Startups For the Rest of Us Rob Walling

In episode 690, join Rob Walling for another solo adventure where he answers listener questions. He advises on the ethical considerations of email marketing and answers how he would value a business when buying out a partner. He also addresses the best ways to collect customer feedback and the value of high-fidelity customer calls.



Episode Sponsor:





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Topics we cover: 




2:59 – Emailing users about other projects you are working on



9:26 – Avoid sending spam-like emails



12:55 – Building a service vs. selling it as an affiliate



17:34 – SaaS evaluation after business partner falling out



21:25 – The best ways to collect customer feedback



25:36 – Determining which group of buyers to sell to, HOA’s or property managers








Links from the Show: 




The SaaS Playbook



Ask a Question on SFTROU



Start Marketing the Day You Start Coding



The Stair Step Method of Bootstrapping



Quiet Light



FE International



Discretion Capital



MicroConf Connect



Producer Xander (@ProducerXander) | X



Episode 139 | 6 Questions You Should Ask In Your Customer Development Survey




If you have questions about starting or scaling a software business that you’d like for us to cover, please submi

In episode 689, Rob Walling interviews Robert Cserti, co-founder of SessionLab. Robert and his team provide tools and resources for designing workshops and SessionLab operates fully remote. Rob and Robert discuss strategies for motivating remote teams, fostering team culture and communication, and being intentional about synchronous meetings and team bonding.



Episode Sponsor:





Find your perfect developer or a team at Lemon.io/startups



The competition for incredible engineers and developers has never been more fierce. Lemon.io helps you cut through the noise and find great talent through its network of engineers in Europe and Latin America.



They take care of the vetting, interviewing, and testing of candidates to make sure that you are working with someone who can hit the ground running.



When it comes to hiring, the time it takes to write your job description, list the position, review resumes, schedule interviews, and make an offer can take weeks, if not months. With Lemon.io, you can cut down on a lot of that time by tapping into their wide network of developers who can get started in as early as a week.



And for subscribers of Startups For the Rest of Us, you can get 15% off your first 4 week contract with a developer by visiting lemon.io/startups



Topics we cover: 




2:01 – SessionLab, for creating workshops 



3:42 – Keeping employee engagement high in remote teams, intentionally creating a workplace culture.



7:15 – Daily check-ins, synchronous vs. asynchronous communication



10:32 – Finding a cadence for synchronous calls and “all-hands”



13:20 – Planning in team retreats



15:18 – Meetings specifically for team bonding



18:42 – Regularly scheduled, random 1:1 social chats



21:05 – Experimenting with tools to facilitate communication and identify issues early



26:02 – Managing synchronous working overlap across time zones




Links from the Show: 




Are you considering selling your SaaS business?



The Psychology of Exiting Your Company 



Quiet Light



Robert Cserti | LinkedIn



SessionLab (@SessionLab) | X



SessionLab



SessionLab’s Library of facilitation techniques



Geekbot



Cozy Juicy Real



Donut



SpatialChat




If you have questions about start

In episode 688, Rob Walling interviews Lane Wagner, founder of Boot.dev. Boot.dev is a learning platform gamified to teach backend development. They discuss the journey of bootstrapping Boot.dev, its explosive growth, and its unique business model. Lane also shares challenges of running a B2C business, why he took some funding, and the significance of customer lifetime value over MRR in his business.



Topics we cover: 




2:38 – Boot.dev seeing incredible growth



3:35 – Growing on YouTube with partnerships



5:42 – Teaching Python and Go as a B2C business



7:49 – “This is not really SaaS”, considering JTBD



11:18 – The beginnings of Boot.dev, serving the backend niche



14:21 – Gaining the confidence to quit the day job



15:51 – Deciding to raise funding and “mostly” bootstrap



20:31 – Enduring hardship before turning the corner on growth



26:38 – Finding the right revenue metric for the business




Links from the Show: 




MicroConf US - Atlanta - April 21 - 23, 2024



Interested in Sponsoring MicroConf Content?



Subscribe for Exclusive Episodes



Lane from Boot.dev (@wagslane) | X



Boot.dev



Profitable, at last!



Purple Cow by Seth Godin




If you have questions about starting or scaling a software business that you’d like for us to cover, please submit your question for an upcoming episode. We’d love to hear from you!



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In episode 687, join Rob Walling for a solo adventure where discusses a variety of topics. He revisits a recent episode to add one more item to the list of things founders should never do. Rob also offers a hot take on Meta’s new subscription plans and weighs in on a Hacker News post about doing things that don’t scale.



Episode Sponsor:





Find your perfect developer or a team at Lemon.io/startups



The competition for incredible engineers and developers has never been more fierce. Lemon.io helps you cut through the noise and find great talent through its network of engineers in Europe and Latin America.



They take care of the vetting, interviewing, and testing of candidates to make sure that you are working with someone who can hit the ground running.



When it comes to hiring, the time it takes to write your job description, list the position, review resumes, schedule interviews, and make an offer can take weeks, if not months. With Lemon.io, you can cut down on a lot of that time by tapping into their wide network of developers who can get started in as early as a week.



And for subscribers of Startups For the Rest of Us, you can get 15% off your first 4 week contract with a developer by visiting lemon.io/startups



Topics we cover: 




1:50 – There’s one more thing that founders should never do



8:44 – Facebook and Instagram will offer a subscription for no ads



12:42 – Ask HN: Paul Graham’s “Do Things That Don’t Scale”



19:53 – Lugg, doing what it takes to prove out an idea




Links from the Show: 




MicroConf Connect



Episode 685 | 7 Things You Should Never Do (A Rob Solo Adventure)



Ruben Gamez (@earthlingworks) | X



TinySeed



Facebook and Instagram To Offer Subscription for No Ads in Europe 



Ask HN: PG's 'Do Things That Don't Scale' manual examples?



Do Things that Don't Scale



Lugg




If you have questions about starting or scaling a software business that you’d like for us to cover, please submit your question for an upcoming episode. We’d love to hear from you!



Subscribe & Review: iTunes | Spotify

In episode 686, join Rob Walling for another solo adventure where he answers listener questions. He answers how to evaluate monetary success, combat hedonic adaptation, and how to evaluate the capabilities of technical co-founders. Rob also discusses whether outsourcing sales and marketing is possible and considers some alternative no-code approaches. 



Topics we cover: 




4:20 – Success after stair-stepping, confronting hedonic adaptation



15:35 – Sales funnels, friction before demos, and collecting email addresses



19:24 – Outsourcing marketing and sales



23:54 – Evaluating the technical capabilities of your technical co-founder(s)



29:41 – Reducing the platform risk of developing in typical no-code tools




Links from the Show: 




State of Independent SaaS Survey and Report



MicroConf Local in Austin



MicroConf Connect



Bernard Huang (@bernardjhuang) | X



WP Engine (@wpengine) | X



Tracy Osborn (@tracymakes) | X



The Stair Step Method of Bootstrapping



Start Small, Stay Small: A Developer's Guide to Launching a Startup 



The SaaS Playbook



This Took 11 Years to Be An "Overnight Success" - SaaS Exit Strategy



Once 




If you have questions about starting or scaling a software business that you’d like for us to cover, please submit your question for an upcoming episode. We’d love to hear from you!



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In episode 685, Rob Walling goes solo to share his insights on 7 common mistakes that SaaS founders make. Be sure to listen to the end to hear Rob’s spicy take on launching a portfolio of products to see what sticks.
Episode Sponsor:

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Topics we cover: 

1:29 – Sign the National Association of Manufacturers Letter, Section 174
3:52 – Compiling a list of things founders shouldn’t do
6:49 – B2C applications, “the worst of all the worlds”
9:42 – Don’t build a second product if your first has stopped growing
10:40 – Defining a new category of software is usually a bad idea 
19:59 – Avoid multi-language support
24:13 – Dig deep to find root causes beyond the symptoms
27:41 – The portfolio approach

Links from the Show: 

The Small Software Business Alliance
MicroConf Remote
The SaaS Playbook
Dan Andrews (@TropicalMBA) | X
Episode 681 | Why Launching a Second Product is Usually a Bad Idea
Inbound Marketing by Brian Halligan and Dharmesh Shah

If you have questions about starting or scaling a software business that you’d like for us to cover, please submit your question for an upcoming episode. We’d love to hear from you!
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