Startups For the Rest of Us

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 of the episode: 2:35 - Be careful about over-generalizing from one win 3:33 - The three things you need in order to succeed in building a startup 8:10 - How to handle feedback you get on your product 12:48 - Rob's personal experience and opinion on dealing with competition in the startup space 15:35 - Why word-of-mouth is not the right answer for where your leads are coming from 18:40 - The real reason why some startups are "transparent" 21:05 - Advice on how to build a team of developers Items mentioned in this episode: Start Small Stay Small

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 the past 4-5 months. We will talk about how the COVID-19 crisis has affected Bluetick and other SaaS apps, some new insights that Mike has been learning about his customer base, and decisions he has made about the positioning and marketing of Bluetick. It is difficult to try and land new customers when we are facing a global pandemic and a possible recession. If you are working on a startup, you might find it helpful to know how someone else is handling this crisis in their business. The finer points of the episode: 5:00 - How Bluetick and other SAS apps have been affected by the COVID-19 crisis 8:35 - Mike's biggest success and biggest defeat in the past 7 weeks 11:32 - Where Mike's customers are finding him? 12:53 - W

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. We also talk about the payroll program, and whether we think it's going to be helpful to small businesses and startups. We share our tips and experiences working from home, for founders who may be just now transitioning to a remote team, and we discuss Stewart Butterfield's Twitter feed, talking about the human side of experiencing this pandemic. Listen to get some insight, hope, and fresh ideas on being a startup during COVID-19. The finer points of the episode: 8:09 - Advice we all have for startups during the COVID-19 crisis 12:51 - Common mistakes we see businesses make working from home 14:42 - The main things that change when your team goes remote 17:37 -

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 this podcast feed, so more people can benefit from Courtland’s insight.    The finer points of the episode: 6:28 - Why B2C businesses are more attractive, but B2B may be more lucrative  11:30 - Competitive advantages that can’t be surmounted by the competition.  17:50 - How Courtland jumpstarted the Indie Hackers online community  22:46 - Why you can’t just rely on internal motivation to get your startup off the ground  25:36 - The common thread Courtland has seen in successful founders  30:00 - The truth about how hard you have to work when building a business  31:57 - Overcoming imposter syndrome when entering a new industry    Items mentioned in the episode:  Indie Hack

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 growth. You will hear about the struggles, victories, highs, and lows of their startup journey. Arvid and Danielle give honest, powerful insight into what it was really like to manage their company just the two of them, and what ultimately led to their decision to sell their company for a life-changing amount of money.   * We are in a slightly different headspace in this episode, because we recorded this before the COVID-19 crisis. But we still wanted to share this episode, because we want you to benefit from this powerful conversation.  The finer points of the episode: 2:12 - What it was like to sell FeedbackPanda for a lifechanging sum of money 

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

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 #4: Heavily scrutinize all marketing and sales efforts #5: Take care of yourself and those around you #6: At times like these, cash is king #7: We're going to make it through this   Items mentioned in this episode: ZenFounder Bidsketch MicroConf MicroConf On Air

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 this episode: Startups For The Rest Of Us Episode:1 Product Hunt SFTROU Post

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

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

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 a person or business has nowadays. Items mentioned in this episode: Bootstrapped Web Podcast CartHook Hey.com Leadpages acquired by Redbrick How a 2 person startup already uses 28 other tools Tracy Osborn

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, and gives her system of hiring/vetting people for your company. Items mentioned in this episode: Avra Talent TinySeed

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 established across the board. Items mentioned in this episode: SherryWalling.com ZenFounder TinySeed MicroConf MicroConf Connect State of Indie SaaS

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 Brokerage FE International Empire Flippers

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

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 almost sold Baremetrics for $5M" Baremetrics Blog Post: "5 things I learned failing to sell Baremetrics for $5M"

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

Show Notes In this episode of Startups For The Rest Of Us, Rob talks with Christopher Gimmer of Snappa, about his journey to making SaaS his full-time income. He details how he stair-stepped his way from small apps and products to 7 figure SaaS. Items mentioned in this episode: MicroConf Baremetrics

Show Notes In this episode of Startups For The Rest Of Us, Rob along with Tracy Osborn , answer a number of listener questions on topics including founder hotseats, forgotten subscriptions, two-sided market places and more. Items mentioned in this episode: State of Indie SaaS Report Metcalfe's Law Stack Overflow GrowthHackers Tracy Osborn

Show Notes In this episode of Startups For The Rest Of Us, Rob reflects back on his goals of 2019 and shares some lessons that are broadly applicable to founders/entrepreneurs. He also shares how he “unplugged” from the internet/devices while on a recent vacation with his family and the benefits he experienced. Items mentioned in this episode: MicroConf TinySeed The State of Independent SaaS Report