Episode 481 | A Bluetick Update from Mike #Taber
In this episode of Startups For The Rest Of Us, Rob checks in with Mike Taber’s progress with Bluetick. They talk about his big new customer, traction on the podcast tour, Mike’s outreach to his LinkedIn connections, and more. Items mentioned in this episode: Bluetick.io Transcript Rob: Welcome to this week’s episode of Startups for […]
23 Aug 09:17
Episode 482 | The Value vs. Stress of Twitter, Pros and Cons of Remote Work, and Digital Minimalism – A Discussion Show with Derrick Reimer
Show Notes In this episode of Startups For The Rest Of Us, Rob does a discussion show format with guest Derrick Reimer. They discuss multiple topics including the pros/cons of remote work, value vs. stress of Twitter, and more. Items mentioned in this episode: The Art of Product Podcast Derrickreimer.com StaticKit Baremetrics Blog Post: “I […]
23 Aug 09:17
Episode 483 | Building a Mindset for SaaS Growth with Andy Baldacci
Show Notes In this episode of Startups For The Rest Of Us, Rob interviews growth marketer Andy Baldacci about how he got his start, his early days at Hubstaff, marketing for Groove, and he gives some practical tips/advice for the listeners. Items mentioned in this episode: MicroConf Connect SaberSim The Effective Founder Podcast Transcript Rob: […]
23 Aug 09:17
Episode 484 | Marketing That’s Working Today, Moving from 5 to 10 Employees, SaaS Longevity, and More Listener Questions
In this episode of Startups For The Rest Of Us, Rob along with guest Ruben Gamez answer a number of listener questions on topics including current marketing tactics, scaling from 5 to 10 employees, SaaS longevity and more. Items mentioned in this episode: Docsketch Bidsketch MicroConf Connect Peldi’ s article about profit sharing Quiet Light […]
23 Aug 09:17
Episode 485 | Catching Up with Rob (An Interview by Dr. Sherry Walling)
In this episode of Startups For The Rest Of Us, the tables have turned as Rob is interviewed by Dr. Sherry Walling. They talk MicroConf, the podcast, state of independent SaaS report and TinySeed but also explore bigger themes like what Rob wants to accomplish with all of his businesses and a unifying theme he’s […]
23 Aug 09:17
Episode 486 | The Shocking Collapse of Zirtual and Maren Kate’s Next Act (plus How to Hire Well)
Show Notes In this episode Startups For The Rest Of Us Rob interviews Maren Kate of Avra Talent about her entrepreneurial journey. She talks about her first company that raised 5.5 million in funding, hit $1mil in MRR, had over 400 employees, but ultimately failed. She talks about how she recovered both mentally and professionally, […]
23 Aug 09:17
Episode 487 | Startup Roundtable Discussing Hey.com, Leadpages’ Acquisition, and More Hot Topics
Show Notes In this episode of Startups For The Rest Of Us, Rob is joined by Jordan Gal and Tracy Osborn for a roundtable discussion. Some of the topics in this episode including Basecamp reinventing email with Hey.com, Leadpages being acquired by Redbrick, the growing popularity of subscription based pricing and how many active subscriptions […]
23 Aug 09:17
Episode 488 | A Bluetick Progress Update from Mike Taber
Show Notes In this episode of Startups For The Rest Of Us, Rob checks in with Mike Taber about his progress with Bluetick. They talk about new growth, where that growth is coming from, theories on why customers are choosing Bluetick over competitors, and more. Items mentioned in this episode: MicroConf Connect Bluetick.io Transcript Rob: […]
23 Aug 09:17
Episode 489 | 15 Years to a SaaS Exit (Plus Why Forecasting is Crucial)
Show Notes In this episode of Startups For The Rest Of Us, Rob talks with Matt Wensing about his exit from his company Riskpulse, dealing with multiple investors, his new company Summt, and why forecasting is crucial. Items mentioned in this episode: TinySeed MicroConf On-Air Castos Summit Out of Beta Podcast Transcript Rob: Welcome to […]
23 Aug 09:17
Episode 489.5 | It All Started 10 Years Ago Today
Show Notes 10 years to the day….Startups For The Rest Of Us was born. In this episode Rob reflects back on he and Mike Taber starting the podcast all those years ago and the journey its been. This episode includes a 5 minute play of the very first episode of the podcast. Items mentioned in […]
23 Aug 09:17
Episode 490 | How Founders Should Be Thinking About the Current Crisis
Show Notes In this episode of Startups For The Rest Of Us, Rob along with guest Einar Vollset, talk about the current crisis and as a founder what your mindset should be and what to do to be prepared. #1: Don’t panic, clear heads will prevail #2: No business is recession proof #3: Be cautious […]
23 Aug 09:16
Episode 491 | Hard Lessons Learned, Reaching High-Touch Prospects, Finding Advisors, and More Listener Questions
Show Notes In this episode of Startups For The Rest Of Us, Rob along with guest Matt Wensing, answer a number of listener questions on topics including reaching high-touch prospects, finding advisors and more. Items mentioned in this episode: RiskPulse Olive Crewbooks Out of Beta Podcast Patrick Campbell’s MicroConf Talk Transcript Rob: Welcome to this […]
23 Aug 09:16
Episode 492 | From Zero to $55k MRR to Exit (in 2 Years) with Feedback Panda
In this episode of Startups For The Rest Of Us, Rob interviews Danielle Simpson and Arvid Kahl, co-founders of FeedbackPanda, a SaaS business they bootstrapped to $55k MRR with no outside funding and no employees. They sold directly to teachers, a price-sensitive market, and they used referral programs and word of mouth to create rapid […]
23 Aug 09:16
Bonus Episode: What Courtland Allen Has Learned Interviewing 155 Startup Founders
This bonus episode of Startup For The Rest Of Us is from a MicroConf On Air live stream in which Rob interviews Courtland Allen, founder of Indie Hackers, about interviewing 155 startup founders and what he learned from building a community from scratch. It was such a great conversation, I wanted to put it in […]
23 Aug 09:16
Episode 493 | A Roundtable Discussion about COVID-19, Working From Home, Payroll Protection and More
This is a round table discussion with Craig Hewitt (founder of Castos), Einar Vollset (cofounder of TinySeed), and myself. We are in three different cities on two different continents, so we have plenty of different perspectives on the COVID-19 crisis. We are talking about our own businesses and the advice we give to other founders. […]
23 Aug 09:16
Episode 494 | A Bluetick Update From Mike Taber
This week we catch up with Mike Taber, he comes on the show every once in a while to share his progress as he grows his SaaS App, Bluetick. We haven’t checked in with Mike since before the quarantine, and the last time we spoke to him, he had more than doubled his revenue in […]
23 Aug 09:16
Episode 495 | Advice, Competition, Marketing, and Managing Developers (A Rob Solo Adventure)
Today, Rob flies solo to talk about 7 different things that he has learned in his 20 years of entrepreneurship. He also offers some feedback about what he is seeing in the startup communities today, advice on how to deal with competition, marketing tips, and how to build a team of developers. The finer points […]
23 Aug 09:16
Episode 496 | “The Press Covers Exceptions, Don’t Compare Yourself to Slack or Zoom”
This interview was recorded several months ago, but is still relevant despite the pandemic. Colin Nederkoorn, the co-founder of customer.io has taken a unique approach to building their company. Customer.io does marketing automation for the entire customer lifecycle. They have raised funding, but not traditional venture money, and they’ve run it more like a self-funded […]
23 Aug 09:16
Episode 497 | Documenting SaaS for a Sale, Email Harvesting and Spam, and More Listener Questions
This week Rob answers listener questions with TinySeed co-founder Einar Vollset. Einar has been on the selling side of many SaaS acquisitions. He is also a developer with a Ph.D. in computer science, so he has a well-rounded experience, and it makes him the perfect person to answer these listener questions. There are some interesting […]
23 Aug 09:16
Episode 498 | Selling During a Pandemic with Steli Efti
This week Rob talks with Steli Efti about selling during a pandemic. They also talk about how to set yourself up for success as a founder during a possible recession and how to adjust your sales process. You don’t want to shy away from sales, but you also don’t want to be tone-deaf to the […]
23 Aug 09:16
Episode 499 | The (First) Six Stages of SaaS Growth – Part 1
This week is a conversation between Rob and Jordan Gal, the founder of Cart Hook. We dig into the six stages of SaaS growth. We compare our journeys 1:1 between growing Drip and growing CartHook. It’s shocking how well the journeys line up with each other. Some of the differences in the journey are also […]
23 Aug 09:16
Bonus | The Struggle for Lasting Change
23 Aug 09:16
Episode 499.5 | The (First) Six Stages of SaaS Growth – Part 2
This episode is part two in a two-part conversation. If you haven’t already, listen to Part 1 first. This week is the second part of a conversation between Rob and Jordan Gal, the founder of CartHook. In the episode, Rob and Jordan dig into the 4th, 5th and 6th stages of SaaS growth and compare […]
23 Aug 09:16
Episode 500
This is a big milestone episode for Startups for the Rest of Us. Episode 500. Since the very first episode nearly a decade ago we’ve had more than 10 million downloads, answered more than 1,500 listener questions, and shared more than 292 hours of startup content. Over the years, this podcast has developed a particular […]
23 Aug 09:16
Episode 501 | A Bluetick Update from Mike #Taber
In the first episode of Startups For The Rest Of Us since our 500th milestone, Rob checks in with Mike Taber about his progress with Bluetick. It’s been nearly 7 weeks since Rob last checked in (Episode 494) and a lot has happened in the world since then. They talk about business trajectory amidst COVID-19, […]
23 Aug 09:16
Episode 502 | Accelerating Growth and a Failed Product Hunt Launch
In his second appearance on the show (he first appeared on Episode 367), we chat with Benedikt Deicke from Userlist. Along with his co-founder, Jane Portman, they are building an easy to use customer messaging tool catered specifically towards SaaS companies. In this show, we talk about some of the challenges in building a product […]
23 Aug 09:16
Episode 503 | Idea Validation, Expanding Internationally, Affiliate Programs, and More Listener Questions
This week Rob answers some great listener questions. We discuss the best way to validate a product idea, how to expand a product with traction internationally, advice on launching a restaurant product during COVID-19, and whether to start an affiliate program. If you have questions about starting or scaling a software business that you’d like […]
23 Aug 09:15
Episode 504 | 15 Tools We Use to Run Our Business
This week we chat with Tracy Osborn (@tracymakes) as we discuss 15 of the top tools we use to run our businesses. As a followup to a previous, popular tweet, we thought we’d give an update on what tools we continue to use today, as well as share some of the new tools we have […]
23 Aug 09:15
Episode 505 | 42 Side Projects and the #NoCode Movement
Show Notes You’ve probably heard a lot about the #NoCode movement but may not know what it means, exactly. Today, we have the great pleasure of talking with someone who is knee-deep in the #NoCode movement. Helen Ryles has launched 42 projects over 10+ years and on this episode, she shares with us why she […]
23 Aug 09:15
Episode 506 | Shutting Down and Starting Up with Derrick Reimer
On today’s episode of Startups For The Rest Of Us, Rob catches up with guest Derrick Reimer as they discuss shutting down a slack competitor while building and preparing to launch a new calendar SaaS. They discuss topics like user research, defining and validating an idea, choosing a big market, viral loops, and more. The […]
23 Aug 09:15
Episode 507 | Making Cold Email Work in B2B SaaS
Show Notes On today’s episode, Rob chats with Damian Thompson, co-founder of LeadFuze. He’s also the founder of VPSales. They talk about if and when to hire a sales team, the kinds of cold email outreach campaigns that are working well today, the sales stack, and much more. The topics we cover 5:43 Should a […]
23 Aug 09:15
Episode 508 | Finding Marketing Channels, Seat-Limited Trials, Building a Brand, and More Listener Questions
Show Notes On today’s episode, Rob is joined by Asia Orangio as they answer listener questions ranging from how to find the right marketing channel, how to build a brand for your business, as well as how to decide whether to start or join a startup. If you have questions about starting or scaling a […]
23 Aug 09:15
Episode 509 | Revisiting the Six Stages of SaaS Growth with DNSimple
Show Notes Today, we have a conversation between Rob and Anthony Eden from DNSimple as they revisit the six stages of SaaS growth starting with pre-launch and pre product-market fit to scaling and company building. Be sure to listen in until the end of the podcast as they talk about what lies beyond company building, […]
23 Aug 09:15
Episode 510 | The Story of Startups.com
On today’s episode, Rob chats Wil Schroter about the story behind Startups.com, the importance of output vs. hours, being specific about the kind of things you don’t want to do in life, choosing venture capital, and much more. The topics we cover 2:43 How soon after first acquisition did Wil Schroter, CEO and founder of […]
23 Aug 09:15
Episode 511 | Raising Prices & Re-writing Your Codebase
Show Notes On today’s episode, Rob chats with Mike Ritchie about how they got their first paying customer in 30 days of launch, listening to your customers, and doing a massive pricing revamp. SeekWell is looking for a freelance SEO marketer to help grow the top of their funnel. If you have experience in analytics […]
23 Aug 09:15
Episode 512 | The Power of Options (A Rob Solo Adventure)
Join us for a Rob Solo Adventure version of Startups for The Rest of Us as Rob Walling talks about the power of optionality. He explores the importance of having different paths and avoiding backing yourself into a corner and being constrained when making important life decisions. The topics we cover 1:27 The story of Gary […]
23 Aug 09:15
Episode 513 | SaaS Valuations + Dos and Don’ts When Selling A SaaS
On today’s episode of Startups For The Rest of Us, Rob Walling (@robwalling) talks with David Newell (@davidsnewell), a Senior Advisor at Quiet Light Brokerage, about the dos and dont’s of SaaS valuations. The topics we cover 4:12 Running your business as if it were a sellable asset 5:15 Quiet Light deal count and other […]
23 Aug 09:15
TinySeed Tales S2E1 | Introducing Gather
Welcome to Season 2 of TinySeed Tales, where we follow the founders of one SaaS startup week by week through their struggles, victories, and failures. On the first episode of this series, Rob introduces us to Brian & Scottie Elliott from Gather, an interior design project management app. Show Notes 1:30 Meet the Co-Founders of Gather, […]
23 Aug 09:15
Episode 514 | An Inside Look at MicroConf Remote
Producer Xander Castro has been working on MicroConf since 2014 and is a long-time listener of the show, but this is his first time on the podcast. On this episode, we take an inside look at MicroConf Remote from a few weeks ago and discuss what worked well, what we’ll do differently next time and […]
23 Aug 09:15
TinySeed Tales S2E2 | Moving Upmarket
Brian & Scottie Elliott are the husband & wife co-founders of Gather, an interior design project management app. On this episode, Rob chats with Brian & Scottie about taking their product upmarket, focusing on customer success, hiring consultants and contractors, and more! The topics we cover [01:43] Check in on how this week has been going […]
23 Aug 09:15
Episode 515 | Finding a Co-Founder, Getting Better at Sales, and More Listener Questions
Rob is joined by Anthony Eden from DNSimple as they answer your listener questions. They cover topics ranging from tax liabilities with contractors, getting feedback on a prototype, and finding a technical cofounder. If you have questions about starting or scaling a SaaS that you’d like for us to cover, please submit your question for the next […]
23 Aug 09:15
TinySeed Tales S2E3 | Is This All Worth It?
Brian & Scottie Elliott are the husband & wife co-founders of Gather, an interior design project management app. Today, Rob chats with Brian & Scottie about their new hires, setting ambitious revenue goals, and managing stress and anxiety as entrepreneurs. The topics we cover [01:01] Update on hiring, new sales, and more Hired a VA Hired […]
23 Aug 09:15
Episode 516 | When to Re-write Your SaaS Codebase
Matt Wensing returns for his third appearance on the podcast. He is the founder of Summit and was in TinySeed Batch 1. We dive into Matt’s decision-making process for re-writing the entire codebase. We talk about choosing the right features to build, talking to your customers, starting with a blank slate vs templates, and much […]
23 Aug 09:15
TinySeed Tales S2E4 | Being Married and Being Co-Founders
Brian & Scottie Elliott are the husband & wife co-founders of Gather, an interior design project management app. Today we’re going to dive into the stress that comes with entrepreneurship and how it shows up in their personal lives. Moving up from one customer segment to another is hard. Each customer segment is like an Island […]
23 Aug 09:15
Episode 517 | Married Co-founders Who Turned a Free Tool Into a Fast-Growing SaaS Product
We’re joined in this episode by the founding team of Scatterspoke, John Samuelson and Colleen Johnson. What started as a lark to learn new technology has now turned into a successful business with more than $12k MRR. In this episode, we learn how they turned a side project into a successful fulltime business. The topics […]
23 Aug 09:14
TinySeed Tales S2E5 | The Gamble of Raising Prices
On Episode 5 of TinySeed Tales, we learn about the success of their recent outbound email campaign. We also hear about their progress with raising their prices and transitioning away from Gather’s solo pricing tier. The topics we cover [02:00] Checking in on the past few weeks A little bit of an emotional roller coaster […]
23 Aug 09:14
Episode 517.5 | The 2nd State of Independent SaaS Survey is Live
23 Aug 09:14
Episode 518 | A Live LinkedIn Ads Consult with Anthony Blatner and Scatterspoke
Episode 518 of Startups For the Rest of Us is an experimental format where Anthony Blatner, a LinkedIn expert, live consults with John Samuelson, a B2B SaaS founder on advertising a SaaS business on LinkedIn. There’s a wealth of knowledge in today’s episode so if you are considering or have thought about LinkedIn ads, this […]
23 Aug 09:14
TinySeed Tales S2E6 | Best Growth Month Ever
Brian & Scottie Elliott are the husband & wife co-founders of Gather, an interior design project management app. On this episode, Brian and Scottie share with us an update on their unexpected MRR growth, the psychology of raising prices, and the difficulty of making decisions amidst a mountain of unknowns. The topics we cover 01:07] Update […]
23 Aug 09:14
Episode 519 | Profit Sharing, Stock Options, and Equity (A Rob Solo Adventure)
On this episode, Rob talks through profit sharing, stock options, and equity and makes a comparison between these various approaches. If you are thinking of ways to incentivize team members as a bootstrapper, this episode is for you. The topics we cover [04:34] Bonuses [07:52] Equity Grants [11:47] Stock Options [20:09] Profit Sharing [26:09] Which […]
23 Aug 09:14
TinySeed Tales S2E7 | A Global Pandemic
Brian & Scottie Elliott are the husband & wife co-founders of Gather, an interior design project management app. Today’s episode was recorded after the COVID-19 shelter in place orders went into effect. We talk with Brian and Scottie about how the pandemic has affected Gather as well as their life beyond the scope of their business. […]
23 Aug 09:14
Episode 520 | Why a Million Dollar Agency Quit It All and Moved to SaaS
In this episode, Rob talks with the founder of SegMetrics, Keith Perhac. SegMetrics is a SaaS product that helps users get clarity on where their leads come from, how they act, and how much their marketing is worth. We dive into the difference between SegMetrics and other options for attributing sales and revenue to traffic […]
23 Aug 09:14
TinySeed Tales S2E8 | Upmarket Starts to Pay Off
Brian & Scottie Elliott are the husband & wife co-founders of Gather, an interior design project management app. Last time we spoke, they were bouncing back from the initial shock of the COVID-19 crisis with the potential to sign two large enterprise deals that could help them out with an ongoing cash crunch. In this episode, […]
23 Aug 09:14
Episode 521 | A Roundtable Discussion about a Potential Recession, Working from Home, Google Anti-trust, and More
Episode 521 is a roundtable episode where Rob brings on a couple of guests to talk through topics today that relate to bootstrapped and mostly bootstrapped startup founders. Today, we have Tracy Osborn and Einar Vollset joining us, as we talk through a potential impending recession, the Google anti-trust suit, Dropbox moving to permanent work […]
23 Aug 09:14
TinySeed Tales S2E9 | Playing the Long Game
Brian & Scottie Elliott are the husband & wife co-founders of Gather, an interior design project management app. Join Rob as he chats with Brian & Scottie for the final episode of Season 2 of TinySeed Tales. In the last year, Gather managed to double their revenue and overcome most of the challenges they faced along […]
23 Aug 09:14
Episode 522 | Revisiting Castos, One Year Later
Rob welcomes back to the show a frequent guest, Craig Hewitt for a “Where Are They Now?” syle episode. Craig is the founder of Castos and has appeared many times on Startups For the Rest of Us. In this episode, they reconnect and talk about the latest with Castos, from hiring a growth marketer, merging […]
23 Aug 09:14
Episode 523 | Breaking Through Plateaus, Entrepreneurship for Kids, Common Bootstrapper Mistakes, and More Listener Questions
In episode 523, Rob hosts a rapid-fire lightning round of listener questions ranging from whether to focus on one or multiple businesses, finding the right amount of customer research, breaking through slow growth, and teaching entrepreneurship to kids. The topics we cover [4:38] If you were starting a business today and you were earlier on […]
23 Aug 09:14
Episode 524 | Bootstrapping a Commodity SaaS
In this episode, Rob chats with Michele and Mathias Hansen, the married co-founders of Geocodio. We talk about bootstrapping into a commoditized space and how they’ve grown their SaaS app from a side project to full-time over the past 6.5 years. The topics we cover [01:38] What is Geocodio? [10:29] Innovating in a commoditized market […]
23 Aug 09:14
Episode 525 | A Bootstrapping Artifact from 2005
This episode is a walk down memory lane as Rob shares the story of acquiring his first product 15 years ago. We hear how Rob navigated the purchase of the product, a potential partnership with a trusted friend, and pushing through when his back was against the wall. Hopefully, this episode will inspire you to […]
23 Aug 09:14
Episode 526 | Launching, Learning, and Teaching with Justin Vincent
In episode 526 of Startups For the Rest of Us, Rob chats with a long-time friend, Justin Vincent about his startup successes and failures and the importance of taking small steps when starting as a founder. They also talk about Justin’s latest project, Nugget, a startup bootcamp and academy. The topics we cover [4:04] Building Plugg.io […]
23 Aug 09:14
Episode 527 | From Agency to SaaS, Equity Splits, and More Listener Questions with Courtland Allen
In today’s episode, Rob is joined by Courtland Allen as they answer listener questions. They talk about equity splits, the best cities for bootstrappers, splitting brands, and where to look for business ideas. The topics we cover [2:03] Splitting brands between agency and SaaS [10:55] What percent equity split when co-founding an app [18:52] Where […]
23 Aug 09:14
Episode 528 | 2021 Predictions from Rob and Mike
In today’s episode, Rob and Mike Taber review and rank their past yearly predictions and then make big, bold projections for 2021 with bets ranging from extraterrestrial life, VR becoming mainstream, the end of commercial real estate, and more. The topics we cover [2:45] Reviewing our predictions for 2019 [7:42] Predictions for 2021 If you […]
23 Aug 09:14
Episode 529 | A Pricing Deep Dive with Slingshot
In this episode, Rob chats with John Howard, a MicroConf Connect member and founder of Slingshot. They unpack the business model of measurable swag giveaways and then dive deep into John’s pricing strategy and explore alternatives as well as opportunities to move into a subscription-based model. The topics we cover [9:26] Starting a physical product […]
23 Aug 09:14
Episode 530 | Making Development Decisions, Regrets about Selling, and More Listener Questions (with Derrick Reimer)
In this week’s episode, Rob sits down with Derrick Reimer to answer listener questions. They discuss whether they have any regrets about selling Drip, protecting against web scraping, making the leap from side project to full-time, and making decisions as a development team. The topics we cover [2:10] How development teams think about decisions together […]
23 Aug 09:13
Episode 531 | How a Non-Technical Founder Grew Past $45k MRR
In Episode 531, Rob talks with Colin Gray, the founder of The Podcast Host and Alitu. Join us for this great conversation as we talk about Colin’s early days of building a hobby project in podcast hosting, hiring a freelancer to start producing shows. and building a SaaS app on top of an audience. The […]
23 Aug 09:13
Episode 532 | The Art of Selling Your Business with John Warrillow
In this episode, Rob sits down with John Warrillow, author of multiple bestselling books and someone who has years of experience in building and selling companies. They discuss when to sell, how to create leverage, the importance of hiring an expert, and more. The topics we cover [7:30] The right time to sell a company […]
23 Aug 09:13
Episode 533: Life Profitability After Two Exits (with Adii Pienaar)
In this episode, Rob speaks with Adii Pienaar, a multi-time founder with multiple exits under his belt. They discuss life probability and the importance of measuring your entrepreneurial success by the things that matter the most to you and your life. The topics we cover [4:36] What motivated Adii to write the book [10:17] Life […]
23 Aug 09:13
Episode 534 | A $4M Exit with Josh Pigford of Baremetrics
In this episode, Rob talks with Josh Pigford in a first appearance since the sale of Baremetrics for $4m. They discuss his seven-year journey to build Baremetrics, the details of the sale, and Josh’s post-sale, non-software aspirations. The topics we cover [02:42] Intros [04:26] Avoiding capital gains via qualified small business stock. [09:08] Josh’s post-sale […]
23 Aug 09:13
Episode 535 | A Bluetick Update with Mike Taber
In Episode 535, Rob is joined by co-host emeritus, Mike Taber to talk about what Mike has been up to over the past seven months with Bluetick, including an exciting reveal of a big project he’s been working on. The topics we cover [05:41] BlueTick partnership or merger with a CRM for field sales reps […]
23 Aug 09:13
Episode 536 | A Few Things I Learned in 2020 (A Rob Solo Adventure)
In episode 536 of Startups For the Rest of Us, Rob does another solo adventure. As we all faced perhaps one of the worst years on record, Rob talks through some things that 2020 taught him personally, professionally, and at a higher level, philosophically. He also looks beyond 2020 and discusses opportunities for 2021 for […]
23 Aug 09:13
Episode 537 | On Launching, Funding, and Growth with Serial SaaS Founder Rand Fishkin
In this episode, Rob is joined by Rand Fishkin for an honest and transparent conversation about his time at Moz, raising funding, his book Lost and Founder, as well as his current effort, SparkToro. They discuss growth levers and the importance of owning the channel where you build your audience. The topics we cover [01:44] Impacts […]
23 Aug 09:13
Episode 538 | When to Sunset a Product, Enterprise Security Assessments, Lifetime Deals, and More Listener Questions
In this episode, Rob Walling is joined by Einar Vollset as they answer listener questions ranging from when to sunset a product, filling out enterprise security assessments, acquiring a company where the previous owner had sold lifetime deals and not disclosed it, and more. The topics we cover [03:20] Deciding when to sunset a feature […]
23 Aug 09:13
Episode 539 | Post-Exit Life, Writing Six Books, and Brewing Beer with Dan Norris
In this episode, Rob chats with Dan Norris about selling his productized service to GoDaddy, his latest book, and latest business, a very successful brewery in Australia. They also ruminate on the impact that post-exit money has had on their lives. The topics we cover [07:04] Finding the motivation to write 6 books [07:38] Selling […]
23 Aug 09:13
Episode 540 | Bootstrapper News. Twitter Spaces, Indie.vc Closing, Shopify, and More
In this episode, Rob talks with Tracy Osborn and Einar Vollset, about the recent news that’s come out in the bootstrapper community. They talk about the Indie.vc shutdown, the new features coming out on Twitter, LinkedIn’s new gig marketplace, and more. The topics we cover [03:18] Twitter Spaces [10:05] The Network Effect and Twitter Verification [14:32] […]
23 Aug 09:13
Episode 541 | Faster Horses & Product Myths, Life-changing Money, Dual Funnels, and More
In episode 541, Rob Walling flies solo to discuss things like product myths and the misinterpreted Henry Ford quote, selling a company, defining life-changing money, and dual funnels. The topics we cover [02:48] Product myths and the misinterpreted Henry Ford quote [07:21] Post-exit thoughts [15:32] Life-changing money [22:30] The power of dual-funnels Links from the […]
23 Aug 09:13
Episode 542 | 10x in Two Years, Past $3M ARR with SquadCast
In episode 542, Rob Walling chats with Zach Moreno, the Co-Founder and CEO of Squadcast about how they grew their revenue and surpassed $3 million in ARR as a mostly bootstrapped startup. They also discuss the role and importance of having a co-founder, as well as the impact that having a “knowledge investor” had on […]
23 Aug 09:13
Episode 543 | All Things Startup with #Mike Taber
In Episode 543 of Startups For the Rest of Us, Rob is joined again by co-host emeritus, Mike Taber as he gives an update on all things startups and they analyze top tactics for superhero success. If you enjoyed this episode, let us know by clicking the link and sharing what you learned. Click here […]
23 Aug 09:13
Episode 544 | Annual Raises, Finding Good Startup People, and More Listener Questions with Josh Pigford
In this episode, Rob Walling is joined by Josh Pigford to answer listener questions, covering topics like annual pay increases, B2B SaaS price increases, white-label vs branded product, and hiring startup-minded people. The topics we cover [03:04] Building Maybe, and Rob busts Josh’s chops about starting a business so soon [10:02] Question #1: Annual Raises […]
23 Aug 09:13
Episode 545 | The Value of Learning 80/20 Design Fundamentals
In Episode 545, Rob Walling chats with Tracy Osborn about the importance of learning design fundamentals for startup founders. They also discuss her new book and the pros/cons of self-publishing vs working with a publisher. The topics we cover [00:52] Intros [02:00] Deciding to self publish vs going with a publisher [11:11] Design fundamentals for […]
23 Aug 09:13
Episode 546 | Hiring Entrepreneurial People, Anonymity, Disruptive Innovation, and More Listener Questions
In Episode 546, Rob Walling flies solo for a Q&A episode. With a backlog of great listener questions, Rob discusses qualified small business stock (QSBS), hiring entrepreneurially-minded employees, indie hacking while working at a large company, and more. The topics we cover [01:51] Should I switch to a C Corp to take advantage of QSBS […]
23 Aug 09:13
Episode 547 | Private Podcasting, Apple’s Announcement, and Accelerating Growth with Craig Hewitt
In Episode 547, Rob Walling chats with Craig Hewitt about private podcasting, Apple’s announcement around their subscription podcast offering as well as the accelerating growth of Castos. The topics we cover [1:22] Focusing on private podcasting at Castos [15:50] Mobile app for private podcasting [20:21] Apple’s big announcement [28:08] Castos MRR growth Links from the […]
23 Aug 09:13
Episode 548 | The Grind of Building a SaaS During Nights & Weekends
In Episode 548, Rob Walling chats with Zack Naylor about Aurelius and the harrowing tale of launching multiple times and having to rewrite and re-platform the codebase before finally finding success. They also discuss how to interpret feedback from your customers and the importance of listening to your instinct as a founder. The topics we […]
23 Aug 09:12
Episode 548.5 | The Companies in TinySeed’s Spring 2021 Batch
23 Aug 09:12
Episode 549 | Hiring vs. Outsourcing, E-commerce SaaS, and More Listener Questions with Jordan Gal
In Episode 439, Rob Walling is joined by Jordan Gal to answer listener questions about starting an e-commerce SaaS and the laws and regulations, and compliance requirements required. They talk about managing enterprise perceptions of risk towards bootstrap startups. They also answer questions about bootstrapping and enterprise SaaS as well as hiring a growth role […]
23 Aug 09:12
Episode 550 | Three Years of Grind to Six Figures in ARR with CloudForecast
In Episode 550, Rob Walling chats with Tony Chan, co-founder of CloudForecast, about his incredible story of perseverance after getting rejected multiple times only to finally find product-market fit and reach six figures in annual recurring revenue. The topics we cover [04:11] CloudForecast’s current revenue and customer base [08:43] Origin story for the idea of […]
23 Aug 09:12
Episode 551 | Task-level vs. Project-level Thinkers, No Such Thing as an Autopilot Business, and More (A Rob Solo Adventure)
In episode 551 of Startups For the Rest of Us, Rob does another solo adventure to talk about hiring owner-level thinkers, the fallacy of an autopilot passive income software business, and more. The topics we cover [1:25] Hiring task-level thinkers, project-level thinkers, and owner-level thinkers [07:43] The fallacy of an autopilot passive income software business […]
23 Aug 09:12
Episode 552 | Google Audits, Partnerships, and Freemium with Mike Taber
In Episode 552, Rob Walling is joined by co-host emeritus, Mike Taber to chat about his decision-making around whether to launch a freemium plan, whether to do an AppSumo deal, how his potential partnerships merger is panning out. The topics we cover [04:93] Update on the CRM partnership opportunity, AppSumo, and Freemium [23:39] Yet another […]
23 Aug 09:12
Episode 553 | Stack Overflow and Moz Acquired, Quitting Instead of Giving Up Remote Work, and More Bootstrapper News
In Episode 553, Rob Walling chats with Tracy Osborn about the latest bootstrapper news, including the recent Stack Overflow and Moz acquisitions, quitting instead of giving up remote work, and highlights from TinySeed 2020 Batch. The topics we cover [01:52] Intro [03:45] Stack Overflow acquisition [12:11] Moz acquisition [16:33] Quitting instead of giving up remote […]
23 Aug 09:12
Episode 554 | Thinking Through Your Exit + Grief and Entrepreneurship with Dr. Sherry Walling
In Episode 554, Rob Walling chats with Sherry Walling about grief as a part of entrepreneurship and how to get better at handling grief as an entrepreneur. They also discuss burnout and properly evaluating if it’s the right time to sell a company. The topics we cover [02:18] Grief is part of entrepreneurship [05:12] Getting […]
23 Aug 09:12
Episode 555 | Businesses You Can Bootstrap, W2 vs. Contract, Enterprise Pricing, and More Listener Questions with Ruben Gamez
In Episode 555, Rob Walling answers listener questions with Ruben Gamez. They discuss different models of bootstrapping success, hiring W2 versus hiring contractors, determining if a business is an ideal fit for bootstrapping and they revisit enterprise pricing. The topics we cover [01:24] Bootstrappers Rob & Ruben admire [12:25] Pros and cons to hiring contractors […]
23 Aug 09:12
Episode 556 | Zero to $26k MRR as the Solo Founder of Rails Autoscale
In Episode 556, Rob Walling chats with Adam McCrea about growing from zero to $300,000 in ARR over the course of three years as a Heroku add-on. Adam is still a single founder with no employees and up until joining the TinySeed accelerator in their Spring 2021 batch, has fully bootstrapped Rails Autoscale. Now, he’s […]
23 Aug 09:12
Episode 557 | Investing for Founders
In Episode 557, Rob Walling flies solo to talk about investing for founders, with an emphasis on retirement. Rob views investing as a long-term game, not treating the stock market like a slot machine by buying and selling stocks. As founders, we’re busy with our work, our family, and our friends. We don’t want to […]
23 Aug 09:12
Episode 558 | Thinking Through Funding as a Bootstrapper
In Episode 558, Rob Walling chats with Einar Vollset about bootstrapping versus funding and the many options that exist in between. No longer is it a decision between a bootstrapped or venture path. With their unique perspectives, Rob and Einar talk about all of the funding options that exist. They also share some things to […]
23 Aug 09:12
Episode 559 | Bootstrapping a Two-Sided Marketplace with MicroAquire
In Episode 559, Rob Walling chats with Andrew Gazdecki, the founder of MicroAcquire, about bootstrapping a two-sided marketplace in a competitive industry. They talk about Andrew’s previous successes, including growing Bizness Apps to $10 million in annual recurring revenue. They also unpack Andrew’s current business, MicroAcquire, and talk about how it was started, its current […]
23 Aug 09:12
Episode 560 | When to Hire, Square Business Banking, and More Bootstrapper News
In Episode 560, Rob Walling is joined by Einar Vollset and Tracy Osborn to talk about deciding when it’s time to hire someone, how to think about which role to hire next, changing location to force productivity, and more. The topics we cover [2:52] Deciding to hire a community manager [9:28] Location hacks for improved […]
23 Aug 09:12
Episode 561 | Launching on Product Hunt and DIY vs. DFY
In Episode 561, Rob Walling chats with Andy Cabasso, co-founder of Postaga, about launching on Product Hunt, having a done-for-you service in addition to a DIY self-service SaaS app, growing to a team of six people, having a free plan, and doing a ton of customer development in the early days. The topics we cover […]
23 Aug 09:12
Episode 562 | “Measure Twice, Cut Once” + SaaS Holy Grails (A Rob Solo Adventure)
In Episode 562, join Rob Walling for another solo adventure to talk about enterprise sales, mental frameworks for founders, undoable decisions, and how to handle being approached about an acquisition. The topics we cover [2:33] Enterprise sales advice [5:48] Measure twice, cut once for SaaS [10:56] Holy Grail of SaaS: Expansion Revenue [13:12] Holy Grail […]
23 Aug 09:12
Episode 562.5 | TinySeed Fall 2021 SaaS Accelerator Application Info Session
The application for TinySeed’s Fall 2021 SaaS accelerator batch of startups will open for two weeks starting on August 9th, 2021. Watch the video recording of the Fall 2021 Batch Info Session here: https://youtu.be/6dqTClonO2Y Interested in applying? Join us for an info session with the TinySeed team to talk about the application process, what to […]
23 Aug 09:12
Episode 563 | The Struggle, Calls to Action, Selling Above $1M ARR, and More Listener Questions
In Episode 563, Rob Walling answers listener questions about startup operating agreements for co-founders, common cloud hosting solutions, struggling as a young entrepreneur, and selling your startup when you have over $1M in annual recurring revenue. The topics we cover [1:40] Operating agreements for startup co-founders [5:50] How to do startup vesting when not working […]
23 Aug 09:12
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