Startups For the Rest of Us

Latest Episodes:

Episode 643 | Feature Flags, Impostor Syndrome, and More Listener Questions with Derrick Reimer Jan 10, 2023

Show notes

In episode 643, Rob Walling chats with fan favorite Derrick Reimer, the founder of SavvyCal, as they answer listener questions. They cover topics ranging from SaaS feature flags to communicating product needs to a technical founder and combating imposter syndrome.

Episode Sponsor:

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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:

2:17 - How to think about feature flags for different pricing tiers
10:31 - How to communicate product needs to a technical cofounder
22:03 - When to put your main SaaS on the backburner
28:13 - Combating developer imposter syndrome

Links from the Show:

Derrick Reimer (@derrickreimer) I Twitter
SavvyCal
MicroConf US
The Stair Step Method to Bootstrapping

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 | Stitcher

Episode 642 | The Pros and Cons of Building a No-Code MVP Jan 03, 2023

Show notes

In episode 642, Rob Walling chats with Tara Reed, who is the founder of Apps Without Code. We talk about her journey getting into no-code, bootstrapping Apps Without Code to $5M ARR, and the decision she made last year to throttle growth to become more profitable. In our conversation, we also cover some of the pros and cons of no-code tools, along with some entrepreneurial mindset shifts that new entrepreneurs need to make.

Topics we cover:

1:46 - How Tara came up with the idea for Apps Without Code
3:56 - Why Tara deliberately scaled the business back from $5M to $3M in ARR
5:35 - Tara’s approach to building the Apps Without Code Team
6:04 - Two ways that Apps Without Code makes money
10:50 - The biggest no-code limitations today
16:29 - Using no-code tools to build MVPs and internal apps
19:07 - Tara’s preferred no-code platform
20:24 - The biggest positives of building with no-code tools
22:40 - The biggest drawbacks of building with no-code tools
26:56 - 3 entrepreneurial mindset shifts that new founders need to make

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 | Stitcher

Episode 641 | Dealing with High Churn, Rolling Out an MVP, and More Listener Questions Dec 27, 2022

Show notes

In episode 641, join Rob Walling for a solo adventure as he answers more listener questions. Topics covered range from dealing with high churn when your tool is project-based, what product feedback to listen to in the early days, and when to hire project-level thinkers vs. task-level thinkers.

Topics we cover:

3:18 - Dealing with high churn when your tool is project-based
8:38 - Going upmarket
9:42 - Who to listen to in the early days to improve your product
15:47 - Should I worry about people copying my business idea?
24:26 - Should I join MicroConf Connect if I’m still in the idea validation phase?
25:54 - Hiring project-level thinkers vs. task-level workers

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 | Stitcher

Episode 640 | Hot Take Tuesday: Recession and Bootstrappers, ChatGPT, Twitter Drama Dec 20, 2022

Show notes

In episode 640, join Rob Walling, Einar Vollset, and Tracy Osborn for Hot Take Tuesday, where they analyze and discuss some of the latest news. We dig into ChatGPT, the new tool everyone is talking about from OpenAI. We also discuss Elon Musk acquiring Twitter and the drama around this entire endeavor and whether or not the U.S. is in a recession right now.

Topics we cover:

2:06 - ChatGPT
14:29 - Is there a path to bootstrap an AI startup?
18:59 - Is the U.S. in a recession right now?
29:37 - Elon Musk acquiring Twitter and the drama around his early moves

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 | Stitcher

Episode 639 | The Secret Sauce to Building Happy, Motivated Teams Dec 13, 2022

Show notes

In episode 639, Rob Walling chats with Andrew Berkowitz, the co-founder and CEO of Suggestion Ox, about the secret sauce to building happy, high-performing teams and how we as founders need to unlearn some of the strict policies that have been in place for hundreds of years.

Suggestion Ox is a feedback platform that helps HR teams build candid communication between leadership and employees. And before that, Andrew co-founded a sports management platform that was acquired in 2021.

Episode Sponsor:

Find your perfect developer or a team at Lemon.io/startups

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.

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:

2:10 - Why trust is the key ingredient when building high-performing teams
6:56 - Flexible vacation policies
9:17 - Flexible work hours
15:08 - The link between remote work and hiring and retaining great employees
18:14 - Using transparency to build trust with your team
19:43 - How transparent should you be with your team for temporary issues?
21:55 - Does this approach to trust and transparency work at scale?
25:57 - Getting better at giving constructive feedback as a manager
28:20 - Is it possible to hire the best people at scale?
32:08 - Andrew’s approach to dealing with bad apples or people who slack off
36:41 - Building a company culture where employees feel safe to give candid feedback

Links from the Show:

Andrew Berkowitz I Twitter

Suggestion Ox

Episode 638 | How to Generate Startup Ideas (Plus 8 Ideas You Can Steal) Dec 06, 2022

Show notes

In episode 638, Rob Walling chats with Justin Vincent about how to generate startup ideas. They share 8 startup ideas in this episode along with Justin’s approach for coming up with thousands of startup ideas.

Topics we cover:

1:58 - Coming up with SaaS ideas
3:51 - Transcription for team meetings
11:42 - Online time capsule
15:41 - Pest control using drones
20:29 - Prerecorded live interviews
25:06 - Special diet builder
26:30 - AI-casting director
29:53 - Cash burn alert for VC
31:47 - database modeling tool

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 | Stitcher

Episode 637 | B2B vs. B2C, Hiring for Sales, and Bootstrapping a 2-Sided Marketplace Nov 29, 2022

Show notes

In episode 637, join Rob Walling for another solo adventure as he answers a handful of listener questions. Topics covered range from hiring your first salesperson and acquiring a web app to dealing with the fear of having your idea copied and why bootstrapping a two-sided marketplace is usually a bad idea.

Episode Sponsor:

Find your perfect developer or a team at Lemon.io/startups

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.

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:

1:14 - You either die a consumer startup hero, or you live long enough to see yourself become a B2B SaaS founder.
2:40 - Hiring your first salesperson
9:36 - Bootstrapping a talent marketplace
15:10 - Acquiring a web app
19:40 - Getting over your fear of being copied when doing idea validation interviews

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 | Stitcher

Episode 636 | A Customer-Led Approach to Driving More Recurring Revenue Nov 22, 2022

Show notes

In episode 636, Rob Walling chats with Claire Suellentrop about the new book she co-wrote with her co-founder, Georgiana Laudi. The book is called Forget the Funnel: A Customer-Led Approach to Driving Predictable Recurring Revenue. Gia and Claire have run a consulting firm for the past several years where they are working with startups and SaaS companies to help them learn more about their customers in order to drive more revenue. And this book is a distillation of their learnings.

Topics we cover:

1:09 - Why did Claire name their new book, Forget the Funnel?
2:36 - A three-step approach for unlocking customer-led growth
3:09 - A framework for getting inside your customers’ heads
14:01 - How to learn from future customers
20:21 - Applying and operationalizing all your customer insights

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 | Stitcher

Episode 635 | Where Are They Now? Catching up with TinySeed Tales' Tony Chan Nov 15, 2022

Show notes

In episode 635, Rob Walling catches up with Tony Chan, the co-founder of CloudForecast, an AWS cost monitoring tool. Tony shared his victories, challenges, and failures in TinySeed Tales Season 3. It has been over eight months since we recorded the final episode.

In this episode, we reflect and catch up on what’s been happening with Tony and CloudForecast.

Episode Sponsor:

Find your perfect developer or a team at Lemon.io/startups

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.

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:

3:03 - Losing one of CloudForecast’s engineers
5:35 - Tony’s approach to hiring engineers
8:31 - Did Tony end up hiring someone to help with content marketing?
17:32 - What is Tony struggling with right now?
21:07 - Managing your founder psychology
25:08 - Tony’s recent conundrum

Links from the Show:

Tony Chan (@toeknee123) I Twitter
CloudForecast
TinySeed Tales Season 3
MicroConf Local: Austin

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 | Stitcher

Episode 634 | Naming Your Startup, Tapping Out a Niche, and Licensing Your IP Nov 08, 2022

Show notes

In episode 634, join Rob Walling for another solo adventure where he answers listener questions on topics ranging from naming your startup to initial aha moments and how to know if you have tapped out a specific niche.

Episode Sponsor:

Find your perfect developer or a team at Lemon.io/startups

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.

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:

2:38 - Naming your startup
6:02 - How to know if you tapped out a specific niche?
13:21 - Did you have an initial aha moment when you felt that this was the winning idea to start up?
22:25 - How would you value your time if you have a client that is gonna be competing in the same space?

Links from the Show:

MicroConf Europe

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 | Stitcher

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