Startups For the Rest of Us Rob Walling
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- Business
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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.
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Episode 704 | Landing Pages, Buying a SaaS, the Right Tech Stack, and More Listener Questions
In episode 704, join Rob Walling for another solo adventure where he answers listener questions. He weighs in on buying a SaaS, how to validate ideas using landing pages, and what tech stack to choose. Rob also provides guidance for those considering leaving their comfortable day jobs in favor of being a founder.
Episode Sponsor:
Is your outsourced development team dropping the ball?
Maybe you’ve worked with a team that just couldn't grasp your vision and needed constant oversight because they weren’t thinking strategically. Or maybe you ended up wasting hours micromanaging, often needing to jump on late-night calls across massive time zone differences to get alignment. And in the end, they delivered a sluggish app with a frustrating UI that didn’t come close to the solution you had envisioned. If any of that sounds familiar, you need to reach out to our sponsor - DevSquad.
DevSquad provides an entire development team packed with top talent from Latin America.
Your elite squad will include between 2 to 6 Full Stack Developers, a technical product manager, plus experts in product strategy, UI/UX design, DevOps, and QA - all working together to make your SaaS Product a success.
You can ramp up an entire product team fast, in your timezone, and at rates 75% cheaper than a comparable US-based team. And with DevSquad, you pay month to month with no long-term contracts.
Get the committed, responsive development team that your business deserves.
Visit DevSquad.com/startups and get 10% off the first three months of your engagement.
Topics we cover:
4:00 – Comparing your business to successful outliers
9:50 – Exploring business outside of a comfortable day job
15:45 – Early access landing pages prior to development
20:00 – How do you vet SaaS businesses that you are trying to acquire?
27:16 – Evaluating a seller’s intentions
29:50 – Choosing a tech stack for your SaaS
Links from the Show:
MicroConf Remote – Early Stage Saas Strategies
Register for MicroConf US in Atlanta, April 2024
Apply for Director of Marketing and Operations for MicroConf
MicroConf Connect
Startups For The Rest of Us – Ask a question
37signals
7 Proven Ways to Create Profitable SaaS Ideas EVERY Time
The SaaS Playbook
Quiet Light
Acquire.com
The Stair Step Method of Bootstrapping
If you have questions about sta -
Episode 703 | The Accidental SaaS Entrepreneur
In episode 703, Rob Walling interviews Jordan Hansen, founder of Cobalt Intelligence. They dive into Jordan's unexpected journey into SaaS and the growth of his company, which specializes in business verification through API. Jordan reflects on quitting his job to pursue his startup and the benefits of community and mentorship he has received from TinySeed.
Episode Sponsor:
Find your perfect developer or a team at Lemon.io/startups
The competition for incredible engineers and developers has never been more fierce. Lemon.io helps you cut through the noise and find great talent through its network of engineers in Europe and Latin America.
They take care of the vetting, interviewing, and testing of candidates to make sure that you are working with someone who can hit the ground running.
When it comes to hiring, the time it takes to write your job description, list the position, review resumes, schedule interviews, and make an offer can take weeks, if not months. With Lemon.io, you can cut down on a lot of that time by tapping into their wide network of developers who can get started in as early as a week.
And for subscribers of Startups For the Rest of Us, you can get 15% off your first 4 week contract with a developer by visiting lemon.io/startups
Topics we cover:
2:30 – What does Cobalt Intelligence offer?
5:45 – Team scale, market, and business origins
9:55 – Starting YouTube and finding motivation to continually publish
13:27 – Working with a savings runway and applying to TinySeed
23:50 – Finding product-market fit
26:58 – Unlisting content to align with business goals
31:50 – “Accidental” SaaS founder
Links from the Show:
Register for MicroConf US in Atlanta, April 2024
TinySeed
The SaaS Playbook
Jordan Hansen (@JordBHansen) | X
Cobalt Intelligence (@CobaltIntell) | X
Cobalt Intelligence
Lianna Patch (@punchlinecopy) | X
The Stair Step Method of Bootstrapping
Soft Skills: The software developer's life manual by John Sonmez
Episode 698 | How to Launch a Million Dollar Business (With Noah Kagan) -
Episode 702 | Revenue vs. Profit Multiples, When to Lower Prices, and More Listener Questions
In episode 702, join Rob Walling for another solo adventure where he answers listener questions. He answers how to introduce friends to bootstrapping, when to lower your prices, and addresses the difference in revenue and profit multiple valuations. Rob also offers advice when weighing a career move versus building side projects and scaling your MVP.
Episode Sponsor:
Is your outsourced development team dropping the ball?
Maybe you’ve worked with a team that just couldn't grasp your vision and needed constant oversight because they weren’t thinking strategically. Or maybe you ended up wasting hours micromanaging, often needing to jump on late-night calls across massive time zone differences to get alignment. And in the end, they delivered a sluggish app with a frustrating UI that didn’t come close to the solution you had envisioned. If any of that sounds familiar, you need to reach out to our sponsor - DevSquad.
DevSquad provides an entire development team packed with top talent from Latin America.
Your elite squad will include between 2 to 6 Full Stack Developers, a technical product manager, plus experts in product strategy, UI/UX design, DevOps, and QA - all working together to make your SaaS Product a success.
You can ramp up an entire product team fast, in your timezone, and at rates 75% cheaper than a comparable US-based team. And with DevSquad, you pay month to month with no long-term contracts.
Get the committed, responsive development team that your business deserves.
Visit DevSquad.com/startups and get 10% off the first three months of your engagement.
Topics we cover:
3:15 – How to introduce friends to entrepreneurship and bootstrapping
6:00 – When to focus on profit vs. top-line revenue
10:40 – Considerations for building, scaling, and differentiating an MVP
15:45 – Rare circumstances where you should lower prices
20:25 – Pursuing career moves vs. building on the side
23:43 – Managing cap tables and equity vesting
Links from the Show:
MicroConf Remote – Early Stage Saas Strategies
TinySeed
The Stair Step Method of Bootstrapping
Start Small, Stay Small
The SaaS Playbook
MicroConf YouTube Channel: Building Your First SaaS: The Ultimate Crash Course
SFTROU Greatest Hits
Episode 222 | The Stair Step Approach to Launching Products
What is a SAFE?
If you have questions about starting or scaling a software business that you’d like for u -
Episode 701 | The Long Journey to Product-Market Fit
In episode 701, Rob Walling interviews Matt Wensing, founder of Summit, a SaaS platform for lead scoring and qualification. Matt shares insights on finding product-market fit, the importance of following customer workflows to get there, and the challenges of marketing and positioning. Rob asks about his choice to raise venture capital, and how keeping a lean team maximizes that opportunity.
Episode Sponsor:
Find your perfect developer or a team at Lemon.io/startups
The competition for incredible engineers and developers has never been more fierce. Lemon.io helps you cut through the noise and find great talent through its network of engineers in Europe and Latin America.
They take care of the vetting, interviewing, and testing of candidates to make sure that you are working with someone who can hit the ground running.
When it comes to hiring, the time it takes to write your job description, list the position, review resumes, schedule interviews, and make an offer can take weeks, if not months. With Lemon.io, you can cut down on a lot of that time by tapping into their wide network of developers who can get started in as early as a week.
And for subscribers of Startups For the Rest of Us, you can get 15% off your first 4 week contract with a developer by visiting lemon.io/startups
Topics we cover:
2:27 – “Traveling many H1’s”, refining a target market
5:44 – Moving back to a self-serve model
10:52 – Niching down to achieve stronger product-market fit
12:53 – Tactics that Matt used to achieve traction
16:54 – Lead scoring by behavior and persona-fit
19:20 – Scoring as a whole product vs. as only a feature
23:31 – Pursuing VC with a lean team
29:09 – Who is your ideal customer profile?
Links from the Show:
Apply for Tinyseed Feb 12th through Feb 25th
MicroConf Remote – Early Stage Saas Strategies
Matt Wensing (@mattwensing) | X
Summit
Episode 696 | The Truth about Product-Market Fit + Doing Sales as an Introvert (With Ruben Gamez)
Out of Beta
Episode 633 | Building SaaS Plus a Two-Sided Marketplace
The SaaS Playbook
"How I Sold My SaaS in An 8-Figure Exit" with Matt Wensing
If you have questions about starting or scaling a software business that you’d like for us to cover, please -
Episode 700 | Playing the Long Game
In episode 700, Rob goes solo to celebrate another milestone of Startups For the Rest of Us. He reflects on playing the long game and doing so publicly enough to create larger luck surface area. He also emphasizes building skills in the process, and highlights several founders who have done this well.
Episode Sponsor:
Is your outsourced development team dropping the ball?
Maybe you’ve worked with a team that just couldn't grasp your vision and needed constant oversight because they weren’t thinking strategically. Or maybe you ended up wasting hours micromanaging, often needing to jump on late-night calls across massive time zone differences to get alignment. And in the end, they delivered a sluggish app with a frustrating UI that didn’t come close to the solution you had envisioned. If any of that sounds familiar, you need to reach out to our sponsor - DevSquad.
DevSquad provides an entire development team packed with top talent from Latin America.
Your elite squad will include between 2 to 6 Full Stack Developers, a technical product manager, plus experts in product strategy, UI/UX design, DevOps, and QA - all working together to make your SaaS Product a success.
You can ramp up an entire product team fast, in your timezone, and at rates 75% cheaper than a comparable US-based team. And with DevSquad, you pay month to month with no long-term contracts.
Get the committed, responsive development team that your business deserves.
Visit DevSquad.com/startups and get 10% off the first three months of your engagement.
Topics we cover:
2:41 – Balancing short vs. long term thinking and decision making
7:30 – Examples of founders leaning into the long game
12:18 – Putting in the time, and doing it publicly (enough)
16:42 – Lucky or smart?
21:22 – How do I know if I’m playing the correct long game?
23:54 – Acquiring skills as you play the long game
27:13 – Cheers to 700!
Links from the Show:
Apply for TinySeed Spring 2024
MicroConf
TinySeed
Start Small, Stay Small by Rob Walling
Gather
TinySeed Tales S2E1 | Introducing Gather
Lucky or Smart? by Bo Peabody
If you have questions about starting or scaling a software business that you’d like for us to cover, please submit your question for an upcoming episode. We’d love to hear from you!
Subscribe & Review: iTunes | Spotify | -
Episode 699 | How to Build Elegant, Scalable Software Products with Derrick Reimer
In episode 699, Rob Walling chats with fan favorite Derrick Reimer, the founder of SavvyCal, about scaling products tastefully. Derrick offers his perspective on maintaining a tidy UX and deciding which features to implement. They also cover best practices for maintaining knowledge bases, changelogs, and documentation. As a bonus, Rob and Derrick offer podcasting advice to their past selves.
Episode Sponsor:
Find your perfect developer or a team at Lemon.io/startups
The competition for incredible engineers and developers has never been more fierce. Lemon.io helps you cut through the noise and find great talent through its network of engineers in Europe and Latin America.
They take care of the vetting, interviewing, and testing of candidates to make sure that you are working with someone who can hit the ground running.
When it comes to hiring, the time it takes to write your job description, list the position, review resumes, schedule interviews, and make an offer can take weeks, if not months. With Lemon.io, you can cut down on a lot of that time by tapping into their wide network of developers who can get started in as early as a week.
And for subscribers of Startups For the Rest of Us, you can get 15% off your first 4 week contract with a developer by visiting lemon.io/startups
Topics we cover:
2:35 – Establish design systems and language as you scale your product
8:36 – Building out a front-end directory to maintain consistency
10:17 – Truly understand how customers are moving through your product
16:28 – Naming convention dilemmas, industry norms vs. accuracy
19:22 – Hiding product features with feature flags
23:04 – Scaling new products that serve different verticals
31:12 – Best practices for maintaining a product knowledge base
37:11 – Bonus: What advice would you give to your prior self starting a podcast?
Links from the Show:
Register for MicroConf US in Atlanta, April 2024
The SaaS Playbook
Derrick Reimer (@derrickreimer) I X
SavvyCal
Allen D King (@allendking) | X
FunJoin
FullStory
Episode 681 | Why Launching a Second Product is Usually a Bad Idea
Help Scout Knowledge Base
Headway Changelog
Customer Reviews
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!!
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 👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼
The podcast I look forward to every Tuesday!
Thanks Rob, especially enjoy the listener questions episodes.