Sasse Austin Loveless Michael Sitver 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 ★

Mid-summer update! This week on the program, Justin and Jon talk about:If you're bootstrapping SaaS, how many monthly trials do you need?Tweet: "You probably need more trials than you think."Breaking out of your own way of thinking"All it took was someone talking to me to have a different way of thinking about it."Want to reply to something we said?Twitter: @buildyoursaas, @mijustin, @jonbudaLeave a comment on PodHunt; it's like Reddit, but for podcasts.Email us: mail@transistor.fmThanks to our monthly supporters:Colt BorgMarc BeinderAnton ZorinBill CondoSofia QuinteroChris WillowMason HensleyBorja Soler teami.ioWard from MemberSpace.comTravis FischerMatt Buckley, from NiceThings.io Russell BrownEvandro SassePradyumna Shembekar (PD), pradyumna.devNoah Prail, eventOneHQ.comRobert Simplicio, Simplicio.comColin Gray alitu.comJosh Smith, hellosift.comBrian Rhea (Pronounced “Ray”)Shane Smith, dev.transistor.fmAustin LovelessMichael Sitver, letterjoy.coPaul Jarvis and Jack Ellis, usefathom.com Dan Buda danbuda.comDarby FreySamori Augusto, thebicrowd.comBrad from CanadaSammy SchuckertMike WalkerAdam DuVanderDave 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 Bill Condo (@mavrck) Ward from MemberSpace.com Evandro Sasse Austin Loveless Michael Sitver 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 ★

This week on the program, Justin and Jon talk about:Updates on Transistor: new API is almost done, static site generator, growth slowed in June?Questioning whether we should slow down for the summerTalking about the Simplecast acquisitionWhat would sell for? Mike: “Anything that’s a life-changing amount.”Want to reply to something we said?Twitter: @buildyoursaas, @mijustin, @jonbudaLeave a comment on PodHunt; it's like Reddit, but for podcasts.Email us: mail@transistor.fm★ Bootstrapper shout-out of the week:Nusiihttps://nusii.comProfessional proposal templatesThanks to our monthly supporters:Colt BorgMarc BeinderAnton ZorinBill CondoSofia QuinteroDiogoChris WillowMason HensleyBorja Soler teami.ioWard from MemberSpace.comTravis FischerMatt Buckley, from NiceThings.io Russell BrownEvandro SassePradyumna Shembekar (PD), pradyumna.devNoah Prail, eventOneHQ.comRobert Simplicio, Simplicio.comColin Gray alitu.comJosh Smith, hellosift.comIvan CurkovicBrian Rhea (Pronounced “Ray”)Shane Smith, dev.transistor.fmAustin LovelessMichael Sitver, letterjoy.coPaul Jarvis and Jack Ellis, usefathom.com Dan Buda danbuda.comDarby FreySamori Augusto, thebicrowd.comBrad from CanadaSammy SchuckertMike WalkerAdam DuVanderDave 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 Bill Condo (@mavrck) Ward from MemberSpace.com Evandro Sasse Austin Loveless Michael Sitver 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 ★

This week on the program, Justin and Jon talk about:A friend, whose SaaS has grown 300% since the beginning of the quarantine. They just hit $6k in MRR.At that stage, he's in the "almost but not yet."You're either:Brainstorming how to make money fasterBrainstorming how to work lessDifferent stages:Pre-launch stage: you're working on your product on the side. It's fun! There's nothing stealing your time and attention because you don't have customers yet.The beta stage: still pretty fun! You have a few customers who are using your product, and maybe paying you money.The "launched" stage: now, you have way more users. Now you're doing way more customer support, responding to feature requests.How much did we work when we were building Transistor?Jon figures we spent 45 to 60 hours a week (each).Jason Calacanis’ tweet: "It takes 100 hours per week to build a business!"“Good businesses have margin."Josh Wood: "At Honeybadger, we work 30 hours per week."Margin gives you the opportunity, as a founder, to live beyond your keyboard. To engage with the world.Sandy Hudson (Sandra & Nora podcast): "The quarantine gave people the time and space to wrestle with the current moment."The Dept of Veteran Affairs"As your little baby Rails app grows up, you can't just run everything on the same service.""The whole internet is just patchwork of pipes and duct tape." You can reply to this podcast here:Twitter: @buildyoursaas, @mijustin, @jonbudaLeave a comment on PodHunt; it's like Reddit, but for podcasts.Email us: mail@transistor.fm★ Bootstrapper shout-out of the week:LessAccountinghttps://www.lessaccounting.com/Cloud base accounting software and services for non-accountants. This used to be owned by Allan Branch (Paul Kogan owns it now). It’s specifically designed for small businesses with 1-25 employees and contractorsThanks to our monthly supporters:Colt BorgMarc BeinderAnton ZorinBill CondoSofia QuinteroDiogoChris WillowMason HensleyBorja Soler teami.ioWard from MemberSpace.comTravis FischerMatt Buckley, from NiceThings.io Russell BrownEvandro SassePradyumna Shembekar (PD), pradyumna.devNoah Prail, eventOneHQ.comRobert Simplicio, Simplicio.comColin Gray alitu.comJosh Smith, hellosift.comIvan CurkovicBrian Rhea (Pronounced “Ray”)Shane Smith, dev.transistor.fmAustin LovelessMichael Sitver, letterjoy.coPaul Jarvis and Jack Ellis, usefathom.com Dan Buda danbuda.comDarby FreySamori Augusto, thebicrowd.comBrad from CanadaSammy SchuckertMike WalkerAdam DuVanderDave 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 Bill Condo (@mavrck) Ward from MemberSpace.com Evandro Sasse Austin Loveless Michael Sitver 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 ★

Structural racism affects every part of the economic system. It affects bootstrappers too! It defines:Who we hireWho we invest inWho we promoteWho we chat withWho sees our numbersWho we invite to speakWho gets access to our platform"It's not just about being oppressed or being an oppressor, it's about resisting oppression and resisting being an oppressor; being an ally, being an advocate for social justice." – Dr. Beverly Daniel Tatum (clip)Right now, in cities across America, people are protesting systemic violence and oppression against Black people.We (Jon and Justin) are waking up to how complicit we are in the system. We're seeing our privilege. We're humbled and motivated by the words of Dr. Erin Thomas:"You can directly impact the extent to which your organization counters historical inequity, inequality & injustice."The bootstrapping, SaaS, and startup ecosystems need to wrestle with these issues."How can you help? By working to dismantle a system of racism from which you reap the benefits. If you are not working to do that then you don’t actually want to help." – Kristina DanielsInstead of Patreon shout outs, we're shouting out these causes:The Loveland Foundation's therapy fund. Diversity in Tech PatreonThe Great Unlearning PatreonPodcasts in Color PatreonWant to take the next step?Abadesi Osunsade is offering How to be pro-Black at workRachel Rodgers is running Reimagining Small BusinessKim Crayton is doing an event called Introduction to Being an AntiracistThings to read, listen to, and watch:Peggy McIntosh's "Knapsack of Privilege"The podcast series, Seeing WhiteSo You Want to Talk About Race by Ijeoma OluoBernice King on MSNBCDocumentary: A time for burning, 1966This podcast was recorded on June 4, 2020. Thanks to our monthly supporters Pascal from sharpen.page Rewardful.com Greg Park Mitchell Davis from RecruitKit.com.au Marcel Fahle, wearebold.af Bill Condo (@mavrck) Ward from MemberSpace.com Evandro Sasse Austin Loveless Michael Sitver 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 ★

👋 Justin here. This episode is to let you know why there's no episode today. (I've had a few DMs from folks that were worried!)We're good; we had some server trouble this morning that took all our time and attention today. We're hoping to be back next Tuesday with a full episode.Thanks everyone; we appreciate your support! ✌️Special thanks to Dean Layton James, from CloudPeriscope and Benedikt Evans from UserList for giving us ideas on how to fix our issues today! ❤️You can reply to this podcast here:Twitter: @buildyoursaas, @mijustin, @jonbudaLeave a comment on PodHunt; it's like Reddit, but for podcasts.Email us: mail@transistor.fm★ Bootstrapper shout-out of the week:SeekWell.io"Send SQL (MySQL, Postgres, Snowflake, Redshift, and SQL Server) to Google Sheets, Excel, Slack, or email"Thanks to our monthly supporters:Colt BorgMarc BeinderAnton ZorinBill CondoSofia QuinteroDiogoChris WillowMason HensleyBorja Soler teami.ioWard from MemberSpace.comEric LimaJames Sowers (like Flowers) with UserInput.ioTravis FischerMatt Buckley, from NiceThings.io Russell BrownEvandro SassePradyumna Shembekar (PD), pradyumna.devNoah Prail, eventOneHQ.comRobert Simplicio, Simplicio.comColin Gray alitu.comJosh Smith, hellosift.comIvan CurkovicBrian Rhea (Pronounced “Ray”)Shane Smith, dev.transistor.fmAustin LovelessMichael Sitver, letterjoy.coPaul Jarvis and Jack Ellis, usefathom.com Dan Buda danbuda.comDarby FreySamori Augusto, thebicrowd.comBrad from CanadaSammy SchuckertMike WalkerAdam DuVanderDave 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 Bill Condo (@mavrck) Ward from MemberSpace.com Evandro Sasse Austin Loveless Michael Sitver 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 ★