329 episodes

The original podcast for bootstrapped and mostly bootstrapped startups, this show follow the stories of founders as they start, acquire, and grow SaaS companies. Hear when they fail, struggle, succeed, and take you with them through the tumultuous life of a SaaS founder. If you like Mixergy, This Week in Startups, or SaaStr, you’ll enjoy Startup for the Rest of Us.

Startups For the Rest of Us Rob Walling

    • Business
    • 4.9 • 664 Ratings

The original podcast for bootstrapped and mostly bootstrapped startups, this show follow the stories of founders as they start, acquire, and grow SaaS companies. Hear when they fail, struggle, succeed, and take you with them through the tumultuous life of a SaaS founder. If you like Mixergy, This Week in Startups, or SaaStr, you’ll enjoy Startup for the Rest of Us.

    Episode 690 | When Opt-in Email Could Be Spam, Collecting Customer Feedback, and More Listener Questions

    Episode 690 | When Opt-in Email Could Be Spam, Collecting Customer Feedback, and More Listener Questions

    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:





    Going from an idea sketched on the back of a napkin to a robust, stable product requires a wide range of skills. You can spend ages looking for a one-in-a-million developer who can do it all, or you can quickly ramp up an entire product team to help you build and launch your product with our sponsor - DevSquad.



    DevSquad provides an entire development team packed with top talent from Latin America. 



    Your elite squad will include between 2 to 6 Full Stack Developers, a technical product manager, plus experts in product strategy, UI/UX design, DevOps, and QA - all working together to make your SaaS Product a success.



    You can ramp up an entire product team fast, in your timezone, and at rates 75% cheaper than a comparable US-based team. And with DevSquad, you pay month to month with no long-term contracts. 



    Take the hassle out of assembling and managing a sprawling team of freelancers and work with a group that’s ready to hit the ground running.



    Visit DevSquad.com/startups and get 10% off your engagement. 



    Topics we cover: 




    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

    • 33 min
    Episode 689 | How to Keep Your Remote Team Motivated and Engaged

    Episode 689 | How to Keep Your Remote Team Motivated and Engaged

    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

    • 30 min
    Episode 688 | Growing Boot.dev From $6k to $110k in Monthly Revenue in 15 Months

    Episode 688 | Growing Boot.dev From $6k to $110k in Monthly Revenue in 15 Months

    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!



    Subscribe & Review: iTunes | Spotify | Google

    • 32 min
    Episode 687 | An 8th Thing You Should Never Do, Things That Don't Scale, and More Rob Solo Topics

    Episode 687 | An 8th Thing You Should Never Do, Things That Don't Scale, and More Rob Solo Topics

    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

    • 23 min
    Episode 686 | How Much is Enough?, Outsourcing Marketing, and More Listener Questions

    Episode 686 | How Much is Enough?, Outsourcing Marketing, and More Listener Questions

    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!



    Subscribe & Review: iTunes | Spotify | Google

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

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

    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:

    As a founder your plate is full. So when you have to hire devs, there’s no time to search for that perfect culture-fit, get-things-done developer. Lemon.io’s new product, Lemon Hire saves founders time by connecting them with a pipeline of 80K+ senior engineers. Each dev is filtered through a 4-step vetting process, available to interview within 48 hours of choosing, and backed by a 30-day replacement guarantee.
    Find your great-fit candidates fast with Lemon Hire. Claim a special discount for our fans. Visit  https://lemon.io/hire/, sign up, and mention “Startups” to receive $2000 off your first hire.
    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!
    Subscribe & Review: iTunes | Spotify | Google

    • 36 min

Customer Reviews

4.9 out of 5
664 Ratings

664 Ratings

yuritomi ,

Honest, tactical, real stories and advice for bootstrappers

This is my go-to podcast for inspiration from other bootstrapped entrepreneurs! I so appreciate Rob’s candidness about his personal journey and the tactical business advice and honest opinions he shares based on his experience investing and advising tons of startup founders. Thank you for this wonderful podcast, Rob!!

pedro.assumpcao ,

The best startup podcast by far

Thanks Rob for all the invaluable information you provide around startup, SaaS, and bootstrapping businesses. Your podcast became my top source of info that came right on time for my professional career. Just continue with the great content 👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼

geol9 ,

The podcast I look forward to every Tuesday!

Thanks Rob, especially enjoy the listener questions episodes.

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