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 Dan Buda Colin Gray Dave Giunta 🎙️ Podcast hosting is provided by Transistor.fm.📺 Learn how to start your own podcast! ★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★

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 videoTimestamps:(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 Dan Buda Colin Gray Dave Giunta 🎙️ Podcast hosting is provided by Transistor.fm.📺 Learn how to start your own podcast! ★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★

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 Dan Buda Colin Gray Dave Giunta 🎙️ Podcast hosting is provided by Transistor.fm.📺 Learn how to start your own podcast! ★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★

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

Justin catches up with his old internet friend Paul Jarvis. Today, Paul co-founded Fathom Analytics with Jack Ellis: a simple alternative to Google Analytics. Paul is also the author of the book "Company of One," which has influenced a whole generation of indie entrepreneurs (and has been reviewed by Cal Newport, Chris Guillebeau, Ben Chestnut, Tiago Forte, and more). Previously, Justin and Paul did a weekly mastermind, where they supported and encouraged each other around our indie businesses. They decided to do a catch-up call and recorded it so you could listen in. 👍Highlights: (00:10) - Intro (02:26) - Being off the internet (04:04) - What's a typical day for Paul? (06:27) - Looking back at our Mastermind call (08:14) - There's no beginning and no end (10:42) - Things that are out of your control affect your business (13:14) - Does Justin's surfing metaphor make sense to a surfer? (16:17) - How would you start an indie business in 2023? (22:11) - You've got to get in motion (25:14) - Using products in your category for a long time (27:59) - Is there still any room in Saas? (32:02) - The act of making the bet (38:51) - Is freelancing still viable in 2023? (43:01) - Company design is lifestyle design (45:06) - Worrying about being stagnant (47:26) - How do you handle customer feature requests? (52:14) - It's ok to be late to a shift in the market (58:30) - Caring is an indie advantage (01:05:11) - Collaboration is what gets us anywhere Links: Fathom Analytics (get $10 off) Book: Company of One Article: How to Start a Mastermind Wayback Machine: Mint Analytics Article: Why we moved from courses to SaaS Self-Publishing Hangout: Paul Jarvis, Nathan Barry, Sacha Greif, Justin Jackson Thanks to our monthly supporters Pascal from sharpen.page Rewardful.com Greg Park Mitchell Davis from RecruitKit.com.au Marcel Fahle, wearebold.af Ethan Gunderson Anton Zorin from ProdCamp.com Bill Condo (@mavrck) Ward from MemberSpace.com Russell Brown from Photivo.com Evandro Sasse Austin Loveless Michael Sitver Fathom Analytics Dan Buda Colin Gray Dave Giunta 🎙️ Podcast hosting is provided by Transistor.fm.📺 Learn how to start your own podcast! ★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★

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 (01:24) - Who is Tim Leland? (03:31) - What guardrails did you put in place? (06:35) - What's the sales funnel? (08:24) - Family as a motivator (16:32) - How would you describe your effort during this process? (20:17) - What about family boundaries? (23:36) - How do you manage your thoughts? (31:26) - How have you been able to manage the effort level? (34:55) - The pressure of cutting the cord from your job (38:27) - What's it been like being full time on t.ly? (40:10) - What's your SEO magic touch? Links: Tim's startup: T.LY Tim's Twitter Tim's blog: tools for marketers Thanks to our monthly supporters Pascal from sharpen.page Rewardful.com Greg Park Mitchell Davis from RecruitKit.com.au Marcel Fahle, wearebold.af Ethan Gunderson Anton Zorin from ProdCamp.com Bill Condo (@mavrck) Ward from MemberSpace.com Russell Brown from Photivo.com Evandro Sasse Austin Loveless Michael Sitver Fathom Analytics Dan Buda Colin Gray Dave Giunta 🎙️ Podcast hosting is provided by Transistor.fm.📺 Learn how to start your own podcast! ★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★

This week Jon and Justin are joined by Marcella Chamorro. Previously, she worked in startup marketing but has recently transitioned to coaching founders and teams. We discussed how startup founders and their team members can realize their full potential.Here are some highlights: (00:24) - Introducing Marcella (03:14) - How do you define your coaching? (05:21) - What do you see with rising stars? (09:48) - Do you navigate team dynamics or individual work? (14:51) - Any advice for founder's stress (23:33) - Personal lives do come to work (34:06) - The ability to have difficult conversations (48:27) - A lot of value in speaking to someone who's not you (51:48) - How can people reach out Marcella? Quote:"I think people who choose to do coaching want to be really good at what they do and they want to have a really good life. They are looking to optimize their time on planet Earth."  – MarcellaLinks: Subscribe to Marcella's newsletter Marcella’s coaching website Check out Marcella's articles Marcella on LinkedIn Marcella on Twitter Thanks to our monthly supporters Pascal from sharpen.page Rewardful.com Greg Park Mitchell Davis from RecruitKit.com.au Marcel Fahle, wearebold.af Ethan Gunderson Anton Zorin from ProdCamp.com Bill Condo (@mavrck) Ward from MemberSpace.com Russell Brown from Photivo.com Evandro Sasse Austin Loveless Michael Sitver Fathom Analytics Dan Buda Colin Gray Dave Giunta 🎙️ Podcast hosting is provided by Transistor.fm.📺 Learn how to start your own podcast! ★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★

In this podcast episode, Michele Hansen (Geocodio) gives us an update on Section 174 and provides her take on "bootstrapping with kids."Michele explains you can be a part of the Small Software Business Alliance, and fight Section 174. If you're in the USA, please contact Congress! In the second half of the episode, Justin and Michele talk about the challenges of balancing starting a business while you have young kids. For more on this topic, check out the last episode with Aaron Francis.For more context on Section 174, check out our previous episode with Michele. (00:12) - Welcome (01:44) - Quick refresher on section 174 (05:42) - Updates since last episode (09:09) - You can still help raise awareness (14:03) - What's happening next? (17:35) - How does this work on the accounting side? (20:24) - Anything else people can do? (22:41) - What advice do you give to people with families wanting to start a business? (26:44) - Did you try a few things on the side? (29:05) - Definition of success at the start (31:20) - Developing a business while raising a baby (35:13) - Survivorship bias in stories from new parents (37:53) - What should you consider when starting a business? (45:40) - Avoid magical thinking (51:44) - Some things are hard to think about until you experience them Thanks to our monthly supporters Pascal from sharpen.page Rewardful.com Greg Park Mitchell Davis from RecruitKit.com.au Marcel Fahle, wearebold.af Ethan Gunderson Anton Zorin from ProdCamp.com Bill Condo (@mavrck) Ward from MemberSpace.com Russell Brown from Photivo.com Evandro Sasse Austin Loveless Michael Sitver Fathom Analytics Dan Buda Colin Gray Dave Giunta Want to start a podcast on Transistor? Justin has a special coupon for you: get 15% off your first year of hosting: transistor.fm/justin ★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★

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

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

Michele Hansen (co-founder of Geocodio) is raising the alarm about Section 174. This legislation could dramatically increase your tax bill this year if you're a small software company in the USA. Michele is organizing a response through the Small Software Business Alliance.👉 ACT NOW: Sign up for Michele's list US citizens: tweet and call your Senators today. They need to know that this is a small business issue and that small businesses in their state are hurt by Section 174. Share the ssballiance.org URL with your founder friends. In this episode: (01:37) - What is section 174? (04:42) - What's the benefit to the government for this change? (09:03) - Section 174 is bad for every company that builds software (11:28) - Disclaimer: We're not tax accountants (12:21) - What is the SSB Alliance? (14:05) - Small businesses are the cute puppies of the policy world (22:05) - A practical example (25:30) - This is going to impact small software businesses (28:36) - What can we do? Thanks to our monthly supporters Pascal from sharpen.page Rewardful.com Greg Park Mitchell Davis from RecruitKit.com.au Marcel Fahle, wearebold.af Ethan Gunderson Anton Zorin from ProdCamp.com Bill Condo (@mavrck) Ward from MemberSpace.com Russell Brown from Photivo.com Evandro Sasse Austin Loveless Michael Sitver Fathom Analytics Dan Buda Colin Gray Darby Frey 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 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 (19:24) - Sales tax compliance update (26:15) - What could we do? (32:32) - Patreon integration update (35:16) - MyPodStudios (36:52) - Patreon Thanks Links: Matt Levin's excellent summary of the Silicon Valley Bank run Ian Landsman: "This is why I don't use startup-friendly banks (Mercury, etc)" Section 174: join ssballiance.org Revin has shut down its Merchant of Record service Flurly (another Merchant of Record) was shut down by Stripe From the Revin email:“The most relevant reason [we are closing] is that the Merchant of Record model is too risky for both sellers and the MOR operator. Sellers bear the risk of platform shutdown (as seen in the example of Flurly & Stripe), and the MOR operator could potentially become involved in illicit or illegal activities quickly, which could lead to all sorts of problems.Furthermore, it became increasingly clear that the Merchant of Record model primarily appeals to small-scale sellers or businesses with questionable and high-risk business models. This presents a significant challenge as we strive to move up the market.The recent change in Stripe's risk behavior has caused us to experience issues with keeping Stripe accounts live.” Thanks to our monthly supporters Pascal from sharpen.page Rewardful.com Greg Park Mitchell Davis from RecruitKit.com.au Marcel Fahle, wearebold.af Ethan Gunderson Anton Zorin from ProdCamp.com Bill Condo (@mavrck) Ward from MemberSpace.com Russell Brown from Photivo.com Evandro Sasse Austin Loveless Michael Sitver Fathom Analytics Dan Buda Colin Gray Darby Frey 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 ★

"I don't get it: if that money is for the government, how come the pizza place put it in their cash register?!?"(Jon is on vacation - our next real episode is coming soon!)Listen to our past episodes on the headache that is SaaS sales tax compliance: Part 1 Part 2 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 Thanks to our monthly supporters Pascal from sharpen.page Rewardful.com Greg Park Mitchell Davis from RecruitKit.com.au Marcel Fahle, wearebold.af Ethan Gunderson Anton Zorin from ProdCamp.com Bill Condo (@mavrck) Ward from MemberSpace.com Russell Brown from Photivo.com Evandro Sasse Austin Loveless Michael Sitver Fathom Analytics Dan Buda Colin Gray Darby Frey 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 (24:47) - Make it easier and gov't make more money (28:17) - What about Merchants of Record? (30:47) - Where is Stripe going? (35:36) - What are going to do now? (45:04) - Patreon supporters Broadly, there were a few different camps with the responses we received:  North American SaaS companies who have been using Stripe:  "Yes! Sales tax compliance for SaaS is brutal." European SaaS companies that have had to deal with VAT for a long time (many of whom use a Merchant of Record). Smaller North American solopreneurs and companies who had no idea they needed to collect and remit sales tax internationally. North American companies who have one-time sales and use Merchant of Record services. Responses from indie hackers: European: “Once again, I notice that the indie hacking community has a somewhat naïve approach to what running a business actually entails. As a European, not having a plan for sales tax is... mindboggling.” Cooper: “I think it might be a European perspective; we are dealing with VAT from day 1, so it's just one of the parts of running a business from the start, it can't really be neglected.” Edwin Saraccini: “To clarify, [for Canadians] this is absolutely new territory (Debated in parliament for years) and recently put to legislation in 2021.” Daniel Vassallo: “It's impossible to be compliant everywhere. The Kingdom of Tonga could tomorrow come up with an internet tax and require you to remit 25% of your sales to the tax office in person in their local currency. And they won't tell you about it. It's just a cost/benefit analysis.” Derrick Grigg: “How can they enforce tax collection on a business they have no jurisdiction over? Governments are shaking businesses down. I’m all for collecting and paying properly where you physically operate but collecting and remitting outside your province never mind nation is a stretch.” Derrick Reimer: “Dear Stripe: We SaaS founders are desperate for a full-stack global tax compliance solution without having to leave you for a merchant-of-record. Are you planning to solve this?” Did you know..."There are actually several different types of sales tax systems in use throughout the United States. The biggest difference is whether the seller or the purchaser is the main taxpayer. In some states, the tax is imposed on sellers, who then have the option of passing the tax along to their purchasers. In other states, the tax is imposed on the purchaser, with the seller being responsible for collecting the tax and remitting it to the state. And then there are other states where the liability for the tax is shared by sellers and purchasers." (Source)New thoughts on Sales tax compliance I still haven’t heard from anyone who has successfully migrated a “mature” SaaS from Stripe to Paddle or LemonSqueezy. These are no-gos: Can’t cause more churn. Can’t require customers to re-enter information. Can’t change our checkout experience. We might consider Paddle / LemonSqueezy if: Their fees were more affordable (compared to our existing fees it would be ~$63K year more, $5,250 per month more) Their dev experience had a better rating from the folks we know. I had heard from anybody who was at our stage and had actually migrated successfully. A few folks suggested Revin, which promises “simple global sales tax compliance for Stripe for only $499/month,”  but: They have to “create a new Stripe account for your brand.” Do they own your Stripe account? You’ll lose your historical stats and revenue analytics The current solution we’re considering is Stripe Tax + TaxJar (and start with US and Canadian tax remittance) Thanks to our monthly supporters Pascal from sharpen.page Rewardful.com Greg Park Mitchell Davis from RecruitKit.com.au Marcel Fahle, wearebold.af Ethan Gunderson Anton Zorin from ProdCamp.com Bill Condo (@mavrck) Ward from MemberSpace.com Russell Brown from Photivo.com Evandro Sasse Austin Loveless Michael Sitver Fathom Analytics Dan Buda Colin Gray Darby Frey 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 ★

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

The whole Transistor team got together for a retreat in Montréal. Jon, Justin, Helen, and Jason chat about the experience. What should we talk about next?  Twitter: @buildyoursaas, @mijustin, @jonbuda, @jsonpearl, and @helenryles Leave a review/comment on Podchaser; it's like Reddit, but for podcasts. Email us: [email protected] Thanks to our monthly supporters: Jason Charnes Mitchell Davis from RecruitKit.com.au Marcel Fahle, ​​wearebold.af Alex Payne Bill Condo Anton Zorin from ProdCamp.com Harris Kenny, Intro CRM podcast Oleg Kulyk Ethan Gunderson Ward Sandler, Memberspace Russell Brown, Photivo.com Noah Prail Colin Gray Austin Loveless Michael Sitver Paul Jarvis and Jack Ellis, Fathom Dan Buda Darby Frey Adam DuVander Dave Giunta (JOOnta) Kyle Fox GetRewardful.com Check out Simon and Volkan’s new bootstrappers podcast: https://shipsaasfaster.com/  Thanks to our monthly supporters Pascal from sharpen.page Rewardful.com Greg Park Mitchell Davis from RecruitKit.com.au Marcel Fahle, wearebold.af Ethan Gunderson Anton Zorin from ProdCamp.com Bill Condo (@mavrck) Ward from MemberSpace.com Russell Brown from Photivo.com Evandro Sasse Austin Loveless Michael Sitver Fathom Analytics Dan Buda Colin Gray Darby Frey Dave Giunta Want to start a podcast on Transistor? Justin has a special coupon for you: get 15% off your first year of hosting: transistor.fm/justin ★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Helen and Justin talk about the importance of customer support for indie SaaS companies. 1:08 The hardest part about podcasting is doing it every week 1:38 We just launched the new podcast website themes feature. 2:24 Getting feedback, or seeing people use your product, is fuel for indie makers 6:08 Helen's experience doing Customer Success for other companies: education, ConvertKit, MakerPad. 8:53 Justin's tweet: "Customer Support is the most under-appreciated role in SaaS." 10:00 The different forms of customer support: pre-sales, in-depth bug fixing, answering questions. 12:45 How does the Transistor team differ when we do support? 14:39 What Justin's learned from Helen in terms of giving better customer service 17:25 People expect us to be bots 17:45 The number of tickets we get each week: it's about ~100 conversations per week: 60-70% of those are new conversations, 30-40% is us responding to existing threads. 18:55 How we manage live chat so we can answer people fairly quickly 29:10 More tips for indie hackers who are doing customer support What should we talk about next? Twitter: @buildyoursaas, @mijustin, @jonbuda, @jsonpearl, and @helenryles Leave a review/comment on Podchaser; it's like Reddit, but for podcasts. Email us: [email protected] Thanks to our monthly supporters: Mitchell Davis from RecruitKit.com.au Marcel Fahle, ​​wearebold.af Alex Payne Bill Condo Anton Zorin from ProdCamp.com Mitch Harris Kenny, Intro CRM podcast Oleg Kulyk Ethan Gunderson Chris Willow Ward Sandler, Memberspace Russell Brown, Photivo.com Noah Prail Colin Gray Austin Loveless Michael Sitver Paul Jarvis and Jack Ellis, Fathom Dan Buda Darby Frey Brad from Canada Adam DuVander Dave Giunta (JOOnta) Kyle Fox GetRewardful.com Thanks to our monthly supporters Pascal from sharpen.page Rewardful.com Greg Park Mitchell Davis from RecruitKit.com.au Marcel Fahle, wearebold.af Ethan Gunderson Anton Zorin from ProdCamp.com Bill Condo (@mavrck) Ward from MemberSpace.com Russell Brown from Photivo.com Evandro Sasse Austin Loveless Michael Sitver Fathom Analytics Dan Buda Colin Gray Darby Frey 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, Jason, Jon, Justin, all squeezed into the podcasting closet to make an episode 0:55 Jason's first podcast ever 1:12 Helen's been on other podcasts: Startups for the Rest of Us, Indie Bites, Indie Worldwide 3:06 Should we invest in the "auto publish to YouTube" feature?Tom Webster: why would people listen to podcasts on YouTube? 13:32 The best features the ones that feel like "magic" when a customer uses them 18:46 The "wait and see" product development philosophy 20:15 A new podcast website builder CMS and website designs 23:34 Writing a new templating language in Liquid (Shopify) 26:23 Our new CLI tool: receiver (built with Go) 31:30 Making a few new podcast website themes 31:57 Adding language localization for podcast websites (English, French, Spanish) 34:30 How we run our weekly team meetings 35:44 New podcast website themes are out! (YouTube demo) 40:39 For next week: what questions do you have for @jsonpearl and @helenryles? 42:16 Patreon shout outs What should we talk about next? Twitter: @buildyoursaas, @mijustin, @jonbuda, @jsonpearl, and @helenryles Leave a review/comment on Podchaser; it's like Reddit, but for podcasts. Email us: [email protected] Thanks to our monthly supporters: Mitchell Davis from RecruitKit.com.au Marcel Fahle, ​​wearebold.af Alex Payne Bill Condo Anton Zorin from ProdCamp.com Mitch Harris Kenny, Intro CRM podcast Oleg Kulyk Ethan Gunderson Chris Willow Ward Sandler, Memberspace Russell Brown, Photivo.com Noah Prail Colin Gray Austin Loveless Michael Sitver Paul Jarvis and Jack Ellis, Fathom Dan Buda Darby Frey Brad from Canada Adam DuVander Dave Giunta (JOOnta) Kyle Fox GetRewardful.com Thanks to our monthly supporters Pascal from sharpen.page Rewardful.com Greg Park Mitchell Davis from RecruitKit.com.au Marcel Fahle, wearebold.af Ethan Gunderson Anton Zorin from ProdCamp.com Bill Condo (@mavrck) Ward from MemberSpace.com Russell Brown from Photivo.com Evandro Sasse Austin Loveless Michael Sitver Fathom Analytics Dan Buda Colin Gray Darby Frey 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 Boeuf The last time we were together in person: April 30, 2019 [Photo] 2022 roadmap planning. We're exploring what we'd like to accomplish this year.  Update and improve the podcast website builder Build new podcast website templates based on Liquid Add tools that help podcasters promote their show Continue to improve our Dynamic Audio Insertion features Create new features that help podcasters monetize their show Sales/marketing planning: Reaching out to major affiliates to see how we can better partner with them Looking at ways of rewarding our customers for referring through Rewardful Freemium? Employees/company stuff  Options: Carta Benefits Possible hiring Future:Long-term, we’re looking at an acquisition: what do we need to do to build up to that? What should we talk about next? Twitter: @buildyoursaas, @mijustin, @jonbuda Leave a review/comment on Podchaser; it's like Reddit, but for podcasts. Email us: [email protected] Thanks to our monthly supporters: Marcel Fahle, ​​wearebold.af Alex Payne Bill Condo Anton Zorin from ProdCamp.com Mitch Harris Kenny, Intro CRM podcast Oleg Kulyk Ethan Gunderson Chris Willow Ward Sandler, Memberspace Russell Brown, Photivo.com Noah Prail Colin Gray Austin Loveless Michael Sitver Paul Jarvis and Jack Ellis, Fathom Dan Buda Darby Frey Brad from Canada Adam DuVander Dave Giunta (JOOnta) Kyle Fox GetRewardful.com Thanks to our monthly supporters Pascal from sharpen.page Rewardful.com Greg Park Mitchell Davis from RecruitKit.com.au Marcel Fahle, wearebold.af Ethan Gunderson Anton Zorin from ProdCamp.com Bill Condo (@mavrck) Ward from MemberSpace.com Russell Brown from Photivo.com Evandro Sasse Austin Loveless Michael Sitver Fathom Analytics Dan Buda Colin Gray Darby Frey 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 Jason Giving employees generous bonuses Justin's list of non-alcoholic drinks Captivate (one of our competitors) was just acquired Different types of founder stress Should we sell our company? Our friends at Rewardful were just acquired Plans and features for 2022 What happened in 2021? January: Clubhouse got popular March 2021: send private podcast episodes by email April 2021: we hired Helen April-May: new API updates (analytics) July: new podcast analytics charts + compare episodes July: add transcripts to episodes August 2021: we hired Jason Sept: first release of DAI Oct: Descript integration Nov: DAI mid-rolls Black Friday. Worth it? Riverside integration What should we talk about next? Twitter: @buildyoursaas, @mijustin, @jonbuda Leave a review/comment on Podchaser; it's like Reddit, but for podcasts. Email us: [email protected] Thanks to our monthly supporters: Marcel Fahle, ​​wearebold.af Anton Zorin from ProdCamp.com Mitch Harris Kenny, Intro CRM podcast Oleg Kulyk Violette Du Geneville Take It EV podcast Ethan Gunderson Diogo Chris Willow Borja Soler Ward Sandler, Memberspace Eric Lima James Sowers (like Flowers) Travis Fischer Matt Buckley Russell Brown Evandro Sasse Pradyumna Shembekar (PD) Noah Prail Colin Gray Josh Smith Ivan Curkovic Shane Smith Austin Loveless Simon Bennett Michael Sitver Paul Jarvis and Jack Ellis,  Dan Buda  Darby Frey Samori Augusto Dave Young Brad from Canada Sammy Schuckert Mike Walker Adam DuVander Dave Giunta (JOOnta) Kyle Fox GetRewardful.com Thanks to our monthly supporters Pascal from sharpen.page Rewardful.com Greg Park Mitchell Davis from RecruitKit.com.au Marcel Fahle, wearebold.af Ethan Gunderson Anton Zorin from ProdCamp.com Bill Condo (@mavrck) Ward from MemberSpace.com Russell Brown from Photivo.com Evandro Sasse Austin Loveless Michael Sitver Fathom Analytics Dan Buda Colin Gray Darby Frey 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 podcast ZipMessage Brian's other projects What should we talk about next? Twitter: @buildyoursaas, @mijustin, @jonbuda Leave a review/comment on Podchaser; it's like Reddit, but for podcasts. Email us: [email protected] Thanks to our monthly supporters: Anton Zorin from ProdCamp.com Mitch Harris Kenny, Intro CRM podcast Oleg Kulyk Violette Du Geneville Take It EV podcast Ethan Gunderson Diogo Chris Willow Borja Soler Ward Sandler, Memberspace Eric Lima James Sowers (like Flowers) Travis Fischer Matt Buckley Russell Brown Evandro Sasse Pradyumna Shembekar (PD) Noah Prail Colin Gray Josh Smith Ivan Curkovic Shane Smith Austin Loveless Simon Bennett Michael Sitver Paul Jarvis and Jack Ellis,  Dan Buda  Darby Frey Samori Augusto Dave Young Brad from Canada Sammy Schuckert Mike Walker Adam DuVander Dave Giunta (JOOnta) Kyle Fox GetRewardful.com Thanks to our monthly supporters Pascal from sharpen.page Rewardful.com Greg Park Mitchell Davis from RecruitKit.com.au Marcel Fahle, wearebold.af Ethan Gunderson Anton Zorin from ProdCamp.com Bill Condo (@mavrck) Ward from MemberSpace.com Russell Brown from Photivo.com Evandro Sasse Austin Loveless Michael Sitver Fathom Analytics Dan Buda Colin Gray Darby Frey 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 podcasting Why women are the future of podcasting: Edison Research "Now, look at the rookies – 47% are men, but the majority, 53% are women." "Most women get their podcast recommendations from Spotify, social media, or their friends." We talk a lot about podcast advertising, podcast ads, and how the adtech industry should think differently about how they target women."Most podcast ads are just men talking to men." What should we talk about next? Twitter: @buildyoursaas, @mijustin, @jonbuda Leave a review/comment on Podchaser; it's like Reddit, but for podcasts. Email us: [email protected] Thanks to our monthly supporters: Anton Zorin from ProdCamp.com Mitch Harris Kenny, Intro CRM podcast Oleg Kulyk Violette Du Geneville Take It EV podcast Ethan Gunderson Diogo Chris Willow Borja Soler Ward Sandler, Memberspace Eric Lima James Sowers (like Flowers) Travis Fischer Matt Buckley Russell Brown Evandro Sasse Pradyumna Shembekar (PD) Noah Prail Colin Gray Josh Smith Ivan Curkovic Shane Smith Austin Loveless Simon Bennett Michael Sitver Paul Jarvis and Jack Ellis,  Dan Buda  Darby Frey Samori Augusto Dave Young Brad from Canada Sammy Schuckert Mike Walker Adam DuVander Dave Giunta (JOOnta) Kyle Fox GetRewardful.com Thanks to our monthly supporters Pascal from sharpen.page Rewardful.com Greg Park Mitchell Davis from RecruitKit.com.au Marcel Fahle, wearebold.af Ethan Gunderson Anton Zorin from ProdCamp.com Bill Condo (@mavrck) Ward from MemberSpace.com Russell Brown from Photivo.com Evandro Sasse Austin Loveless Michael Sitver Fathom Analytics Dan Buda Colin Gray Darby Frey 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 studies Dynamic audio insertion Integration with Descript Book: Range by David Epstein What should we talk about next? Twitter: @buildyoursaas, @mijustin, @jonbuda Leave a review/comment on Podchaser; it's like Reddit, but for podcasts. Email us: [email protected] Thanks to our monthly supporters: Anton Zorin from ProdCamp.com Mitch Harris Kenny, Intro CRM podcast Oleg Kulyk Violette Du Geneville Take It EV podcast Ethan Gunderson Diogo Chris Willow Borja Soler Ward Sandler, Memberspace Eric Lima James Sowers (like Flowers) Travis Fischer Matt Buckley Russell Brown Evandro Sasse Pradyumna Shembekar (PD) Noah Prail Colin Gray Josh Smith Ivan Curkovic Shane Smith Austin Loveless Simon Bennett Michael Sitver Paul Jarvis and Jack Ellis,  Dan Buda  Darby Frey Samori Augusto Dave Young Brad from Canada Sammy Schuckert Mike Walker Adam DuVander Dave Giunta (JOOnta) Kyle Fox GetRewardful.com Thanks to our monthly supporters Pascal from sharpen.page Rewardful.com Greg Park Mitchell Davis from RecruitKit.com.au Marcel Fahle, wearebold.af Ethan Gunderson Anton Zorin from ProdCamp.com Bill Condo (@mavrck) Ward from MemberSpace.com Russell Brown from Photivo.com Evandro Sasse Austin Loveless Michael Sitver Fathom Analytics Dan Buda Colin Gray Darby Frey 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 Empathy Listen to Michele's podcast: Software Social "Empathy is a skill you can learn." Get Michele's newsletter "There's so much shame in the tech community." What are the boundaries for deploying empathy? When, and how, do we deliver critiques? Podcast: a respectful interview with a flat-earther  "This book isn't just about deploying empathy to customers, it's also about learning to be more empathetic to your family, friends, coworkers." 31:30 – we start discussing customer interviews "It was easier for me to learn how to have empathy for customers than it was to have empathy for myself." 42:27 – "how does empathy help businesses attract new customers, build better products?" 46:53 - "Why don't you bring Jon in on those interviews?" What should we talk about next? Twitter: @buildyoursaas, @mijustin, @mjwhansen Email us: [email protected] Thanks to our monthly supporters: Anton Zorin from ProdCamp.com Mitch Harris Kenny, Intro CRM podcast Oleg Kulyk Violette Du Geneville Take It EV podcast Ethan Gunderson Diogo Chris Willow Borja Soler Ward Sandler, Memberspace Eric Lima James Sowers (like Flowers) Travis Fischer Matt Buckley Russell Brown Evandro Sasse Pradyumna Shembekar (PD) Noah Prail Colin Gray Josh Smith Ivan Curkovic Shane Smith Austin Loveless Simon Bennett Michael Sitver Paul Jarvis and Jack Ellis,  Dan Buda  Darby Frey Samori Augusto Dave Young Brad from Canada Sammy Schuckert Mike Walker Adam DuVander Dave Giunta (JOOnta) Kyle Fox GetRewardful.com Thanks to our monthly supporters Pascal from sharpen.page Rewardful.com Greg Park Mitchell Davis from RecruitKit.com.au Marcel Fahle, wearebold.af Ethan Gunderson Anton Zorin from ProdCamp.com Bill Condo (@mavrck) Ward from MemberSpace.com Russell Brown from Photivo.com Evandro Sasse Austin Loveless Michael Sitver Fathom Analytics Dan Buda Colin Gray Darby Frey 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 decisions Hiring FT: we hired Jason Pearl! Summer SaaS slowdown Tweet: worst month ever ConvertKit’s public numbers What should we talk about next? Twitter: @buildyoursaas, @mijustin, @jonbuda Leave a comment on PodHunt; it's like Reddit, but for podcasts. Email us: [email protected] Thanks to our monthly supporters: Mitch Harris Kenny, Intro CRM podcast Oleg Kulyk Violette Du Geneville Take It EV podcast Ethan Gunderson Diogo Chris Willow Borja Soler Ward Sandler Eric Lima James Sowers (like Flowers) Travis Fischer Matt Buckley Russell Brown Evandro Sasse Pradyumna Shembekar (PD) Noah Prail Colin Gray Josh Smith Ivan Curkovic Shane Smith Austin Loveless Simon Bennett Michael Sitver Paul Jarvis and Jack Ellis,  Dan Buda  Darby Frey Samori Augusto Dave Young Brad from Canada Sammy Schuckert Mike Walker Adam DuVander Dave Giunta (JOOnta) Kyle Fox GetRewardful.com Thanks to our monthly supporters Pascal from sharpen.page Rewardful.com Greg Park Mitchell Davis from RecruitKit.com.au Marcel Fahle, wearebold.af Ethan Gunderson Anton Zorin from ProdCamp.com Bill Condo (@mavrck) Ward from MemberSpace.com Russell Brown from Photivo.com Evandro Sasse Austin Loveless Michael Sitver Fathom Analytics Dan Buda Colin Gray Darby Frey 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 brags Roy Bahat on Big Technology Podcast: Why VCs are mad 06:30 "Capital changes lots of dynamics in society. It's not neutral." – Justin Jackson Silicon Valley: No Revenue (video) Blog post: Podcasts and capital How venture capitalists make money The rise and fall of Quibi: from raising $1.75 billion before launch to shutting down just 6 months later Tweet: the negative effects of overcapitalization Tweet: Big-name VCs, and their hypocrisy, give VCs a bad name. Techcrunch: "The meeting that showed me the truth about VCs" Adii Pienaar on venture capital: Raising Anxiety Blog post: The hidden cost of bootstrapping What should we talk about next? Twitter: @buildyoursaas, @mijustin, @jonbuda, @spencerfry Email us: [email protected] Thanks to our monthly supporters: Mitch Harris Kenny, Intro CRM podcast Oleg Kulyk Violette Du Geneville Ethan Gunderson Diogo Chris Willow Borja Soler Ward Sandler Eric Lima James Sowers (like Flowers) Travis Fischer Matt Buckley Russell Brown Evandro Sasse Pradyumna Shembekar (PD) Noah Prail Colin Gray Josh Smith Ivan Curkovic Shane Smith Austin Loveless Simon Bennett Michael Sitver Paul Jarvis and Jack Ellis,  Dan Buda  Darby Frey Samori Augusto Dave Young Brad from Canada Sammy Schuckert Mike Walker Adam DuVander Dave Giunta (JOOnta) Kyle Fox GetRewardful.com Thanks to our monthly supporters Pascal from sharpen.page Rewardful.com Greg Park Mitchell Davis from RecruitKit.com.au Marcel Fahle, wearebold.af Ethan Gunderson Anton Zorin from ProdCamp.com Bill Condo (@mavrck) Ward from MemberSpace.com Russell Brown from Photivo.com Evandro Sasse Austin Loveless Michael Sitver Fathom Analytics Dan Buda Colin Gray Darby Frey 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: Basecamp Note: we recorded this before Casey Newton's second article on Basecamp came out. Also: this article is a really thoughtful take on the whole situation. Ruby/Rails open source world. https://discuss.rubyonrails.org/t/effect-of-the-last-week-on-ruby-on-rails/77702  SO EXCITED: HELEN IS ON THE TEAM! 🎉 https://transistor.fm/helen/  Cost/benefit analysis It’s really difficult to make that calculation: should we commit to this? How do we know that the cost will be worth the benefit? For example, we could invest $100k + 6 months of time into building a mobile app for private podcasts, under the assumption that it will increase the number of private podcast customers we get. But what you don’t see is: How much time + energy does it really take to build it? Does it attract the wrong customers? How much time + energy does it take to support it? How does it affect the fun + calm of running the app? Is all that effort really worth it? Apple’s latest release is bad So many bugs from Apple: https://transistor.fm/apple-podcasts-problem/  One bug in Spotify: https://transistor.fm/spotify-bug/  What should we talk about next? Twitter: @buildyoursaas, @mijustin, @jonbuda Leave a comment on PodHunt; it's like Reddit, but for podcasts. Email us: [email protected] Thanks to our monthly supporters: Mitch Harris Kenny, Intro CRM podcast Oleg Kulyk Violette Du Geneville Take It EV podcast Ethan Gunderson Diogo Chris Willow Borja Soler Ward Sandler Eric Lima James Sowers (like Flowers) Travis Fischer Matt Buckley Russell Brown Evandro Sasse Pradyumna Shembekar (PD) Noah Prail Colin Gray Josh Smith Ivan Curkovic Shane Smith Austin Loveless Simon Bennett Michael Sitver Paul Jarvis and Jack Ellis,  Dan Buda  Darby Frey Samori Augusto Dave Young Brad from Canada Sammy Schuckert Mike Walker Adam DuVander Dave Giunta (JOOnta) Kyle Fox GetRewardful.com Thanks to our monthly supporters Pascal from sharpen.page Rewardful.com Greg Park Mitchell Davis from RecruitKit.com.au Marcel Fahle, wearebold.af Ethan Gunderson Anton Zorin from ProdCamp.com Bill Condo (@mavrck) Ward from MemberSpace.com Russell Brown from Photivo.com Evandro Sasse Austin Loveless Michael Sitver Fathom Analytics Dan Buda Colin Gray Darby Frey 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 Teletubbies Voltswagon Fathom has acquired Google Jon is trying out a new private office, in a coworking space (Deskpass) Justin had a quick chat with Derrick Reimer, SavvyCal Tweet: Two years ago (March 2019), Justin posted a screenshot of our revenue numbers and we were just about to hit $10k in MRR. Jason Fried: Your company history is a myth Justin went full-time the next month (April 2019). Tweet: A mere six months after hitting $10k (April 2019), we hit $30k MRR (Oct 2019). This little business has given us more than we ever imagined. It’s changed our lives. Jon Youngfook is building Bannerbear Peter Suhm is building Reform Simon Bennett is building SnapShooter Tweet: There are so many productivity gurus, tips, hacks; lots of advice on how to "get more done in less time."  "Not Tamagotchi. The tomato technique. Ack, what's that called?" We're fine with getting a few good things done every day. "Gen Z is coming online now as potential customers. A whole new generation of kids is becoming adults." New releases on Transistor.fm: Private podcasts can receive email + play on the web Automatic tweet Two-factor authentication Import improvements What should we talk about next? Twitter: @buildyoursaas, @mijustin, @jonbuda Leave a comment on PodHunt; it's like Reddit, but for podcasts. Email us: [email protected] Thanks to our monthly supporters: Harris Kenny, Intro CRM podcast Oleg Kulyk Violette Du Geneville Take It EV podcast Ethan Gunderson Diogo Chris Willow Borja Soler Ward Sandler Eric Lima James Sowers (like Flowers) Travis Fischer Matt Buckley Russell Brown Evandro Sasse Pradyumna Shembekar (PD) Noah Prail Colin Gray Josh Smith Ivan Curkovic Shane Smith Austin Loveless Simon Bennett Michael Sitver Paul Jarvis and Jack Ellis,  Dan Buda  Darby Frey Samori Augusto Dave Young Brad from Canada Sammy Schuckert Mike Walker Adam DuVander Dave Giunta (JOOnta) Kyle Fox GetRewardful.com Thanks to our monthly supporters Pascal from sharpen.page Rewardful.com Greg Park Mitchell Davis from RecruitKit.com.au Marcel Fahle, wearebold.af Ethan Gunderson Anton Zorin from ProdCamp.com Bill Condo (@mavrck) Ward from MemberSpace.com Russell Brown from Photivo.com Evandro Sasse Austin Loveless Michael Sitver Fathom Analytics Dan Buda Colin Gray Darby Frey 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 leap Why is Justin jealous of Ben? Pros and cons of building a remote company in 2021 Limited exposure to your co-founder What would take to get Jon to move to Canada? Story: confronting a burglar with a crowbar The algorithm rewards you for being early Spending a lot of time on Clubhouse Apple 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 FOR How are we going to scale our SaaS? How does investing $500,000 in the podcast ecosystem change the ecosystem? Justin's talk with Jason Calacanis What should we talk about next? Twitter: @buildyoursaas, @mijustin, @jonbuda Leave a comment on PodHunt; it's like Reddit, but for podcasts. Email us: [email protected] Thanks to our monthly supporters: Harris Kenny Take It EV podcast Ethan Gunderson Anton Zorin Bill Condo Chris Willow Mason Hensley Borja Soler teami.io Ward from MemberSpace.com Travis Fischer Matt Buckley, from NiceThings.io  Russell Brown Evandro Sasse Noah Prail, eventOneHQ.com Robert Simplicio, Simplicio.com Colin Gray alitu.com Josh Smith, hellosift.com Shane Smith, dev.transistor.fm Austin Loveless Michael Sitver, letterjoy.co Paul Jarvis and Jack Ellis, usefathom.com  Dan Buda danbuda.com Darby Frey Samori Augusto, thebicrowd.com Brad from Canada Mike Walker Adam DuVander Dave Giunta (JOOnta) Kyle Fox GetRewardful.com Thanks to our monthly supporters Pascal from sharpen.page Rewardful.com Greg Park Mitchell Davis from RecruitKit.com.au Marcel Fahle, wearebold.af Ethan Gunderson Anton Zorin from ProdCamp.com Bill Condo (@mavrck) Ward from MemberSpace.com Russell Brown from Photivo.com Evandro Sasse Austin Loveless Michael Sitver Fathom Analytics Dan Buda Colin Gray Darby Frey 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 past Exciting revenue milestone Podcast companies losing money https://podnews.net/update/pocket-casts-for-sale https://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 ban https://twitter.com/evan_greer/status/1347948903921045511 https://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/1348355023101685761 https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2021/01/how-big-tech-impeached-donald-trump/617643/ What should we talk about next? Twitter: @buildyoursaas, @mijustin, @jonbuda Leave a comment on PodHunt; it's like Reddit, but for podcasts. Email us: [email protected] Thanks to our monthly supporters: Take It EV podcast Ethan Gunderson Anton Zorin Bill Condo Chris Willow Mason Hensley Borja Soler teami.io Ward from MemberSpace.com Travis Fischer Matt Buckley, from NiceThings.io  Russell Brown Evandro Sasse Noah Prail, eventOneHQ.com Robert Simplicio, Simplicio.com Colin Gray alitu.com Josh Smith, hellosift.com Shane Smith, dev.transistor.fm Austin Loveless Michael Sitver, letterjoy.co Paul Jarvis and Jack Ellis, usefathom.com  Dan Buda danbuda.com Darby Frey Samori Augusto, thebicrowd.com Brad from Canada Mike Walker Adam DuVander Dave Giunta (JOOnta) Kyle Fox GetRewardful.com Thanks to our monthly supporters Pascal from sharpen.page Rewardful.com Greg Park Mitchell Davis from RecruitKit.com.au Marcel Fahle, wearebold.af Ethan Gunderson Anton Zorin from ProdCamp.com Bill Condo (@mavrck) Ward from MemberSpace.com Russell Brown from Photivo.com Evandro Sasse Austin Loveless Michael Sitver Fathom Analytics Dan Buda Colin Gray Darby Frey 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 tweet Jason's response What should we talk about next? Twitter: @buildyoursaas, @mijustin, @jonbuda, @jasonfried Leave a comment on PodHunt; it's like Reddit, but for podcasts. Email us: [email protected] Thanks to our monthly supporters: Take It EV podcast Ethan Gunderson Anton Zorin Bill Condo Chris Willow Mason Hensley Borja Soler teami.io Ward from MemberSpace.com Travis Fischer Matt Buckley, from NiceThings.io  Russell Brown Evandro Sasse Noah Prail, eventOneHQ.com Robert Simplicio, Simplicio.com Colin Gray alitu.com Josh Smith, hellosift.com Shane Smith, dev.transistor.fm Austin Loveless Michael Sitver, letterjoy.co Paul Jarvis and Jack Ellis, usefathom.com  Dan Buda danbuda.com Darby Frey Samori Augusto, thebicrowd.com Brad from Canada Mike Walker Adam DuVander Dave Giunta (JOOnta) Kyle Fox GetRewardful.com Thanks to our monthly supporters Pascal from sharpen.page Rewardful.com Greg Park Mitchell Davis from RecruitKit.com.au Marcel Fahle, wearebold.af Ethan Gunderson Anton Zorin from ProdCamp.com Bill Condo (@mavrck) Ward from MemberSpace.com Russell Brown from Photivo.com Evandro Sasse Austin Loveless Michael Sitver Fathom Analytics Dan Buda Colin Gray Darby Frey 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, @MrSimonBennett Leave a comment on PodHunt; it's like Reddit, but for podcasts. Email us: [email protected] Thanks to our monthly supporters: Take It EV podcast Ethan Gunderson Anton Zorin Bill Condo Chris Willow Mason Hensley Borja Soler teami.io Ward from MemberSpace.com Travis Fischer Matt Buckley, from NiceThings.io  Russell Brown Evandro Sasse Noah Prail, eventOneHQ.com Robert Simplicio, Simplicio.com Colin Gray alitu.com Josh Smith, hellosift.com Shane Smith, dev.transistor.fm Austin Loveless Michael Sitver, letterjoy.co Paul Jarvis and Jack Ellis, usefathom.com  Dan Buda danbuda.com Darby Frey Samori Augusto, thebicrowd.com Brad from Canada Mike Walker Adam DuVander Dave Giunta (JOOnta) Kyle Fox GetRewardful.com Thanks to our monthly supporters Pascal from sharpen.page Rewardful.com Greg Park Mitchell Davis from RecruitKit.com.au Marcel Fahle, wearebold.af Ethan Gunderson Anton Zorin from ProdCamp.com Bill Condo (@mavrck) Ward from MemberSpace.com Russell Brown from Photivo.com Evandro Sasse Austin Loveless Michael Sitver Fathom Analytics Dan Buda Colin Gray Darby Frey 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 Spolsky Do 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, @ianlandsman Leave a comment on PodHunt; it's like Reddit, but for podcasts. Email us: [email protected] Thanks to our monthly supporters: Take It EV podcast Ethan Gunderson Helmut Irle Colt Borg Marc Beinder Anton Zorin Bill Condo Sofia Quintero Chris Willow Mason Hensley Borja Soler teami.io Ward from MemberSpace.com Travis Fischer Matt Buckley, from NiceThings.io  Russell Brown Evandro Sasse Noah Prail, eventOneHQ.com Robert Simplicio, Simplicio.com Colin Gray alitu.com Josh Smith, hellosift.com Brian Rhea (Pronounced “Ray”) Shane Smith, dev.transistor.fm Austin Loveless Michael Sitver, letterjoy.co Paul Jarvis and Jack Ellis, usefathom.com  Dan Buda danbuda.com Darby Frey Samori Augusto, thebicrowd.com Brad from Canada Mike Walker Adam DuVander Dave Giunta (JOOnta) Kyle Fox GetRewardful.com Thanks to our monthly supporters Pascal from sharpen.page Rewardful.com Greg Park Mitchell Davis from RecruitKit.com.au Marcel Fahle, wearebold.af Ethan Gunderson Anton Zorin from ProdCamp.com Bill Condo (@mavrck) Ward from MemberSpace.com Russell Brown from Photivo.com Evandro Sasse Austin Loveless Michael Sitver Fathom Analytics Dan Buda Colin Gray Darby Frey 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 integration Podcast:locked Easily submit your podcast to the major podcast directories. Podcast distribution checklist How 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, @jonbuda Leave a comment on PodHunt; it's like Reddit, but for podcasts. Email us: [email protected] Thanks to our monthly supporters: Take It EV podcast Ethan Gunderson Helmut Irle Colt Borg Marc Beinder Anton Zorin Bill Condo Sofia Quintero Chris Willow Mason Hensley Borja Soler teami.io Ward from MemberSpace.com Travis Fischer Matt Buckley, from NiceThings.io  Russell Brown Evandro Sasse Noah Prail, eventOneHQ.com Robert Simplicio, Simplicio.com Colin Gray alitu.com Josh Smith, hellosift.com Brian Rhea (Pronounced “Ray”) Shane Smith, dev.transistor.fm Austin Loveless Michael Sitver, letterjoy.co Paul Jarvis and Jack Ellis, usefathom.com  Dan Buda danbuda.com Darby Frey Samori Augusto, thebicrowd.com Brad from Canada Mike Walker Adam DuVander Dave Giunta (JOOnta) Kyle Fox GetRewardful.com Thanks to our monthly supporters Pascal from sharpen.page Rewardful.com Greg Park Mitchell Davis from RecruitKit.com.au Marcel Fahle, wearebold.af Ethan Gunderson Anton Zorin from ProdCamp.com Bill Condo (@mavrck) Ward from MemberSpace.com Russell Brown from Photivo.com Evandro Sasse Austin Loveless Michael Sitver Fathom Analytics Dan Buda Colin Gray Darby Frey 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 shows Subscribe to Framework in Overcast Want to reply to something we said? Twitter: @buildyoursaas, @mijustin, @jonbuda, @tomcreighton, @therobhayes Leave a comment on PodHunt; it's like Reddit, but for podcasts. Email us: [email protected] Thanks to our monthly supporters: Take It EV podcast Ethan Gunderson Helmut Irle Colt Borg Marc Beinder Anton Zorin Bill Condo Sofia Quintero Chris Willow Mason Hensley Borja Soler teami.io Ward from MemberSpace.com Travis Fischer Matt Buckley, from NiceThings.io  Russell Brown Evandro Sasse Noah Prail, eventOneHQ.com Robert Simplicio, Simplicio.com Colin Gray alitu.com Josh Smith, hellosift.com Brian Rhea (Pronounced “Ray”) Shane Smith, dev.transistor.fm Austin Loveless Michael Sitver, letterjoy.co Paul Jarvis and Jack Ellis, usefathom.com  Dan Buda danbuda.com Darby Frey Samori Augusto, thebicrowd.com Brad from Canada Mike Walker Adam DuVander Dave Giunta (JOOnta) Kyle Fox GetRewardful.com Thanks to our monthly supporters Pascal from sharpen.page Rewardful.com Greg Park Mitchell Davis from RecruitKit.com.au Marcel Fahle, wearebold.af Ethan Gunderson Anton Zorin from ProdCamp.com Bill Condo (@mavrck) Ward from MemberSpace.com Russell Brown from Photivo.com Evandro Sasse Austin Loveless Michael Sitver Fathom Analytics Dan Buda Colin Gray Darby Frey 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, @jonbuda Leave a comment on PodHunt; it's like Reddit, but for podcasts. Email us: [email protected] Thanks to our monthly supporters: Helmut Irle Colt Borg Marc Beinder Anton Zorin Bill Condo Sofia Quintero Chris Willow Mason Hensley Borja Soler teami.io Ward from MemberSpace.com Travis Fischer Matt Buckley, from NiceThings.io  Russell Brown Evandro Sasse Noah Prail, eventOneHQ.com Robert Simplicio, Simplicio.com Colin Gray alitu.com Josh Smith, hellosift.com Brian Rhea (Pronounced “Ray”) Shane Smith, dev.transistor.fm Austin Loveless Michael Sitver, letterjoy.co Paul Jarvis and Jack Ellis, usefathom.com  Dan Buda danbuda.com Darby Frey Samori Augusto, thebicrowd.com Brad from Canada Mike Walker Adam DuVander Dave Giunta (JOOnta) Kyle Fox GetRewardful.com Thanks to our monthly supporters Pascal from sharpen.page Rewardful.com Greg Park Mitchell Davis from RecruitKit.com.au Marcel Fahle, wearebold.af Ethan Gunderson Anton Zorin from ProdCamp.com Bill Condo (@mavrck) Ward from MemberSpace.com Russell Brown from Photivo.com Evandro Sasse Austin Loveless Michael Sitver Fathom Analytics Dan Buda Colin Gray Darby Frey 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 tweet There'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 Woo justinjackson.ca/surfing Tweet: what do we mean when we say "audience?" Want to reply to something we said? Twitter: @buildyoursaas, @mijustin, @jonbuda, @justinvincent Leave a comment on the TechZing episode page. Leave a comment on PodHunt; it's like Reddit, but for podcasts. Email us: [email protected] Thanks to our monthly supporters: Helmut Irle Colt Borg Marc Beinder Anton Zorin Bill Condo Sofia Quintero Chris Willow Mason Hensley Borja Soler teami.io Ward from MemberSpace.com Travis Fischer Matt Buckley, from NiceThings.io  Russell Brown Evandro Sasse Noah Prail, eventOneHQ.com Robert Simplicio, Simplicio.com Colin Gray alitu.com Josh Smith, hellosift.com Brian Rhea (Pronounced “Ray”) Shane Smith, dev.transistor.fm Austin Loveless Michael Sitver, letterjoy.co Paul Jarvis and Jack Ellis, usefathom.com  Dan Buda danbuda.com Darby Frey Samori Augusto, thebicrowd.com Brad from Canada Mike Walker Adam DuVander Dave Giunta (JOOnta) Kyle Fox GetRewardful.com Thanks to our monthly supporters Pascal from sharpen.page Rewardful.com Greg Park Mitchell Davis from RecruitKit.com.au Marcel Fahle, wearebold.af Ethan Gunderson Anton Zorin from ProdCamp.com Bill Condo (@mavrck) Ward from MemberSpace.com Russell Brown from Photivo.com Evandro Sasse Austin Loveless Michael Sitver Fathom Analytics Dan Buda Colin Gray Darby Frey 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, @jonbuda Leave a comment on PodHunt; it's like Reddit, but for podcasts. Email us: [email protected] Thanks to our monthly supporters: Colt Borg Marc Beinder Anton Zorin Bill Condo Sofia Quintero Chris Willow Mason Hensley Borja Soler teami.io Ward from MemberSpace.com Travis Fischer Matt Buckley, from NiceThings.io  Russell Brown Evandro Sasse Pradyumna Shembekar (PD), pradyumna.dev Noah Prail, eventOneHQ.com Robert Simplicio, Simplicio.com Colin Gray alitu.com Josh Smith, hellosift.com Brian Rhea (Pronounced “Ray”) Shane Smith, dev.transistor.fm Austin Loveless Michael Sitver, letterjoy.co Paul Jarvis and Jack Ellis, usefathom.com  Dan Buda danbuda.com Darby Frey Samori Augusto, thebicrowd.com Brad from Canada Sammy Schuckert Mike Walker Adam DuVander Dave Giunta (JOOnta) Kyle Fox GetRewardful.com Thanks to our monthly supporters Pascal from sharpen.page Rewardful.com Greg Park Mitchell Davis from RecruitKit.com.au Marcel Fahle, wearebold.af Ethan Gunderson Anton Zorin from ProdCamp.com Bill Condo (@mavrck) Ward from MemberSpace.com Russell Brown from Photivo.com Evandro Sasse Austin Loveless Michael Sitver Fathom Analytics Dan Buda Colin Gray Darby Frey 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 summer Talking 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, @jonbuda Leave a comment on PodHunt; it's like Reddit, but for podcasts. Email us: [email protected] ★ Bootstrapper shout-out of the week: Nusii https://nusii.com Professional proposal templates Thanks to our monthly supporters: Colt Borg Marc Beinder Anton Zorin Bill Condo Sofia Quintero Diogo Chris Willow Mason Hensley Borja Soler teami.io Ward from MemberSpace.com Travis Fischer Matt Buckley, from NiceThings.io  Russell Brown Evandro Sasse Pradyumna Shembekar (PD), pradyumna.dev Noah Prail, eventOneHQ.com Robert Simplicio, Simplicio.com Colin Gray alitu.com Josh Smith, hellosift.com Ivan Curkovic Brian Rhea (Pronounced “Ray”) Shane Smith, dev.transistor.fm Austin Loveless Michael Sitver, letterjoy.co Paul Jarvis and Jack Ellis, usefathom.com  Dan Buda danbuda.com Darby Frey Samori Augusto, thebicrowd.com Brad from Canada Sammy Schuckert Mike Walker Adam DuVander Dave Giunta (JOOnta) Kyle Fox GetRewardful.com Thanks to our monthly supporters Pascal from sharpen.page Rewardful.com Greg Park Mitchell Davis from RecruitKit.com.au Marcel Fahle, wearebold.af Ethan Gunderson Anton Zorin from ProdCamp.com Bill Condo (@mavrck) Ward from MemberSpace.com Russell Brown from Photivo.com Evandro Sasse Austin Loveless Michael Sitver Fathom Analytics Dan Buda Colin Gray Darby Frey 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 faster Brainstorming how to work less Different 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, @jonbuda Leave a comment on PodHunt; it's like Reddit, but for podcasts. Email us: [email protected] ★ Bootstrapper shout-out of the week: LessAccounting https://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 contractors Thanks to our monthly supporters: Colt Borg Marc Beinder Anton Zorin Bill Condo Sofia Quintero Diogo Chris Willow Mason Hensley Borja Soler teami.io Ward from MemberSpace.com Travis Fischer Matt Buckley, from NiceThings.io  Russell Brown Evandro Sasse Pradyumna Shembekar (PD), pradyumna.dev Noah Prail, eventOneHQ.com Robert Simplicio, Simplicio.com Colin Gray alitu.com Josh Smith, hellosift.com Ivan Curkovic Brian Rhea (Pronounced “Ray”) Shane Smith, dev.transistor.fm Austin Loveless Michael Sitver, letterjoy.co Paul Jarvis and Jack Ellis, usefathom.com  Dan Buda danbuda.com Darby Frey Samori Augusto, thebicrowd.com Brad from Canada Sammy Schuckert Mike Walker Adam DuVander Dave Giunta (JOOnta) Kyle Fox GetRewardful.com Thanks to our monthly supporters Pascal from sharpen.page Rewardful.com Greg Park Mitchell Davis from RecruitKit.com.au Marcel Fahle, wearebold.af Ethan Gunderson Anton Zorin from ProdCamp.com Bill Condo (@mavrck) Ward from MemberSpace.com Russell Brown from Photivo.com Evandro Sasse Austin Loveless Michael Sitver Fathom Analytics Dan Buda Colin Gray Darby Frey 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 hire Who we invest in Who we promote Who we chat with Who sees our numbers Who we invite to speak Who 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 Patreon The Great Unlearning Patreon Podcasts in Color Patreon Want to take the next step? Abadesi Osunsade is offering How to be pro-Black at work Rachel Rodgers is running Reimagining Small Business Kim Crayton is doing an event called Introduction to Being an Antiracist Things to read, listen to, and watch: Peggy McIntosh's "Knapsack of Privilege" The podcast series, Seeing White So You Want to Talk About Race by Ijeoma Oluo Bernice King on MSNBC Documentary: A time for burning, 1966 This 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 Ethan Gunderson Anton Zorin from ProdCamp.com Bill Condo (@mavrck) Ward from MemberSpace.com Russell Brown from Photivo.com Evandro Sasse Austin Loveless Michael Sitver Fathom Analytics Dan Buda Colin Gray Darby Frey 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, @jonbuda Leave a comment on PodHunt; it's like Reddit, but for podcasts. Email us: [email protected] ★ 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 Borg Marc Beinder Anton Zorin Bill Condo Sofia Quintero Diogo Chris Willow Mason Hensley Borja Soler teami.io Ward from MemberSpace.com Eric Lima James Sowers (like Flowers) with UserInput.io Travis Fischer Matt Buckley, from NiceThings.io  Russell Brown Evandro Sasse Pradyumna Shembekar (PD), pradyumna.dev Noah Prail, eventOneHQ.com Robert Simplicio, Simplicio.com Colin Gray alitu.com Josh Smith, hellosift.com Ivan Curkovic Brian Rhea (Pronounced “Ray”) Shane Smith, dev.transistor.fm Austin Loveless Michael Sitver, letterjoy.co Paul Jarvis and Jack Ellis, usefathom.com  Dan Buda danbuda.com Darby Frey Samori Augusto, thebicrowd.com Brad from Canada Sammy Schuckert Mike Walker Adam DuVander Dave Giunta (JOOnta) Kyle Fox GetRewardful.com Thanks to our monthly supporters Pascal from sharpen.page Rewardful.com Greg Park Mitchell Davis from RecruitKit.com.au Marcel Fahle, wearebold.af Ethan Gunderson Anton Zorin from ProdCamp.com Bill Condo (@mavrck) Ward from MemberSpace.com Russell Brown from Photivo.com Evandro Sasse Austin Loveless Michael Sitver Fathom Analytics Dan Buda Colin Gray Darby Frey 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: The new Transistor UI, and how folks are responding to it. "Damn the torpedoes!" – seeing if our update worked in IE11 after we deployed. Tobias Lütke, Shopify: “All the trends have been accelerated. The pandemic has moved everything forward 10 years. So now we need to build 2030 level software in 2020.” Restaurant trends: https://www.exploretock.com/ https://themargins.substack.com/p/doordash-and-pizza-arbitrage Bug bounties - what do other SaaS companies do with these? Mike Myers on Conan You can reply to this podcast here: Twitter: @buildyoursaas, @mijustin, @jonbuda Leave a comment on PodHunt; it's like Reddit, but for podcasts. Email us: [email protected] ★ Bootstrapper shout-out of the week: ScrapingBee "A web-scraping API that takes care of proxies and headless browsing for you so you'll never get blocked again while scraping." Used by companies like SAP and Zapier! Thanks to our monthly supporters: Anton Zorin Bill Condo Sofia Quintero Diogo Chris Willow Mason Hensley Borja Soler teami.io Ward from MemberSpace.com Eric Lima James Sowers (like Flowers) with UserInput.io Travis Fischer Matt Buckley, from NiceThings.io  Russell Brown Evandro Sasse Pradyumna Shembekar (PD), pradyumna.dev Noah Prail, eventOneHQ.com Robert Simplicio, Simplicio.com Colin Gray alitu.com Josh Smith, hellosift.com Ivan Curkovic Brian Rhea (Pronounced “Ray”) Shane Smith, dev.transistor.fm Austin Loveless Michael Sitver, letterjoy.co Paul Jarvis and Jack Ellis, usefathom.com  Dan Buda danbuda.com Darby Frey Samori Augusto, thebicrowd.com Brad from Canada Sammy Schuckert Mike Walker Adam DuVander Dave Giunta (JOOnta) Kyle Fox GetRewardful.com Thanks to our monthly supporters Pascal from sharpen.page Rewardful.com Greg Park Mitchell Davis from RecruitKit.com.au Marcel Fahle, wearebold.af Ethan Gunderson Anton Zorin from ProdCamp.com Bill Condo (@mavrck) Ward from MemberSpace.com Russell Brown from Photivo.com Evandro Sasse Austin Loveless Michael Sitver Fathom Analytics Dan Buda Colin Gray Darby Frey 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: As requested, we're going to start highlighting our listeners who are building their own SaaS. This week: Simon Bennett, a long-time Patreon supporter and a friend of the show. He just went full time on his project https://snapshooter.io, which does automatic backups for Digital Ocean.  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. You can reply to this podcast here: Twitter: @buildyoursaas, @mijustin, @jonbuda, @MrSimonBennett Leave a comment on PodHunt; it's like Reddit, but for podcasts. Email us: [email protected] ★ Need a podcast? Transistor allows you to host all of your podcasts in one place. We also offer private podcasts: use them with your team, or on your membership site. Get a 14-day trial here. Thanks to our monthly supporters: Anton Zorin Bill Condo Sofia Quintero Diogo Chris Willow Mason Hensley Borja Soler teami.io Ward from MemberSpace.com Eric Lima James Sowers (like Flowers) with UserInput.io Travis Fischer Matt Buckley, from NiceThings.io  Russell Brown Evandro Sasse Pradyumna Shembekar (PD), pradyumna.dev Noah Prail, eventOneHQ.com Robert Simplicio, Simplicio.com Colin Gray alitu.com Josh Smith, hellosift.com Ivan Curkovic Brian Rhea (Pronounced “Ray”) Shane Smith, dev.transistor.fm Austin Loveless Michael Sitver, letterjoy.co Paul Jarvis and Jack Ellis, usefathom.com  Dan Buda danbuda.com Darby Frey Samori Augusto, thebicrowd.com Brad from Canada Sammy Schuckert Mike Walker Adam DuVander Dave Giunta (JOOnta) Kyle Fox GetRewardful.com Thanks to our monthly supporters Pascal from sharpen.page Rewardful.com Greg Park Mitchell Davis from RecruitKit.com.au Marcel Fahle, wearebold.af Ethan Gunderson Anton Zorin from ProdCamp.com Bill Condo (@mavrck) Ward from MemberSpace.com Russell Brown from Photivo.com Evandro Sasse Austin Loveless Michael Sitver Fathom Analytics Dan Buda Colin Gray Darby Frey 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 ★

What do you do when a competitor steals your idea? (plus: Justin and Jon have the giggles). People in tech get bent out of shape about who owns certain ideas, UI patterns, and business models. “They ripped off my idea” "They copied us!" This blog post by Justin Mitchell:https://medium.com/@itsthisjustin/no-idea-is-unique-but-this-is-insane-a247ec80f6a7 Good Stackexchange thread:“In the history of science, this is known as "Railroad time". I.e, when the economy has reached a certain state of infrastructure (coal, steel, and land available, plus steam engines and demand for transportation), it's "Railroad time", and the idea of building railroads occurs to many people naturally at the same time.” Documentary: https://www.generalmagicthemovie.com/ Multiple discovery (simultaneous invention): “the hypothesis that most scientific discoveries and inventions are made independently and more or less simultaneously by multiple scientists and inventors” Synchronicity: “the simultaneous occurrence of events which appear significantly related but have no discernible causal connection.” Collective consciousness. How to respond if a competitor rips of your idea:  Paul Jarvis tweet: "fathom copycats pop up so often that i've lost count. we honestly don't mind them... they STOKE THE FIRE 🔥 to make our product even better." Hedge against the competition: Build your brand: the way people perceive your company; how “top of mind” are you? Build your audience: competitors can't easily replicate who you know, and who knows you. Customer service: how well you take care of people; how responsive you are Continued product improvement: you don’t have to be the most novel; you just have to show continuous improvement in vectors that customers care about. Last longer than your competition: don’t hire too many people, keep your costs low; if you can outlast your competition, you don’t have to worry about them stealing your stuff. You can reply to this podcast here: Twitter: @buildyoursaas, @mijustin, @jonbuda Leave a comment on PodHunt; it's like Reddit, but for podcasts. Email us: [email protected] ★ Need a podcast? Transistor allows you to host all of your podcasts in one place. We also offer private podcasts: use them with your team, or on your membership site. Get a 14-day trial here. Thanks to our monthly supporters: Bill Condo Sofia Quintero Diogo Chris Willow Mason Hensley Borja Soler teami.io Ward from MemberSpace.com Eric Lima James Sowers (like Flowers) with UserInput.io Travis Fischer Matt Buckley, from NiceThings.io  Russell Brown Evandro Sasse Pradyumna Shembekar (PD), pradyumna.dev Noah Prail, eventOneHQ.com Robert Simplicio, Simplicio.com Colin Gray alitu.com Josh Smith, hellosift.com Ivan Curkovic Brian Rhea (Pronounced “Ray”) Shane Smith, dev.transistor.fm Austin Loveless Michael Sitver, letterjoy.co Paul Jarvis and Jack Ellis, usefathom.com  Dan Buda danbuda.com Darby Frey Samori Augusto, thebicrowd.com Brad from Canada Sammy Schuckert Mike Walker Adam DuVander Dave Giunta (JOOnta) Kyle Fox GetRewardful.com Thanks to our monthly supporters Pascal from sharpen.page Rewardful.com Greg Park Mitchell Davis from RecruitKit.com.au Marcel Fahle, wearebold.af Ethan Gunderson Anton Zorin from ProdCamp.com Bill Condo (@mavrck) Ward from MemberSpace.com Russell Brown from Photivo.com Evandro Sasse Austin Loveless Michael Sitver Fathom Analytics Dan Buda Colin Gray Darby Frey 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 and Justin talk about where they're at. Podcasts like the Project Journey show, are at the beginning of their journey. Marie Poulin is a good example of an entrepreneur who's experienced a breakthrough this year; we should celebrate those! Justin's tweet: "What are we doing this for? Is the purpose of life to "Start business. Make most money. Die." We want to engage with an audience that wants more out of life." "Stay in your lane." The people who listen to this show aren't one-dimensional. We all live in a social, economic, and political context. We have feelings, families, histories. "Business" exists within these contexts. If our ideas about business are divorced from their human context, how helpful are they really? 22:18 – the Tailwind CSS project is plumbing.  23:15 – what kind of SaaS projects would we start right now? 27:10 – how much money does Nathan Barry have in the bank? 28:50 – you could still build this kind of app (Carrd competitor) 29:30 – Miguel's new product SiteSauce.app You can reply to this podcast here: Twitter: @buildyoursaas, @mijustin, @jonbuda Leave a comment on PodHunt; it's like Reddit, but for podcasts. Email us: [email protected] ★ Need a podcast? Transistor allows you to host all of your podcasts in one place. We also offer private podcasts: use them with your team, or on your membership site. Get a 14-day trial here. Thanks to our monthly supporters: Sofia Quintero Diogo Chris Willow Mason Hensley Borja Soler teami.io Ward from MemberSpace.com Eric Lima James Sowers (like Flowers) with UserInput.io Travis Fischer Matt Buckley, from NiceThings.io  Russell Brown Evandro Sasse Pradyumna Shembekar (PD), pradyumna.dev Noah Prail, eventOneHQ.com Robert Simplicio, Simplicio.com Colin Gray alitu.com Josh Smith, hellosift.com Ivan Curkovic Brian Rhea (Pronounced “Ray”) Shane Smith, dev.transistor.fm Austin Loveless Simon Bennett, snapshooter.io Michael Sitver, letterjoy.co Paul Jarvis and Jack Ellis, usefathom.com  Dan Buda danbuda.com Darby Frey Samori Augusto, thebicrowd.com Brad from Canada Sammy Schuckert Mike Walker Adam DuVander Dave Giunta (JOOnta) Kyle Fox GetRewardful.com Thanks to our monthly supporters Pascal from sharpen.page Rewardful.com Greg Park Mitchell Davis from RecruitKit.com.au Marcel Fahle, wearebold.af Ethan Gunderson Anton Zorin from ProdCamp.com Bill Condo (@mavrck) Ward from MemberSpace.com Russell Brown from Photivo.com Evandro Sasse Austin Loveless Michael Sitver Fathom Analytics Dan Buda Colin Gray Darby Frey 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 show: Jon baked bread. Got some sunshine. Avoiding social media, the other disease Justin WAS ON SOCIAL MEDIA.  Read this Andreesen post that everyone’s talking about: https://a16z.com/2020/04/18/its-time-to-build/ That conversation lead to this tweet: https://twitter.com/mijustin/status/1251946371050954752 What does the future hold? Dan Price tweet: "After the most recent 15 deadly outbreaks, wages grew over the ensuing 3 decades by a lot." Jamie Lawrence tweet: "What I’d like to see small local businesses come out of this crisis with." Can we give ourselves a deadline for the Tailwind project? What should it be? What should we think about shaping next? API Helping podcasters make money Analytics Private podcasting feature Podcast websites You can reply to this podcast here: Twitter: @buildyoursaas, @mijustin, @jonbuda, @shpigford Leave a comment on PodHunt; it's like Reddit, but for podcasts. Email us: [email protected] ★ Need a podcast? Transistor allows you to host all of your podcasts in one place. We also offer private podcasts: use them with your team, or on your membership site. Get a 14-day trial here. Thanks to our monthly supporters: Sofia Quintero Diogo Chris Willow Mason Hensley Borja Soler teami.io Ward from MemberSpace.com Eric Lima James Sowers (like Flowers) with UserInput.io Travis Fischer Matt Buckley, from NiceThings.io  Russell Brown Evandro Sasse Pradyumna Shembekar (PD), pradyumna.dev Noah Prail, eventOneHQ.com Robert Simplicio, Simplicio.com Colin Gray alitu.com Josh Smith, hellosift.com Ivan Curkovic Brian Rhea (Pronounced “Ray”) Shane Smith, dev.transistor.fm Austin Loveless Simon Bennett, snapshooter.io Michael Sitver, letterjoy.co Paul Jarvis and Jack Ellis, usefathom.com  Dan Buda danbuda.com Darby Frey Samori Augusto, thebicrowd.com Brad from Canada Sammy Schuckert Mike Walker Adam DuVander Dave Giunta (JOOnta) Kyle Fox GetRewardful.com Thanks to our monthly supporters Pascal from sharpen.page Rewardful.com Greg Park Mitchell Davis from RecruitKit.com.au Marcel Fahle, wearebold.af Ethan Gunderson Anton Zorin from ProdCamp.com Bill Condo (@mavrck) Ward from MemberSpace.com Russell Brown from Photivo.com Evandro Sasse Austin Loveless Michael Sitver Fathom Analytics Dan Buda Colin Gray Darby Frey 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 called up Josh Pigford, founder of Baremetrics: Baremetrics does analytics for SaaS companies I called him up just to get a sense of how this pandemic (and looming recession) has already started to affect different SaaS companies He's already noticing some trends: "A lot of SaaS companies are seeing the biggest loss they've seen in the past 4 weeks. I've heard from some companies that are seeing a 10-20% decrease in MRR." "Payroll is the biggest challenge over the next year. Payroll is our biggest expense." How are you going to ride this out? "We use Flight Path + Baremetrics to forecast revenue and expenses." Justin's tweet: "here are the companies doing well right now." A preview of a new feature that Baremetrics is building: automated email messaging for SaaS companies. Josh's side-projects: Cedar + Sail, Lasertweets You can reply to this podcast here: Twitter: @buildyoursaas, @mijustin, @jonbuda, @shpigford Leave a comment on PodHunt; it's like Reddit, but for podcasts. Email us: [email protected] ★ Need a podcast? Transistor allows you to host all of your podcasts in one place. We also offer private podcasts: use them with your team, or on your membership site. Get a 14-day trial here. Thanks to our monthly supporters: Sofia Quintero Diogo Chris Willow Mason Hensley Borja Soler teami.io Ward from MemberSpace.com Eric Lima James Sowers (like Flowers) with UserInput.io Travis Fischer Matt Buckley, from NiceThings.io  Russell Brown Evandro Sasse Pradyumna Shembekar (PD), pradyumna.dev Noah Prail, eventOneHQ.com Robert Simplicio, Simplicio.com Colin Gray alitu.com Josh Smith, hellosift.com Ivan Curkovic Brian Rhea (Pronounced “Ray”) Shane Smith, dev.transistor.fm Austin Loveless Simon Bennett, snapshooter.io Michael Sitver, letterjoy.co Paul Jarvis and Jack Ellis, usefathom.com  Dan Buda danbuda.com Darby Frey Samori Augusto, thebicrowd.com Brad from Canada Sammy Schuckert Mike Walker Adam DuVander Dave Giunta (JOOnta) Kyle Fox GetRewardful.com Thanks to our monthly supporters Pascal from sharpen.page Rewardful.com Greg Park Mitchell Davis from RecruitKit.com.au Marcel Fahle, wearebold.af Ethan Gunderson Anton Zorin from ProdCamp.com Bill Condo (@mavrck) Ward from MemberSpace.com Russell Brown from Photivo.com Evandro Sasse Austin Loveless Michael Sitver Fathom Analytics Dan Buda Colin Gray Darby Frey 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 ★

Today, we are joined by a very special guest: Dave Giunta!  What does Daft Punk look like without their helmets?  HomeChef  How has demand for meal kits and food delivery increased since coronavirus? You can reply to this podcast here: Twitter: @buildyoursaas, @mijustin, @jonbuda, @dgiunta Leave a comment on PodHunt; it's like Reddit, but for podcasts. Leave a comment on Breaker, the podcast app for iPhone. Interact on WhatPods. Email us: [email protected] Thanks to our monthly supporters: Sofia Quintero Diogo Chris Willow Mason Hensley Borja Soler teami.io Ward from MemberSpace.com Eric Lima James Sowers (like Flowers) with UserInput.io Travis Fischer Matt Buckley, from NiceThings.io  Russell Brown Evandro Sasse Pradyumna Shembekar (PD), pradyumna.dev Noah Prail, eventOneHQ.com Robert Simplicio, Simplicio.com Colin Gray alitu.com Josh Smith, hellosift.com Ivan Curkovic Brian Rhea (Pronounced “Ray”) Shane Smith, dev.transistor.fm Austin Loveless Simon Bennett, snapshooter.io Michael Sitver, letterjoy.co Paul Jarvis and Jack Ellis, usefathom.com  Dan Buda danbuda.com Darby Frey Samori Augusto, thebicrowd.com Brad from Canada Sammy Schuckert Mike Walker Adam DuVander Dave Giunta (JOOnta) Kyle Fox GetRewardful.com Thanks to our monthly supporters Pascal from sharpen.page Rewardful.com Greg Park Mitchell Davis from RecruitKit.com.au Marcel Fahle, wearebold.af Ethan Gunderson Anton Zorin from ProdCamp.com Bill Condo (@mavrck) Ward from MemberSpace.com Russell Brown from Photivo.com Evandro Sasse Austin Loveless Michael Sitver Fathom Analytics Dan Buda Colin Gray Darby Frey 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, still making sense of life (and business) in a pandemic: Jon put on pants today. Justin is mad at Amazon. You can reply to this podcast here: Twitter: @buildyoursaas, @mijustin, @jonbuda Leave a comment on PodHunt; it's like Reddit, but for podcasts. Leave a comment on Breaker, the podcast app for iPhone. Interact on WhatPods. Email us: [email protected] Thanks to our monthly supporters: Sofia Quintero Diogo Chris Willow Mason Hensley Borja Soler teami.io Ward from MemberSpace.com Eric Lima James Sowers (like Flowers) with UserInput.io Travis Fischer Matt Buckley, from NiceThings.io  Russell Brown Evandro Sasse Pradyumna Shembekar (PD), pradyumna.dev Noah Prail, eventOneHQ.com Robert Simplicio, Simplicio.com Colin Gray alitu.com Josh Smith, hellosift.com Ivan Curkovic Brian Rhea (Pronounced “Ray”) Shane Smith, dev.transistor.fm Austin Loveless Simon Bennett, snapshooter.io Michael Sitver, letterjoy.co Paul Jarvis and Jack Ellis, usefathom.com  Dan Buda danbuda.com Darby Frey Samori Augusto, thebicrowd.com Brad from Canada Sammy Schuckert Mike Walker Adam DuVander Dave Giunta (JOOnta) Kyle Fox GetRewardful.com Thanks to our monthly supporters Pascal from sharpen.page Rewardful.com Greg Park Mitchell Davis from RecruitKit.com.au Marcel Fahle, wearebold.af Ethan Gunderson Anton Zorin from ProdCamp.com Bill Condo (@mavrck) Ward from MemberSpace.com Russell Brown from Photivo.com Evandro Sasse Austin Loveless Michael Sitver Fathom Analytics Dan Buda Colin Gray Darby Frey 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 are hunkered down, and reeling from COVID-19: This is moving fast, so this podcast might already be out-of-date. Difference between the restrictions in Chicago and Vernon. "It's hard to focus on Transistor and write any code." "There are all these people out there suffering, it's hard to know what to do." "You see these effects rippling through society, and then rippling towards you." 7:50 – "It'd be nice to donate to everyone, but you just can't." 8:40 – It's a multidimensional difficulty for businesses. 9:15 – The tools for small shops are still not very good (especially the UX). Justin's tweet about Square 10:14 – DNS is still the most difficult thing. 11:00 – "These people are scrambling to save their businesses." Ivy and Dan Meehan’s podcast, Local When did you start taking this seriously? On the Not Overthinking podcast What makes a business recession-proof? Henry Mintzberg: The Three Pillars for rebalancing society Interview with Henry Mintzberg Are we going to band together, and fight this together? MegaMaker Slack You can reply to this podcast here: Twitter: @buildyoursaas, @mijustin, @jonbuda Leave a comment on PodHunt; it's like Reddit, but for podcasts. Leave a comment on Breaker, the podcast app for iPhone. Interact on WhatPods. Email us: [email protected] Thanks to our monthly supporters: Sofia Quintero Diogo Chris Willow Mason Hensley Borja Soler teami.io Ward from MemberSpace.com Eric Lima James Sowers (like Flowers) with UserInput.io Travis Fischer Matt Buckley, from NiceThings.io  Russell Brown Evandro Sasse Pradyumna Shembekar (PD), pradyumna.dev Noah Prail, eventOneHQ.com Robert Simplicio, Simplicio.com Colin Gray alitu.com Josh Smith, hellosift.com Ivan Curkovic Brian Rhea (Pronounced “Ray”) Shane Smith, dev.transistor.fm Austin Loveless Simon Bennett, snapshooter.io Michael Sitver, letterjoy.co Paul Jarvis and Jack Ellis, usefathom.com  Dan Buda danbuda.com Darby Frey Samori Augusto, thebicrowd.com Brad from Canada Sammy Schuckert Mike Walker Adam DuVander Dave Giunta (JOOnta) Kyle Fox GetRewardful.com Thanks to our monthly supporters Pascal from sharpen.page Rewardful.com Greg Park Mitchell Davis from RecruitKit.com.au Marcel Fahle, wearebold.af Ethan Gunderson Anton Zorin from ProdCamp.com Bill Condo (@mavrck) Ward from MemberSpace.com Russell Brown from Photivo.com Evandro Sasse Austin Loveless Michael Sitver Fathom Analytics Dan Buda Colin Gray Darby Frey 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 is joined by Marie Poulin, co-founder of Oki Doki. They discuss:Chatting with Marie Poulin, Oki Doki 3:40 – "I used to be in the 'Ra Ra! Everyone should build a web app' crowd." 4:18 – "Now there's this feeling that maybe everyone shouldn't start a SaaS?" 9:30 – When you're starting a business, there are so many dynamics you need to get right. 13:40 – Why so many people fail to go from zero to one in business. 16:20 – Why are you starting a business in the first place? What's driving you? 23:41 – There's a company called Tighten that gives their employees mental-health days. 26:00 – What is the most efficient way for you to improve your life? 27:00 – Sometimes folks try to make a part-time business into a full-time business. 33:00 – Is it possible for a business to be lucrative, easy, and fun? 42:00 – Having money does solve a lot of life's problems. Marie's super-secret Notion course You can reply to this podcast here: Twitter: @buildyoursaas, @mijustin, @mariepoulin Email us: [email protected] Thanks to our monthly supporters Pascal from sharpen.page Rewardful.com Greg Park Mitchell Davis from RecruitKit.com.au Marcel Fahle, wearebold.af Ethan Gunderson Anton Zorin from ProdCamp.com Bill Condo (@mavrck) Ward from MemberSpace.com Russell Brown from Photivo.com Evandro Sasse Austin Loveless Michael Sitver Fathom Analytics Dan Buda Colin Gray Darby Frey 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 celebrate 100 episodes: Jon was on the Cody Story podcast awhile back. Justin, on the other hand, loves writing testimonials: Jack McDade's new course Tailwind UI Fathom Analytics "We are in our mid-life crisis of SaaS building. I think, for me, the problem is not quite knowing what's next." Is this the time we hire a business coach?  Where does your personal motivation for work come from? What difference are we trying to make in the world? Derek Sivers: "You've got to take off the old clothes in order to put on the new clothes." Organizational cadence: what team retreats do we do each year? Inertia: "things don't move unless you apply an external force to them." "Brian Rhea seems thoughtful about this kind of stuff." Jon has been using AlpineJS by Caleb Porzio – it's really nice. Vampire movie recommendation: Let the Right One In Justin is contacting our winners from the contest. (We used ContestKit.com for this) 410 registrations 64 people were already on our MailChimp list. 55 of these people have been a customer at some point (trial + paid) Printing and sending t-shirts via Printful. You can reply to this podcast here: Twitter: @buildyoursaas, @mijustin, @jonbuda Leave a comment on PodHunt; it's like Reddit, but for podcasts. Leave a comment on Breaker, the podcast app for iPhone. Interact on WhatPods. Email us: [email protected] Thanks to our monthly supporters: Diogo Chris Willow Mason Hensley Borja Soler teami.io Ward from MemberSpace.com Eric Lima James Sowers (like Flowers) with UserInput.io Travis Fischer Matt Buckley, from NiceThings.io  Russell Brown Evandro Sasse Pradyumna Shembekar (PD), pradyumna.dev Noah Prail, eventOneHQ.com Robert Simplicio, Simplicio.com Colin Gray alitu.com Josh Smith, hellosift.com Ivan Curkovic Brian Rhea (Pronounced “Ray”) Shane Smith, dev.transistor.fm Austin Loveless Simon Bennett, snapshooter.io Michael Sitver, letterjoy.co Paul Jarvis and Jack Ellis, usefathom.com  Dan Buda danbuda.com Darby Frey Samori Augusto, thebicrowd.com Brad from Canada Sammy Schuckert Mike Walker Adam DuVander Dave Giunta (JOOnta) Kyle Fox GetRewardful.com Thanks to our monthly supporters Pascal from sharpen.page Rewardful.com Greg Park Mitchell Davis from RecruitKit.com.au Marcel Fahle, wearebold.af Ethan Gunderson Anton Zorin from ProdCamp.com Bill Condo (@mavrck) Ward from MemberSpace.com Russell Brown from Photivo.com Evandro Sasse Austin Loveless Michael Sitver Fathom Analytics Dan Buda Colin Gray Darby Frey 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 is joined by Michele Hansen (co-founder of Geocodio). We explore a bunch of questions: What it's like to bootstrap with your spouse 6:30 – where Michele and Mathias found the idea for their company 7:00 – when you have kids you need diapers at 1am Why people start companies 7:55 – how getting pregnant motivated them to build a product 10:15 – Matthias initially built a really basic geocoder for their purposes 11:30 – a lot of bootstrappers get motivated to start a business after they have their first kid Tyler Tringas: "Building, Owning (& possibly Selling) a profitable remote SaaS business is the new American Dream." 13:20 – "we were so surprised that people wanted to pay us." You can reply to this podcast here: Twitter: @buildyoursaas, @mijustin, @mjwhansen Leave a comment on PodHunt; it's like Reddit, but for podcasts. Leave a comment on Breaker, the podcast app for iPhone. Interact on WhatPods. Email us: [email protected] Thanks to our monthly supporters: Chris Willow Mason Hensley Borja Soler teami.io Ward from MemberSpace.com Eric Lima James Sowers (like Flowers) with UserInput.io Travis Fischer Matt Buckley, from NiceThings.io  Russell Brown Evandro Sasse Pradyumna Shembekar (PD), pradyumna.dev Noah Prail, eventOneHQ.com Robert Simplicio, Simplicio.com Colin Gray alitu.com Josh Smith, hellosift.com Ivan Curkovic Brian Rhea (Pronounced “Ray”) Shane Smith, dev.transistor.fm Austin Loveless Simon Bennett, snapshooter.io Michael Sitver, letterjoy.co Paul Jarvis and Jack Ellis, usefathom.com  Dan Buda danbuda.com Darby Frey Samori Augusto, thebicrowd.com Brad from Canada Sammy Schuckert Mike Walker Adam DuVander Dave Giunta (JOOnta) Kyle Fox GetRewardful.com Thanks to our monthly supporters Pascal from sharpen.page Rewardful.com Greg Park Mitchell Davis from RecruitKit.com.au Marcel Fahle, wearebold.af Ethan Gunderson Anton Zorin from ProdCamp.com Bill Condo (@mavrck) Ward from MemberSpace.com Russell Brown from Photivo.com Evandro Sasse Austin Loveless Michael Sitver Fathom Analytics Dan Buda Colin Gray Darby Frey 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 is joined by Ward Sandler from MemberSpace (launched in 2015). We explore a bunch of questions: How do you find a cofounder? Ward explains to Justin (a Canadian) what a fraternity is. What it's like doing enterprise sales. How two sales guys ended up learning design and programming. "Everybody needs to build a website for Uncle Larry" Justin and Ward go through a sample sales phone call. How they found the idea for MemberSpace through their consulting company. How Ward knew there was a lot of interest in the product. The unconventional reason Ward and Ryan took money from Ernest. 47:25 – what to do about that feeling of dissatisfaction and listlessness.  48:45 – "You have to ask yourself: why are you constantly running? What are you trying to achieve?" 49:50 – "Don't succumb to the ennui." You can reply to this podcast here: Twitter: @buildyoursaas, @mijustin, @jonbuda Leave a comment on PodHunt; it's like Reddit, but for podcasts. Leave a comment on Breaker, the podcast app for iPhone. Interact on WhatPods. Email us: [email protected] Thanks to our monthly supporters: Chris Willow Mason Hensley Borja Soler teami.io Ward from MemberSpace.com Eric Lima James Sowers (like Flowers) with UserInput.io Travis Fischer Matt Buckley, from NiceThings.io  Russell Brown Evandro Sasse Pradyumna Shembekar (PD), pradyumna.dev Noah Prail, eventOneHQ.com Robert Simplicio, Simplicio.com Colin Gray alitu.com Josh Smith, hellosift.com Ivan Curkovic Brian Rhea (Pronounced “Ray”) Shane Smith, dev.transistor.fm Austin Loveless Simon Bennett, snapshooter.io Michael Sitver, letterjoy.co Paul Jarvis and Jack Ellis, usefathom.com  Dan Buda danbuda.com Darby Frey Samori Augusto, thebicrowd.com Dave Young, magnusrush.com/ Brad from Canada Sammy Schuckert Mike Walker Adam DuVander Dave Giunta (JOOnta) Kyle Fox GetRewardful.com Thanks to our monthly supporters Pascal from sharpen.page Rewardful.com Greg Park Mitchell Davis from RecruitKit.com.au Marcel Fahle, wearebold.af Ethan Gunderson Anton Zorin from ProdCamp.com Bill Condo (@mavrck) Ward from MemberSpace.com Russell Brown from Photivo.com Evandro Sasse Austin Loveless Michael Sitver Fathom Analytics Dan Buda Colin Gray Darby Frey 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 discuss: Justin's office is under construction 🛠️. How to talk about things that are hard. A review exercise from the book: The Great CEO Within (as recommended by Ben on Art of Product). It gives each founder the ability to say: "This bugs me." We've hired Helen (NamesAce) as a part-time contractor. Switching out our UI framework: Jon is rebuilding the Transistor app with Tailwind. How do you move to V2 of your app? Should you rebuild? Joel on Software: Things you should never do Interview with Mike from Freshbooks on Founders Talk. "It's possible that you build something new that's worse." Justin built a public changelog: transistor.fm/changelog A contest announcement at 23:20 Jon needs a hat education: this is a 5-panel cap. Good option for startup swag: Printful.com. Print-on-demand fades differently than screenprinting. Interview with Ryan Holiday (on Noah Kagan's podcast) Funny Panic podcast episode You can reply to this podcast here: Twitter: @buildyoursaas, @mijustin, @jonbuda Leave a comment on PodHunt; it's like Reddit, but for podcasts. Leave a comment on Breaker, the podcast app for iPhone. Interact on WhatPods. Email us: [email protected] Thanks to our monthly supporters: Mason Hensley Borja Soler teami.io Ward from MemberSpace.com Eric Lima James Sowers (like Flowers) with UserInput.io Travis Fischer Matt Buckley, from NiceThings.io  Russell Brown Evandro Sasse Pradyumna Shembekar (PD), pradyumna.dev Noah Prail, eventOneHQ.com Robert Simplicio, Simplicio.com Colin Gray alitu.com Josh Smith, hellosift.com Ivan Curkovic Brian Rhea (Pronounced “Ray”) Shane Smith, dev.transistor.fm Austin Loveless Simon Bennett, snapshooter.io Michael Sitver, letterjoy.co Paul Jarvis and Jack Ellis, usefathom.com  Dan Buda danbuda.com Darby Frey Samori Augusto, thebicrowd.com Dave Young, magnusrush.com/ Brad from Canada Sammy Schuckert Mike Walker Adam DuVander Dave Giunta (JOOnta) Kyle Fox GetRewardful.com Thanks to our monthly supporters Pascal from sharpen.page Rewardful.com Greg Park Mitchell Davis from RecruitKit.com.au Marcel Fahle, wearebold.af Ethan Gunderson Anton Zorin from ProdCamp.com Bill Condo (@mavrck) Ward from MemberSpace.com Russell Brown from Photivo.com Evandro Sasse Austin Loveless Michael Sitver Fathom Analytics Dan Buda Colin Gray Darby Frey 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 discuss: What makes a good podcast for product people? New American Dream: building, owning, selling a SaaS (Tyler Tringas) What do you worry about when you own your own software company? How would we handle an economic downturn? Why do software founders not sleep well at night? You can reply to this podcast here: Twitter: @buildyoursaas, @mijustin, @jonbuda Leave a comment on PodHunt; it's like Reddit, but for podcasts. Leave a comment on Breaker, the podcast app for iPhone. Interact on WhatPods. Email us: [email protected] Thanks to our monthly supporters: Mason Hensley Borja Soler teami.io Ward from MemberSpace.com Eric Lima James Sowers (like Flowers) with UserInput.io Travis Fischer Matt Buckley, from NiceThings.io  Russell Brown Evandro Sasse Pradyumna Shembekar (PD), pradyumna.dev Noah Prail, eventOneHQ.com Robert Simplicio, Simplicio.com Colin Gray alitu.com Josh Smith, hellosift.com Ivan Curkovic Brian Rhea (Pronounced “Ray”) Shane Smith, dev.transistor.fm Austin Loveless Simon Bennett, snapshooter.io Michael Sitver, letterjoy.co Paul Jarvis and Jack Ellis, usefathom.com  Dan Buda danbuda.com Darby Frey Samori Augusto, thebicrowd.com Dave Young, magnusrush.com/ Brad from Canada Sammy Schuckert Mike Walker Adam DuVander Dave Giunta (JOOnta) Kyle Fox GetRewardful.com Thanks to our monthly supporters Pascal from sharpen.page Rewardful.com Greg Park Mitchell Davis from RecruitKit.com.au Marcel Fahle, wearebold.af Ethan Gunderson Anton Zorin from ProdCamp.com Bill Condo (@mavrck) Ward from MemberSpace.com Russell Brown from Photivo.com Evandro Sasse Austin Loveless Michael Sitver Fathom Analytics Dan Buda Colin Gray Darby Frey 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 discuss: Repeating calendar item: "Jan 5th, GTFO." How are you doing with the winter blue? The Transistor Volkswagen bus, surfboards, and snowboards. Monolithic vs mico-services https://twitter.com/dhh/status/1222966700913479681 https://changelog.com/posts/monoliths-are-the-future Pushing ahead with our “switch from Semantic UI to Tailwind CSS" cycle. "Retargeting is like squeezing the last drop of juice out of the lemon. Is it worth it?" "We were adding more and more things to the business hoping we'd be able to get it to work." justinjackson.ca/margin Jon is running to Austin, Texas using Wolfram's computer harness. You can reply to this podcast here: Twitter: @buildyoursaas, @mijustin, @jonbuda Leave a comment on PodHunt; it's like Reddit, but for podcasts. Leave a comment on Breaker, the podcast app for iPhone. Interact on WhatPods. Email us: [email protected] Thanks to our monthly supporters: Mason Hensley Borja Soler teami.io Ward from MemberSpace.com Eric Lima James Sowers (like Flowers) with UserInput.io Travis Fischer Matt Buckley, from NiceThings.io  Russell Brown Evandro Sasse Pradyumna Shembekar (PD), pradyumna.dev Noah Prail, eventOneHQ.com Robert Simplicio, Simplicio.com Colin Gray alitu.com Josh Smith, hellosift.com Ivan Curkovic Brian Rhea (Pronounced “Ray”) Shane Smith, dev.transistor.fm Austin Loveless Simon Bennett, saasreality.com Michael Sitver, letterjoy.co Paul Jarvis and Jack Ellis, usefathom.com  Dan Buda danbuda.com Darby Frey Samori Augusto, thebicrowd.com Dave Young, magnusrush.com/ Brad from Canada Sammy Schuckert Mike Walker Adam DuVander Dave Giunta (JOOnta) Kyle Fox GetRewardful.com Thanks to our monthly supporters Pascal from sharpen.page Rewardful.com Greg Park Mitchell Davis from RecruitKit.com.au Marcel Fahle, wearebold.af Ethan Gunderson Anton Zorin from ProdCamp.com Bill Condo (@mavrck) Ward from MemberSpace.com Russell Brown from Photivo.com Evandro Sasse Austin Loveless Michael Sitver Fathom Analytics Dan Buda Colin Gray Darby Frey 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 is back! This week, we discuss: This book, The Timeless Way of Building, that Justin is reading. When you work for yourself, there can be sense of not being grounded. What do you do? What's better than meditating? Why co-founders should have a weekly phone call. How the environment we're in influences our actions. Jon's been rebuilding our dashboard using Tailwind CSS + Alpine JS. Tutorial: Rails and Tailwind People complaining about Webpack "What's that Rails gem that everyone buys?" "Sidekiq" People have gotten so used to free software! Justin's advice for Statamic. You can reply to this podcast here: Twitter: @buildyoursaas, @mijustin, @jonbuda Leave a comment on PodHunt; it's like Reddit, but for podcasts. Leave a comment on Breaker, the podcast app for iPhone. Interact on WhatPods. Email us: [email protected] Thanks to our monthly supporters: Mason Hensley Borja Soler teami.io Ward from MemberSpace.com Eric Lima James Sowers (like Flowers) with UserInput.io Travis Fischer Matt Buckley, from NiceThings.io  Russell Brown Evandro Sasse Pradyumna Shembekar (PD), pradyumna.dev Noah Prail, eventOneHQ.com Robert Simplicio, Simplicio.com Colin Gray alitu.com Josh Smith, hellosift.com Ivan Curkovic Brian Rhea (Pronounced “Ray”) Shane Smith, dev.transistor.fm Austin Loveless Simon Bennett, saasreality.com Michael Sitver, letterjoy.co Paul Jarvis and Jack Ellis, usefathom.com  Dan Buda danbuda.com Darby Frey Samori Augusto, thebicrowd.com Dave Young, magnusrush.com/ Brad from Canada Sammy Schuckert Mike Walker Adam DuVander Dave Giunta (JOOnta) Kyle Fox GetRewardful.com Thanks to our monthly supporters Pascal from sharpen.page Rewardful.com Greg Park Mitchell Davis from RecruitKit.com.au Marcel Fahle, wearebold.af Ethan Gunderson Anton Zorin from ProdCamp.com Bill Condo (@mavrck) Ward from MemberSpace.com Russell Brown from Photivo.com Evandro Sasse Austin Loveless Michael Sitver Fathom Analytics Dan Buda Colin Gray Darby Frey 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 interviewed by Nathan Baschez to talk about business strategy:"Every strategy is really just a theory: “We bet if we do x, then y will happen. In business, the 'y' that people are usually aiming for is some sort of sustainable competitive advantage." – Nathan BaschezThis is a long episode, but it's a good one! What made Jon and Justin feel like they had an advantage in podcasting? Original hypothesis: "Maybe we could be to podcasting, what WPengine was to WordPress hosting. Or what Wistia was to video hosting." How did that work out? Nathan's take on the podcast industry from his experience working for Gimlet. When should you focus on a niche? Links: Nathan's intro post for Divinations: What is business strategy? Nathan on Twitter Subscribe to Divinations Rodney Mullen: you only win once You can reply to this podcast here: Leave a comment on PodHunt; it's like Reddit, but for podcasts. Leave a comment on Breaker, the podcast app for iPhone. Interact on WhatPods. Otherwise, get us on Twitter: @transistorfm or email us: [email protected] Thanks to our monthly supporters: Ward from MemberSpace.com Eric Lima James Sowers (like Flowers) with UserInput.io Travis Fischer Matt Buckley, from NiceThings.io  Russell Brown Evandro Sasse Pradyumna Shembekar (PD), pradyumna.dev Noah Prail, eventOneHQ.com Robert Simplicio, Simplicio.com Colin Gray alitu.com Josh Smith, hellosift.com Ivan Curkovic Brian Rhea (Pronounced “Ray”) Shane Smith, dev.transistor.fm Austin Loveless Simon Bennett, saasreality.com Michael Sitver, letterjoy.co Paul Jarvis and Jack Ellis, usefathom.com  Dan Buda danbuda.com Darby Frey Samori Augusto, thebicrowd.com Dave Young, magnusrush.com Brad from Canada Sammy Schuckert Mike Walker Adam DuVander Dave Giunta (JOOnta) We are sponsored by:Kyle Fox GetRewardful.com Thanks to our monthly supporters Pascal from sharpen.page Rewardful.com Greg Park Mitchell Davis from RecruitKit.com.au Marcel Fahle, wearebold.af Ethan Gunderson Anton Zorin from ProdCamp.com Bill Condo (@mavrck) Ward from MemberSpace.com Russell Brown from Photivo.com Evandro Sasse Austin Loveless Michael Sitver Fathom Analytics Dan Buda Colin Gray Darby Frey 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 podcast producer Chris Enns to talk about: How do you get Alexis Ohanian (cofounder of Reddit, married to Serena Williams) as a client? Getting out of the wrong business, into something better. Why you should get out of your comfort zone (and your town!) "We're all running the same race; how come that person is so far ahead of me?" Links: Hire Chris to edit your podcast: www.lemonproductions.ca Alexis Ohanian's podcast: businessdad.initialized.com When to move on: justinjackson.ca/moving-on Scott Young: Success is stamina Good businesses have margin: justinjackson.ca/margin www.instagram.com/lemonproductionsca/ www.instagram.com/russroe/ Latitude Podcast: www.createlatitude.com/podcast Ladybug podcast: https://www.ladybug.dev/You can reply to this podcast here: Leave a comment on PodHunt; it's like Reddit, but for podcasts. Leave a comment on Breaker, the podcast app for iPhone. Interact on WhatPods. Otherwise, get us on Twitter: @transistorfm or email us: [email protected] Thanks to our monthly supporters: Ward from MemberSpace.com Eric Lima James Sowers (like Flowers) with UserInput.io Travis Fischer Matt Buckley, from NiceThings.io  Russell Brown Evandro Sasse Pradyumna Shembekar (PD), pradyumna.dev Noah Prail, eventOneHQ.com Robert Simplicio, Simplicio.com Colin Gray alitu.com Josh Smith, hellosift.com Ivan Curkovic Brian Rhea (Pronounced “Ray”) Shane Smith, dev.transistor.fm Austin Loveless Simon Bennett, saasreality.com Michael Sitver, letterjoy.co Paul Jarvis and Jack Ellis, usefathom.com  Dan Buda danbuda.com Darby Frey Samori Augusto, thebicrowd.com Dave Young, magnusrush.com/ Brad from Canada Sammy Schuckert Mike Walker Adam DuVander Dave Giunta (JOOnta) Kyle Fox GetRewardful.com Thanks to our monthly supporters Pascal from sharpen.page Rewardful.com Greg Park Mitchell Davis from RecruitKit.com.au Marcel Fahle, wearebold.af Ethan Gunderson Anton Zorin from ProdCamp.com Bill Condo (@mavrck) Ward from MemberSpace.com Russell Brown from Photivo.com Evandro Sasse Austin Loveless Michael Sitver Fathom Analytics Dan Buda Colin Gray Darby Frey 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 does a solo New Year's Eve episode where he shares: Then (Jan 1, 2019) vs now (Jan 1, 2020) Justin's tweet: "Going all-in on Transistor in 2019!" Advice for new founders: "What products get bought every day?" Every day, millions of people wake up and buy a cup of coffee. Every day, there are people who wake up and sign up for web hosting. Will there be people lining up tomorrow morning to buy your product? And the next day? What's still going to be true tomorrow, six months from now, three years from now? ★ Thanks to our sponsors: Postmark. Postmark delivers your transactional email to customers on time, every time. You'll love their lightning-fast email delivery and developer-friendly features. Get one month free when you use coupon code BUILDYOURSAAS. postmarkapp.com/loves/buildyoursaas Clubhouse. Guess who's back? Clubhouse is the first project management platform for software development that brings everyone together. It's designed for developers, but product folks, marketing, support folks love using it. Now it's free for teams up to 10 people. clubhouse.io/build. You can reply to this podcast here: Leave a comment on PodHunt; it's like Reddit, but for podcasts. Leave a comment on Breaker, the podcast app for iPhone. Interact on WhatPods. Otherwise, get us on Twitter: @transistorfm or email us: [email protected] Thanks to our monthly supporters: Eric Lima James Sowers with UserInput.io Travis Fischer Matt Buckley, from Nice Things Russell Brown Evandro Sasse Pradyumna Shembekar (PD) Noah Prail Robert Simplicio Colin Gray alitu.com Josh Smith Ivan Curkovic Brian Rhea (Pronounced “Ray”) Shane Smith Austin Loveless Simon Bennett  Michael Sitver Paul Jarvis and Jack Ellis Dan Buda danbuda.com Darby Frey Samori Augusto Dave Young Brad from Canada Sammy Schuckert Dan Ericson Mike Walker Adam DuVander Dave Giunta (JOOnta) Kyle Fox GetRewardful.com ProfitWell Postmark – use coupon code BUILDYOURSAAS to get a free month of sending Clubhouse GetRewardful.com Thanks to our monthly supporters Pascal from sharpen.page Rewardful.com Greg Park Mitchell Davis from RecruitKit.com.au Marcel Fahle, wearebold.af Ethan Gunderson Anton Zorin from ProdCamp.com Bill Condo (@mavrck) Ward from MemberSpace.com Russell Brown from Photivo.com Evandro Sasse Austin Loveless Michael Sitver Fathom Analytics Dan Buda Colin Gray Darby Frey 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 and Jon talk about: What's happened this year. "You shouldn't be worried about that, but you should be worried about THIS." The SaaS gold rush: “Building, Owning (& possibly Selling) a profitable remote SaaS business is the new American Dream.” – Tyler Tringas It’s harder to get the American Dream these days. “Productivity has increased by 80 per cent, but median compensation (that's wages plus benefits) has risen by just 11 per cent during that time. The middle-income jobs of the nation's postwar boom years have disproportionately vanished. Low-wage jobs have disproportionately burgeoned.” – Harold Meyerson, 40-year slump More companies will take a stand on privacy: they’ll stop using Google Analytics, Facebook Ads, etc... Privacy-focused companies like Fathom Analytics will become more popular. Profitable SaaS companies + wealth founders will turn their attention to climate change Less open startups. Simon Bennett tweet: "Unfortunately, I am stopping publishing SnapShooter numbers from now on." Small retreats > conferences ★ Thanks to our sponsors: Postmark. Postmark delivers your transactional email to customers on time, every time. You'll love their lightning-fast email delivery and developer-friendly features. Get one month free when you use coupon code BUILDYOURSAAS. postmarkapp.com/loves/buildyoursaas Clubhouse. Guess who's back? Clubhouse is the first project management platform for software development that brings everyone together. It's designed for developers, but product folks, marketing, support folks love using it. Now it's free for teams up to 10 people. clubhouse.io/build. Show notes: Tyler Tringas tweet The American Prospect: 40-year slump Art of Product Bootstrapped Web Bootstrapping SaaS Bootstrapping Digest Product Journey Bright & Early Sanitycheck.io Stripe: “Stripe’s commitment to decarbonize” Shopify: “We need to take action on carbon” You can reply to this podcast here: Leave a comment on PodHunt; it's like Reddit, but for podcasts. Leave a comment on Breaker, the podcast app for iPhone. Interact on WhatPods. Otherwise, get us on Twitter: @transistorfm or email us: [email protected] Thanks to our monthly supporters: Eric Lima James Sowers with UserInput.io Travis Fischer Matt Buckley, from Nice Things Russell Brown Evandro Sasse Pradyumna Shembekar (PD) Noah Prail Robert Simplicio Colin Gray alitu.com Josh Smith Ivan Curkovic Brian Rhea (Pronounced “Ray”) Shane Smith Austin Loveless Simon Bennett  Michael Sitver Paul Jarvis and Jack Ellis Dan Buda danbuda.com Darby Frey Samori Augusto Dave Young Brad from Canada Sammy Schuckert Dan Ericson Mike Walker Adam DuVander Dave Giunta (JOOnta) Kyle Fox GetRewardful.com ProfitWell Postmark – use coupon code BUILDYOURSAAS to get a free month of sending Clubhouse GetRewardful.com Thanks to our monthly supporters Pascal from sharpen.page Rewardful.com Greg Park Mitchell Davis from RecruitKit.com.au Marcel Fahle, wearebold.af Ethan Gunderson Anton Zorin from ProdCamp.com Bill Condo (@mavrck) Ward from MemberSpace.com Russell Brown from Photivo.com Evandro Sasse Austin Loveless Michael Sitver Fathom Analytics Dan Buda Colin Gray Darby Frey 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 interviewed by Noah and Ben from the Product Journey podcast: Should you build an audience first? Why finding the right market is the first filter you should use on your idea. Justin also shares some stuff he's changed his mind about this past year. ★ Thanks to our sponsors: Postmark. Postmark delivers your transactional email to customers on time, every time. You'll love their lightning-fast email delivery and developer-friendly features. Get one month free when you use coupon code BUILDYOURSAAS. postmarkapp.com/loves/buildyoursaas Clubhouse. Guess who's back? Clubhouse is the first project management platform for software development that brings everyone together. It's designed for developers, but product folks, marketing, support folks love using it. Now it's free for teams up to 10 people. clubhouse.io/build. Show notes: Product Journey Ep 14 Wired: This economist has a plan to fix capitalism. It's time we all listened Corey Gwin: demonstrated demand Tweet: dirt flavored tacos Nathan Barry: The ladders of wealth creation You can reply to this podcast here: Leave a comment on PodHunt; it's like Reddit, but for podcasts. Leave a comment on Breaker, the podcast app for iPhone. Interact on WhatPods. Otherwise, get us on Twitter: @transistorfm or email us: [email protected] Thanks to our monthly supporters: Eric Lima James Sowers with UserInput.io Travis Fischer Matt Buckley, from Nice Things Russell Brown Evandro Sasse Pradyumna Shembekar (PD) Noah Prail Robert Simplicio Colin Gray alitu.com Josh Smith Ivan Curkovic Brian Rhea (Pronounced “Ray”) Shane Smith Austin Loveless Simon Bennett  Michael Sitver Paul Jarvis and Jack Ellis Dan Buda danbuda.com Darby Frey Samori Augusto Dave Young Brad from Canada Sammy Schuckert Dan Ericson Mike Walker Adam DuVander Dave Giunta (JOOnta) Kyle Fox GetRewardful.com ProfitWell Postmark – use coupon code BUILDYOURSAAS to get a free month of sending Clubhouse GetRewardful.com Thanks to our monthly supporters Pascal from sharpen.page Rewardful.com Greg Park Mitchell Davis from RecruitKit.com.au Marcel Fahle, wearebold.af Ethan Gunderson Anton Zorin from ProdCamp.com Bill Condo (@mavrck) Ward from MemberSpace.com Russell Brown from Photivo.com Evandro Sasse Austin Loveless Michael Sitver Fathom Analytics Dan Buda Colin Gray Darby Frey 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: The new corporate condo in the french alps, Crazy to think about where we were last year when we recorded this episode. Spotify's growing market share What happened to our dynamic content feature? A big rant about Apple Podcasts ★ Thanks to our sponsors: Postmark. Postmark delivers your transactional email to customers on time, every time. You'll love their lightning-fast email delivery and developer-friendly features. Get one month free when you use coupon code BUILDYOURSAAS. postmarkapp.com/loves/buildyoursaas Clubhouse. Guess who's back? Clubhouse is the first project management platform for software development that brings everyone together. It's designed for developers, but product folks, marketing, support folks love using it. Now it's free for teams up to 10 people. clubhouse.io/build. Show notes:Article: 2019 podcast predictions You can reply to this podcast here: Leave a comment on PodHunt; it's like Reddit, but for podcasts. Leave a comment on Breaker, the podcast app for iPhone. Interact on WhatPods. Otherwise, get us on Twitter: @transistorfm or email us: [email protected] Thanks to our monthly supporters: Eric Lima James Sowers with UserInput.io Travis Fischer Matt Buckley, from Nice Things Russell Brown Evandro Sasse Pradyumna Shembekar (PD) Noah Prail David Colgan Robert Simplicio Colin Gray alitu.com Josh Smith Ivan Curkovic Brian Rhea (Pronounced “Ray”) Shane Smith Austin Loveless Simon Bennett  Michael Sitver Paul Jarvis and Jack Ellis Dan Buda danbuda.com Darby Frey Samori Augusto Dave Young Brad from Canada Sammy Schuckert Dan Ericson Mike Walker Adam DuVander Dave Giunta (JOOnta) Kyle Fox GetRewardful.com ProfitWell Postmark – use coupon code BUILDYOURSAAS to get a free month of sending Clubhouse GetRewardful.com Thanks to our monthly supporters Pascal from sharpen.page Rewardful.com Greg Park Mitchell Davis from RecruitKit.com.au Marcel Fahle, wearebold.af Ethan Gunderson Anton Zorin from ProdCamp.com Bill Condo (@mavrck) Ward from MemberSpace.com Russell Brown from Photivo.com Evandro Sasse Austin Loveless Michael Sitver Fathom Analytics Dan Buda Colin Gray Darby Frey 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: American Thanksgiving Is it better for a product to be simple? The benefits of having a "smaller menu." Why we started a private podcast for our advisors and trusted friends "My opinion is you need to grow fast and become THE platform for managing your podcast. Consider raising venture money." But, if we add investment money and a bunch of employees, and then our company is no longer simple. Tired before the holidays; a break will be good. What should we do with this show in 2020? Should we rebuild the customer dashboard using Tailwind? ★ Thanks to our sponsors: Postmark. Postmark delivers your transactional email to customers on time, every time. You'll love their lightning-fast email delivery and developer-friendly features. Get one month free when you use coupon code BUILDYOURSAAS. postmarkapp.com/loves/buildyoursaas Clubhouse. Guess who's back? Clubhouse is the first project management platform for software development that brings everyone together. It's designed for developers, but product folks, marketing, support folks love using it. Now it's free for teams up to 10 people. clubhouse.io/build. Show notes: Video: Thanksgiving LA traffic Podcast: Happiness Lab: Episode 8 Restaurant: Louis' Lunch (their menu only has 8 items) Transistor's private podcast feature Progressive Web Apps Tailwind CSS You can reply to this podcast here: Leave a comment on PodHunt; it's like Reddit, but for podcasts. Leave a comment on Breaker, the podcast app for iPhone. Interact on WhatPods. Otherwise, get us on Twitter: @transistorfm or email us: [email protected] Thanks to our monthly supporters: Eric Lima James Sowers with UserInput.io Travis Fischer Matt Buckley, from Nice Things Russell Brown Evandro Sasse Pradyumna Shembekar (PD) Noah Prail David Colgan Robert Simplicio Colin Gray alitu.com Josh Smith Ivan Curkovic Brian Rhea (Pronounced “Ray”) Shane Smith Austin Loveless Simon Bennett  Michael Sitver Paul Jarvis and Jack Ellis Dan Buda danbuda.com Darby Frey Samori Augusto Dave Young Brad from Canada Sammy Schuckert Dan Ericson Mike Walker Adam DuVander Dave Giunta (JOOnta) Kyle Fox GetRewardful.com ProfitWell Postmark – use coupon code BUILDYOURSAAS to get a free month of sending Clubhouse GetRewardful.com Thanks to our monthly supporters Pascal from sharpen.page Rewardful.com Greg Park Mitchell Davis from RecruitKit.com.au Marcel Fahle, wearebold.af Ethan Gunderson Anton Zorin from ProdCamp.com Bill Condo (@mavrck) Ward from MemberSpace.com Russell Brown from Photivo.com Evandro Sasse Austin Loveless Michael Sitver Fathom Analytics Dan Buda Colin Gray Darby Frey 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: New albums from DJ Shadow and Beck Why we aren't sharing our revenue metrics publicly anymore "Sometimes, you can worry more about your public image, more than actually focusing on the problem in a safe place." Why did Buffer stop sharing their revenue numbers? Three questions we ask: Who is this for? What is it for? How will we evaluate success? New podcast analytics features "The numbers on their own don't really mean anything." ★ Thanks to our sponsors: Postmark. Postmark delivers your transactional email to customers on time, every time. You'll love their lightning-fast email delivery and developer-friendly features. Get one month free when you use coupon code BUILDYOURSAAS. postmarkapp.com/loves/buildyoursaas Clubhouse. Guess who's back? Clubhouse is the first project management platform for software development that brings everyone together. It's designed for developers, but product folks, marketing, support folks love using it. Now it's free for teams up to 10 people. clubhouse.io/build. Show notes: New Beck album: Apple Music and Spotify New DJ Shadow album: Apple Music and Spotify Peter Suhm's tweet Open Startups on Baremetrics Why Buffer stopped sharing revenue metrics Listen Notes' podcast stats You can reply to this podcast here: Leave a comment on PodHunt; it's like Reddit, but for podcasts. Leave a comment on Breaker, the podcast app for iPhone. Interact on WhatPods. Otherwise, get us on Twitter: @transistorfm or email us: [email protected] Thanks to our monthly supporters: Eric Lima James Sowers with UserInput.io Travis Fischer Matt Buckley, from Nice Things Russell Brown Evandro Sasse Pradyumna Shembekar (PD) Noah Prail David Colgan Robert Simplicio Colin Gray alitu.com Josh Smith Ivan Curkovic Brian Rhea (Pronounced “Ray”) Shane Smith Austin Loveless Simon Bennett  Michael Sitver Paul Jarvis and Jack Ellis Dan Buda danbuda.com Darby Frey Samori Augusto Dave Young Brad from Canada Sammy Schuckert Dan Ericson Mike Walker Adam DuVander Dave Giunta (JOOnta) Kyle Fox GetRewardful.com ProfitWell Postmark – use coupon code BUILDYOURSAAS to get a free month of sending Clubhouse GetRewardful.com Thanks to our monthly supporters Pascal from sharpen.page Rewardful.com Greg Park Mitchell Davis from RecruitKit.com.au Marcel Fahle, wearebold.af Ethan Gunderson Anton Zorin from ProdCamp.com Bill Condo (@mavrck) Ward from MemberSpace.com Russell Brown from Photivo.com Evandro Sasse Austin Loveless Michael Sitver Fathom Analytics Dan Buda Colin Gray Darby Frey 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: A stressful Rails 6 upgrade (and how it broke the app). We often use data to make decisions, but we don't often examine the underlying data we're using to make decisions. How do we know if our marketing efforts are effective? "What's happened to your data since last quarter?" "If a billion people are listening, but not reacting, does it matter?" ★ Thanks to our sponsors: Postmark. Postmark delivers your transactional email to customers on time, every time. You'll love their lightning-fast email delivery and developer-friendly features. Get one month free when you use coupon code BUILDYOURSAAS. postmarkapp.com/loves/buildyoursaas Clubhouse. Guess who's back? Clubhouse is the first project management platform for software development that brings everyone together. It's designed for developers, but product folks, marketing, support folks love using it. Now it's free for teams up to 10 people. clubhouse.io/build. Show notes: Justin's tweetstorm about using data. Libsyn's quarterly financial results. Facebook inflated video views Daniel Ek (Spotify) interview You can reply to this podcast here: Leave a comment on PodHunt; it's like Reddit, but for podcasts. Leave a comment on Breaker, the podcast app for iPhone. Interact on WhatPods. Otherwise, get us on Twitter: @transistorfm or email us: [email protected] Thanks to our monthly supporters: Eric Lima James Sowers with UserInput.io Travis Fischer Matt Buckley, from Nice Things Russell Brown Evandro Sasse Pradyumna Shembekar (PD) Noah Prail David Colgan Robert Simplicio Colin Gray alitu.com Josh Smith Ivan Curkovic Brian Rhea (Pronounced “Ray”) Shane Smith Austin Loveless Simon Bennett  Michael Sitver Paul Jarvis and Jack Ellis Dan Buda danbuda.com Darby Frey Samori Augusto Dave Young Brad from Canada Sammy Schuckert Dan Ericson Mike Walker Adam DuVander Dave Giunta (JOOnta) Kyle Fox GetRewardful.com ProfitWell Postmark – use coupon code BUILDYOURSAAS to get a free month of sending Clubhouse GetRewardful.com Thanks to our monthly supporters Pascal from sharpen.page Rewardful.com Greg Park Mitchell Davis from RecruitKit.com.au Marcel Fahle, wearebold.af Ethan Gunderson Anton Zorin from ProdCamp.com Bill Condo (@mavrck) Ward from MemberSpace.com Russell Brown from Photivo.com Evandro Sasse Austin Loveless Michael Sitver Fathom Analytics Dan Buda Colin Gray Darby Frey 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: The launch of the new marketing site: transistor.fm Built using Statamic CMS and with Tailwind CSS Got tons of help from Jack McDade, Adam Wathan, Ben Furfie "Tailwind is really nice. I have to hand it to Adam." Why working in tandem is better than working independently. DAYLIGHT SAVINGS TIME. NO. What's the next thing we're going to focus on? ★ Thanks to our sponsors: New: Postmark. Postmark delivers your transactional email to customers on time, every time. You'll love their lightning-fast email delivery and developer-friendly features. Get one month free when you use coupon code BUILDYOURSAAS. postmarkapp.com/loves/buildyoursaas Clubhouse. Guess who's back? Clubhouse is the first project management platform for software development that brings everyone together. It's designed for developers, but product folks, marketing, support folks love using it. Now it's free for teams up to 10 people. clubhouse.io/build. Show notes: New website: transistor.fm Replies on Twitter Replies on Indie Hackers Replies on LinkedIn Statamic CMS Tailwind CSS Derrick Reimer tweet Uncle Bob tweet What would happen if BC, Washington, California stop using Daylight Savings? The Verge: Why Daylight Savings time is hot garbage You can reply to this podcast here: Leave a comment on PodHunt; it's like Reddit, but for podcasts. Leave a comment on Breaker, the podcast app for iPhone. Interact on WhatPods. Otherwise, get us on Twitter: @transistorfm or email us: [email protected] Thanks to our monthly supporters: Eric Lima James Sowers with UserInput.io Travis Fischer Matt Buckley, from Nice Things Russell Brown Evandro Sasse Pradyumna Shembekar (PD) Noah Prail David Colgan Robert Simplicio Colin Gray alitu.com Josh Smith Ivan Curkovic Brian Rhea (Pronounced “Ray”) Shane Smith Austin Loveless Simon Bennett  Michael Sitver Paul Jarvis and Jack Ellis Dan Buda danbuda.com Darby Frey Samori Augusto Dave Young Brad from Canada Sammy Schuckert Dan Ericson Mike Walker Adam DuVander Dave Giunta (JOOnta) Kyle Fox GetRewardful.com ProfitWell Postmark – use coupon code BUILDYOURSAAS to get a free month of sending Clubhouse GetRewardful.com Thanks to our monthly supporters Pascal from sharpen.page Rewardful.com Greg Park Mitchell Davis from RecruitKit.com.au Marcel Fahle, wearebold.af Ethan Gunderson Anton Zorin from ProdCamp.com Bill Condo (@mavrck) Ward from MemberSpace.com Russell Brown from Photivo.com Evandro Sasse Austin Loveless Michael Sitver Fathom Analytics Dan Buda Colin Gray Darby Frey 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 ★

What's new with the Transistor team? Justin has a Halloween candy hangover. Desktops vs laptops for dev work. Transitioning from your personal equipment and software to stuff the business pays for. Where are we in our Shape-Up cycles? Our new marketing website is suffering because it's "un-shaped work." The benefits of working with a partner. "I'm realizing how single-threaded human beings are." What does Jon think of Tailwind CSS? At what stage of a customer's business lifecycle should you get them as a customer? How many customers did we get because Basecamp switched to us? "Make software that will be worth using for ten years." New features - how should we communicate those to customers? ★ Thanks to our sponsors: New: Postmark. Postmark delivers your transactional email to customers on time, every time. You'll love their lightning-fast email delivery and developer-friendly features. Check out their new podcast: postmarkapp.com/podcast Clubhouse. Guess who's back? Clubhouse is the first project management platform for software development that brings everyone together. It's designed for developers, but product folks, marketing, support folks love using it. Now it's free for teams up to 10 people. clubhouse.io/build. Show notes: Zoom H4N Leaked images from the 16" Macbook Pro New Transistor marketing site (unreleased) Current Transistor marketing site Why you need a co-founder Multiple computing threads Bootstrapped Web: product brain vs marketing brain Tailwind CSS Basecamp switched to us (episode) Rework podcast: some marketing things they're going to try Feature announcement newsletter How WebSub for podcasts works You can reply to this podcast here: Leave a comment on PodHunt; it's like Reddit, but for podcasts. Leave a comment on Breaker, the podcast app for iPhone. Interact on WhatPods. Otherwise, get us on Twitter: @transistorfm or email us: [email protected] Thanks to our monthly supporters: New: Eric Lima James Sowers with UserInput.io Travis Fischer Matt Buckley, from Nice Things Russell Brown Evandro Sasse Pradyumna Shembekar (PD) Noah Prail David Colgan Robert Simplicio Colin Gray alitu.com Josh Smith Ivan Curkovic Brian Rhea (Pronounced “Ray”) Shane Smith Austin Loveless Simon Bennett  Michael Sitver Paul Jarvis and Jack Ellis Dan Buda danbuda.com Darby Frey Samori Augusto Dave Young Brad from Canada Sammy Schuckert Dan Ericson Mike Walker Adam DuVander Dave Giunta (JOOnta) Kyle Fox GetRewardful.com ProfitWell Postmark – use coupon code BUILDYOURSAAS to get a free month of sending Clubhouse GetRewardful.com Thanks to our monthly supporters Pascal from sharpen.page Rewardful.com Greg Park Mitchell Davis from RecruitKit.com.au Marcel Fahle, wearebold.af Ethan Gunderson Anton Zorin from ProdCamp.com Bill Condo (@mavrck) Ward from MemberSpace.com Russell Brown from Photivo.com Evandro Sasse Austin Loveless Michael Sitver Fathom Analytics Dan Buda Colin Gray Darby Frey 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 is a heavy one! Let us know at @buildyoursaas if you listen to the whole thing. On a micro-scale many folks believe "how much MRR is enough?" is a silly question, because, in our current global economic model, your business has to keep growing (or it will eventually die). (CHURN will kill you) But on a macro-scale, our economic system relies on perpetually increasing: resource extraction population growth energy usage (Not sustainable) As founders, it's hard enough to wrestle with the "normal" issues, much less wrestle with existential questions. But this is the kind of stuff that keeps me up at night... "To succeed is to destroy ourselves. To fail is to destroy ourselves. That is the bind we have created." – George Monbiot (Guardian article) A remember Paul Hawken having a brighter take when I read "The Ecology of Commerce" years ago while I was taking my undergrad. I should read it again. “Social theorists often take just one of these moments and view it as the “silver bullet” that causes all change. We have technological determinists (Tom Friedman), environmental determinists (Jared Diamond), daily life determinists (Paul Hawken), labor process determinists (the autonomistas), class struggle determinists (most Marxist political parties), institutionalists, and so on and so forth.” Budgeting over time: Early: we spent as little as we could When we went full-time (April and July): still be lean, but investing in more tools Now: realizing (maybe) its better for us to invest in tools, infrastructure, equipment? Also: better to pay ourselves more? Profit first: We started with: 50% salaries, 15% saved for taxes, 5% profit, the rest expenses Maybe we need to move to: 60% - 70% salaries? ★ Thanks to our sponsors: ActiveCampaign. Get the world's most advanced marketing & sales automation platform. Use the code activecampaign.com/buildyoursaas and get two months free + 2 free One-on-Ones! Honeybadger. A web developer's secret weapon! Modern error management that gives you more than an email and a backtrace. They also have an amazing podcast: FounderQuest. Show notes: Tweet thread Guardian article Why is economic growth important? Interview with Patagonia’s founder Rich Roll interview with Pat Brown Paul Hawken's book: the Ecology of Commerce You can reply to this podcast here: Leave a comment on PodHunt; it's like Reddit, but for podcasts. Leave a comment on Breaker, the podcast app for iPhone. Interact on WhatPods. Otherwise, get us on Twitter: @transistorfm or email us: [email protected] Thanks to our monthly supporters: New: Eric Lima James Sowers with UserInput.io Travis Fischer Matt Buckley, from Nice Things Russell Brown Evandro Sasse Pradyumna Shembekar (PD) Noah Prail David Colgan Robert Simplicio Colin Gray alitu.com Josh Smith Ivan Curkovic Brian Rhea (Pronounced “Ray”) Shane Smith Austin Loveless Simon Bennett  Corey Haines Michael Sitver Paul Jarvis and Jack Ellis Dan Buda danbuda.com Darby Frey Samori Augusto Dave Young Brad from Canada Sammy Schuckert Dan Ericson Mike Walker Adam DuVander Dave Giunta (JOOnta) Kyle Fox GetRewardful.com ProfitWell ActiveCampaign Honeybadger GetRewardful.com Thanks to our monthly supporters Pascal from sharpen.page Rewardful.com Greg Park Mitchell Davis from RecruitKit.com.au Marcel Fahle, wearebold.af Ethan Gunderson Anton Zorin from ProdCamp.com Bill Condo (@mavrck) Ward from MemberSpace.com Russell Brown from Photivo.com Evandro Sasse Austin Loveless Michael Sitver Fathom Analytics Dan Buda Colin Gray Darby Frey 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 shipped our new feature! American Express called Justin twice at 5am The new enhanced podcasts feed is live. Pete Marcano: “I’ll be honest, when I listened to the Build Your SaaS episode on this feature being launched, I didn’t really think much of it. Listening to this episode connected the dots. This is awesomely game changing.” Now we’re technically in a “cool down” cycle” - is this how this should feel? When should you push back on customers' feature requests? We're looking into SSO - what a rabbit hole! What happened to Spots.fm? How could we help indie podcasts? ★ Thanks to our sponsors: ActiveCampaign. Get the world's most advanced marketing & sales automation platform. Use the code activecampaign.com/buildyoursaas and get two months free + 2 free One-on-Ones! Honeybadger. A web developer's secret weapon! Modern error management that gives you more than an email and a backtrace. They also have an amazing podcast: FounderQuest. Show notes: What is Single Sign-On? Basecamp "Shape Up" Zapier The Spots.fm episode Art of Product: Becoming a Multi-Product Company (with Amir Salihefendić) You can reply to this podcast here: Leave a comment on PodHunt; it's like Reddit, but for podcasts. Leave a comment on Breaker, the podcast app for iPhone. Interact on WhatPods. Otherwise, get us on Twitter: @transistorfm or email us: [email protected] Thanks to our monthly supporters: James Sowers with UserInput.io Travis Fischer Matt Buckley, from Nice Things Russell Brown Evandro Sasse Pradyumna Shembekar (PD) Noah Prail David Colgan Robert Simplicio Colin Gray alitu.com Josh Smith Ivan Curkovic Brian Rhea (Pronounced “Ray”) Shane Smith Austin Loveless Simon Bennett  Corey Haines Michael Sitver Paul Jarvis and Jack Ellis Dan Buda danbuda.com Darby Frey Samori Augusto Dave Young Brad from Canada Sammy Schuckert Dan Ericson Mike Walker Adam DuVander Dave Giunta (JOOnta) Kyle Fox GetRewardful.com ProfitWell ActiveCampaign Honeybadger GetRewardful.com Thanks to our monthly supporters Pascal from sharpen.page Rewardful.com Greg Park Mitchell Davis from RecruitKit.com.au Marcel Fahle, wearebold.af Ethan Gunderson Anton Zorin from ProdCamp.com Bill Condo (@mavrck) Ward from MemberSpace.com Russell Brown from Photivo.com Evandro Sasse Austin Loveless Michael Sitver Fathom Analytics Dan Buda Colin Gray Darby Frey 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 turkey: "I'm not used to all this attention. it’s weird. not bad, just…not used to it." "If you're doing anything interesting out in the world, you're gonna have people get mad about something at some point." – Rob Walling "There's a bit of imposter syndrome; like, do we deserve this?" It's more about the way you orient yourself than setting a specific destination. Bootstrapping podcasts: Art of Product, Bootstrapping SaaS, Slow & Steady, Bright & Early, Build your SaaS, Bootstrapping Web, Startups for the Rest of Us, Getting to Ramen, Bootstrapping Digest, Product Journey. How big is podcasting really? (29:11) – This new season of Gimlet's "Startup" podcast is fascinating: it reveals info about the podcast industry that we just didn't know before.  Halt and Catch Fire – is this show too weird? Podcasting has always grown slowly. What are some of the risks, or threats, to our business? How do podcasters build an audience? ★ Thanks to our sponsors: ActiveCampaign. Get the world's most advanced marketing & sales automation platform. Use the code activecampaign.com/buildyoursaas and get two months free + 2 free One-on-Ones! Honeybadger. A web developer's secret weapon! Modern error management that gives you more than an email and a backtrace. They also have an amazing podcast: FounderQuest. Show notes: Canadian Thanksgiving Jason Fried's tweet: "Congrats to @mijustin and @jonbuda for making it to full-time status!" How to deal with haters People on the internet can be so mean Twitter's launch at SXSW Podcast: Chase Jarvis on the Rich Roll podcast Wikipedia: What is a party line? Art of Product Bootstrapping SaaS Slow & Steady Bright & Early Bootstrapped Web Startups for the Rest of Us Getting to Ramen Bootstrapping Digest Product Journey Full Stack Radio The Laravel Snippet New episode of Startup, Season 3 TV: Halt and Catch Fire You can reply to this podcast here: Leave a comment on PodHunt; it's like Reddit, but for podcasts. Leave a comment on Breaker, the podcast app for iPhone. Interact on WhatPods. Otherwise, get us on Twitter: @transistorfm or email us: [email protected] Thanks to our monthly supporters: James Sowers with UserInput.io Travis Fischer Matt Buckley, from Nice Things Russell Brown Evandro Sasse Pradyumna Shembekar (PD) Noah Prail David Colgan Robert Simplicio Colin Gray alitu.com Josh Smith Ivan Curkovic Brian Rhea (Pronounced “Ray”) Shane Smith Austin Loveless Simon Bennett  Corey Haines Michael Sitver Paul Jarvis and Jack Ellis Dan Buda danbuda.com Darby Frey Samori Augusto Dave Young Brad from Canada Sammy Schuckert Dan Ericson Mike Walker Adam DuVander Dave Giunta (JOOnta) Kyle Fox GetRewardful.com ProfitWell ActiveCampaign Honeybadger GetRewardful.com Thanks to our monthly supporters Pascal from sharpen.page Rewardful.com Greg Park Mitchell Davis from RecruitKit.com.au Marcel Fahle, wearebold.af Ethan Gunderson Anton Zorin from ProdCamp.com Bill Condo (@mavrck) Ward from MemberSpace.com Russell Brown from Photivo.com Evandro Sasse Austin Loveless Michael Sitver Fathom Analytics Dan Buda Colin Gray Darby Frey 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 have a bunch of hot topics this week: Podcast advertising, user tracking, turning away customers? Basecamp switched their podcast (Rework) to us Why Marco Arment gave up on his #1 app $30k in MRR – how does this feel? Shape Up updates: “Small enough to wing it”  ★ Thanks to our sponsors: ActiveCampaign. Get the world's most advanced marketing & sales automation platform. Use the code activecampaign.com/buildyoursaas and get two months free + 2 free One-on-Ones! Honeybadger. A web developer's secret weapon! Modern error management that gives you more than an email and a backtrace. They also have an amazing podcast: FounderQuest. Show notes: The new Joker movie Brad Pitt's new movie: Ad Astra Jared Hess' movies Charlie Kammerer, president of Slate, on the Digiday podcast with Pierre Bienaimé DHH Tweet Marco Arment: "It just doesn't feel good" Justin's blog: How it feels to hit $30k Shape Up: Small enough to wing it You can reply to this podcast here: Leave a comment on PodHunt; it's like Reddit, but for podcasts. Leave a comment on Breaker, the podcast app for iPhone. Interact on WhatPods. Otherwise, get us on Twitter: @transistorfm or email us: [email protected] Thanks to our monthly supporters: James Sowers with UserInput.io Travis Fischer Matt Buckley, from Nice Things Russell Brown Evandro Sasse Pradyumna Shembekar (PD) Noah Prail David Colgan Robert Simplicio Colin Gray alitu.com Josh Smith Ivan Curkovic Brian Rhea (Pronounced “Ray”) Shane Smith Austin Loveless Simon Bennett  Corey Haines Michael Sitver Paul Jarvis and Jack Ellis Dan Buda danbuda.com Darby Frey Samori Augusto Dave Young Brad from Canada Sammy Schuckert Dan Ericson Mike Walker Adam DuVander Dave Giunta (JOOnta) Kyle Fox GetRewardful.com ProfitWell ActiveCampaign Honeybadger GetRewardful.com Thanks to our monthly supporters Pascal from sharpen.page Rewardful.com Greg Park Mitchell Davis from RecruitKit.com.au Marcel Fahle, wearebold.af Ethan Gunderson Anton Zorin from ProdCamp.com Bill Condo (@mavrck) Ward from MemberSpace.com Russell Brown from Photivo.com Evandro Sasse Austin Loveless Michael Sitver Fathom Analytics Dan Buda Colin Gray Darby Frey 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 ★

Sleep. We never get enough: Justin consistently wakes up between 2am-4am and can’t get back to sleep. Jon woke up at 4am. Often reports bad sleeps. Justin asked on Twitter and got tips: Josh Pigford, Baremetrics, says: “CBD oil. Previously I was a very "active" sleeper...talking, getting up, etc. It'd also take me upwards of 30 minutes to get to sleep and I'd regularly wake up in the middle of the night and not be able to get back to sleep. Haven't had any of those issues since using CBD oil.” Scott Bolinger: no caffeine after 10am no work after dinner non-fiction books only at bedtime dark lighting in house hours before bed same schedule every night don’t use alcohol to fall asleep (it’s a sedative, not a sleep inducer) weed blocks REM sleep  I know you’re not drinking, but alcohol and marijuana affect REM sleep. Steven Kovar: "A-Z gratitude" routine. Name something you're grateful for that starts with the letter A. Move on to B. Etc. Never gotten past K.” Wailin Wong, Basecamp: “One small thing that's really helped me is getting a sleep mask (Alaska Bear brand). Temperature of room and limiting blue light exposure.” Resource: Matt Walker, Why We Sleep Regularity: go to bed at the same time, and wake up at the same time. Light: in the last hour before bed, switch off half the lights, no screens Keep it cool: your brain needs to drop its temperature by 2-3 degrees to sleep. The cold pads might work. Warm bath before sleep helps too. Siesta in the afternoon ★ Thanks to our sponsors: ActiveCampaign. Get the world's most advanced marketing & sales automation platform. Use the code activecampaign.com/buildyoursaas and get two months free + 2 free One-on-Ones! New: Honeybadger. A web developer's secret weapon! Modern error management that gives you more than an email and a backtrace. They also have an amazing podcast: FounderQuest. Show notes: Justin's sleep tweet Book: Why we sleep Justin's sleep blog post You can reply to this podcast here: Leave a comment on PodHunt; it's like Reddit, but for podcasts. Leave a comment on Breaker, the podcast app for iPhone. Interact on WhatPods. Otherwise, get us on Twitter: @transistorfm or email us: [email protected] Thanks to our monthly supporters: James Sowers with UserInput.io Travis Fischer Matt Buckley, from Nice Things Russell Brown Evandro Sasse Pradyumna Shembekar (PD) Noah Prail David Colgan Robert Simplicio Colin Gray alitu.com Josh Smith Ivan Curkovic Brian Rhea (Pronounced “Ray”) Miguel Piedrafita Shane Smith Austin Loveless Simon Bennett  Corey Haines Michael Sitver Paul Jarvis and Jack Ellis Dan Buda danbuda.com Darby Frey Samori Augusto Dave Young Brad from Canada Sammy Schuckert Dan Ericson Mike Walker Adam DuVander Dave Giunta (JOOnta) Kyle Fox GetRewardful.com ProfitWell ActiveCampaign Honeybadger GetRewardful.com Thanks to our monthly supporters Pascal from sharpen.page Rewardful.com Greg Park Mitchell Davis from RecruitKit.com.au Marcel Fahle, wearebold.af Ethan Gunderson Anton Zorin from ProdCamp.com Bill Condo (@mavrck) Ward from MemberSpace.com Russell Brown from Photivo.com Evandro Sasse Austin Loveless Michael Sitver Fathom Analytics Dan Buda Colin Gray Darby Frey 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 discuss a variety of things. Warning: Justin says the f-word twice. 80s trampolines Jon's new microphone: mic + pop filter = $65 USD Transistor's history: 💻 March 2017: first-line of code ✍️ Feb 2018: signed partnership docs  ✉️ March 2018: invited first paying (beta) customers 🎉 Aug 2018: official launch 👨‍💻 April 2019: I go full-time [kind of] ($10k MRR) 👨‍💻 July 2019: Jon goes full-time ($19k MRR) Bootstrapping loneliness. What do you do when you're independent and you're not working for a big company? The risk of "relational churn." People you know will move away, and gradually you'll lose friendships over time. We're starting the 3rd week of our 6-week dev cycle (inspired by Basecamp's "Shape Up"). Justin already wants to ship it. 😜 How we're managing new ideas / bug requests without a backlog ★ Thanks to our sponsors: ActiveCampaign. Get the world's most advanced marketing & sales automation platform. Use the code activecampaign.com/buildyoursaas and get two months free + 2 free One-on-Ones! New: Honeybadger. A web developer's secret weapon! Modern error management that gives you more than an email and a backtrace. They also have an amazing podcast: FounderQuest. Show notes: Jon's new microphone: Samson Q2U Brian Rhea's tweets about remote loneliness NPR article: "Talk to a stranger" You can reply to this podcast here: Leave a comment on PodHunt; it's like Reddit, but for podcasts. Leave a comment on Breaker, the podcast app for iPhone. Interact on WhatPods. Otherwise, get us on Twitter: @transistorfm or email us: [email protected] Thanks to our monthly supporters: Travis Fischer Matt Buckley, from Nice Things Russell Brown Evandro Sasse Pradyumna Shembekar (PD) Noah Prail David Colgan Robert Simplicio Colin Gray alitu.com Josh Smith Ivan Curkovic Brian Rhea (Pronounced “Ray”) Miguel Piedrafita Shane Smith Austin Loveless Simon Bennett  Corey Haines Michael Sitver Paul Jarvis and Jack Ellis Dan Buda danbuda.com Darby Frey Samori Augusto Dave Young Brad from Canada Sammy Schuckert Dan Ericson Mike Walker Adam DuVander Dave Giunta (JOOnta) Kyle Fox GetRewardful.com ProfitWell ActiveCampaign Honeybadger GetRewardful.com Thanks to our monthly supporters Pascal from sharpen.page Rewardful.com Greg Park Mitchell Davis from RecruitKit.com.au Marcel Fahle, wearebold.af Ethan Gunderson Anton Zorin from ProdCamp.com Bill Condo (@mavrck) Ward from MemberSpace.com Russell Brown from Photivo.com Evandro Sasse Austin Loveless Michael Sitver Fathom Analytics Dan Buda Colin Gray Darby Frey 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 discuss: Good mics for podcasters. Justin recommends the Samson Q2U and the ATR2100. Make sure you get a pop filter! Starting our 6-week cycle (based on Basecamp's Shape Up) Working through unknowns for software projects: "Where do we start?" What's it been like being a transparent startup? Is it still a good idea? "It feels less and less comfortable, and I don't know why." – Jon "All people see is the revenue numbers; they don't understand what's happening underneath those numbers." – Justin "Wait a second. Bootstrapped startups are different: the goal isn't to change the way people behave, it's to recognize where people are already in motion." How long should you work on an idea before you quit? ★ Thanks to our sponsors: ActiveCampaign. Get the world's most advanced marketing & sales automation platform. Use the code activecampaign.com/buildyoursaas and get two months free + 2 free One-on-Ones! New: Honeybadger. A web developer's secret weapon! Modern error management that gives you more than an email and a backtrace. They also have an amazing podcast: FounderQuest. Show notes: Basecamp's Shape Up Mics: Samson Q2U or ATR2100 Baremetrics Open Startups ConvertKit's AWS bill Demo of Glow.fm (monetize your podcast) "We don't sell saddles here" by Slacks' Stewart Butterfield Justin's response: "We sell saddles here" Moraware blog post by Ted Pitts Jon Yongfook's twitter thread Dark mode podcast player You can reply to this podcast here: Leave a comment on PodHunt; it's like Reddit, but for podcasts. Leave a comment on Breaker, the podcast app for iPhone. Interact on WhatPods. Otherwise, get us on Twitter: @transistorfm or email us: [email protected] Thanks to our monthly supporters: Travis Fischer Matt Buckley, from Nice Things Russell Brown Evandro Sasse Pradyumna Shembekar (PD) Noah Prail David Colgan Robert Simplicio Colin Gray alitu.com Josh Smith Ivan Curkovic Brian Rhea (Pronounced “Ray”) Miguel Piedrafita Shane Smith Austin Loveless Simon Bennett  Corey Haines Michael Sitver Paul Jarvis and Jack Ellis Dan Buda danbuda.com Darby Frey Samori Augusto Dave Young Brad from Canada Sammy Schuckert Dan Ericson Mike Walker Adam DuVander Dave Giunta (JOOnta) Kyle Fox GetRewardful.com ProfitWell ActiveCampaign Honeybadger GetRewardful.com Thanks to our monthly supporters Pascal from sharpen.page Rewardful.com Greg Park Mitchell Davis from RecruitKit.com.au Marcel Fahle, wearebold.af Ethan Gunderson Anton Zorin from ProdCamp.com Bill Condo (@mavrck) Ward from MemberSpace.com Russell Brown from Photivo.com Evandro Sasse Austin Loveless Michael Sitver Fathom Analytics Dan Buda Colin Gray Darby Frey 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 answer a few questions: From Jason Zook: "How much MRR is enough for Transistor?" From Yaz: "What do you think of this new Supercast thing that helps podcasters start a paid podcast?" How many people are really asking for this? Looking for evidence: "I just bought X." "I just started doing X." "I just switched from X to Y." "My friend uses X, so I tried it." "Using X, but want something like Y." "X is better than anything else I've tried." "It seems like everyone in my Slack is using X." ★ Thanks to our sponsors: ActiveCampaign. Get the world's most advanced marketing & sales automation platform. Use the code activecampaign.com/buildyoursaas and get two months free + 2 free One-on-Ones! New: Honeybadger. A web developer's secret weapon! Modern error management that gives you more than an email and a backtrace. They also have an amazing podcast: FounderQuest. Show notes: Jason Zook Moraware blog post  ActiveCampaign blog Supercast Supercast on Product Hunt “Howard Stern is getting ripped off pod.fan glow.fm patreon.com The Mom Test Seth Godin podcast episode: Meta Podcasting in China: myth and reality You can reply to this podcast here: Leave a comment on PodHunt; it's like Reddit, but for podcasts. Leave a comment on Breaker, the podcast app for iPhone. Otherwise, get us on Twitter: @transistorfm or email us: [email protected] Thanks to our monthly supporters: Matt, from Nice Things Russell Brown Evandro Sasse Pradyumna Shembekar (PD) Noah Prail David Colgan Robert Simplicio Colin Gray alitu.com Josh Smith Ivan Curkovic Brian Rhea (Pronounced “Ray”) Miguel Piedrafita Shane Smith Austin Loveless Simon Bennett  Corey Haines Michael Sitver Paul Jarvis and Jack Ellis Dan Buda danbuda.com Darby Frey Samori Augusto Dave Young Brad from Canada Sammy Schuckert Dan Ericson Mike Walker Adam DuVander Dave Giunta (JOOnta) Kyle Fox GetRewardful.com ProfitWell ActiveCampaign Honeybadger GetRewardful.com Thanks to our monthly supporters Pascal from sharpen.page Rewardful.com Greg Park Mitchell Davis from RecruitKit.com.au Marcel Fahle, wearebold.af Ethan Gunderson Anton Zorin from ProdCamp.com Bill Condo (@mavrck) Ward from MemberSpace.com Russell Brown from Photivo.com Evandro Sasse Austin Loveless Michael Sitver Fathom Analytics Dan Buda Colin Gray Darby Frey 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 ★

Hear what's new from Jon and Justin on their bootstrapping journey: Nothing like throwing yourself down a mountain when you're tired We're seeing a big increase in support tickets here at the end of August Justin has a theory: more support tickets is leading indicator for an increase in revenue "When people have 'summer brain' they don't want to think about work." Jon's learned some things about how enterprise sales really work Listener Sarah McMullin gave us some great advice on enterprise sales as well Jon tells us about doing the Ironman in Traverse City and how much time he spent in the penalty box How does Slack and Tuple do enterprise billing? We're going to try to use the "Shape Up" philosophy for making business decisions too. Justin's thinking about how Transistor can clarify its positioning: “Who is this for?” “What challenge are they facing?” “How does your product help overcome the challenge?” April Dunford on positioning: the market categories we choose make it easier to market the product. "People make decisions based on what they already know." Dark mode player coming soon! "Unix came about because Bell Labs hired smart people and gave them the freedom to amuse themselves, trusting that their projects would be useful more often than not." – Unix at 50 ★ Thanks to our sponsors: ActiveCampaign. Get the world's most advanced marketing & sales automation platform. Use the code activecampaign.com/buildyoursaas and get two months free + 2 free One-on-Ones! New: Honeybadger. A web developer's secret weapon! Modern error management that gives you more than an email and a backtrace. They also have an amazing podcast: FounderQuest. Show notes: Traverse City Ironman Thanks to Sarah McMullin for her enterprise sales advice Capiche – transparency in enterprise sales Shape Up (Basecamp) How to build your storybrand (book by Donald Miller) Badass! (book by Kathy Sierra) April Dunford on positioning (Live in the Feast podcast) Unix at 50 (Ars Technica) You can reply to this podcast here: Leave a comment on PodHunt; it's like Reddit, but for podcasts. Leave a comment on Breaker, the podcast app for iPhone. Otherwise, get us on Twitter: @transistorfm or email us: [email protected] Thanks to our monthly supporters: Russell Brown Evandro Sasse Pradyumna Shembekar (PD) Noah Prail David Colgan Robert Simplicio Colin Gray alitu.com Josh Smith Ivan Curkovic Brian Rhea (Pronounced “Ray”) Miguel Piedrafita Shane Smith Austin Loveless Simon Bennett  Corey Haines Michael Sitver Paul Jarvis and Jack Ellis Dan Buda danbuda.com Darby Frey Samori Augusto Dave Young Brad from Canada Sammy Schuckert Dan Ericson Mike Walker Adam DuVander Dave Giunta (JOOnta) Kyle Fox GetRewardful.com ProfitWell ActiveCampaign Honeybadger GetRewardful.com Thanks to our monthly supporters Pascal from sharpen.page Rewardful.com Greg Park Mitchell Davis from RecruitKit.com.au Marcel Fahle, wearebold.af Ethan Gunderson Anton Zorin from ProdCamp.com Bill Condo (@mavrck) Ward from MemberSpace.com Russell Brown from Photivo.com Evandro Sasse Austin Loveless Michael Sitver Fathom Analytics Dan Buda Colin Gray Darby Frey 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 share their SaaS journey: "There's so many great feature ideas, but we can't do them all." Jon's wondering about the constant feature request/release cycle “You’re doing a good job if you’re enjoying the journey” - Jason Cohen (on Art of Product) Tweet: “Any other SaaS companies seeing that revenue generally drops in the summer? I thought it was just me.” Nathan Barry: “The summer is historically really slow for us.” Justin is wondering: are enterprise customers worth it? (Des Traynor from Intercom says: "yes") ★ Thanks to our sponsors: ProfitWell. If you’re earning recurring revenue from Stripe, you need this tool. It will show you all of your business metrics: MRR, LTV, churn. Sign up for free: profitwell.com  ActiveCampaign! Get the world's most advanced marketing & sales automation platform. Use the code activecampaign.com/buildyoursaas and get two months free + 2 free One-on-Ones! Show notes: Art of Product, Jason Cohen – audio link Josh Anderton's tweet Justin's talk from Laracon is live You can reply to this podcast here: Leave a comment on PodHunt; it's like Reddit, but for podcasts. Leave a comment on Breaker, the podcast app for iPhone. Otherwise, get us on Twitter: @transistorfm or email us: [email protected] Thanks to our monthly supporters: Evandro Sasse Pradyumna Shembekar (PD) Ben from narrowr.com Noah Prail David Colgan Robert Simplicio Colin Gray alitu.com Josh Smith Ivan Curkovic Brian Rhea (Pronounced “Ray”) Miguel Piedrafita Shane Smith Austin Loveless Simon Bennett  Corey Haines Michael Sitver Paul Jarvis and Jack Ellis Dan Buda danbuda.com Darby Frey Samori Augusto Dave Young Brad from Canada Sammy Schuckert Dan Ericson Mike Walker Adam DuVander Dave Giunta (JOOnta) Kyle Fox GetRewardful.com ProfitWell ActiveCampaign ProfitWell.com GetRewardful.com Thanks to our monthly supporters Pascal from sharpen.page Rewardful.com Greg Park Mitchell Davis from RecruitKit.com.au Marcel Fahle, wearebold.af Ethan Gunderson Anton Zorin from ProdCamp.com Bill Condo (@mavrck) Ward from MemberSpace.com Russell Brown from Photivo.com Evandro Sasse Austin Loveless Michael Sitver Fathom Analytics Dan Buda Colin Gray Darby Frey 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 are tracking a bunch of stuff this week: We're moving from WordPress to Statamic CMS "I had no idea how to set up PHP on my laptop." We want to treat our marketing site the same way we work on our product We're trying to optimize our PageSpeed (our current mobile score is 63, we want to get over 90) "And then you came in a like a magician and lazyloaded the JavaScript" "Collaborative software work is egalitarian. It doesn’t matter who did what, as long as the team is collectively accomplishing something greater than any one person could have done alone." – Jonas Downey Why the pull request is a great social technology. Revenue update: August has been our slowest month (for growth) thus far. Is this a seasonal slow down? Our churn numbers (compared to other SaaS) ★ Thanks to our sponsors: ProfitWell. If you’re earning recurring revenue from Stripe, you need this tool. It will show you all of your business metrics: MRR, LTV, churn. Sign up for free: profitwell.com  ActiveCampaign! Get the world's most advanced marketing & sales automation platform. Use the code activecampaign.com/buildyoursaas and get two months free + 2 free One-on-Ones! Show notes: Statamic CMS Jack McDade Justin's 2.5 hour PageSpeed adventure Tailwind CSS Jonas Downey: "Nobody really owns product work" You can reply to this podcast here: Leave a comment on Breaker, the podcast app for iPhone. Otherwise, get us on Twitter: @transistorfm or email us: [email protected] Thanks to our monthly supporters: Evandro Sasse Pradyumna Shembekar (PD) Ben from narrowr.com Noah Prail David Colgan Robert Simplicio Colin Gray alitu.com Josh Smith Ivan Curkovic Brian Rhea (Pronounced “Ray”) Miguel Piedrafita Shane Smith Austin Loveless Simon Bennett  Corey Haines Michael Sitver Paul Jarvis and Jack Ellis Dan Buda danbuda.com Darby Frey Samori Augusto Dave Young Brad from Canada Sammy Schuckert Dan Ericson Mike Walker Adam DuVander Dave Giunta (JOOnta) Kyle Fox GetRewardful.com ProfitWell ActiveCampaign ProfitWell.com GetRewardful.com Thanks to our monthly supporters Pascal from sharpen.page Rewardful.com Greg Park Mitchell Davis from RecruitKit.com.au Marcel Fahle, wearebold.af Ethan Gunderson Anton Zorin from ProdCamp.com Bill Condo (@mavrck) Ward from MemberSpace.com Russell Brown from Photivo.com Evandro Sasse Austin Loveless Michael Sitver Fathom Analytics Dan Buda Colin Gray Darby Frey 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 and Jon have started the process of implementing Shape Up. Lots of folks feel like it’d be hard to implement in their team "This would be hard at my agency." “What about feature requests? Is the idea that you also don't write those down?” “Hmm no backlogs? Maybe I am not understanding some backstory/context? Where do they put ideas, comments, quick bits that they might look at later on” Some backlash against the “cult of Basecamp” But the majority of folks were really interested in Jason’s approach. See how our first "shaping" experiment went. ★ Thanks to our sponsors: ProfitWell. Patrick and Hiten have a new podcast! New sponsor: ActiveCampaign! Get the world's most advanced marketing & sales automation platform. Use the code activecampaign.com/buildyoursaas and get two months free + 2 free One-on-Ones! Show notes: Read Basecamp's new book Shape Up. Last week’s episode Jason Fried Screensharing in Messages You can reply to this podcast here: Leave a comment on Breaker, the podcast app for iPhone. Otherwise, get us on Twitter: @transistorfm or email us: [email protected] Thanks to our monthly supporters: Pradyumna Shembekar Ben from narrowr.com Noah Prail David Colgan Robert Simplicio Colin Gray alitu.com Josh Smith Ivan Curkovic Brian Rhea (Pronounced “Ray”) Miguel Piedrafita Shane Smith Austin Loveless Simon Bennett  Corey Haines Michael Sitver Paul Jarvis and Jack Ellis Dan Buda danbuda.com Darby Frey Samori Augusto Dave Young Brad from Canada Sammy Schuckert Dan Ericson Mike Walker Adam DuVander Dave Giunta (JOOnta) Kyle Fox GetRewardful.com ProfitWell ActiveCampaign ProfitWell.com GetRewardful.com Thanks to our monthly supporters Pascal from sharpen.page Rewardful.com Greg Park Mitchell Davis from RecruitKit.com.au Marcel Fahle, wearebold.af Ethan Gunderson Anton Zorin from ProdCamp.com Bill Condo (@mavrck) Ward from MemberSpace.com Russell Brown from Photivo.com Evandro Sasse Austin Loveless Michael Sitver Fathom Analytics Dan Buda Colin Gray Darby Frey 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 and Jon are joined by Jason Fried to talk about: The philosophy behind their new book Shape Up. Does Basecamp's approach to 6-week cycles differ for smaller teams? "Long projects destroy morale. When things don't ship, you get frustrated." – Jason Fried Why projects ship late (it's human nature). Why work is like a hill. How they make product decisions at Basecamp. How do you know what you should work on next? Why they don't believe in backlogs. "That feeling of 'there's nothing to do, but there's everything to do' shouldn't be happening." – Jason Fried "You need a system at some point. When you have two people, you can hack your way to anything. But as soon as you grow, you'll need a system." – Jason Fried "What we have is not a perfect system. And even if it was, we don't execute these things perfectly." – Jason Fried ★ Thanks to our sponsors: ProfitWell's podcast Protect the Hustle has a new season!  New sponsor: ActiveCampaign! Get the world's most advanced marketing & sales automation platform. Use the code activecampaign.com/buildyoursaas and get two months free + 2 free One-on-Ones! Show notes: Jon's launch announcement tweet (from 2018). Read Basecamp's new book Shape Up. Jason Fried commented on this Linkedin post. Hill charts. Listen to Rework Podcast's "Shape Up Roundtable." Derek Sivers' new article: My old clothes don't fit You can reply to this podcast here: Leave a comment on Breaker, the podcast app for iPhone. Otherwise, get us on Twitter: @transistorfm or email us: [email protected] Thanks to our monthly supporters: Ben from narrowr.com Noah Prail David Colgan Robert Simplicio Colin Gray alitu.com Josh Smith Ivan Curkovic Brian Rhea (Pronounced “Ray”) Miguel Piedrafita Shane Smith Austin Loveless Simon Bennett  Corey Haines Michael Sitver Paul Jarvis and Jack Ellis Dan Buda danbuda.com Darby Frey Samori Augusto Dave Young Brad from Canada Sammy Schuckert Dan Ericson Mike Walker Adam DuVander Dave Giunta (JOOnta) Kyle Fox GetRewardful.com ProfitWell ActiveCampaign ProfitWell.com GetRewardful.com Thanks to our monthly supporters Pascal from sharpen.page Rewardful.com Greg Park Mitchell Davis from RecruitKit.com.au Marcel Fahle, wearebold.af Ethan Gunderson Anton Zorin from ProdCamp.com Bill Condo (@mavrck) Ward from MemberSpace.com Russell Brown from Photivo.com Evandro Sasse Austin Loveless Michael Sitver Fathom Analytics Dan Buda Colin Gray Darby Frey 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 ★

Big week. Justin was in New York and Jon found an office! Justin lost his voice. Jon doesn't work from home or coffee shops anymore. Jon found an office: "It’s inexpensive, but quiet, with nice people in a nice area. Inexpensive enough to where I won’t feel bad if I do want to work elsewhere once in a while." Justin's Spotify visit (very interesting). Laracon conference on Times Square (Justin was the MC and gave a talk) Met with a few customers: Jess & Jmac – The BaseCode Podcast Conor – The All Things Auth Podcast Cherie – Water & Music Justin also met with his friend Nathan who now works at Happy Cog and went out with a mutual friend (Mike) who introduced him to someone who works for Amazon, and another fellow who does BizDev & Strategy for Sony Music Global. Jon: “This all would have exhausted me!” ;) ★ Thanks to our sponsors: ProfitWell's podcast Protect the Hustle has a new season!  Redash! To help you better understand what you can do with Redash, they produced a few video guides. These guides use SaaS metrics as the demo data, so it should feel close to home. Check them out here. Show notes: Laracon US Justin posted a few photos here. Micro optimizations (from the book Atomic Habits) Iron Maiden at Barclay's Center Vue.js You can reply to this podcast here: Leave a comment on Breaker, the podcast app for iPhone. Leave a comment on CastBox, the podcast app for Android and iPhone. Otherwise, get us on Twitter: @transistorfm or email us: [email protected] Thanks to our monthly supporters: Robert Simplicio Colin Gray Josh Smith Ivan Curkovic Brian Rhea Miguel Piedrafita Shane Smith Austin Loveless Simon Bennett  Corey Haines Michael Sitver Paul Jarvis and Jack Ellis Dan Buda danbuda.com Darby Frey Samori Augusto Dave Young Brad from Canada Kevin Markham Sammy Schuckert Dan Ericson Mike Walker Adam DuVander Dave Giunta (JOOnta) ProfitWell.com Redash.io GetRewardful.com Thanks to our monthly supporters Pascal from sharpen.page Rewardful.com Greg Park Mitchell Davis from RecruitKit.com.au Marcel Fahle, wearebold.af Ethan Gunderson Anton Zorin from ProdCamp.com Bill Condo (@mavrck) Ward from MemberSpace.com Russell Brown from Photivo.com Evandro Sasse Austin Loveless Michael Sitver Fathom Analytics Dan Buda Colin Gray Darby Frey 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 and Jon are starting to feel that stress. We start with an unscripted bit. Our backlog and todo list are still stressing us out. We want to improve the app, but we get stuck fixing bugs. Justin is going to be at Laracon, NYC. Should we fly less? ★ Thanks to our sponsors: ProfitWell gives you free subscription metrics for your SaaS. Just plug in your billing system (Stripe, Zuora, Braintree, Chargebee, Recurly are all supported) and get free access to your MRR, churn, cohorts. Sign up for free at profitwell.com. Redash is is a BI tool for people who love SQL. Connect your database, query, visualize and share your data in minutes. Mention "Build your SaaS podcast" and get 50% off your first 3 months! Sign up at redash.io Show notes: Brian Casel’s tweet: “Build a SaaS product” NYT: Flying is bad for the planet Tweet: Mel Gregg on Spark CBC 1% for the planet Basecamp's new online book: Shape Up Ben Orenstein's tweet: "My new consulting engagement: you pay me $10,000 and I delete your project’s backlog while explaining that nothing of value has been lost." You can reply to this podcast here: Leave a comment on Breaker, the podcast app for iPhone. Leave a comment on CastBox, the podcast app for Android and iPhone. Otherwise, get us on Twitter: @transistorfm or email us: [email protected] Thanks to our monthly supporters: Colin Gray Josh Smith Ivan Curkovic Brian Rhea Miguel Piedrafita Shane Smith Austin Loveless Simon Bennett  Corey Haines Michael Sitver Paul Jarvis and Jack Ellis Dan Buda danbuda.com Darby Frey Samori Augusto Dave Young Brad from Canada Kevin Markham Sammy Schuckert Dan Ericson Mike Walker Adam DuVander Dave Giunta (JOOnta) ProfitWell.com Redash.io GetRewardful.com Thanks to our monthly supporters Pascal from sharpen.page Rewardful.com Greg Park Mitchell Davis from RecruitKit.com.au Marcel Fahle, wearebold.af Ethan Gunderson Anton Zorin from ProdCamp.com Bill Condo (@mavrck) Ward from MemberSpace.com Russell Brown from Photivo.com Evandro Sasse Austin Loveless Michael Sitver Fathom Analytics Dan Buda Colin Gray Darby Frey 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 and Jon dive into the growing backlog of features, bugs and tasks, and talk about how they might better manage it as a two-person team. A big new milestone is reached! Jon had a bit of anxiety over the growing backlog in Clubhouse New ideas were being thrown into an unscheduled list, but weren't yet actionable. Some ideas can be left alone for awhile and revisited to see if they're still worthwhile. Ben Orenstein wants to delete your entire backlog. 6 week cycles like Basecamp does might help out - but what does that mean for a tiny team? We hit $20K in MRR in under a year! ★ Thanks to our sponsors: ProfitWell gives you free subscription metrics for your SaaS. Just plug in your billing system (Stripe, Zuora, Braintree, Chargebee, Recurly are all supported) and get free access to your MRR, churn, cohorts. Sign up for free at profitwell.com. Redash is is a BI tool for people who love SQL. Connect your database, query, visualize and share your data in minutes. Mention "Build your SaaS podcast" and get 50% off your first 3 months! Sign up at redash.io Show notes: Basecamp's new online book: Shape Up Ben Orenstein's tweet: "My new consulting engagement: you pay me $10,000 and I delete your project’s backlog while explaining that nothing of value has been lost." You can reply to this podcast here: Leave a comment on Breaker, the podcast app for iPhone. Leave a comment on CastBox, the podcast app for Android and iPhone. Otherwise, get us on Twitter: @transistorfm or email us: [email protected] Thanks to our monthly supporters: Colin Gray Josh Smith Ivan Curkovic Brian Rhea Miguel Piedrafita Shane Smith Austin Loveless Simon Bennett  Corey Haines Michael Sitver Paul Jarvis and Jack Ellis Dan Buda danbuda.com Darby Frey Samori Augusto Dave Young Brad from Canada Kevin Markham Sammy Schuckert Dan Ericson Mike Walker Adam DuVander Dave Giunta (JOOnta) ProfitWell.com Redash.io GetRewardful.com Thanks to our monthly supporters Pascal from sharpen.page Rewardful.com Greg Park Mitchell Davis from RecruitKit.com.au Marcel Fahle, wearebold.af Ethan Gunderson Anton Zorin from ProdCamp.com Bill Condo (@mavrck) Ward from MemberSpace.com Russell Brown from Photivo.com Evandro Sasse Austin Loveless Michael Sitver Fathom Analytics Dan Buda Colin Gray Darby Frey 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 ★

Now, Justin and Jon share are both focused full-time on Transistor. This week they discuss:  Emotionally processing what it's like leaving a full-time job. What was it like working at the Cards Against Humanity office? What's it like now? Contextual zones: “I noticed that when I entered the library, I was already thinking about reading and writing.” - Kunal Shandilya. Why you need local and online community. What happens if one of us goes hiking in the woods, and there's an accident? ★ Thanks to our sponsors: ProfitWell gives you free subscription metrics for your SaaS. Just plug in your billing system (Stripe, Zuora, Braintree, Chargebee, Recurly are all supported) and get free access to your MRR, churn, cohorts. Sign up for free at profitwell.com. Redash is is a BI tool for people who love SQL. Connect your database, query, visualize and share your data in minutes. Mention "Build your SaaS podcast" and get 50% off your first 3 months! Sign up at redash.io Show notes: Article: How creating'context zones' could turn you into a productivity powerhouse Article: Things I’ve quit doing at my desk Tweet: How Manuel Frigerio pulls his ProfitWell data into Google sheets Dribble founder article You can reply to this podcast here: Leave a comment on Breaker, the podcast app for iPhone. Leave a comment on CastBox, the podcast app for Android and iPhone. Otherwise, get us on Twitter: @transistorfm or email us: [email protected] Thanks to our monthly supporters: Colin Gray Josh Smith Ivan Curkovic Brian Rhea Miguel Piedrafita Shane Smith Austin Loveless Simon Bennett  Corey Haines Michael Sitver Paul Jarvis and Jack Ellis Dan Buda danbuda.com Darby Frey Samori Augusto Dave Young Brad from Canada Kevin Markham Sammy Schuckert Dan Ericson Mike Walker Adam DuVander Dave Giunta (JOOnta) ProfitWell.com Redash.io GetRewardful.com Thanks to our monthly supporters Pascal from sharpen.page Rewardful.com Greg Park Mitchell Davis from RecruitKit.com.au Marcel Fahle, wearebold.af Ethan Gunderson Anton Zorin from ProdCamp.com Bill Condo (@mavrck) Ward from MemberSpace.com Russell Brown from Photivo.com Evandro Sasse Austin Loveless Michael Sitver Fathom Analytics Dan Buda Colin Gray Darby Frey 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 had some personal news for Justin this week. This week they discuss: What does this mean for the product? What does this mean for us as a team? ★ Thanks to our sponsors: ProfitWell gives you free subscription metrics for your SaaS. Just plug in your billing system (Stripe, Zuora, Braintree, Chargebee, Recurly are all supported) and get free access to your MRR, churn, cohorts. Sign up for free at profitwell.com. Redash is is a BI tool for people who love SQL. Connect your database, query, visualize and share your data in minutes. Mention "Build your SaaS podcast" and get 50% off your first 3 months! Sign up at redash.io Show notes: Dribbble article Andreas Schwabe - broadcast tips Salt & Straw Portland "Change careers like Tarzan" by Derek Sivers You can reply to this podcast here: Leave a comment on Breaker, the podcast app for iPhone. Leave a comment on CastBox, the podcast app for Android and iPhone. Otherwise, get us on Twitter: @transistorfm or email us: [email protected] Thanks to our monthly supporters: Colin Gray Josh Smith Ivan Curkovic Brian Rhea Miguel Piedrafita Shane Smith Austin Loveless Simon Bennett  Corey Haines Michael Sitver Paul Jarvis and Jack Ellis Dan Buda danbuda.com Darby Frey Samori Augusto Dave Young Brad from Canada Kevin Markham Sammy Schuckert Dan Ericson Mike Walker Adam DuVander Dave Giunta (JOOnta) ProfitWell.com Redash.io GetRewardful.com Thanks to our monthly supporters Pascal from sharpen.page Rewardful.com Greg Park Mitchell Davis from RecruitKit.com.au Marcel Fahle, wearebold.af Ethan Gunderson Anton Zorin from ProdCamp.com Bill Condo (@mavrck) Ward from MemberSpace.com Russell Brown from Photivo.com Evandro Sasse Austin Loveless Michael Sitver Fathom Analytics Dan Buda Colin Gray Darby Frey 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 is away, so Justin is tackling these questions: "When you were early on and desperate, were you tempted to take investor money?" "How do you position yourself in a crowded market? What's your marketing plan look like?" "How do you prioritize feature development? Are new features coming from customer feedback, intuition, or some combination of both?" "Are you planning on experimenting with paid acquisition channels?" "How can I get a job at Transistor.fm?" ★ Thanks to our sponsors: ProfitWell gives you free subscription metrics for your SaaS. Just plug in your billing system (Stripe, Zuora, Braintree, Chargebee, Recurly are all supported) and get free access to your MRR, churn, cohorts. Sign up for free at profitwell.com. Redash is is a BI tool for people who love SQL. Connect your database, query, visualize and share your data in minutes. Mention "Build your SaaS podcast" and get 50% off your first 3 months! Sign up at redash.io Show notes: Got back from Podsummit in Calgary. Thanks Ernest! Live video from the podcast. Old episode: The opposite of bored money Forecast your MRR growth justinjackson.ca/bootstrap Justin's tweet asking for questions. You can reply to this podcast here: Leave a comment on Breaker, the podcast app for Android and iPhone. Leave a comment on CastBox, the podcast app for Android and iPhone. Otherwise, get us on Twitter: @transistorfm or email us: [email protected] Thanks to our monthly supporters: Colin Gray Josh Smith Ivan Curkovic Brian Rhea Miguel Piedrafita Shane Smith Austin Loveless Simon Bennett  Corey Haines Michael Sitver Paul Jarvis and Jack Ellis Dan Buda danbuda.com Darby Frey Samori Augusto Dave Young Brad from Canada Kevin Markham Sammy Schuckert Dan Ericson Mike Walker Adam DuVander Dave Giunta (JOOnta) ProfitWell.com Redash.io GetRewardful.com Thanks to our monthly supporters Pascal from sharpen.page Rewardful.com Greg Park Mitchell Davis from RecruitKit.com.au Marcel Fahle, wearebold.af Ethan Gunderson Anton Zorin from ProdCamp.com Bill Condo (@mavrck) Ward from MemberSpace.com Russell Brown from Photivo.com Evandro Sasse Austin Loveless Michael Sitver Fathom Analytics Dan Buda Colin Gray Darby Frey 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 talk about new developments with Transistor: We've taken over $100,000 in funding (from our customers!) We harken back to July of 2018 (right before our official launch), when Justin was stressed about money. ★ Thanks to our sponsors: ProfitWell gives you free subscription metrics for your SaaS. Just plug in your billing system (Stripe, Zuora, Braintree, Chargebee, Recurly are all supported) and get free access to your MRR, churn, cohorts. Sign up for free at profitwell.com. Redash is is a BI tool for people who love SQL. Connect your database, query, visualize and share your data in minutes. Mention "Build your SaaS podcast" and get 50% off your first 3 months! Sign up at redash.io Show notes: Old episode: The opposite of bored money Justin’s tweets on why we're considering switching to Statamic from WordPress Article: How an Offer to Sell Wistia Inspired Us to Take On $17m in Debt Podcast: Reboot podcast interviews Wistia's founders Google PageSpeed test SanityCheck by Nick You can reply to this podcast here: Leave a comment on Breaker, the podcast app for Android and iPhone. Leave a comment on CastBox, the podcast app for Android and iPhone. Otherwise, get us on Twitter: @transistorfm or email us: [email protected] Thanks to our monthly supporters: Colin Gray Josh Smith Ivan Curkovic Brian Rhea Miguel Piedrafita Shane Smith Austin Loveless Simon Bennett  Corey Haines Michael Sitver Paul Jarvis and Jack Ellis Dan Buda danbuda.com Darby Frey Samori Augusto Dave Young Brad from Canada Kevin Markham Sammy Schuckert Dan Ericson Mike Walker Adam DuVander Dave Giunta (JOOnta) ProfitWell.com Redash.io GetRewardful.com Thanks to our monthly supporters Pascal from sharpen.page Rewardful.com Greg Park Mitchell Davis from RecruitKit.com.au Marcel Fahle, wearebold.af Ethan Gunderson Anton Zorin from ProdCamp.com Bill Condo (@mavrck) Ward from MemberSpace.com Russell Brown from Photivo.com Evandro Sasse Austin Loveless Michael Sitver Fathom Analytics Dan Buda Colin Gray Darby Frey 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 ★

More honest updates from Jon and Justin on what it's like to be building Transistor.fm: People can't believe that we're using this in production. Why SaaS feels better than other businesses we've been involved with. "Kubernetes sounds like a Russian swat squad." There's a temptation to over-engineer things; but there's only two of us working on Transistor! The enterprise sales process seems like it's too much for our small bootstrapped company. Looking back, we were wrong about who are customers were going to be. You won't believe what Justin's been sending to customers. 😳 ★ Thanks to our sponsors: ProfitWell gives you free subscription metrics for your SaaS. Just plug in your billing system (Stripe, Zuora, Braintree, Chargebee, Recurly are all supported) and get free access to your MRR, churn, cohorts. Sign up for free at profitwell.com. Redash is is a BI tool for people who love SQL. Connect your database, query, visualize and share your data in minutes. Mention "Build your SaaS podcast" and get 50% off your first 3 months! Sign up at redash.io Show notes: Tweet from Caddy's engineer Podcast: Protect the Hustle Podcast: Not Overthinking Ruben's new app: Docsketch You can reply to this podcast here: Leave a comment on Breaker, the podcast app for Android and iPhone. Leave a comment on CastBox, the podcast app for Android and iPhone. Otherwise, get us on Twitter: @transistorfm or email us: [email protected] Thanks to our monthly supporters: Josh Smith Ivan Curkovic Brian Rhea Miguel Piedrafita Shane Smith Austin Loveless Simon Bennett  Corey Haines Michael Sitver Paul Jarvis and Jack Ellis Dan Buda danbuda.com Darby Frey Samori Augusto Dave Young Brad from Canada Kevin Markham Sammy Schuckert Dan Ericson Mike Walker Adam DuVander Dave Giunta (JOOnta) ProfitWell.com Redash.io GetRewardful.com Thanks to our monthly supporters Pascal from sharpen.page Rewardful.com Greg Park Mitchell Davis from RecruitKit.com.au Marcel Fahle, wearebold.af Ethan Gunderson Anton Zorin from ProdCamp.com Bill Condo (@mavrck) Ward from MemberSpace.com Russell Brown from Photivo.com Evandro Sasse Austin Loveless Michael Sitver Fathom Analytics Dan Buda Colin Gray Darby Frey 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 share some honest updates about as they continue to build their SaaS (Transistor.fm): Justin swears in this episode. We're half way through 2019!?! Jon is wondering if donuts are big in Canada. Official Transistor start dates: May 2017: actual incorporation date January 2018: Jon and Justin sign partnership documents August 2018: official launch "Some days I feel like I've been doing  Justin thinks business is a lot like fishing."Transistor's launch has felt different than other products I've been involved with." Jon is debating whether some integrations are worth it: "The nature of the web and APIs are amazing but it sure does take up a lot of resources." ★ Thanks to our sponsors: ProfitWell gives you free subscription metrics for your SaaS. Just plug in your billing system (Stripe, Zuora, Braintree, Chargebee, Recurly are all supported) and get free access to your MRR, churn, cohorts. Sign up for free at profitwell.com. Redash is is a BI tool for people who love SQL. Connect your database, query, visualize and share your data in minutes. Need to report on your weekly goals and metrics? Mention "Build your SaaS podcast" and get 50% off your first 3 months! Sign up at redash.io Show notes: justinjackson.ca/jump Twitter thread about fishing Nieman Lab article on new Apple Podcast desktop app Apple’s original“podcasting on iTunes” announcement You can reply to this podcast here: Leave a comment on Breaker, the podcast app for Android and iPhone. Leave a comment on CastBox, the podcast app for Android and iPhone. Otherwise, get us on Twitter: @transistorfm or email us: [email protected] Thanks to our monthly supporters: Ivan Curkovic Brian Rhea Miguel Piedrafita Shane Smith Austin Loveless Simon Bennett  Corey Haines Michael Sitver Paul Jarvis and Jack Ellis Dan Buda Darby Frey Samori Augusto Dave Young Brad from Canada Kevin Markham Sammy Schuckert Dan Ericson Mike Walker Adam DuVander Dave Giunta (JOOnta) ProfitWell.com Redash.io GetRewardful.com Thanks to our monthly supporters Pascal from sharpen.page Rewardful.com Greg Park Mitchell Davis from RecruitKit.com.au Marcel Fahle, wearebold.af Ethan Gunderson Anton Zorin from ProdCamp.com Bill Condo (@mavrck) Ward from MemberSpace.com Russell Brown from Photivo.com Evandro Sasse Austin Loveless Michael Sitver Fathom Analytics Dan Buda Colin Gray Darby Frey 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 share some honest updates about as they continue to build their SaaS (Transistor.fm): Jon asks: "how do you prioritize with limited resources?" "Working on something for an hour only isn’t really feasible. it takes about 20 minutes just to back into it." Justin is thinking about "the myth of the niche market" This latest revenue update has Jon and Justin scared. 😱 ★ Thanks to our sponsors: Balsamiq is giving a shout out to their ADMIN team members. They are the unsung heroes of any well-run software business, and rarely get any spotlight. Without their tireless work, none of it would be possible. Anna, Joy, Amanda and Natalie: thanks for everything you do. You're the "oil" that keeps our engine running smoothly, but you’re also the oil that completes our Balsamiq dressing! balsamiq.com/company Clubhouse.io: Clubhouse is the first project management platform for software development that brings everyone together. It's designed for developers, but product folks, marketing, support folks love using it. Get two months free: clubhouse.io/build. Show notes: Myth of the niche market Transistor's revenue numbers You can reply to this podcast here: Leave a comment on Breaker, the podcast app for Android and iPhone. Leave a comment on CastBox, the podcast app for Android and iPhone. Otherwise, get us on Twitter: @transistorfm or email us: [email protected] Thanks to our monthly supporters: Ivan Curkovic Brian Rhea Miguel Piedrafita Shane Smith Austin Loveless Simon Bennett  Corey Haines Michael Sitver Paul Jarvis and Jack Ellis Dan Buda Darby Frey Samori Augusto Dave Young Brad from Canada Kevin Markham Sammy Schuckert Dan Ericson Mike Walker Adam DuVander Dave Giunta (JOOnta) Balsamiq.cloud Clubhouse.io GetRewardful.com Thanks to our monthly supporters Pascal from sharpen.page Rewardful.com Greg Park Mitchell Davis from RecruitKit.com.au Marcel Fahle, wearebold.af Ethan Gunderson Anton Zorin from ProdCamp.com Bill Condo (@mavrck) Ward from MemberSpace.com Russell Brown from Photivo.com Evandro Sasse Austin Loveless Michael Sitver Fathom Analytics Dan Buda Colin Gray Darby Frey 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 ★

Happy Two-Four ya hosers! After a Canadian long weekend, Jon and Justin convene to talk about: Justin thinks non-alcoholic drinks are going to be huge. Jon just shipped an update that puts RSS feeds on a CDN. We're still struggling to "find the time" to work on big features. Building things slowly vs BEING IN A RUSH! ★ Thanks to our sponsors: Balsamiq: You can meet the support team at balsamiq.com/support - they're awesome people. Clubhouse.io: Clubhouse is the first project management platform for software development that brings everyone together. It's designed for developers, but product folks, marketing, support folks love using it. Get two months free: clubhouse.io/build. Show notes: Derek Sivers on the Tim Ferris Show sivers.org Derrick Reimer on moving on Art of Product product You can reply to this podcast here: Leave a comment on Breaker, the podcast app for Android and iPhone. Leave a comment on CastBox, the podcast app for Android and iPhone. Otherwise, get us on Twitter: @transistorfm or email us: [email protected] Thanks to our monthly supporters: Ivan Curkovic Brian Rhea Miguel Piedrafita Shane Smith Austin Loveless Simon Bennett  Corey Haines Michael Sitver Paul Jarvis and Jack Ellis Dan Buda Darby Frey Samori Augusto Dave Young Brad from Canada Kevin Markham Sammy Schuckert Dan Ericson Mike Walker Adam DuVander Dave Giunta (JOOnta) Balsamiq.cloud Clubhouse.io GetRewardful.com Thanks to our monthly supporters Pascal from sharpen.page Rewardful.com Greg Park Mitchell Davis from RecruitKit.com.au Marcel Fahle, wearebold.af Ethan Gunderson Anton Zorin from ProdCamp.com Bill Condo (@mavrck) Ward from MemberSpace.com Russell Brown from Photivo.com Evandro Sasse Austin Loveless Michael Sitver Fathom Analytics Dan Buda Colin Gray Darby Frey 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 are wrestling with thoughts about growth: "Our current rate of growth is nice: it feels sustainable." – Justin "It feels less sustainable for me, because I'm working a full-time job." – Jon We’re able to keep up with demand, and enjoy the process. There are all these stories about folks whose companies are growing like crazy. They’re just always adding more people, more process, more stress. Do we want that? Peldi tells this story about starting Balsamiq. He said his launch was like “holding on to a rocket ship with his fingernails.” Some folks would say we should be capturing more of the market. There’s this idea that you can’t be satisfied with what you have. That you have to juice every bit of growth you can. But then you’re building all of these dependencies that you have to keep up even when the market goes down. ★ Thanks to our sponsors: Balsamiq: If you’d like to help in make Balsamiq Wireframes better, and help them shape the future of wireframing, join their Customer Advisory Board at balsamiq.com/support/makeusbetter Clubhouse.io: Clubhouse is the first project management platform for software development that brings everyone together. It's designed for developers, but product folks, marketing, support folks love using it. Get two months free: clubhouse.io/build. Show notes: Greg Wade, the baker that Jon apprenticed with, just won a James Beard award. Peldi's interview on Indie Hackers. Paul Jarvis on growth and sustainability. Bootstrapped Web podcast: Jordan loves building his team. You can reply to this podcast here: Leave a comment on Breaker, the podcast app for Android and iPhone. Leave a comment on CastBox, the podcast app for Android and iPhone. Otherwise, get us on Twitter: @transistorfm or email us: [email protected] Thanks to our monthly supporters: Miguel Piedrafita Shane Smith Austin Loveless Simon Bennett - SnapShooter Corey Haines Michael Sitver Paul Jarvis and Jack Ellis Dan Buda Darby Frey Samori Augusto Dave Young Brad from Canada Kevin Markham Sammy Schuckert Dan Ericson Mike Walker Adam DuVander Dave Giunta (JOOnta) Balsamiq.cloud Clubhouse.io GetRewardful.com Thanks to our monthly supporters Pascal from sharpen.page Rewardful.com Greg Park Mitchell Davis from RecruitKit.com.au Marcel Fahle, wearebold.af Ethan Gunderson Anton Zorin from ProdCamp.com Bill Condo (@mavrck) Ward from MemberSpace.com Russell Brown from Photivo.com Evandro Sasse Austin Loveless Michael Sitver Fathom Analytics Dan Buda Colin Gray Darby Frey 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 are back from Portland and wrestling with ideas, bots, and CMSes: Justin's spouse wants to know why we wouldn't sell for $5 million (and each get $2.5 million) Jon found some bot traffic that we need to eliminate from our analytics, and it's giving him a Postgres headache. Justin is trying a bunch of different CMS options: Vapid, Statamic in an effort to get off WordPress. ★ Thanks to our sponsors: Balsamiq: They make a low-fidelity wireframing tool, specifically geared for non-designers. Get in the zone, and I feel creative right away. Try out their free trial: balsamiq.com Clubhouse.io: Clubhouse is the first project management platform for software development that brings everyone together. It's designed for developers, but product folks, marketing, support folks love using it. Get two months free: clubhouse.io/build. Show notes: Book: Company of One by Paul Jarvis Book: Sourdough a Novel PRX User Agent Dave Zohrob from Chartable Vapid.com JustinJackson.ca (built on Statamic) Statamic.com You can reply to this podcast here: Leave a comment on Breaker, the podcast app for Android and iPhone. Leave a comment on CastBox, the podcast app for Android and iPhone. Otherwise, get us on Twitter: @transistorfm or email us: [email protected] Thanks to our monthly supporters: Miguel Piedrafita Shane Smith Austin Loveless Simon Bennett - SnapShooter Corey Haines Michael Sitver Paul Jarvis and Jack Ellis Dan Buda Darby Frey Samori Augusto Dave Young Brad from Canada Kevin Markham Sammy Schuckert Dan Ericson Mike Walker Adam DuVander Dave Giunta (JOOnta) Balsamiq.cloud Clubhouse.io GetRewardful.com Thanks to our monthly supporters Pascal from sharpen.page Rewardful.com Greg Park Mitchell Davis from RecruitKit.com.au Marcel Fahle, wearebold.af Ethan Gunderson Anton Zorin from ProdCamp.com Bill Condo (@mavrck) Ward from MemberSpace.com Russell Brown from Photivo.com Evandro Sasse Austin Loveless Michael Sitver Fathom Analytics Dan Buda Colin Gray Darby Frey 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 do a founder retreat in Portland with Darby Frey and Shay Howe (Lead Honestly). We hashed out some ideas for: How do you start building a really big feature? What does version 1 of our "dynamic content" feature look like? Setting up Mixpanel: creating event triggers, funnels, and onboarding. ★ Thanks to our sponsors: Balsamiq: They make a low-fidelity wireframing tool, specifically geared for non-designers. Get in the zone, and I feel creative right away. Try out their free trial: balsamiq.com Clubhouse.io: Clubhouse is the first project management platform for software development that brings everyone together. It's designed for developers, but product folks, marketing, support folks love using it. Get two months free: clubhouse.io/build. Show notes: Lead Honestly Photo: We got to hang out with some cool folks in Portland How to host a “tiny” conference How to host a retreat Hiten Shah: "Hiten bombs" article You can reply to this podcast here: Leave a comment on Breaker, the podcast app for Android and iPhone. Leave a comment on CastBox, the podcast app for Android and iPhone. Otherwise, get us on Twitter: @transistorfm or email us: [email protected] Thanks to our monthly supporters: Shane Smith Austin Loveless Simon Bennett - SnapShooter Corey Haines Michael Sitver Paul Jarvis and Jack Ellis Dan Buda Darby Frey Samori Augusto Dave Young Brad from Canada Kevin Markham Sammy Schuckert Dan Ericson Mike Walker Adam DuVander Dave Giunta (JOOnta) Balsamiq.cloud Clubhouse.io GetRewardful.com Thanks to our monthly supporters Pascal from sharpen.page Rewardful.com Greg Park Mitchell Davis from RecruitKit.com.au Marcel Fahle, wearebold.af Ethan Gunderson Anton Zorin from ProdCamp.com Bill Condo (@mavrck) Ward from MemberSpace.com Russell Brown from Photivo.com Evandro Sasse Austin Loveless Michael Sitver Fathom Analytics Dan Buda Colin Gray Darby Frey 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 ★

If you're struggling with pricing your app, listen to this episode! Ben Orenstein, Jordan Gal, Patrick Campbell, and I discussed whether "charge more" is always the right answer.★ Thanks to our sponsors: Balsamiq: They make a low-fidelity wireframing tool, specifically geared for non-designers. Get in the zone, and I feel creative right away. Try out their free trial: balsamiq.com Clubhouse.io: Clubhouse is the first project management platform for software development that brings everyone together. It's designed for developers, but product folks, marketing, support folks love using it. Get two months free: clubhouse.io/build. Show notes: YouTube Live Justin's article: Should we always charge more? Ben Orenstein, Tuple.app Jordan Gal, CartHook Patrick Campbell, Price Intelligently Justin Jackson, Transistor.fm You can reply to this podcast here: Leave a comment on Breaker, the podcast app for Android and iPhone. Leave a comment on CastBox, the podcast app for Android and iPhone. Otherwise, get us on Twitter: @transistorfm or email us: [email protected] Thanks to our monthly supporters: Shane Smith Austin Loveless Simon Bennett - SnapShooter Corey Haines Michael Sitver Paul Jarvis and Jack Ellis Dan Buda Darby Frey Samori Augusto Dave Young Brad from Canada Kevin Markham Sammy Schuckert Dan Ericson Mike Walker Adam DuVander Dave Giunta (JOOnta) Balsamiq.cloud Clubhouse.io GetRewardful.com Thanks to our monthly supporters Pascal from sharpen.page Rewardful.com Greg Park Mitchell Davis from RecruitKit.com.au Marcel Fahle, wearebold.af Ethan Gunderson Anton Zorin from ProdCamp.com Bill Condo (@mavrck) Ward from MemberSpace.com Russell Brown from Photivo.com Evandro Sasse Austin Loveless Michael Sitver Fathom Analytics Dan Buda Colin Gray Darby Frey 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 is away so Justin called up Taylor Otwell, the creator of Laravel. In this episode we covered: How Laravel become the most popular backend framework on GitHub. Surprise! Taylor wasn't really into computers before he created Laravel. What was Taylor's motivation? Why did he create this, even though there were other alternatives? What's Laravel's secret? Why did it succeed? How is Laravel a business? How does it earn revenue? "Before Laravel, there were a lot of programmers that were burnt out on PHP. These folks hated their job. But after Laravel, they enjoyed their job more. It helped them in a personal way."Here's the timeline we discussed: 2010: Taylor starts working on Laravel. 2011: Taylor launched version 1.0 of Laravel. 2013: Taylor launches an ebook 2013: Start working on Forge 2013: First Laracon conference (90 people) 2014: Launches Forge at Laracon (240 people) 2014: after a month he had 1000 customers, $90k / ARR almost right from launch. (He thought it would maybe make $2-$3k / month). Plans started at $10 / month. End of 2014: decided to go full-time on Laravel. 2015: Full-time on Laravel, developed a competitive nature, really driven to see Laravel  2015: Launched Envoyer.io  2016: Launched Spark, as a “SaaS starter kit.” 2016: First full-time employee, Mohamed Said. 2017: Launched Laravel Echo, Passport, Notifications.  2017: Second hire,  2018: Laravel Nova. ★ Thanks to our sponsors: Balsamiq: They make a low-fidelity wireframing tool, specifically geared for non-designers. Get in the zone, and I feel creative right away. Try out their free trial: balsamiq.com Clubhouse.io: Clubhouse is the first project management platform for software development that brings everyone together. It's designed for developers, but product folks, marketing, support folks love using it. Get two months free: clubhouse.io/build. Show notes: Taylor Otwell on Twitter Taylor Otwell's podcast Laravel.com Laracon - the Laravel conference Justin's article: Why many products struggle, and only a few succeed Jeffrey Way and Laracasts Create your own podcast at transistor.fm You can reply to this podcast here: Leave a comment on Breaker, the podcast app for Android and iPhone. Leave a comment on CastBox, the podcast app for Android and iPhone. Otherwise, get us on Twitter: @transistorfm or email us: [email protected] Thanks to our monthly supporters: Simon Bennett - SnapShooter Corey Haines Michael Sitver Paul Jarvis and Jack Ellis Dan Buda Darby Frey Samori Augusto Dave Young Brad from Canada Kevin Markham Sammy Schuckert Dan Ericson Mike Walker Adam DuVander Dave Giunta (JOOnta) Balsamiq.cloud Clubhouse.io GetRewardful.com Thanks to our monthly supporters Pascal from sharpen.page Rewardful.com Greg Park Mitchell Davis from RecruitKit.com.au Marcel Fahle, wearebold.af Ethan Gunderson Anton Zorin from ProdCamp.com Bill Condo (@mavrck) Ward from MemberSpace.com Russell Brown from Photivo.com Evandro Sasse Austin Loveless Michael Sitver Fathom Analytics Dan Buda Colin Gray Darby Frey Dave Giunta Want to start a programming podcast on Transistor? Justin has a special coupon for you: get 15% off your first year of hosting: transistor.fm/justin ★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★

Jon's away! Today I talked to Spencer Fry, from Podia about: How do you find a good startup idea? What are the worst types of companies to start? Should you raise money or bootstrap? Why the target market for your product matters. ★ Thanks to our sponsors: Balsamiq: They make a low-fidelity wireframing tool, specifically geared for non-designers. Get in the zone, and I feel creative right away. Try out their free trial: balsamiq.com Clubhouse.io: Clubhouse is the first project management platform for software development that brings everyone together. It's designed for developers, but product folks, marketing, support folks love using it. Get two months free: clubhouse.io/build. Show notes: Podia.com Carbon Made SpencerFry.com Spencer on Twitter Create your own podcast at transistor.fm You can reply to this podcast here: Leave a comment on Breaker, the podcast app for Android and iPhone. Leave a comment on CastBox, the podcast app for Android and iPhone. Otherwise, get us on Twitter: @transistorfm or email us: [email protected] Thanks to our monthly supporters: Corey Haines Michael Sitver Paul Jarvis and Jack Ellis Dan Buda Darby Frey Samori Augusto Dave Young Brad from Canada Kevin Markham Sammy Schuckert Dan Ericson Mike Walker Adam DuVander Dave Giunta (JOOnta) Balsamiq.cloud Clubhouse.io GetRewardful.com Thanks to our monthly supporters Pascal from sharpen.page Rewardful.com Greg Park Mitchell Davis from RecruitKit.com.au Marcel Fahle, wearebold.af Ethan Gunderson Anton Zorin from ProdCamp.com Bill Condo (@mavrck) Ward from MemberSpace.com Russell Brown from Photivo.com Evandro Sasse Austin Loveless Michael Sitver Fathom Analytics Dan Buda Colin Gray Darby Frey 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 ★

Recorded on April fools day! Here's what we covered: If you're bootstrapping, when should you get a salary? An update on the worst day ever. (We're fine now) A SPECIAL SURPRISE "It feels like there is this convergence in podcasting and I don’t know what to do about it." Anxiety and insecurity about "missing out on better opportunities." ★ Thanks to our sponsors: Balsamiq: They make a low-fidelity wireframing tool, specifically geared for non-designers. Get in the zone, and I feel creative right away. Try out their free trial: balsamiq.com Clubhouse.io: Clubhouse is the first project management platform for software development that brings everyone together. It's designed for developers, but product folks, marketing, support folks love using it. Get two months free: clubhouse.io/build. Show notes: Caddy Server Lets Encrypt Book: Profit First Transistor's SaaS revenue metrics Create your own podcast at transistor.fm You can reply to this podcast here: Leave a comment on Breaker, the podcast app for Android and iPhone. Leave a comment on CastBox, the podcast app for Android and iPhone. Otherwise, get us on Twitter: @transistorfm or email us: [email protected] Thanks to our monthly supporters: Michael Sitver Paul Jarvis and Jack Ellis, Fathom Analytics Dan Buda, danbuda.com Darby Frey Samori Augusto Dave Young Brad from Canada Kevin Markham Sammy Schuckert Dan Ericson Mike Walker Adam DuVander Dave Giunta (JOOnta) Balsamiq.cloud Clubhouse.io GetRewardful.com Thanks to our monthly supporters Pascal from sharpen.page Rewardful.com Greg Park Mitchell Davis from RecruitKit.com.au Marcel Fahle, wearebold.af Ethan Gunderson Anton Zorin from ProdCamp.com Bill Condo (@mavrck) Ward from MemberSpace.com Russell Brown from Photivo.com Evandro Sasse Austin Loveless Michael Sitver Fathom Analytics Dan Buda Colin Gray Darby Frey 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 ★

On Sunday, we had a service outage. Jon and Justin talk about what happened: TLS / SSL day of horror Sunday morning Justin started getting messages from a few Android users that they couldn’t download episodes. Then, the afternoon hits, and we started getting a flood of tweets, DMs, text messages, and support requests. We talk about how we fixed it, and what we'd like to change for next time. Also: how we're earning 29% of our SaaS revenue. (A channel we didn't expect) ★ Thanks to our sponsors: Clubhouse.io: Clubhouse is the first project management platform for software development that brings everyone together. It's designed for developers, but product folks, marketing, support folks love using it. Get two months free: clubhouse.io/build. Balsamiq.cloud: They make a low-fidelity wireframing tool, specifically geared for non-designers. Get in the zone, and I feel creative right away. Try out their free trial: balsamiq.cloud. Show notes: Our status site: status.transistor.fm DHH on service outages DHH's postmortem on Basecamp's outage The affiliate program we use is Rewardful. Create your own podcast at transistor.fm You can reply to this podcast here: Leave a comment on Breaker, the podcast app for Android and iPhone. Leave a comment on CastBox, the podcast app for Android and iPhone. Otherwise, get us on Twitter: @transistorfm or email us: [email protected] Thanks to our monthly supporters: Michael Sitver Paul Jarvis and Jack Ellis, Fathom Analytics Dan Buda, danbuda.com Darby Frey Samori Augusto Dave Young Brad from Canada Kevin Markham Sammy Schuckert Dan Ericson Mike Walker Adam DuVander Dave Giunta (JOOnta) Balsamiq.cloud Clubhouse.io GetRewardful.com Thanks to our monthly supporters Pascal from sharpen.page Rewardful.com Greg Park Mitchell Davis from RecruitKit.com.au Marcel Fahle, wearebold.af Ethan Gunderson Anton Zorin from ProdCamp.com Bill Condo (@mavrck) Ward from MemberSpace.com Russell Brown from Photivo.com Evandro Sasse Austin Loveless Michael Sitver Fathom Analytics Dan Buda Colin Gray Darby Frey 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 ★

Lots of interesting items this week: Justin got a personal message from an NFL player Jon moved everyone over to the new CDN Podcasting has a lot of confusing paradigms for users It took two days of transferring files (just under 1TB) Justin signed up for the Transistor as if he was a customer He live-streamed the whole thing (got tons of good input from live chat) Jon is wondering how we're going to handle hate speech on the platform ★ Thanks to our sponsors: Clubhouse.io: Clubhouse is the first project management platform for software development that brings everyone together. It's designed for developers, but product folks, marketing, support folks love using it. Get two months free: clubhouse.io/build. Balsamiq.cloud: They make a low-fidelity wireframing tool, specifically geared for non-designers. Get in the zone, and I feel creative right away. Try out their free trial: balsamiq.cloud. Show notes: Paul Jarvis got Justin Jackson, from the NFL, to give me a message Dropzone.js S3 accelerate buckets Livestream of Justin signing up for Transistor Article: People on the internet can be mean Create your own podcast at transistor.fm You can reply to this podcast here: Leave a comment on Breaker, the podcast app for Android and iPhone. Leave a comment on CastBox, the podcast app for Android and iPhone. Otherwise, get us on Twitter: @transistorfm or email us: [email protected] Thanks to our monthly supporters: Dan Buda, danbuda.com Darby Frey Samori Augusto Dave Young Brad from Canada Kevin Markham Sammy Schuckert Dan Ericson Mike Walker Adam DuVander Dave Giunta (JOOnta) Balsamiq.cloud Clubhouse.io GetRewardful.com Thanks to our monthly supporters Pascal from sharpen.page Rewardful.com Greg Park Mitchell Davis from RecruitKit.com.au Marcel Fahle, wearebold.af Ethan Gunderson Anton Zorin from ProdCamp.com Bill Condo (@mavrck) Ward from MemberSpace.com Russell Brown from Photivo.com Evandro Sasse Austin Loveless Michael Sitver Fathom Analytics Dan Buda Colin Gray Darby Frey 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 ★

Good stuff this week: Justin wants to know: when's the last time you changed your business' homepage? Jon does a deep dive into Apple's podcasting docs. Justin built a status (uptime) page for Transistor using Tailwind. Jon thinks there is enterprise demand for private podcasts. Justin chats about Startup Kung-Fu. They both chat about specialists vs generalists. ★ Thanks to our sponsors: Clubhouse.io: Clubhouse is the first project management platform for software development that brings everyone together. It's designed for developers, but product folks, marketing, support folks love using it. Get two months free: clubhouse.io/build. Balsamiq.cloud: They make a low-fidelity wireframing tool, specifically geared for non-designers. Get in the zone, and I feel creative right away. Try out their free trial: balsamiq.cloud. Show notes: Adam Wathan, Rebuilding Transistor UI in Tailwind Content blocking in Firefox (they block embedded tweets) Status.Transistor.fm Startup Kung-Fu by Jason Cohen Create your own podcast at transistor.fm You can reply to this podcast here: Leave a comment on Breaker, the podcast app for Android and iPhone. Leave a comment on CastBox, the podcast app for Android and iPhone. Otherwise, get us on Twitter: @transistorfm or email us: [email protected] Thanks to our monthly supporters: Dan Buda, danbuda.com Darby Frey Samori Augusto Dave Young Brad from Canada Kevin Markham Sammy Schuckert Dan Ericson Mike Walker Adam DuVander Dave Giunta (JOOnta) Balsamiq.cloud Clubhouse.io GetRewardful.com Thanks to our monthly supporters Pascal from sharpen.page Rewardful.com Greg Park Mitchell Davis from RecruitKit.com.au Marcel Fahle, wearebold.af Ethan Gunderson Anton Zorin from ProdCamp.com Bill Condo (@mavrck) Ward from MemberSpace.com Russell Brown from Photivo.com Evandro Sasse Austin Loveless Michael Sitver Fathom Analytics Dan Buda Colin Gray Darby Frey 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 ★

Good stuff this week: Jon ran into Myke Hurley at the Cards Against Humanity office. Whether you should work from home or the office. Spotify analytics update in Transistor. How do you feel about "walled gardens?" Sometimes the best plan is to do nothing. Just wait and see what happens. Billing updates for delinquent customers Did someone try to phish us on-air? ★ Thanks to our sponsors: Balsamiq.cloud: They make a low-fidelity wireframing tool, specifically geared for non-designers. Get in the zone, and I feel creative right away. Try out their free trial: balsamiq.cloud. Clubhouse.io: Clubhouse is the first project management platform for software development that brings everyone together. It's designed for developers, but product folks, marketing, support folks love using it. Get two months free: clubhouse.io/build. Show notes: Mac Power Users in Chicago Relay.fm – Myke Hurley's podcast network Uproar over Apple Podcasts episode numbers ChurnBuster blog on dunning Jason Cohen’s Startup Kung-Fu Justin Jackson: How to make money podcasting You can reply to this podcast here: Leave a comment on Breaker, the podcast app for Android and iPhone. Leave a comment on CastBox, the podcast app for Android and iPhone. Otherwise, get us on Twitter: @transistorfm or email us: [email protected] Create your own podcast at transistor.fm Thanks to our monthly supporters: Dan Buda, danbuda.com Darby Frey Samori Augusto Dave Young Brad from Canada Kevin Markham Sammy Schuckert Dan Ericson Mike Walker Adam DuVander Dave Giunta (JOOnta) Balsamiq.cloud Clubhouse.io GetRewardful.com Thanks to our monthly supporters Pascal from sharpen.page Rewardful.com Greg Park Mitchell Davis from RecruitKit.com.au Marcel Fahle, wearebold.af Ethan Gunderson Anton Zorin from ProdCamp.com Bill Condo (@mavrck) Ward from MemberSpace.com Russell Brown from Photivo.com Evandro Sasse Austin Loveless Michael Sitver Fathom Analytics Dan Buda Colin Gray Darby Frey 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 share their progress on: The bandwidth / CDN cost problem (and how it might affect our profitability). Marco Arment: "It would cost them probably thousands of dollars a month in bandwidth and CDN costs to host our show." We made a decision on whether we'll take investment now. (Hats off to Earnest Capital, TinySeed, and Indie.VC for offering such great options!) Should founders use their savings to fund their company? What about credit cards? When should we start hiring people? What about government-funded community loans for startups? ~9% interest. Nathan Barry: "You should get a loan when you don’t need it because once you do it won’t be available." Our accountant might be a socialist. ;) Can you really "build something out of nothing?" ★ Thanks to our sponsors: Alitu.com: Alitu removes all the tech headaches associated with producing your podcast. They take care of processing, editing & publishing your podcast. Go to Alitu.com and check out their video demo. Podcastinsights.com: If you want to get into podcasting, check out Podcast Insights. They’re a great resource for folks who want to start and grow a podcast. Podcast equipment guides, how to make money. Join millions of readers learning all about how to start, grow, and monetize a podcast at podcastinsights.com. Show notes: Marco Arment talks about bandwidth I tested our new CDN on Mike Vardy’s podcast (Twitter video) Earnest Capital TinySeed Indie.vc Government funded loans: BDC and Community Futures in Canada. Nathan Barry on "solving the cash crisis." Everything is a Remix Justin's article: "How startup growth really works." Matt from Supercomputer’s bug report You can reply to this podcast here: Leave a comment on Breaker, the podcast app for Android and iPhone. Leave a comment on CastBox, the podcast app for Android and iPhone. Otherwise, get us on Twitter: @transistorfm or email us: [email protected] Create your own podcast at transistor.fm Thanks to our monthly supporters: Alitu.com Podcastinsights.com GetRewardful.com Dan Buda @danielbuda, danbuda.com Darby Frey Samori Augusto Dave Young Brad from Canada Kevin Markham Sammy Schuckert Dan Ericson Mike Walker Adam DuVander Dave Giunta (JOOnta) Thanks to our monthly supporters Pascal from sharpen.page Rewardful.com Greg Park Mitchell Davis from RecruitKit.com.au Marcel Fahle, wearebold.af Ethan Gunderson Anton Zorin from ProdCamp.com Bill Condo (@mavrck) Ward from MemberSpace.com Russell Brown from Photivo.com Evandro Sasse Austin Loveless Michael Sitver Fathom Analytics Dan Buda Colin Gray Darby Frey 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 are wrestling with some heavy startup founder topics: What should your SaaS company's gross margins be? How much is bandwidth going to cost us? How does it affect our margins? Example: [Account A] does 495,000 downloads in a month, average file size is 8 MB, that’s 3960 GB of bandwidth in a month. If bandwidth is $0.01 per GB, that’s $39.60 just for bandwidth for that one account. And that’s if we can get it that cheap. Otherwise, we’d pay $198 on AWS, or Azure. If we used Google Cloud it’d be $316. The burden of keeping our service up rests on Jon's shoulders. How can we reduce the risk? How can we increase platform resiliency, automation, and improve our internal customer service tools? ★ Thanks to our sponsors: Alitu.com: Alitu removes all the tech headaches associated with producing your podcast. They take care of processing, editing & publishing your podcast. Go to Alitu.com and check out their video demo. Podcastinsights.com: If you want to get into podcasting, check out Podcast Insights. They’re a great resource for folks who want to start and grow a podcast. Podcast equipment guides, how to make money. Join millions of readers learning all about how to start, grow, and monetize a podcast at podcastinsights.com. GetRewardful.com: Guess what? Affiliates is providing almost 30% of our revenue. Rewardful makes it easy for SaaS companies to start an affiliate program on Stripe. Show notes: LeadEdge Capital: “Gross margins for SaaS typically range from 60% to more than 80%." Quora on SaaS gross margins. Most users don't realize how much bandwidth costs (Twitter) An explanation of bandwidth Is 1 GB equal to 1024 MB or 1000 MB? Z-cast closes up shop We're talking to someone at Cloudflare (tweet) Jamie's blog: Implementing Impersonation You can reply to this podcast here: Leave a comment on Breaker, the podcast app for Android and iPhone. Leave a comment on CastBox, the podcast app for Android and iPhone. Otherwise, get us on Twitter: @transistorfm or email us: [email protected] Create your own podcast at transistor.fm Thanks to our monthly supporters: Alitu.com Podcastinsights.com GetRewardful.com Darby Frey Samori Augusto Dave Young Brad from Canada Kevin Markham Sammy Schuckert Dan Ericson Mike Walker Adam DuVander Dave Giunta (JOOnta) Thanks to our monthly supporters Pascal from sharpen.page Rewardful.com Greg Park Mitchell Davis from RecruitKit.com.au Marcel Fahle, wearebold.af Ethan Gunderson Anton Zorin from ProdCamp.com Bill Condo (@mavrck) Ward from MemberSpace.com Russell Brown from Photivo.com Evandro Sasse Austin Loveless Michael Sitver Fathom Analytics Dan Buda Colin Gray Darby Frey 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, the CEO of Chartable, chats with Justin about bootstrapping a startup in the podcast space. We cover: Why Jon and Justin started Transistor Navigating co-founder relationships How to stand out and build a podcast audience in 2019 Our thoughts on Anchor (this was recorded pre-acquisition) This is a re-broadcast of the Chartable Radio podcast.★ Thanks to our sponsors: Alitu.com: Alitu removes all the tech headaches associated with producing your podcast. They take care of processing, editing & publishing your podcast. Go to Alitu.com and check out their video demo. Podcastinsights.com: If you want to get into podcasting, check out Podcast Insights. They’re a great resource for folks who want to start and grow a podcast. Podcast equipment guides, how to make money. Join millions of readers learning all about how to start, grow, and monetize a podcast at podcastinsights.com. Want to podcast in 2019? Transistor is cooking up something special for the new year. Show notes: Podnews on the Spotify deal Nicholas Quah on the Spotify deal National Geographic: Valley of the Boom Apple is investing big in content: they've signed deals with Spielberg, Oprah, Jennifer Anniston.  What do you think? Leave a comment on Breaker, the podcast app for Android and iPhone. Leave a comment on CastBox, the podcast app for Android and iPhone. Otherwise, get us on Twitter: @transistorfm or email us: [email protected] Create your own podcast at transistor.fm Thanks to our monthly supporters: Alitu.com Podcastinsights.com GetRewardful.com Darby Frey Samori Augusto Dave Young Brad from Canada Kevin Markham Sammy Schuckert Dan Ericson Mike Walker Adam DuVander Dave Giunta (JOOnta) Thanks to our monthly supporters Pascal from sharpen.page Rewardful.com Greg Park Mitchell Davis from RecruitKit.com.au Marcel Fahle, wearebold.af Ethan Gunderson Anton Zorin from ProdCamp.com Bill Condo (@mavrck) Ward from MemberSpace.com Russell Brown from Photivo.com Evandro Sasse Austin Loveless Michael Sitver Fathom Analytics Dan Buda Colin Gray Darby Frey 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 episode: Jon and Justin open up about the challenges of bootstrapping "on the side."  How things have gotten harder (in some ways) now that we have customers. Jon is finding it hard to juggle his day job, and getting time to build the "big features." Justin flip-flips back and forth about investment. Would investors and advisors meddle too much? We also discuss the Spotify rumors: buying Gimlet for $200 - $230 million? Also, a theory about why Apple should have made Gimlet an offer. ★ Thanks to our sponsors: Alitu.com: Alitu removes all the tech headaches associated with producing your podcast. They take care of processing, editing & publishing your podcast. Go to Alitu.com and check out their video demo. Podcastinsights.com: If you want to get into podcasting, check out Podcast Insights. They’re a great resource for folks who want to start and grow a podcast. Podcast equipment guides, how to make money. Join millions of readers learning all about how to start, grow, and monetize a podcast at podcastinsights.com. Want to podcast in 2019? Transistor is cooking up something special for the new year. Show notes: Podnews on the Spotify deal Nicholas Quah on the Spotify deal National Geographic: Valley of the Boom Apple is investing big in content: they've signed deals with Spielberg, Oprah, Jennifer Anniston.  What do you think? Leave a comment on Breaker, the podcast app for Android and iPhone. Leave a comment on CastBox, the podcast app for Android and iPhone. Otherwise, get us on Twitter: @transistorfm or email us: [email protected] Create your own podcast at transistor.fm Thanks to our monthly supporters: Alitu.com Podcastinsights.com GetRewardful.com Darby Frey Samori Augusto Dave Young Brad from Canada Kevin Markham Sammy Schuckert Dan Ericson Mike Walker Adam DuVander Dave Giunta (JOOnta) Thanks to our monthly supporters Pascal from sharpen.page Rewardful.com Greg Park Mitchell Davis from RecruitKit.com.au Marcel Fahle, wearebold.af Ethan Gunderson Anton Zorin from ProdCamp.com Bill Condo (@mavrck) Ward from MemberSpace.com Russell Brown from Photivo.com Evandro Sasse Austin Loveless Michael Sitver Fathom Analytics Dan Buda Colin Gray Darby Frey 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 episode, Jon and Justin discuss the golden rule for growing your audience. This could mean: How to get more paying customers for your software product. How to get more followers on Twitter. How to get more podcast listeners. ★ Thanks to our sponsors: Alitu.com: Alitu removes all the tech headaches associated with producing your podcast. They take care of processing, editing & publishing your podcast. Go to Alitu.com and check out their video demo. Podcastinsights.com: If you want to get into podcasting, check out Podcast Insights. They’re a great resource for folks who want to start and grow a podcast. Podcast equipment guides, how to make money. Join millions of readers learning all about how to start, grow, and monetize a podcast at podcastinsights.com. Want to podcast in 2019? Transistor is cooking up something special for the new year. Show notes: Read this episode as a blog post! On Reddit: “Tips for increasing Twitter followers?” Steve Schoger’s design tips on Twitter Carbon: cool tool for devs to use to share programming screenshots. What do you think? Leave a comment on Breaker, the podcast app for Android and iPhone. Leave a comment on CastBox, the podcast app for Android and iPhone. Otherwise, get us on Twitter: @transistorfm or email us: [email protected] Create your own podcast at transistor.fm Thanks to our Patreon supporters: Alitu.com Darby Frey Samori Augusto Dave Young Brad from Canada Kevin Markham Sammy Schuckert Dan Ericson Mike Walker Adam DuVander Dave Giunta (JOOnta) Podcastinsights.com Thanks to our monthly supporters Pascal from sharpen.page Rewardful.com Greg Park Mitchell Davis from RecruitKit.com.au Marcel Fahle, wearebold.af Ethan Gunderson Anton Zorin from ProdCamp.com Bill Condo (@mavrck) Ward from MemberSpace.com Russell Brown from Photivo.com Evandro Sasse Austin Loveless Michael Sitver Fathom Analytics Dan Buda Colin Gray Darby Frey 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 episode Jon and Justin discuss talk about how you should think about your software product's competition.Why you shouldn’t focus on the competition It’s a distraction. The main point by many folks is: “when you focus too much on the competition, it means you’re not focusing enough on your customers.” It causes anxiety.“Last summer, I stopped[reading industry news]. I had just reached the point at which I could feel an unhealthy level of toxicity piling up inside of me. I felt myself getting too involved, too absorbed, and a bit too anxious about what I was missing, and about what I knew or didn't know, but thought I should know. I was checking Twitter too often and reloading sites too often. If someone told me about something I hadn't heard of, I felt like I should have already known about it. Industry news was becoming an addiction.” - Jason Fried It’s too tempting to copy features. “Copying skips understanding. Understanding is how you grow. You have to understand why something works or why something is how it is. When you copy it, you miss that. You just repurpose the last layer instead of understanding all the layers underneath.” – Jason Fried It can lead to feature creep. company A is doing this, company B is doing that, so let’s do them all. also, paralyzing indecision and no real thought about why you’d be building a feature. “I wouldn’t advocate spending much time worrying about the competition — you really shouldn’t waste attention worrying about things you can’t control — but if it helps make the point relatable, the best way to beat the competition is to last longer than they do.” – Jason FriedWhy you should focus on the competition It’s a way of understanding your customers. You should be aware of why customers are choosing (or not choosing) the competition.  It’s more competitive now. I wrote a post about this.  “It's getting more expensive to build SaaS companies and exits are weak.” Mattermark, 2016. “We're not building these basic CRUD apps like we used to be able to. The stuff's too competitive now.” – Rob Walling. "No one wants to admit it, but the old ‘your product must be 10x better than existing solutions’ trope is dead. I think this is one of the most hostile times for startups that we’ve had, really. Products are better, and competition is enormous." – Zach Holman It’s a way of revealing opportunities. “Everybody's drilling for oil in the same spot because some other guy found oil there already.” – Nick Quah. What’s everyone else missing? Where’s the untapped well? You’re stealing time, attention, and money from somebody, and it’s not always who you think!(Article) When Uber launched, they stole customers from the taxi industry. When the iPhone launched, Apple took customers from Kodak and the film industry. How to think about the competition SWOT. What are their strengths? What are their weaknesses? What are their opportunities? What are their threats? Do SWOT on yourself too! User interviews. One of the best ways to do user research is to interview folks who are actively using the competition! What brought them to start using it? How’d they find it? What was going on in their life at that time? Why do they keep using it? When people switch. If people switch away from you to a competitor, that’s a great time to ask questions. "The only two people who can give you real feedback about your product are people who just purchased it and people who just canceled.” – Jason Fried Think about how you can outlast them. What are practices you can put in place that will help you outlast the competition? “Whenever a startup goes out of business, the first thing I get curious about are their costs, not their revenues.” – Jason Fried Figure out how you can make things easier.How can you make your app easier to use than the competition? Look for unmet desires. What are the unmet needs of users using competitors’ products? Search Twitter, support forums, etc for instances of people complaining. What are they complaining about? ★ Thanks to our sponsors: Alitu.com: Alitu removes all the tech headaches associated with producing your podcast. They take care of processing, editing & publishing your podcast. Go to Alitu.com and check out their video demo. Podcastinsights.com: If you want to get into podcasting, check out Podcast Insights. They’re a great resource for folks who want to start and grow a podcast. Podcast equipment guides, how to make money. Join millions of readers learning all about how to start, grow, and monetize a podcast at podcastinsights.com. Want to podcast in 2019? Transistor is cooking up something special for the new year. Show notes: Val Sopi's new startup: Claritask Podnews on Anchor and "podfading" Worrying about the competition is pointless How much should a startup worry about the competition? Seriously don’t worry about the competition How to think about startup competition Why I don’t stress about the competition  Does bootstrapping make you worry about the competition? Why reading about your competitors will hurt your business? Why you shouldn’t copy Basecamp How to outlast the competition Competing on easy When you’re building a product, whose opinion should you listen to? Why many products struggle, but only a few succeed. Who are you stealing from? Book: Creative Selection Marie Poulin on Notion Netflix is more worried about Fortnite What do you think? Leave a comment on Breaker, the podcast app for Android and iPhone. Leave a comment on CastBox, the podcast app for Android and iPhone. Otherwise, get us on Twitter: @transistorfm or email us: [email protected] Create your own podcast at transistor.fm Thanks to our Patreon supporters: Alitu.com Darby Frey Samori Augusto Dave Young (new) Brad from Canada Kevin Markham Sammy Schuckert Brand Shouter Mike Walker Adam DuVander Dave Giunta (JOOnta) Podcastinsights.com Thanks to our monthly supporters Pascal from sharpen.page Rewardful.com Greg Park Mitchell Davis from RecruitKit.com.au Marcel Fahle, wearebold.af Ethan Gunderson Anton Zorin from ProdCamp.com Bill Condo (@mavrck) Ward from MemberSpace.com Russell Brown from Photivo.com Evandro Sasse Austin Loveless Michael Sitver Fathom Analytics Dan Buda Colin Gray Darby Frey 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 received some product marketing questions from Nirav Mehta:  How to get the word out about your SaaS? Should you pursue partnerships? How can you get distribution for your software product? What marketing channels work best? Build anticipation before you launchOne big opportunity many folks miss is building up anticipation before they launch. Examples: Adam Wathan and Steve Schoger shared design tips on Twitter and on their blog for 6 months before they released their book, Refactoring UI. Derick Reimer allowed people to “Claim their username” for Level.App before he launched. So far 5,787 people have registered. Ben Orenstein talked about Tuple.app, his new product, on podcasts for months before they launched.  Build a reputation for being helpful Adam, Steve, Derrick, and Ben also have something else in common: they were consistently helpful to their respective audiences for years before they launched anything. Being helpful now, in forums, on Twitter, in podcasts, on your blog, in your mailing list, at conferences, at meetups, in email, is an investment in your future. It’s an advantage that can’t be easily copied or replicated. Bake SEO into everything you do The most underrated, and often under-pursued, grow strategy is investing in Search Engine Optimization. “SEO is the biggest growth lever that you have and it's something that you should prioritize." - Ryan Hoover, Product Hunt” Think about it, when people have a desire to solve a problem, what do they do? They Google it! If your product is the answer to people’s question, you want to make sure they can find it on Google.  Quick SEO tips:  Explore what questions are asking on: Answerthepublic.com. Use a tools like Ahrefs.com on your competitors’ sites! See what keywords people are using to find their site, and what their most popular pages are. Make sure you have Google Search Console set up for your website. They have a new “Performance Report” that will show you what keywords people are using to find your site, and where you could rank better. Focus on what matters on each page: Main title - should feature the focus keywords, preferably at the beginning of the title. Subheader or first paragraph – expanded description, should also feature the focus keywords. Alt text in images – alt text was designed to show text when an image is not loading properly, or if someone has to use a screen reader. This text is read by Google as any other content. Meta description – a short, concise (usually 300 characters or less) description of a webpage, shown in search results. Keep a document on “blog post title ideas.” For example, I can see, through all my research, that “podcast distribution” is a good keyword combination to pursue. So I could write a blog post with the title: “Podcast distribution made easy - 5 steps.” Write these authoritative guide on a topic. Ben Orenstein noticed that there weren’t any good pair programming guides, so he wrote one! http://learntopair.com. These guides typically get shared a lot, which means you’ll get high quality backlinks to your site (which is important for SEO). People will also search for “[competitor name] alternatives.” Those are great keywords to target. The big list of marketing channels: Ads: Facebook Ads, Adwords, LinkedIn ads, etc.  Partnerships: finding influencers that have a similar audience to you, and cross-promoting SEO: getting backlinks to your landing page from other sites, and ranking for certain keywords Content marketing: blogging, infographics, viral videos Platform marketing: engaging in Facebook Groups, on forums, in comments threads Direct mail: sending your prospects stickers, postcards, or letters by post Events: attending tradeshows, conferences, and meetups and handing out business cards (or other swag) with your website address Things to remember: Marketing doesn't work like a jackpot. You're not going to hit that "one thing" that works and creates an avalanche of sales. Instead of "putting it all on black," it'd be better for you to diversify your marketing investments: you'll get customers from a variety of channels and tactics Marketing is a lot like physical fitness. Small gains every week give you biggest gains in the long term. It's like hitting the gym once on January 1st and expecting to look like Arnold Schwartnegger. You've got to do something every week to get good results overall. Last: for many of you, marketing is a big, hairy, ugly problem. And what's the best way to deal with a big overwhelming problem? Break it into smaller pieces. ★ Thanks to our sponsors: Alitu.com: Alitu removes all the tech headaches associated with producing your podcast. They take care of processing, editing & publishing your podcast. Go to Alitu.com and check out their video demo. Podcastinsights.com: If you want to get into podcasting, check out Podcast Insights. They’re a great resource for folks who want to start and grow a podcast. Podcast equipment guides, how to make money. Join millions of readers learning all about how to start, grow, and monetize a podcast at podcastinsights.com. Want to podcast in 2019? Transistor is cooking up something special for the new year. Show notes: SEO for Hackers – my course on search engine optimization. join.megamaker.co/seo SEO for the Rest of Us – a new course by Brendan Hufford Mastering SEO – a course by Matt G. Free Keyword Content Planner – Google Sheets Yoast – if you’re doing SEO on WordPress, you need this plugin. What do you think? Leave a comment on Breaker, the podcast app for Android and iPhone. Leave a comment on CastBox, the podcast app for Android and iPhone. Otherwise, get us on Twitter: @transistorfm or email us: [email protected] Create your own podcast at transistor.fm Thanks to our Patreon supporters: Alitu.com Darby Frey Samori Augusto Dave Young (new) Brad from Canada Kevin Markham Sammy Schuckert Brand Shouter Mike Walker Adam DuVander Dave Giunta (JOOnta) Podcastinsights.com Thanks to our monthly supporters Pascal from sharpen.page Rewardful.com Greg Park Mitchell Davis from RecruitKit.com.au Marcel Fahle, wearebold.af Ethan Gunderson Anton Zorin from ProdCamp.com Bill Condo (@mavrck) Ward from MemberSpace.com Russell Brown from Photivo.com Evandro Sasse Austin Loveless Michael Sitver Fathom Analytics Dan Buda Colin Gray Darby Frey 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 Buda and Justin Jackson make predictions for the tech industry, the podcasting space, and the startup ecosystem.Predictions for 2019 There will be a global economic downturn. Companies will be looking for more affordable marketing spend. Brands that don't have a strong relationship with their audience will lose. This could be increase the number of companies who invest in podcasting. Audio is still a "good deal" compared to other communication channels. Related: will we see the big “5” (Squarespace, etc) advertising less? 2019 will be the year of non-gaming livestreaming. More programmers, business people, podcasters will be livestreaming. Plus: more audio-livestreaming. Related: Podcasting without editing will become more popular. No intro music. Just recorded live with an outline, and published immediately. Podcasting will grow to 800,000 shows. (Currently ~619,000 in Apple Podcasts) In 2018 Spotify went from 10-25% marketshare of the podcast player market. I think it will grow again to 35%. (Justin admits he was wrong about this tweet). Continued focus on "mindful technology." Very possible that iPhone will have a "dumb phone" mode: only texting, phone calls, and GPS. All other apps will disappear from your homescreen when enabled.  Smart speakers will not have a big effect on podcast consumption. I think they will become more popular, but I don’t see people using them to listen to podcasts. (These folks think it will be big, I disagree. Currently 1% of listenership)  Apple is going to make a big media move to challenge Netflix and Amazon Prime Video. It will finally break iTunes apart on desktop. Maybe we'll see a standalone desktop Apple Podcasts app? More branded podcasts and production companies. (example) Dynamic content (outside of advertising) will be bigger. More traditional media brands will buy podcast related IP. Podcasts turning into → TV shows. For example: Homecoming on Amazon Video. ★ Thanks to our sponsors: Alitu.com: Alitu removes all the tech headaches associated with producing your podcast. They take care of processing, editing & publishing your podcast. Go to Alitu.com and check out their video demo. Podcastinsights.com: If you want to get into podcasting, check out Podcast Insights. They’re a great resource for folks who want to start and grow a podcast. Podcast equipment guides, how to make money. Join millions of readers learning all about how to start, grow, and monetize a podcast at podcastinsights.com. Want to podcast in 2019? Transistor is cooking up something special for the new year. Show notes: CleanIn2019.com Atomic Habits - Identity Ben Orenstein interview on Product People Fast Company: Dumb phone SSL for all Transistor users! We used Caddy Server for our SSL implementation What do you think? Leave a comment on Breaker, the podcast app for Android and iPhone. Leave a comment on CastBox, the podcast app for Android and iPhone. Otherwise, get us on Twitter: @transistorfm or email us: [email protected] Create your own podcast at transistor.fm Thanks to our Patreon supporters: Alitu.com Darby Frey Samori Augusto Dave Young (new) Brad from Canada Kevin Markham Sammy Schuckert Brand Shouter Mike Walker Adam DuVander Dave Giunta (JOOnta) Podcastinsights.com Thanks to our monthly supporters Pascal from sharpen.page Rewardful.com Greg Park Mitchell Davis from RecruitKit.com.au Marcel Fahle, wearebold.af Ethan Gunderson Anton Zorin from ProdCamp.com Bill Condo (@mavrck) Ward from MemberSpace.com Russell Brown from Photivo.com Evandro Sasse Austin Loveless Michael Sitver Fathom Analytics Dan Buda Colin Gray Darby Frey 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 episode, we talk about the different types of customers for a SaaS: B to C: selling to consumers. Here, we'd think of products and services like Verizon, iPhone apps, etc... B to Prosumer: selling to prosumers. Prosumers are power users; serious hobbyists. Sometimes, they earn a bit of money from their hobby. Examples: a photographer who shoots a few weddings a year, a painter who sells a few paintings on the side, or a podcaster who has a few supporters on Patreon. B to Aspirational: selling to aspirational business owners. Rob Walling uses Pat Flynn's "Smart Passive Income" audience as an example. Sometimes called "wantrepreneurs," these are folks who are willing to invest money in their business startup.  B to very small business: selling to solopreneurs, or teams of 2-3. B to small business: this is selling to regular small businesses. Loosely defined as teams of 10-100. B to enterprise: depending on the industry, "enterprise" might mean any company with more than 250 people. However, "large enterprise" is probably 5,000+. ★ Thanks to our sponsors: Alitu.com: Alitu removes all the tech headaches associated with producing your podcast. They take care of processing, editing & publishing your podcast. Go to Alitu.com and check out their video demo. Podcastinsights.com: If you want to get into podcasting, check out Podcast Insights. They’re a great resource for folks who want to start and grow a podcast. Podcast equipment guides, how to make money. Join millions of readers learning all about how to start, grow, and monetize a podcast at podcastinsights.com. Want to podcast in 2019? Transistor is cooking up something special for the new year. Show notes: Startups for the Rest of Us: 421 Jason Cohen interview on Product People: 98 Transistor's revenue numbers are public Mike Vardy's podcast Taylor Jackson's photography podcast Jason Resnick's podcast Matt's Bet on the Web show for Ionic Cards Against Humanity's podcast Drift's podcast ProfitWell's podcast Podcast2019.com What do you think? Leave a comment on Breaker, the podcast app for Android and iPhone. Leave a comment on CastBox, the podcast app for Android and iPhone. Otherwise, get us on Twitter: @transistorfm or email us: [email protected] Create your own podcast at transistor.fm Thanks to our Patreon supporters: Alitu.com Samori Augusto Mike Walker Brad (from Canada) Darby Frey Kevin Markham Adam Duvander Dan Ericson Sammy Schuckert Dave Giunta (JOOnta) Podcastinsights.com Thanks to our monthly supporters Pascal from sharpen.page Rewardful.com Greg Park Mitchell Davis from RecruitKit.com.au Marcel Fahle, wearebold.af Ethan Gunderson Anton Zorin from ProdCamp.com Bill Condo (@mavrck) Ward from MemberSpace.com Russell Brown from Photivo.com Evandro Sasse Austin Loveless Michael Sitver Fathom Analytics Dan Buda Colin Gray Darby Frey 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 gets interviewed by Harry Duran on the Podcast Junkies show, and answers questions about: Is podcasting really having it's moment now? Is now a good time to invest in the podcasting industry? How is Transistor going to be different than other competitors? Who should be starting podcasts right now? Can anyone be a podcaster? Is podcasting a "mindful technology?" ★ Thanks to our two sponsors: Alitu.com: Alitu removes all the tech headaches associated with producing your podcast. They take care of processing, editing & publishing your podcast. Go to Alitu.com and check out their video demo. Podcastinsights.com: If you want to get into podcasting, check out Podcast Insights. They’re a great resource for folks who want to start and grow a podcast. Podcast equipment guides, how to make money. Join millions of readers learning all about how to start, grow, and monetize a podcast at podcastinsights.com. Show notes: Podcast Junkies Product People (Justin's first show) Ira Glass and Alex Blumberg on Without Fail Matt's Bet on the Web show for Ionic What do you think? Leave a comment on Breaker, the podcast app for Android and iPhone. Leave a comment on CastBox, the podcast app for Android and iPhone. Otherwise, get us on Twitter: @transistorfm or email us: [email protected] Create your own podcast at transistor.fm Thanks to our Patreon supporters: Alitu.com Samori Augusto Mike Walker Brad (from Canada) Darby Frey Kevin Markham Adam Duvander Dave Giunta (JOOnta) Podcastinsights.com Thanks to our monthly supporters Pascal from sharpen.page Rewardful.com Greg Park Mitchell Davis from RecruitKit.com.au Marcel Fahle, wearebold.af Ethan Gunderson Anton Zorin from ProdCamp.com Bill Condo (@mavrck) Ward from MemberSpace.com Russell Brown from Photivo.com Evandro Sasse Austin Loveless Michael Sitver Fathom Analytics Dan Buda Colin Gray Darby Frey 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 episode Jon talks about why he decided to partner with Justin (even though he'd already built the product).★ Thanks to our two sponsors: Alitu.com: Alitu removes all the tech headaches associated with producing your podcast. They take care of processing, editing & publishing your podcast. Go to Alitu.com and check out their video demo. Podcastinsights.com: If you want to get into podcasting, check out Podcast Insights. They’re a great resource for folks who want to start and grow a podcast. Podcast equipment guides, how to make money. Join millions of readers learning all about how to start, grow, and monetize a podcast at podcastinsights.com. Show notes: New Yorker: The friendship that made Google huge Article: Why you need a cofounder Cards Against Humanity's 99% percent off sale Duchess Bakeshop Hogwarts Castle Hogwarts Castle on Reddit We are on Baremetrics Open Startups Tool: Chartable lets you see podcast charts Conan Needs a Friend What do you think? Leave a comment on Breaker, the podcast app for Android and iPhone. Leave a comment on CastBox, the podcast app for Android and iPhone. Otherwise, get us on Twitter: @transistorfm or email us: [email protected] Create your own podcast at transistor.fm Thanks to our Patreon supporters: Alitu.com Samori Augusto Mike Walker Brad (from Canada) Darby Frey Kevin Markham Adam Duvander Dave Giunta (JOOnta) Podcastinsights.com Thanks to our monthly supporters Pascal from sharpen.page Rewardful.com Greg Park Mitchell Davis from RecruitKit.com.au Marcel Fahle, wearebold.af Ethan Gunderson Anton Zorin from ProdCamp.com Bill Condo (@mavrck) Ward from MemberSpace.com Russell Brown from Photivo.com Evandro Sasse Austin Loveless Michael Sitver Fathom Analytics Dan Buda Colin Gray Darby Frey 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 ★

How did you split equity in Transistor? How do I start a podcast? How do you say Adam's name?★ Thanks to our sponsor: podcastinsights.comIf you want to get into podcasting, check out Podcast Insights. They’re a great resource for folks who want to start and grow a podcast.Show notes: Episode 2: How to find a cofounder Place to buy a startup: Flippa and Empire Flippers Justin’s article: How to make a podcast Video: Creating a podcast from nothing Podcastinsights.com Tool: Chartable lets you see podcast charts Microphone: Audio-Technica ATR2100-USB Pop filter: Find one that will work with your mic. This one is a good start. Headphones: Sennheiser HD 202 II Editing software: Garage Band or Screenflow (for Mac) and Audacity (for PC) Cover art: Canva or Snappa What do you think? Leave a comment on Breaker, the podcast app for Android and iPhone. Leave a comment on CastBox, the podcast app for Android and iPhone. Leave a comment on Tung.fm Otherwise, get us on Twitter: @transistorfm or email us: [email protected] Create your own podcast at transistor.fm Thanks to our Patreon supporters: Colin Gray Samori Augusto Mike Walker Brad (from Canada) Darby Frey Kevin Markham Adam Duvander Dave Giunta (JOOnta) Podcastinsights.com Thanks to our monthly supporters Pascal from sharpen.page Rewardful.com Greg Park Mitchell Davis from RecruitKit.com.au Marcel Fahle, wearebold.af Ethan Gunderson Anton Zorin from ProdCamp.com Bill Condo (@mavrck) Ward from MemberSpace.com Russell Brown from Photivo.com Evandro Sasse Austin Loveless Michael Sitver Fathom Analytics Dan Buda Colin Gray Darby Frey 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 ★

Why do you want to start a podcast? Grow your business:  Get more clients – Nate TechNest Real Estate Brand / PR – Drift Seeking Wisdom Grow your audience: Matt and Alex with Supercomputer Get ad sponsorships: you'll need a really big audience for this (30,000+ downloads per episode) Patreon: you'll need a fairly large audience (Taylor Jackson has 160,000 YouTube subscribers) Sell your own products / services: in addition to ads, Adam Wathan promotes his course on his podcast Connect with your audience: Taylor Jackson Photography Increase social proof. Identify yourself as an expert. Contribute to a community, or industry, or culture: Ashley Baxter’s Bootstrapping Digest Put your POV out in the world: Rework, Good News Podcast Ideas on how you can use your podcast to reach your goals: Private feed just for your team / employees Q&A: get users, customers, audience to leave you a voicemail. Answer 1 question per week. Interview your customers: interview 1 customer per week. Ask them about their business, how they’re using your product. Expert tips: if you’re a professional (lawyer, accountant, coach), give your listeners an actionable piece of advice every week. Give them one thing to improve every week. Read your blog posts: already writing a blog post ever week? Just read it “audible” style for your audience. Recycle your best talks / videos. Conferences: give attendees a private feed of all the talks! Share your journey. Show notes: The 8 types of podcast formats Leave us a question at transistor.fm/voicemail. We will answer those next week during American Thanksgiving show. Create a podcast for your employees What do you think? Leave a comment on Breaker, the podcast app for Android and iPhone. Leave a comment on CastBox, the podcast app for Android and iPhone. Leave a comment on Tung.fm Otherwise, get us on Twitter: @transistorfm or email us: [email protected] Create your own podcast at transistor.fm Thanks to our Patreon supporters: Colin Gray – Alitu.com Samori Augusto Mike Walker Brad (from Canada) Darby Frey Kevin Markham Adam Duvander Dave Giunta (JOOnta) Thanks to our monthly supporters Pascal from sharpen.page Rewardful.com Greg Park Mitchell Davis from RecruitKit.com.au Marcel Fahle, wearebold.af Ethan Gunderson Anton Zorin from ProdCamp.com Bill Condo (@mavrck) Ward from MemberSpace.com Russell Brown from Photivo.com Evandro Sasse Austin Loveless Michael Sitver Fathom Analytics Dan Buda Colin Gray Darby Frey 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 respond to the new funding options available for bootstrappers, mainly Earnest Capital.The GP, Tyler Tringas, told us what types of companies he's looking to invest in: Organic customer acquisition channels Low levels of structural churn (ready to stay customers for a long period of time) Founder is a good fit Product launched and has revenue In a space that Tyler feels comfortable with They're looking for a 3x-5x return from their investment; which they'll take from founder earnings. (Read more about that here)Show notes: Underground gangsters cave in Austin, TX Article: New forms of funding for bootstrappers Buffer buying out investors DHH on Earnest Capital Indie VC: companies we invest in grow way faster DHH tweet on paying meager salaries Earnest Capital Tyler Tringas' introductory blog post YouTube Livestream Indie.vc Tiny Seed Fund What do you think? Leave a comment on Breaker, the podcast app for Android and iPhone. Leave a comment on CastBox, the podcast app for Android and iPhone. Leave a comment on Tung.fm Otherwise, get us on Twitter: @transistorfm or email us: [email protected] Create your own podcast at transistor.fm Thanks to our Patreon supporters: Samori Augusto - thebicrowd.com Mike Walker Brad (from Canada) Darby Frey Kevin Markham Adam Duvander Dave Giunta Thanks to our monthly supporters Pascal from sharpen.page Rewardful.com Greg Park Mitchell Davis from RecruitKit.com.au Marcel Fahle, wearebold.af Ethan Gunderson Anton Zorin from ProdCamp.com Bill Condo (@mavrck) Ward from MemberSpace.com Russell Brown from Photivo.com Evandro Sasse Austin Loveless Michael Sitver Fathom Analytics Dan Buda Colin Gray Darby Frey 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 ★

Tyler Tringas recently announced Earnest Capital; a new way for bootstrappers to raise money for their startups. Should Jon and Justin consider this type of funding for Transistor?What do you think? Leave a comment on Breaker, the podcast app for Android and iPhone. Leave a comment on CastBox, the podcast app for Android and iPhone. Leave a comment on Tung.fm Otherwise, get us on Twitter: @transistorfm or email us: [email protected] Create your own podcast at transistor.fm Show notes: Earnest Capital Tyler Tringas' introductory blog post YouTube Livestream Indie.vc Tiny Seed Fund Thanks to our Patreon supporters: Mike Walker Brad from Canada Darby Frey Kevin Markham Adam Duvander Dave Giunta Thanks to our monthly supporters Pascal from sharpen.page Rewardful.com Greg Park Mitchell Davis from RecruitKit.com.au Marcel Fahle, wearebold.af Ethan Gunderson Anton Zorin from ProdCamp.com Bill Condo (@mavrck) Ward from MemberSpace.com Russell Brown from Photivo.com Evandro Sasse Austin Loveless Michael Sitver Fathom Analytics Dan Buda Colin Gray Darby Frey 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 ★

How much does it cost to run a SaaS in 2018? We take a look at our bootstrap expenses.Every business accrues monthly expenses. The danger? Business owners can get in the habit of spending money, believing that "you gotta spend money to make money."Transistor's expenses Start up: Logo and branding: $2,500  Stripe Atlas: $500 Legal: $366.45   Monthly expenses: Editing: $320 / month AWS: $300 / month Media: $60 / month Yearly expenses: Domain: $100 / year Incorporation: $200 / year Accounting: $2k / year What do you think? Leave a comment on Breaker, the podcast app for Android and iPhone. Leave a comment on CastBox, the podcast app for Android and iPhone. Leave a comment on Tung.fm Otherwise, get us on Twitter: @transistorfm or email us: [email protected] Create your own podcast at transistor.fm Show notes: Patio11's reply to Justin's tweet: "It is far, far, far easier to create something that will increase the revenue of your business by $200 a month than it is to squeeze $200 out of the expenses." Our branding designer is Dylan Wells. Thang Pham Thanks to our Patreon supporters: Brad from Canada Darby Frey Kevin Markham Adam Duvander Dave Giunta Thanks to our monthly supporters Pascal from sharpen.page Rewardful.com Greg Park Mitchell Davis from RecruitKit.com.au Marcel Fahle, wearebold.af Ethan Gunderson Anton Zorin from ProdCamp.com Bill Condo (@mavrck) Ward from MemberSpace.com Russell Brown from Photivo.com Evandro Sasse Austin Loveless Michael Sitver Fathom Analytics Dan Buda Colin Gray Darby Frey 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 ★

If you used computers in the 80s and 90s you're going to love this episode. Apple IIe in the school computer lab The original Macintosh "I wanted an Amiga so bad!" The BBS scene: Wildcat, Roboboard/FX, being a SySop Compuserve and AOL Tandy 1000, 386, 486, building your own Pentium Fave games: Commander Keen, King’s Quest, Wolfenstein, Doom, Duke Nukem, Raptor, Apogee Games Our first websites: high school swim team website, snowboarding website (with a guestbook) Our first computer businesses It's a fun one. ;)What do you think? Leave a comment on Breaker, the podcast app for Android and iPhone. Leave a comment on CastBox, the podcast app for Android and iPhone. Leave a comment on Tung.fm Otherwise, get us on Twitter: @transistorfm or email us: [email protected] Create your own podcast at transistor.fm Show notes: PC Magazine: the forgotten world of BBS door games  Jon’s first computer: Compuadd Justin posted this on a usenet group in 1994: Absolute Future BBS! Justin’s first web company: Mediahead Productions Jon’s first web company: Creatively Aware Jon’s TV recommendation: Halt and Catch Fire (NY Times review) Thanks to our Patreon supporters: Darby Frey Kevin Markham Adam Duvander Dave Giunta Thanks to our monthly supporters Pascal from sharpen.page Rewardful.com Greg Park Mitchell Davis from RecruitKit.com.au Marcel Fahle, wearebold.af Ethan Gunderson Anton Zorin from ProdCamp.com Bill Condo (@mavrck) Ward from MemberSpace.com Russell Brown from Photivo.com Evandro Sasse Austin Loveless Michael Sitver Fathom Analytics Dan Buda Colin Gray Darby Frey 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 ★

Here we are at episode 30! Just found this old 2012 interview with the founder of MailChimp, before they became a $4.2 billion company. This quotes is awesome:Back in 2001, we had multiple customers who needed help sending their email newsletters. They were using really big, expensive, bloated software. We had some “scrap code” lying around, so we modified the code and turned it into an email newsletter app for them. We opened it up to the public, set up some Google Adwords, and basically forgot about it. Then, in 2005, we noticed it was a better business than our web-dev agency so we decided to take all of 2006 to wind down the agency business and beef up MailChimp’s features. We officially hit the “reset button” in 2007 and became a product company.More recently, MailChimp was in Forbes:Ben Chestnut and his cofounder, Dan Kurzius, have both profited richly from their patience. With $600 million in revenue, Mailchimp is in the black and has more than doubled its estimated valuation to $4.2 billion in the last two years, giving Chestnut, 44, and Kurzius, 46, its sole owners, stakes worth $2.1 billion each.Even more interesting for us:Mailchimp, launched in 2001 and remained a side project for several years, earning a few thousand dollars a month. Then in 2007, when it hit 10,000 users, the two decided to commit full-time. This was the part that surprised me: MailChimp was a side-project for 6 years (earning just a few thousand to start).Especially interesting in light of this DHH quote I shared in a previous episode:If it takes five years to get to the point where the business can pay two salaries, it's possible that the business isn't destined for that long-term.Bootstrappers need to be more patient! (And maybe keep their day job)What do you think? Leave a comment on Breaker, the podcast app for Android and iPhone. Leave a comment on CastBox, the podcast app for Android and iPhone. Leave a comment on Tung.fm Otherwise, get us on Twitter: @transistorfm or email us: [email protected] Create your own podcast at transistor.fm Show notes: MailChimp in Forbes Magazine Bill Irwin’s tweet An interview with Ben Chestnut We can still do a lot to slow climate change.  DHH: why is We Work promoting burnout? ProfitWell Engage Good News Podcast Thanks to our Patreon supporters: Darby Frey – LeadHonestly.com  Kevin Markham Adam Duvander Dave Giunta Thanks to our monthly supporters Pascal from sharpen.page Rewardful.com Greg Park Mitchell Davis from RecruitKit.com.au Marcel Fahle, wearebold.af Ethan Gunderson Anton Zorin from ProdCamp.com Bill Condo (@mavrck) Ward from MemberSpace.com Russell Brown from Photivo.com Evandro Sasse Austin Loveless Michael Sitver Fathom Analytics Dan Buda Colin Gray Darby Frey 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 ★

After one failed attempt, we're back with a new episode. Sorry it's late!"We, as the customer, are paying people who make apps so that their good work continues."Responses from last week's episode: "What should are one main metric be for our SaaS?" Adam: “Don’t focus on MRR. That’s copout. Focus on increasing downloads.” Daniel: “Justin should get out and sell like crazy.” Colin and others said: “Re-examine your pricing.” What do you think? Leave a comment on Breaker, the podcast app for Android and iPhone. Leave a comment on CastBox, the podcast app for Android and iPhone. Leave a comment on Tung.fm Otherwise, get us on Twitter: @transistorfm or email us: [email protected] Create your own podcast at transistor.fm Show notes: Justin starts his own Patreon: "I want to keep writing and podcasting honestly no matter what." MxPx's Kickstarter CaddyServer – “Caddy is the HTTP/2 web server with automatic HTTPS.” Please review us in iTunes – it helps other folks find the show! Thanks to our Patreon supporters: Kevin Markham Adam Duvander Dave Giunta Thanks to our monthly supporters Pascal from sharpen.page Rewardful.com Greg Park Mitchell Davis from RecruitKit.com.au Marcel Fahle, wearebold.af Ethan Gunderson Anton Zorin from ProdCamp.com Bill Condo (@mavrck) Ward from MemberSpace.com Russell Brown from Photivo.com Evandro Sasse Austin Loveless Michael Sitver Fathom Analytics Dan Buda Colin Gray Darby Frey 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 ★

What do you think? Leave a comment on Breaker, the podcast app for Android and iPhone. Leave a comment on CastBox, the podcast app for Android and iPhone. Leave a comment on Tung.fm Otherwise, get us on Twitter: @transistorfm or email us: [email protected] Create your own podcast at transistor.fm Show notes: Startups for the Rest of Us – EP260 “The one metric that matters” Nathan Barry – Solving the cash problems from self-funding rapid growth Nathan Barry – From losing money to a 51% profit margin in 5 months CaddyServer – “Caddy is the HTTP/2 web server with automatic HTTPS.” Please review us in iTunes – it helps other folks find the show! Thanks to our Patreon supporters: Kevin Markham Adam Duvander Dave Giunta Thanks to our monthly supporters Pascal from sharpen.page Rewardful.com Greg Park Mitchell Davis from RecruitKit.com.au Marcel Fahle, wearebold.af Ethan Gunderson Anton Zorin from ProdCamp.com Bill Condo (@mavrck) Ward from MemberSpace.com Russell Brown from Photivo.com Evandro Sasse Austin Loveless Michael Sitver Fathom Analytics Dan Buda Colin Gray Darby Frey 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 are back from Portland and the XOXO festival.In the last few weeks we've had a chance to interact with many of our customers in-person: Nate Smoyer – "I’ve been using the podcast as a prospecting tool. Signed one dreams client two weeks ago. Interviewed with one yesterday. Got invited to lead a panel and live podcast for an industry event." Kyle Marshall – Kyle's creating multiple shows for MediaLab in Calgary. Matt Cassinelli and Alex Cox have a new podcast called Supercomputer. Jaime Macías has a great show called Open Tabs. How big is the podcast market? How many podcasts are there? Over 550,000 shows on iTunes and over 18.5 million episodes. 64% of the US population is familiar with the term “podcasting” – up from 60% in 2017 (Infinite Dial 18) 44% (124 million) of the US population has listened to a podcast – up from 40% in 2017 (Infinite Dial 18) 26% (73 million) listen to podcasts at least every month – up from 24% in 2017 (Infinite Dial 18) 17% (48 million) listen to podcasts weekly – up from 15% in 2017 We recorded this episode live Watch on Twitch Watch on YouTube Watch on Periscope What do you think? Leave a comment on Breaker, the podcast app for Android and iPhone. Leave a comment on CastBox, the podcast app for Android and iPhone. Leave a comment on Tung.fm Otherwise, get us on Twitter: @transistorfm or email us: [email protected] Create your own podcast at transistor.fm Show notes: Thanks to Kevin Markham for being our first Patreon supporter! Also thanks to Adam Duvander and Dan Weaver. Back from XOXO 2018 Justin's bootstrapping articles Twitter poll: What are most podcasts doing wrong? Seth Godin's podcast Akimbo "Branded podcasts are ads people actually want to listen to" - Fast Company Please review us in iTunes – it helps other folks find the show! Thanks to our monthly supporters Pascal from sharpen.page Rewardful.com Greg Park Mitchell Davis from RecruitKit.com.au Marcel Fahle, wearebold.af Ethan Gunderson Anton Zorin from ProdCamp.com Bill Condo (@mavrck) Ward from MemberSpace.com Russell Brown from Photivo.com Evandro Sasse Austin Loveless Michael Sitver Fathom Analytics Dan Buda Colin Gray Darby Frey 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 ★

What does "bootstrapping" mean really?For most folks, bootstrapping means self-funding your business from revenues. It means not taking Venture Capital, not taking Angel funding. It's a little bit of a religion and like so many religions different people have different definitions of what it takes to "fit in." Some people say you can't even take money from friends and family. If you take any outside money, you're no longer a part of the bootstrappers club.We recorded this episode live Watch on Twitch Watch on YouTube Watch on Periscope What do you think? Leave a comment on Breaker, the podcast app for Android and iPhone. Leave a comment on CastBox, the podcast app for Android and iPhone. Leave a comment on Tung.fm Otherwise, get us on Twitter: @transistorfm or email us: [email protected] Create your own podcast at transistor.fm Show notes: Thanks Tyler Tringas! Article: Bootstrapper's Paradox (on Indie Hackers) Getting Real by 37signals Tool: Forecast your MRR revenue Natalie Nagele's tweet Joel Gascoigne's tweet Watch our live Twitch recording (or watch on YouTube) Please review us in iTunes – it helps other folks find the show! Thanks to our monthly supporters Pascal from sharpen.page Rewardful.com Greg Park Mitchell Davis from RecruitKit.com.au Marcel Fahle, wearebold.af Ethan Gunderson Anton Zorin from ProdCamp.com Bill Condo (@mavrck) Ward from MemberSpace.com Russell Brown from Photivo.com Evandro Sasse Austin Loveless Michael Sitver Fathom Analytics Dan Buda Colin Gray Darby Frey 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 ★

Nick Quah shared this in his recent newsletter, commenting about podcasts:[I have] this feeling that everybody’s drilling for oil in the same spot because some other guy found oil there already.Nick thinks podcasters have two options: Build something that does the same thing for the same audience, but do it better. If this is the case, he says, “you better bring it.” Or, “identify and pursue a pocket of pent-up demand that has yet to be unleashed.” Note: apologies about Justin's audio in this episode! We'll fix that for next time.What do you think? Leave a comment on Breaker, the podcast app for Android and iPhone. Leave a comment on CastBox, the podcast app for Android and iPhone. Leave a comment on Tung.fm Otherwise, get us on Twitter: @transistorfm or email us: [email protected] Create your own podcast at transistor.fm  Show notes: Why many products struggle, and only a few succeed Clubhouse.io – Jon's new project management software for Cards Against Humanity. Perennial Seller by Ryan Holiday Alitu – edit your podcast in the browser Podcast Royale – Adam Clark's podcast production company Auphonic – automated audio post-production ProfitWell – SaaS metrics Stripe's built-in SaaS metrics Watch our live Twitch recording (or watch on YouTube) Please review us in iTunes – it helps other folks find the show! Thanks to our monthly supporters Pascal from sharpen.page Rewardful.com Greg Park Mitchell Davis from RecruitKit.com.au Marcel Fahle, wearebold.af Ethan Gunderson Anton Zorin from ProdCamp.com Bill Condo (@mavrck) Ward from MemberSpace.com Russell Brown from Photivo.com Evandro Sasse Austin Loveless Michael Sitver Fathom Analytics Dan Buda Colin Gray Darby Frey 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 ★

SaaS conversation rate cheatsheet:Credit card upfront: Visitor to trial: 0.75% - 1% Trial to paid: 40% - 60% No credit card upfront: Visitor to trial: 5%+ Trial to paid: 8% - 20% Transistor's conversion rates since launch: Total traffic since launch: 40,162 unique pageviews, 11,614 visitors Total new trials since launch: 32 (out of 49 active trials total) Conversion %(visitor to trial): 0.3% (should be 0.75% - 1%) Conversion %(trial to paid): 8.9% - 16.7% (should be 40% - 60%) July was 17.9% June was 29.6% May was 48.7% What do you think? Leave a comment on Breaker, the podcast app for Android and iPhone. Leave a comment on CastBox, the podcast app for Android and iPhone. Leave a comment on Tung.fm Otherwise, get us on Twitter: @transistorfm or email us: [email protected] Create your own podcast at transistor.fm  Show notes: Baremetrics Chartmogul ProfitWell Stripe Billing - “go to Stripe, and then billing menu” Marco's tweet - donation support for podcasts in Overcast Please review us in iTunes – it helps other folks find the show! Thanks to our monthly supporters Pascal from sharpen.page Rewardful.com Greg Park Mitchell Davis from RecruitKit.com.au Marcel Fahle, wearebold.af Ethan Gunderson Anton Zorin from ProdCamp.com Bill Condo (@mavrck) Ward from MemberSpace.com Russell Brown from Photivo.com Evandro Sasse Austin Loveless Michael Sitver Fathom Analytics Dan Buda Colin Gray Darby Frey 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 ★

What do you think? Leave a comment on Breaker, the podcast app for Android and iPhone. Leave a comment on CastBox, the podcast app for Android and iPhone. Otherwise, get us on Twitter: @transistorfm or email us: [email protected] Create your own podcast at transistor.fm  Show notes: Cards Against Humanity Laracon Chicago (photos here) Photos from Transistor's launch week The new Transistor website Jon's new signup page We were #1 on Product Hunt! ★ Please review us in iTunes – it helps other folks find the show! Thanks to our monthly supporters Pascal from sharpen.page Rewardful.com Greg Park Mitchell Davis from RecruitKit.com.au Marcel Fahle, wearebold.af Ethan Gunderson Anton Zorin from ProdCamp.com Bill Condo (@mavrck) Ward from MemberSpace.com Russell Brown from Photivo.com Evandro Sasse Austin Loveless Michael Sitver Fathom Analytics Dan Buda Colin Gray Darby Frey 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 2013, I interviewed Jason Calacanis, the angel investor.One of the things I asked him: "Why do venture capital investors take these big risks with their money?" "There's a lot of money in the world. There are trillions of dollars just sitting around, and people are bored. The money is bored! Money wants to burn! Money does not want to sit in a safe."Uh. What an interesting idea: "the money is bored."Jon Buda and I are bootstrapping Transistor.fm and Spots.fm. We've invested our own money into both of these projects.When you're self-funding a startup, your money is the opposite of bored. Your money is stressed. You're caught between these two realities: you're investing real time and money into the product, but the product isn't yet giving you anything back.For example, we're launching Transistor.fm on August 1st.Right now we have 51 early access customers and $781 in MRR.Let's say that when we launch on August 1st, we double MRR to $1,500.To get to $21,000 in MRR (enough for Jon and me to focus on Transistor full-time), it will take five years (assuming 10.0% exponential growth and 5.0% churn).Five years. 60 months. That's a long time to wait for a paycheque.There's this tricky tension when you're bootstrapping a SaaS. On one side, you're investing in this product that could be an incredible asset.If Transistor hits $20,000 a month, that's dependable, recurring revenue.But on the hand, investing all that time and money in something that isn't a sure bet is a risk.It's easy to see why bootstrapped founders get stressed. It's easy to see why many experience burnout and have to quit.That's something Mike and Fred talked about on their podcast, Hit Reply.Bootstrappers who are building something new have to walk this fine line: We need to invest a considerable amount of effort to launch our product. But we also need money to live, and it can be years before a SaaS can support you full-time. Which has me thinking about Basecamp.What Jason Fried and DHH achieved with Basecamp is what most bootstrappers aspire for. Heck, most of us would be happy for even a fraction of their success.They've long been the example of how you can self-fund a product, bring it to market, grow it, and have it succeed.But the story many of us are telling ourselves about how they achieved that success isn't quite right.Yes, they've bootstrapped Basecamp since 2004. But in 2006 they didn't something a lot of us bootstrappers haven't paid a lot of attention to. They took investment!I recently read this interview with DHH on Startup.co. The interviewer asked:"As you’ve built Basecamp you’ve been very vocal about resisting the temptation of unicorn culture. How have your perspectives changed?"David's answer is interesting:It wasn’t without temptation or struggle to stay like this. Especially in the early years, before our bombastic views on venture capital, the IPO rat-race, and other ills of funding were known. We had, I think, close to 50 different VCs get in contact. Ironically, part of what did give us the confidence to turn down that whole world 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.This is something the bootstrapping culture doesn't think about a lot.37signals, the poster child of the bootstrapped world, took investment two years after they launched the product.That Bezos money didn't go into the company. It went into their personal bank accounts.Jason and David were able to hedge their bets. That Bezos investment removed a lot of the stress and risk that comes from bootstrapping a product.Bootstrappers have created a religion out of building something from scratch and self-funding the entire thing.But what if that ideology leads to burnout? Or bankruptcy? Or not being able to go the distance?Here's David again:"I really wish that more founders who are on to something could find ways to diversify their accounts just enough to dare go the distance."It's something we need to think about.What do you think? Leave a comment on Breaker, the podcast app for Android and iPhone. Leave a comment on CastBox, the podcast app for Android and iPhone. Otherwise, get us on Twitter: @transistorfm or email us: [email protected] Want to get notified when we launch? Sign up at transistor.fm  Show notes: Product People, 33, with Jason Calacanis Forecast your MRR (a tool by Baremetrics) Hit Reply, ep 3, with Fred and Mike Foundation podcast, 26, Jason Fried interview Startup.co interview with DHH ★ Please review us in iTunes – it helps other folks find the show! Thanks to our monthly supporters Pascal from sharpen.page Rewardful.com Greg Park Mitchell Davis from RecruitKit.com.au Marcel Fahle, wearebold.af Ethan Gunderson Anton Zorin from ProdCamp.com Bill Condo (@mavrck) Ward from MemberSpace.com Russell Brown from Photivo.com Evandro Sasse Austin Loveless Michael Sitver Fathom Analytics Dan Buda Colin Gray Darby Frey 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 ★

Three tweets TuesdayJustin Kan: "B2C is a gamble while B2B is (more) within your control."Stephanie Hulburt: "We have a philosophy of “no hard sells” and it has served us well. If someone’s not convinced we move on; we don’t hang on trying to convince one person. It’s tempting to defend yourself, but not good for business."Naval on making decisions:"If you can’t decide, the answer is no. If two equally difficult paths, choose the one more painful in the short term. Choose the path that leaves you more equanimous in the long term."Show notes John Fogerty Justin Kan: “Why I Love B2B over B2C” Naval: How to get rich(without getting lucky) Muneeb Ali: “Hard conversations, easy life. Easy conversations, hard life.” Follow Stephanie Hulburt on Twitter! Book: Difficult Conversations Transistor.fm Transistor.fm on Instagram Transistor.fm on Twitter Jon Buda is back on Twitter: @jonbuda Justin Jackson on Twitter here: @mijustin Leave a comment on Breaker, the podcast app for Android and iPhone. Leave a comment on CastBox, the podcast app for Android and iPhone. ★ Please review us in iTunes – it helps other folks find the show! Thanks to our monthly supporters Pascal from sharpen.page Rewardful.com Greg Park Mitchell Davis from RecruitKit.com.au Marcel Fahle, wearebold.af Ethan Gunderson Anton Zorin from ProdCamp.com Bill Condo (@mavrck) Ward from MemberSpace.com Russell Brown from Photivo.com Evandro Sasse Austin Loveless Michael Sitver Fathom Analytics Dan Buda Colin Gray Darby Frey 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 ★

How to build anticipation for your product launch Have a mailing list! Email them consistently during development. The week of launch you should send the following emails: Pre-launch announcement: "We're launching in a week!" Day before announcement: "The launch is tomorrow. Here's how much it will cost." Launch day email: "We're launched! Sign up here" Day after email: "You've still got time to sign up." Launch discount is ending email: "This is your last chance to register" Use services like Product Hunt, Product Hunt Ship, BetaList, to build anticipation. On Twitter, FB, LinkedIn, Instagram: constantly send out product updates. Building anticipation before you launch is the most underrated tool you have for your product launch.Show notes Spots.fm - “what if advertising on podcasts was as easy as advertising on Facebook?” Taylor Otwell, creator of Laravel See you at Laracon! Video: Buddy Guy'Meet Me in Chicago' at the Hollywood Bowl 8-21-13. Product Hunt Ship BetaList Adam Wathan at MicroConf talk The Best Pizza in Chicago Chicago vs New York Hot Dogs Anthony Bourdain on Chicago We’re going to XOXO 2018! Transistor.fm Transistor.fm on Instagram Transistor.fm on Twitter Jon Buda is back on Twitter: @jonbuda Justin Jackson on Twitter here: @mijustin Give us some love on Breaker, the podcast app for Android and iPhone. ★ Please review us in iTunes – it helps other folks find the show!Check out these new shows on Transistor: Goodstuff.fm atU2 podcast Thanks to our monthly supporters Pascal from sharpen.page Rewardful.com Greg Park Mitchell Davis from RecruitKit.com.au Marcel Fahle, wearebold.af Ethan Gunderson Anton Zorin from ProdCamp.com Bill Condo (@mavrck) Ward from MemberSpace.com Russell Brown from Photivo.com Evandro Sasse Austin Loveless Michael Sitver Fathom Analytics Dan Buda Colin Gray Darby Frey 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 ★

Show notes: Spots.fm – "what if advertising on a podcast was as easy as advertising on Facebook?" Spots.fm/story - the Spots story so far. SaaS Your Later Sean McCabe Derek Sivers - Start now, no funding needed Transistor.fm Transistor.fm on Instagram Transistor.fm on Twitter Jon Buda is back on Twitter: @jonbuda Justin Jackson on Twitter here: @mijustin Give us some love on Breaker, the podcast app for Android and iPhone. ★ Please review us in iTunes – it helps other folks find the show!Check out these new shows on Transistor: Remote Ruby That's a thing? Tech Nest - Real Estate podcast Thanks to our monthly supporters Pascal from sharpen.page Rewardful.com Greg Park Mitchell Davis from RecruitKit.com.au Marcel Fahle, wearebold.af Ethan Gunderson Anton Zorin from ProdCamp.com Bill Condo (@mavrck) Ward from MemberSpace.com Russell Brown from Photivo.com Evandro Sasse Austin Loveless Michael Sitver Fathom Analytics Dan Buda Colin Gray Darby Frey 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 ★

Show notes Justin’s Instagram TV episode MegaMaker.co Indie VC Canada’s Startup Visa Transistor.fm Transistor.fm on Instagram Transistor.fm on Twitter Jon Buda is back on Twitter: @jonbuda Justin Jackson on Twitter here: @mijustin Give us some love on Breaker, the podcast app for Android and iPhone. ★ Please review us in iTunes – it helps other folks find the show! Thanks to our monthly supporters Pascal from sharpen.page Rewardful.com Greg Park Mitchell Davis from RecruitKit.com.au Marcel Fahle, wearebold.af Ethan Gunderson Anton Zorin from ProdCamp.com Bill Condo (@mavrck) Ward from MemberSpace.com Russell Brown from Photivo.com Evandro Sasse Austin Loveless Michael Sitver Fathom Analytics Dan Buda Colin Gray Darby Frey 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 ★

Show notes Transistor.fm Transistor.fm on Instagram Transistor.fm on Twitter Jon Buda is back on Twitter: @jonbuda Justin Jackson on Twitter here: @mijustin Give us some love on Breaker, the podcast app for Android and iPhone. ★ Please review us in iTunes – it helps other folks find the show! Thanks to our monthly supporters Pascal from sharpen.page Rewardful.com Greg Park Mitchell Davis from RecruitKit.com.au Marcel Fahle, wearebold.af Ethan Gunderson Anton Zorin from ProdCamp.com Bill Condo (@mavrck) Ward from MemberSpace.com Russell Brown from Photivo.com Evandro Sasse Austin Loveless Michael Sitver Fathom Analytics Dan Buda Colin Gray Darby Frey Dave Giunta ★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★

Show notes This is the recording from the Art of Product Podcast. Full episode will be there! Ben Orenstein on Twitter Derrick Reimer on Twitter Derrick's new app: level.app Transistor.fm Transistor.fm on Instagram Transistor.fm on Twitter Jon Buda is back on Twitter: @jonbuda Justin Jackson on Twitter here: @mijustin Give us some love on Breaker, the podcast app for Android and iPhone. ★ Please review us in iTunes – it helps other folks find the show! Thanks to our monthly supporters Pascal from sharpen.page Rewardful.com Greg Park Mitchell Davis from RecruitKit.com.au Marcel Fahle, wearebold.af Ethan Gunderson Anton Zorin from ProdCamp.com Bill Condo (@mavrck) Ward from MemberSpace.com Russell Brown from Photivo.com Evandro Sasse Austin Loveless Michael Sitver Fathom Analytics Dan Buda Colin Gray Darby Frey 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 are probably 1-2 months away from the launch of Transistor.fm. That means we need to figure out pricing.“In your early stage two things are essential: your customer focus, and your value metric. If you can nail these two things (even if you get everything else wrong) you’re typically fine." – Patrick CampbellWe've both worked in SaaS before, but we're trying to not pretend we know everything. We want to do this right, so we reached out to two experts this week: Patrick Campbell (from Price Intelligently) and Rob Walling (from Drip)."I can only think of a couple ways to charge more than your competitors. First, have features that no one else has (that people are willing to pay for). Or, you can position yourself differently by saying: 'we are the podcast host for businesses.' Or, you can do high-touch sales. The sales process allows you to charge more." – Rob WallingShow notes Full interview with Patrick Campbell on Product People Price intelligently Patrick Campbell, founder of Price Intelligently Rob Walling, founder of Drip Transistor.fm Transistor.fm on Instagram Transistor.fm on Twitter Jon Buda is back on Twitter: @jonbuda Justin Jackson on Twitter here: @mijustin Give us some love on Breaker, the podcast app for Android and iPhone. ★ Please review us in iTunes – it helps other folks find the show! Thanks to our monthly supporters Pascal from sharpen.page Rewardful.com Greg Park Mitchell Davis from RecruitKit.com.au Marcel Fahle, wearebold.af Ethan Gunderson Anton Zorin from ProdCamp.com Bill Condo (@mavrck) Ward from MemberSpace.com Russell Brown from Photivo.com Evandro Sasse Austin Loveless Michael Sitver Fathom Analytics Dan Buda Colin Gray Darby Frey 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 ★

Today's show is not a full episode! Jon and I have been busy with our day jobs, plus Memorial Day, and didn't have time to record a show.But, to be honest, this pricing discussion isn't something we can solve in a 30-minute conversation. We've realized it's going to require more research. We need to talk to folks who know more than us. So that's what we've been doing. This week, I have a call booked with Patrick from Price intelligently, as well as Rob Walling (who just his company Drip). I'm hoping to get some useful insights on pricing from these folks. Mostly so we don't make the same mistakes that other SaaS companies have made. These chats will also benefit you, the listener, because we'll be sharing as much as we can in future episodes.As a teaser, I'm going to share a phone call I had with Nathan Barry.  He has one of the fastest growing SaaS products in existence right now: ConvertKit.They just crossed 1 million dollars in MRR. That's an Annual Run Rate of $12.8 million! They've grown fast, and Nathan's had to learn fast. So here are some of his thoughts on the pricing of podcast hosting. Show notes Price intelligently Nathan Barry, founder of ConvertKit ConvertKit's revenue numbers Transistor.fm Transistor.fm on Instagram Transistor.fm on Twitter Jon Buda is back on Twitter: @jonbuda Justin Jackson on Twitter here: @mijustin Give us some love on Breaker, the podcast app for Android and iPhone. ★ Please review us in iTunes – T-shirt contest!  Leave a review you’ll be entered to win a limited edition Transistor t-shirt! Thanks to our monthly supporters Pascal from sharpen.page Rewardful.com Greg Park Mitchell Davis from RecruitKit.com.au Marcel Fahle, wearebold.af Ethan Gunderson Anton Zorin from ProdCamp.com Bill Condo (@mavrck) Ward from MemberSpace.com Russell Brown from Photivo.com Evandro Sasse Austin Loveless Michael Sitver Fathom Analytics Dan Buda Colin Gray Darby Frey Dave Giunta ★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★

We're hoping to launch Transistor officially in July 2018.And that means we need to figure out a pricing strategy. What types of tiers and plans should we offer?SaaS pricing examples: Hootsuite WPEngine Sumo StatusPage Patrick Campbell, from Price Intelligently, says there are three aspects of a pricing strategy: Positioning: who are the right customers for your product? How will you target and attract them? Packaging: what features are included in each tier? What value does each type of customer want from your product? Pricing: putting a price on your tiers that reflects the value your customer receives. Where did we get stuck? Jon and I started by looking at who had signed up for early access to Transistor: Hobbyists – podcasting for fun, two people talking, no advertising. Prosumers – side-project podcasting, may have a bit of income, want to go pro. Solopreneurs – solo founders building smaller tech products.  Small tech teams – teams of 3-10 people building larger software products. Bigger brands / enterprise companies. This list brought up a question: how do we define our target customer? Is "podcast hosting and analytics for professionals" too broad?Here's our homework for this week: we're going to let this simmer, we're going to talk to smart people about pricing, and we're going to come back to this next week.Question of the week:Tweet to @jon and @mijustin and let us know: how should we price our SaaS?Show notes Jason Fried - Ass pricing Patrick Campbell - Price Intelligently  Jason Cohen - WPengine tiered pricing Transistor.fm Transistor.fm on Instagram Transistor.fm on Twitter Jon Buda is back on Twitter: @jonbuda Justin Jackson on Twitter here: @mijustin ★ Please review us in iTunes – T-shirt contest!  Leave a review you’ll be entered to win a limited edition Transistor t-shirt! Thanks to our monthly supporters Pascal from sharpen.page Rewardful.com Greg Park Mitchell Davis from RecruitKit.com.au Marcel Fahle, wearebold.af Ethan Gunderson Anton Zorin from ProdCamp.com Bill Condo (@mavrck) Ward from MemberSpace.com Russell Brown from Photivo.com Evandro Sasse Austin Loveless Michael Sitver Fathom Analytics Dan Buda Colin Gray Darby Frey 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 ★

How transparent of a startup do we want to be?There's an app called Buffer that really kickstarted the "radical transparency" movement with startups. Over time, they've revealed almost everything: how much their employees make, their company's revenue metrics, their internal emails, and their hiring process.But is this something that we want for Transistor.fm? Listen to the episode to hear what we decided. ;)Show notes Buffer Transparency Article: How radical transparency kills stress Article: How to Build a Transparent Company the Buffer Way Buffer: Why are we transparent? Right Message goes public with revenue Whisper network Spencer Fry on public roadmaps Baremetrics Open Startups Indie Hackers – transparency numbers Video: Our new analytics feature SnapShooter on Indie Hackers Announcement: We did it. We’re sharing our revenue on Indie Hackers! Marco Arment: “podcasters have enough data” Transistor.fm Transistor.fm on Instagram Transistor.fm on Twitter Jon Buda is back on Twitter: @jonbuda Justin Jackson on Twitter here: @mijustin T-shirt contest!  Leave a review you’ll be entered to win a limited edition Transistor t-shirt!★ Please review us in iTunes ★ Thanks to our monthly supporters Pascal from sharpen.page Rewardful.com Greg Park Mitchell Davis from RecruitKit.com.au Marcel Fahle, wearebold.af Ethan Gunderson Anton Zorin from ProdCamp.com Bill Condo (@mavrck) Ward from MemberSpace.com Russell Brown from Photivo.com Evandro Sasse Austin Loveless Michael Sitver Fathom Analytics Dan Buda Colin Gray Darby Frey 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 ★

Play this episode | Download MP3Jon is busy launching our new podcast analytics feature, so this episode features Justin's talk from MicroConf 2018 in Las Vegas.You need more than product/market fit. You need alignment between you as a founder, your market, and your product.In this episode, you'll hear Justin's step-by-step approach for: Identifying who you are, and what you want Choosing a market Discovering what they want Shipping a (small) initial solution Show notes Justin Jackson's 2018 MicroConf talk - video and notes Download the slides James Clear's list of core values MicroConf Growth MicroConf Starter Transistor.fm Transistor.fm on Instagram Transistor.fm on Twitter Jon Buda is back on Twitter: @jonbuda Justin Jackson on Twitter here: @mijustin T-shirt contest!  Leave a review you’ll be entered to win a limited edition Transistor t-shirt!★ Please review us in iTunes ★ Thanks to our monthly supporters Pascal from sharpen.page Rewardful.com Greg Park Mitchell Davis from RecruitKit.com.au Marcel Fahle, wearebold.af Ethan Gunderson Anton Zorin from ProdCamp.com Bill Condo (@mavrck) Ward from MemberSpace.com Russell Brown from Photivo.com Evandro Sasse Austin Loveless Michael Sitver Fathom Analytics Dan Buda Colin Gray Darby Frey 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 ★

Show notes MicroConf Growth MicroConf Starter MicroConf talk notes Transistor.fm Transistor.fm on Instagram Transistor.fm on Twitter T-shirt contest!  Leave a review you’ll be entered to win a limited edition Transistor t-shirt!★ Please review us in iTunes ★ Thanks to our monthly supporters Pascal from sharpen.page Rewardful.com Greg Park Mitchell Davis from RecruitKit.com.au Marcel Fahle, wearebold.af Ethan Gunderson Anton Zorin from ProdCamp.com Bill Condo (@mavrck) Ward from MemberSpace.com Russell Brown from Photivo.com Evandro Sasse Austin Loveless Michael Sitver Fathom Analytics Dan Buda Colin Gray Darby Frey 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 ★

What’s been happening? New iTunes review from Shane Smith in Australia: "Keep up the great work. Love hearing the behind-the-scenes part of setting up your SaaS." T-shirt contest!  Leave a review you’ll be entered to win a limited edition Transistor t-shirt! New features inside Transistor: Embeddable players Shareable links Direct MP3 download URL File uploader We've closed early access. Official launch coming soon! Marketing website is almost done We're working on a secret new thing - stay tuned to hear more. Main topic: organizing your time This will be interesting because we’re coming at it from two different perspectives: Jon works full-time Justin runs his own business What’s hard about it? Jon: I’m other people’s boss. Running the tech team at CAH/Blackbox. So people are depending on me. Blackbox is also a startup that requires a good deal of product decisions day to day. Both are exciting so it’s hard to juggle sometimes! Justin: I’m my own boss. I tell myself what to do. The hardest part right now is Transistor isn’t making money, but it’s the funnest thing to work on. How do you overcome those obstacles? Jon: Two separate Pivotal Trackers and Apple Reminders lists. if I can think of something for Transistor during work I just throw in the list for later. I have to smart about not doing Transistor during the work day and letting my team down. Transistor is mostly relegated to after hours and weekends.  Justin: notepad, I split it into two sections: “MegaMaker” and “Transistor.” I have a Trello for MegaMaker that tracks what my contractors are doing. What does your ideal day look like? Jon: ideally I’m only working on Transistor  in reality, wake up a bit early and see if I missed anything overnight for Transistor. errors, support emails, etc. Go do the fulltime thing. take a break after work to work out or make dinner and then work on Transistor at night a couple of times of week. Ideally I deploy at least something to Transistor everyday. Justin: I’ve realized I really get energy from interacting with people. I recently did this “Strengths finder” test and activities like doing sales, doing demos, interacting with customers, writing, making videos and podcasts, hacking on ideas, building prototypes… these all play to my strengths. Tips for listeners: Define the end result first:“what does your ideal day look like” is a really important question.  Distinguish between big milestones and daily tasks. Have a way of organizing tasks. Try a bunch! Contextual zones. Have a different place to work on your side-hustle. Show notes Good place for startup swag: printful.com Strengths Finder Test New feature: see our new shareable options Dropzone Quest Quest - a live D&D podcast CBC Radio Contextual Zones A Soft Murmur - audio contextual zones Transistor.fm Transistor.fm on Instagram Transistor.fm on Twitter ★ Please review us in iTunes ★ Thanks to our monthly supporters Pascal from sharpen.page Rewardful.com Greg Park Mitchell Davis from RecruitKit.com.au Marcel Fahle, wearebold.af Ethan Gunderson Anton Zorin from ProdCamp.com Bill Condo (@mavrck) Ward from MemberSpace.com Russell Brown from Photivo.com Evandro Sasse Austin Loveless Michael Sitver Fathom Analytics Dan Buda Colin Gray Darby Frey 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 ★

Recent news We're an official Spotify partner. You'll be able to find us in Spotify soon! Build Your SaaS was #1 on Product Hunt!1,773 downloads that day. Our previous record was 443 downloads in a day. ;) Searching for Casey Neistat. How do people find out about Transistor?Thanks Joe Workman for referring us a new customer! Check out his show: Weaver Radio. New shareable / embeddable share links coming soon! Main topic: money Should your startup get funding? Quotes: Joel Gascoigne, founder of Buffer: “Easy to sell away your ownership and control without realizing what it will mean. The industry seems to normalize and make people feel like it's a given that they can't grow with their company.” John O’Nolan, founder of Ghost: “This is so important. I had the exact same experience in a startup accelerator. All these wealthy smart people telling me that there was no way to succeed without taking capital. They are VERY good at convincing people of that” “Growing fast and health are nearly mutually exclusive” Pros to funding: it’d be nice to move faster. Cons to funding: you lose control, your forced to move faster than you might like (or need to). Show notes: Transistor’s new shareable links for social media Product Hunt: Build Your SaaS Searching for Casey Neistat tweet Interesting funding model: Indie VC Joel Gascoigne, founder of Buffer John O’Nolan, founder of Ghost Thanks to Andrew C and Bullet Train for being our first sponsor! Kayako for customer support Flywheel Adam Clark designing our marketing website Zoho Xero Transistor.fm Transistor.fm on Instagram Transistor.fm on Twitter ★ Please review us in iTunes ★ Thanks to our monthly supporters Pascal from sharpen.page Rewardful.com Greg Park Mitchell Davis from RecruitKit.com.au Marcel Fahle, wearebold.af Ethan Gunderson Anton Zorin from ProdCamp.com Bill Condo (@mavrck) Ward from MemberSpace.com Russell Brown from Photivo.com Evandro Sasse Austin Loveless Michael Sitver Fathom Analytics Dan Buda Colin Gray Darby Frey 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 ★

What’s been happening? Is the Macbook Pro 2013 the best computer ever made?Jon's review of the new Macbook Pro: the screen, the keyboard, the thinness are great. He doesn't like the touchbar, and it crashed a lot initially. Thanks to Bill for the Spotify introduction! We tried out Amazon Transcribe and it was hilarious Main topic: Partner communication, making decisionsWe got a question on Twitter from Dennis Martinez:“How often do you both keep in touch with each other talking about the product in an average day/week? How important is daily communication?”Jon and Justin have different decision making styles: Justin is "quick start." He likes to make decisions quickly, and have a fast momentum. Jon is more thoughtful and detail-oriented. Having this balance is important!How we communicate: Daily communication: Slack Weekly call: Skype How we make decisions: consensus. Takeaways This is the benefit of doing a small project before you launch something bigger.Example: where are we going for lunch? (XOXO), what source control are we going to use? (small project we did before Transistor) Partner with someone who is trustworthy, autonomous. Make sure there's enough overlap in your timezone. Ensure your co-founder has enough time to dedicate to the project. Show notes: Justin's mic: ATR2100 USB Kyle Fox doesn't like the new Macbook Pro Spotify's podcast program Amazon Transcribe Indie Hackers Justin's article on Walt and Roy Disney Transistor.fm Transistor.fm on Instagram Transistor.fm on Twitter ★ Please review us in iTunes ★ Thanks to our monthly supporters Pascal from sharpen.page Rewardful.com Greg Park Mitchell Davis from RecruitKit.com.au Marcel Fahle, wearebold.af Ethan Gunderson Anton Zorin from ProdCamp.com Bill Condo (@mavrck) Ward from MemberSpace.com Russell Brown from Photivo.com Evandro Sasse Austin Loveless Michael Sitver Fathom Analytics Dan Buda Colin Gray Darby Frey 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 discuss "Why did we choose podcasting? And why now?" Picking the right idea, the right market, and having the right timing is crucial.Current trends we've noticed: Dungeons and Dragons is getting popular again. Maybe because of Stranger Things? Podcasting, and branded podcasts, continue to grow in popularity. Increasingly, I'm hearing folks talk about the Tim Ferriss podcast in coffee shops. Instead of asking "What are you reading?" folks are asking "What podcasts are you listening to?" Qualitative evidence almost always comes before quantitative evidence.Show notes: Thanks to Greg at Mtek Digital for the studio space! Photo of Justin at Mtek studio World Waterpark at West Edmonton Mall Photo of waterpark Transistor.fm Transistor.fm on Instagram Transistor.fm on Twitter ★ Please review us in iTunes ★ Thanks to our monthly supporters Pascal from sharpen.page Rewardful.com Greg Park Mitchell Davis from RecruitKit.com.au Marcel Fahle, wearebold.af Ethan Gunderson Anton Zorin from ProdCamp.com Bill Condo (@mavrck) Ward from MemberSpace.com Russell Brown from Photivo.com Evandro Sasse Austin Loveless Michael Sitver Fathom Analytics Dan Buda Colin Gray Darby Frey 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 episode is sponsored by Bullet Train. If you’re building a SaaS in Ruby on Rails stop what you’re doing right now, and visit BulletTrain.co.You asked us:"What's your tech stack for Transistor?"In this episode, Jon goes into the nerd stuff. What programming language, frameworks, and infrastructure we're using to build our SaaS.What we recommend: Programming language: use what you know! Make sure you can connect to the community (both local and on the web) Hosting: use Heroku if you don’t have DevOps experience, AWS is great if you know how to configure it Database: MySQL is fine, we use Postgres (good community + features) Design framework: Semantic UI, or Bootstrap Repos: GitHub Most important: Get something running as quickly as you can (and into the hands of customers!). Show notes: Sponsor: BulletTrain.co Paul Graham's "Do things that don't scale" Nate Kontny’s take on “should you use Rails?” Stripe Atlas DHH on Rails 5.2 Justin’s video tutorial Transistor.fm Transistor.fm on Instagram Transistor.fm on Twitter ★ Please review us in iTunes ★ Thanks to our monthly supporters Pascal from sharpen.page Rewardful.com Greg Park Mitchell Davis from RecruitKit.com.au Marcel Fahle, wearebold.af Ethan Gunderson Anton Zorin from ProdCamp.com Bill Condo (@mavrck) Ward from MemberSpace.com Russell Brown from Photivo.com Evandro Sasse Austin Loveless Michael Sitver Fathom Analytics Dan Buda Colin Gray Darby Frey 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 ★

News We’ve opened up early access! We’ve been inviting people by email. We currently have 15 shows on our platform. In four months, we’ve served 2,335,033 downloads! So far: great feedback and feature requests. We have a bunch of folks in our trial funnel. We’ll start seeing whether people convert to paying accounts on April 6. XOXO is back! Top fears when you're building a SaaS Can our servers handle the load? (So far, so good: over 2 million downloads) Will the user experience be good? Are we building the right tools? Uptime. There's this added layer of stress, because you don't want to let users down. Lack of time to build an app on the side. Or, working too much and burning out! Two co-founders can't go out drinking the same night, unless they're in the same room. 😜How to get over your fears Don't focus on your competition; focus on your customers! Listen to your customers. Get on the phone with them. Read their emails. Do live chat. Get paying customers as soon as you can. Listen to their feedback. Your ego is the enemy. You're putting your product out into the world so people get value from it. Put things in context: sure, this might not work out. But that's not the worst thing that could happen. How to get over your fears?Send us a tweet (@transistorfm), or email us: [email protected]. We'd love your audio clips as well!Links 2018.XOXOfest.com Blog post: Why I'm building a SaaS in 2018 Blog post: SaaS is ripe for disruption Adii Pienaar on customer support A checklist for product validation Book: Ego is the enemy Transistor.fm Transistor.fm on Instagram Transistor.fm on Twitter ★ Please review us in iTunes ★ Thanks to our monthly supporters Pascal from sharpen.page Rewardful.com Greg Park Mitchell Davis from RecruitKit.com.au Marcel Fahle, wearebold.af Ethan Gunderson Anton Zorin from ProdCamp.com Bill Condo (@mavrck) Ward from MemberSpace.com Russell Brown from Photivo.com Evandro Sasse Austin Loveless Michael Sitver Fathom Analytics Dan Buda Colin Gray Darby Frey 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 storyIn 1999, Basecamp started a blog called Signal vs Noise, which they billed as “Strong opinions and shared thoughts on design, business, and tech.”It had a huge impact on their business. By 2009, over 100,000 people were subscribed. Later, in their best-selling book Rework, they said:“When you build an audience, you don’t have to buy people’s attention – they give it to you. This is a huge advantage. So build an audience. Speak, write a blog, tweet, make videos – whatever.”Nowadays, it’s harder than ever to get people’s attention. Channels are saturated. There’s enormous competition. And many folks are growing feel overwhelmed by all the content.So what’s Basecamp doing in 2018 to build their audience? They're focusing a lot of their energy on their new podcast, also called Rework.What we learnedBusinesses like Basecamp, eBay, and Code Pen have discovered the power of having a branded podcast. There are lots of challenges: creating and syndicating the feed, creating a compelling podcast website, producing a regular show, and calculating ROI.So we want to make Transistor the best way to create a podcast for your business.We already have our first paying customer: Cards Against Humanity. Their show, The Good News Podcast, which is hosted on Transistor."Branded content" sounds like a really dirty word. But it doesn't have to be.Focusing on businesses, rather than DIY or hobbyist podcasts, has some advantages: Businesses have more money to spend, and they value their time more. Many hobbyists are looking for the lowest price. Businesses don't mind paying more if there's value. Businesses are highly motivated to spend money when it helps them make progress. What We Urge You to DoWhen you're building a new product, ask yourself these questions: Why would someone use my product over what's already out there in the market? What opportunities exist in this market? What advantages do I have? Links Signal vs Noise Rework Nuzzel Jon's book recommendation: Da Vinci Biography Justin's book recommendation: Sapiens Altered Carbon Rework.fm Wailin Wong on Twitter CodePen Radio Gimlet Startup Podcast Fast Company: Branded Podcasts are the Ads People Actually Want to Listen to The Good News Podcast Mastercard Launches a Branded Podcast with Gimlet Creative Anchor.fm Macualey Caulkin: Bunny Ears Podcast The Hyacinth Disaster Transistor.fm How I Built This Podcast Transistor.fm on Instagram Transistor.fm on Twitter Thanks to our monthly supporters Pascal from sharpen.page Rewardful.com Greg Park Mitchell Davis from RecruitKit.com.au Marcel Fahle, wearebold.af Ethan Gunderson Anton Zorin from ProdCamp.com Bill Condo (@mavrck) Ward from MemberSpace.com Russell Brown from Photivo.com Evandro Sasse Austin Loveless Michael Sitver Fathom Analytics Dan Buda Colin Gray Darby Frey 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 ★

Who are we?Jon is a Web Designer and Developer in Chicago. Justin is a Product Manager and Podcaster from Canada. How did we meet?We met in 2014 at XOXO in Portland. At the end of the festival, we said to each other: “We should build something together someday.” How do you find a cofounder? Go to events! Build your own projects: make stuff, tell people. Build long-term relationships (“I’m never going to team up with someone I just met”) What should you look for in a cofounder? Complimentary skills They should have their own network Trustworthy Positivity Values  What we urge you to do Sign real legal documents! Use Stripe Atlas Be really up-front about: Your values Your aspirations: what are you trying to get out of this? Talk to a lawyer Show notes Blackbox The Chicago Podcast Cooperative XOXO Festival Chase Reeves Marketing for Developers Sprintly Product People The Good News Podcast Transistor.fm Stripe Atlas Cards Against Humanity's Max Temkin 500 Startups Legal Documents How I Built This Podcast Transistor.fm on Instagram Transistor.fm on Twitter Thanks to our monthly supporters Pascal from sharpen.page Rewardful.com Greg Park Mitchell Davis from RecruitKit.com.au Marcel Fahle, wearebold.af Ethan Gunderson Anton Zorin from ProdCamp.com Bill Condo (@mavrck) Ward from MemberSpace.com Russell Brown from Photivo.com Evandro Sasse Austin Loveless Michael Sitver Fathom Analytics Dan Buda Colin Gray Darby Frey 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 Buda and Justin Jackson are building and launching a new product this year called Transistor.You can follow along as we explore this question:What does it take to build a SaaS business now? Is all of the low-hanging fruit gone?You'll get to hear our real raw emotions:"A lot of me right now is just trying to figure out how motivated is the customer to sign up."If this sounds interesting, hit subscribe in Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, or wherever you listen to shows. Show notes Spots.fm - “what if advertising on podcasts was as easy as advertising on Facebook?” Transistor.fm Transistor.fm on Instagram Transistor.fm on Twitter Jon Buda is back on Twitter: @jonbuda Justin Jackson on Twitter here: @mijustin Give us some love on Breaker, the podcast app for Android and iPhone. ★ Please review us in iTunes – it helps other folks find the show! Thanks to our monthly supporters Pascal from sharpen.page Rewardful.com Greg Park Mitchell Davis from RecruitKit.com.au Marcel Fahle, wearebold.af Ethan Gunderson Anton Zorin from ProdCamp.com Bill Condo (@mavrck) Ward from MemberSpace.com Russell Brown from Photivo.com Evandro Sasse Austin Loveless Michael Sitver Fathom Analytics Dan Buda Colin Gray Darby Frey Dave Giunta ★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★