Startups For the Rest of Us

Latest Episodes:

Episode 756 | Why Great Product Management Is Critical for Your Startup Feb 11, 2025

Show notes

In episode 756, Rob Walling interviews Brendan Fortune, Director of Product Management at Customer.io, to explore the skills and frameworks for effective product management. Brendan shares his journey and discusses the importance of understanding customer behavior to drive product decisions. They delve into the concept of the flywheel and how it can be leveraged to enhance user success and optimize pricing strategies.

Topics we cover:

(2:46) – What does a product manager do?
(10:36) – When should a SaaS company designate a full time product manager?
(15:33) – Pricing and and creating a flywheel
(22:41) – Deciding on your “fair” value metric
(30:01) – Pricing experimentation in the early days

Links from the Show:

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 755 | TinySeed Tales s4e4: Customer Interviews + Pivoting Feb 06, 2025

Show notes

In this episode of TinySeed Tales, Rob Walling checks in with Colleen Schnettler, co-founder of Hello Query, as she shares the latest developments in her startup journey.

Colleen shares the insights gained from recent customer interviews that led to a significant pivot in their product strategy. Hello Query is now focused on embedding custom reporting features within other SaaS applications and Colleen reflects on balancing product quality with minimal v1 features. Her excitement is building to get their solution into users' hands.

Topics we cover:

(1:32) – Digging into customer interviews
(3:54) – Filtering out the noise to achieve confidence
(5:31) – Other competitors in the space
(8:53) – How Colleen prepares for and sources customer conversations
(12:11) – Is the technical implementation coming along?

Links from the Show:

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 754 | Broken Freemium, SaaS Plateaus, and More Listener Questions (A Rob Solo Adventure) Feb 04, 2025

Show notes

In episode 754, join Rob Walling for a solo adventure as he tackles listener questions on a variety of topics. He discusses strategies for converting free users to paid customers, the implications of AI advancements on the SaaS landscape, and how to navigate platform risks when larger players enter your market. Rob also shares insights on breaking through growth plateaus.

Topics we cover:

(3:12) – When in doubt, don’t try freemium
(6:44) – Different levers you can pull to make freemium work
(8:53) – How will SaaS be affected by the exponential growth of AI?
(14:09) – Big players launching features is a form of platform risk
(17:24) – Should I spin out a portion of my product into a new product?
(20:05) – Thinking through plateaus in your business growth

Links from the Show:

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 753 | TinySeed Tales s4e3: Co-Founder Conflicts + Renaming a Business Jan 30, 2025

Show notes

In this episode of TinySeed Tales, Rob Walling reconnects with Colleen Schnettler, co-founder of Hammerstone, as she shares the latest developments in their startup journey.

Colleen opens up about the emotional challenges of co-founder conflicts with Aaron, highlighting the importance of communication and alignment in their partnership. They also discuss the significant pivot from their initial product offering to the newly rebranded Hello Query, a SaaS solution focused on internal reporting for teams.

Topics we cover:

(0:59) – Breaking up with a co-founder
(7:39) – How could this conversation have been different?
(9:49) – Navigating a major pivot
(14:37) – Changing the name
(16:56) – Getting closer to finding product-market-fit
(19:39) – Competing in a competitive market

Links from the Show:

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 752 | The State of SEO in 2025 Jan 28, 2025

Show notes

In episode 752, Rob Walling interviews Lars Lofgren to discuss the current state of SEO. Lars shares insights on how SEO has drastically changed, especially with the rise of AI and the volatility brought on by Google’s evolving algorithm. They cover the challenges of ranking for terms, the impact of AI content, and the rise of "parasite SEO."

Topics we cover:

(2:16) – SEO traffic that generates $7.2M annual revenue
(4:54) – Changes in Google’s algorithm
(9:46) – How to approach SEO as a bootstrapper
(15:45) – SEO has changed considerably
(19:48) – AI and SEO
(25:54) – The advent of AI Overviews
(31:19) – Parasite SEO and the importance of brands

Links from the Show:

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 751 | TinySeed Tales s4e2: From Developer to Manager Jan 23, 2025

Show notes

In this episode of TinySeed Tales, Rob Walling catches up with Colleen Schnettler, co-founder of Hammerstone, about the progress her team has made since their initial check-in.

Colleen describes the tough decision to focus on one product stack, and their recent pivot toward building a reporting MVP. They also discuss Colleen’s shift into a more managerial role.

Topics we cover:

(2:10) – Motivations behind building additional functionality
(7:07) – Repositioning the reporting dashboard
(10:08) – Focusing in on the successful part of the product
(14:30) – How shifting focus affects the team dynamic
(16:19) – ”Hiring is horrible”
(22:20) – What has management been like?
(26:11) – Growing as a manager

Links from the Show:

Invest with TinySeed
Colleen Schnettler (@leenyburger) | X
Colleen Schnettler (@leenyburger.bsky.social) | Bluesky
Refine by Hammerstone
Hello Query
Buy Back Your Time by Dan Martell
Never Split the Difference by Chris Voss, Tahl Raz

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 750 | Making Your First Hire, Testing Prices, And More Listener Questions (with Laura Roeder) Jan 21, 2025

Show notes

In episode 750, Rob Walling is joined by Laura Roeder, founder of Paperbell, to answer intermediate listener questions. They discuss making your first hire with limited funds, testing pricing models with existing customer bases, and more. Laura also provides some great advice on content marketing, drawing from her past experience at MeetEdgar.

Topics we cover:

(3:14) – Building a team before you can afford your first, full time hire
(11:11) – Testing pricing with existing customer bases
(19:00) – What type of content should you focus on?
(25:20) – Growing a pipeline of leads with limited resources
(31:00) – Who are your 100 best customers?

Links from the Show:

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 749 | TinySeed Tales s4e1: Introducing Hammerstone.dev Jan 16, 2025

Show notes

Welcome to Season 4 of TinySeed Tales, where we follow the founders of one SaaS startup throughout a few years as they share their struggles, victories, and failures.

In the first episode of Season 4, Rob introduces us to Colleen Schnettler, the cofounder of Hammerstone. Colleen is a self-taught Rails developer, and this season will follow how Hammerstone eventually becomes Hello Query – an AI-powered chatbot that runs custom reporting on your data. Colleen is one of 27 startup founders from TinySeed’s Fall 2022 accelerator batch.

Topics we cover:

(2:16) – TinySeed Tales Season 4 with Colleen Schnettler
(3:57) – Custom reporting in Laravel and Rails
(7:05) – Becoming an “atypical founder”
(14:11) – Entrepreneurship as a military spouse
(16:17) – Motivations for joining TinySeed
(19:15) – A recent low point, and high point in the business
(25:00) – Big plans and risky moves ahead

Links from the Show:

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 748 | The Ins and Outs of Startup Investing Jan 14, 2025

Show notes

In episode 748, Rob Walling sits down with Einar Vollset, co-founder of TinySeed, to discuss the ins and outs of startup investing. They explore the differences between VC and angel investing, the importance of deal flow, and the challenges of valuation. Rob and Einar also highlight how TinySeed’s approach differs from traditional VC, including their focus on capital efficiency and why it’s been working for ambitious B2B SaaS companies.

Topics we cover:

(2:37) – The stigma of bootstrapper funding is waning
(6:44) – What success looks like in venture funding
(10:45) – Breaking down the math and deal flow
(17:54) – How valuations work
(26:21) – Keeping optionality
(29:58) – Evaluating markups
(35:18) – Raising TinySeed’s next fund

Links from the Show:

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 747 | Evolving SaaS Customer Success Over 7 Years (with Jane Portman) Jan 07, 2025

Show notes

In episode 747, Rob Walling interviews Jane Portman, co-founder of Userlist, to discuss the evolution of their SaaS customer success strategy. Jane shares the four stages of Userlist’s customer success journey, from the early days of trial and error to implementing done-for-you services. They also discuss the challenges of customer onboarding for complex products.

Topics we cover:

(2:20) – How customer success works at Userlist
(5:27) – Dealing with upfront onboarding friction
(9:51) – Stage 1, “young and naive”
(12:16) – Stage 2, “hire someone”
(19:06) – Stage 3, “done for you services”
(25:47) – Leveraging the Userlist blog
(29:26) – Stage 4, “developing your own frameworks”

Links from the Show:

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