Build Your SaaS

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**Build Your SaaS**

Follow the journey of Transistor.fm as they bootstrap a podcast hosting startup.

Latest Episodes:

The constant feature release cycle Aug 26, 2019

Show notes

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:

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: mail@transistor.fm

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

Rewardful.com
Mitchell Davis from sixsides.co
Bill Condo (@mavrck)
Ward from MemberSpace.com
Evandro Sasse
Austin Loveless
Michael Sitver
Dave Giunta

🎙️ Podcast hosting is provided by Transistor.fm.
📺 Learn how to start your own podcast!

★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★

WHO DELETED MY CODE?!?! Aug 20, 2019

Show notes

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:

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: mail@transistor.fm

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

Rewardful.com
Mitchell Davis from sixsides.co
Bill Condo (@mavrck)
Ward from MemberSpace.com
Evandro Sasse
Austin Loveless
Michael Sitver
Dave Giunta

🎙️ Podcast hosting is provided by Transistor.fm.
📺 Learn how to start your own podcast!

★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★

How we're Shaping Up Aug 13, 2019

Show notes

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:

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: mail@transistor.fm

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

Rewardful.com
Mitchell Davis from sixsides.co
Bill Condo (@mavrck)
Ward from MemberSpace.com
Evandro Sasse
Austin Loveless
Michael Sitver
Dave Giunta

🎙️ Podcast hosting is provided by Transistor.fm.
📺 Learn how to start your own podcast!

★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★

Jason Fried wants to delete our backlog Aug 06, 2019

Show notes

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: mail@transistor.fm

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

Rewardful.com
Mitchell Davis from sixsides.co
Bill Condo (@mavrck)
Ward from MemberSpace.com
Evandro Sasse
Austin Loveless
Michael Sitver
Dave Giunta

🎙️ Podcast hosting is provided by Transistor.fm.
📺 Learn how to start your own podcast!

★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★

No sleep 'till Brooklyn (what we learned in New York) Jul 30, 2019

Show notes

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: mail@transistor.fm

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

Rewardful.com
Mitchell Davis from sixsides.co
Bill Condo (@mavrck)
Ward from MemberSpace.com
Evandro Sasse
Austin Loveless
Michael Sitver
Dave Giunta

🎙️ Podcast hosting is provided by Transistor.fm.
📺 Learn how to start your own podcast!

★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★

Once you launch, you're immediately behind Jul 23, 2019

Show notes

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:

ProfitWellgives 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: mail@transistor.fm

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

Rewardful.com
Mitchell Davis from sixsides.co
Bill Condo (@mavrck)
Ward from MemberSpace.com
Evandro Sasse
Austin Loveless
Michael Sitver
Dave Giunta

🎙️ Podcast hosting is provided by Transistor.fm.
📺 Learn how to start your own podcast!

★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★

Your backlog is making me thirsty Jul 16, 2019

Show notes

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:

ProfitWellgives 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: mail@transistor.fm

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

Rewardful.com
Mitchell Davis from sixsides.co
Bill Condo (@mavrck)
Ward from MemberSpace.com
Evandro Sasse
Austin Loveless
Michael Sitver
Dave Giunta

🎙️ Podcast hosting is provided by Transistor.fm.
📺 Learn how to start your own podcast!

★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★

What if there's an accident? Jul 09, 2019

Show notes

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:

ProfitWellgives 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: mail@transistor.fm

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

Rewardful.com
Mitchell Davis from sixsides.co
Bill Condo (@mavrck)
Ward from MemberSpace.com
Evandro Sasse
Austin Loveless
Michael Sitver
Dave Giunta

🎙️ Podcast hosting is provided by Transistor.fm.
📺 Learn how to start your own podcast!

★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★

Jon's big announcement Jul 02, 2019

Show notes

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:

ProfitWellgives 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: mail@transistor.fm

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

Rewardful.com
Mitchell Davis from sixsides.co
Bill Condo (@mavrck)
Ward from MemberSpace.com
Evandro Sasse
Austin Loveless
Michael Sitver
Dave Giunta

🎙️ Podcast hosting is provided by Transistor.fm.
📺 Learn how to start your own podcast!

★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★

I want to work at Transistor.fm Jun 25, 2019

Show notes

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:

ProfitWellgives 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: