Peldi concludes this mini-season with an open and honest discussion with Ed Freyfogle about a problem every business owner eventually encounters. How do you keep at it when you are feeling bored? Are we stuck in our businesses? You can also watch this episode on YouTube .
Peldi Guilizzoni continues this mini-season as he chats with Trine Falbe, UX strategist & designer, on responsible product design. Gamification, dark patterns, artificial "roadblocks", notifications frameworks that exist only to hook you into the product - why bootstrappers shouldn't mindlessly copy these techniques. Show notes: Trine's website Trine's ethical design scorecard is available for download on https://ethicaldesignhandbook.com/ Typeform’s terms of service You can also watch this ...
Peldi Guilizzoni continues this mini-season as he chats with Asia Orangio of DemandMaven on how founders can - and should - conduct customer interviews, and how to deal with the discomfort us bootstrappers often feel with this type of work. Topics includes the discomfort for some of us of talking to customers - but why you should do it anyway how to find the right customers to talk to why delegating customer interviews might actually be a good idea. how to actually conduct a customer interview w...
Peldi Guilizzoni continues this mini-season as he chats with married couple Geraldine DeRuiter (author) and Rand Fishkin (software founder) on how their fields differ - and how they are more similar than you'd think. Peldi, Geraldine, and Rand discuss: How the software industry is less special that we think Dealing with the loneliness and isolation of being a founder or author Managing your own psychology How a supportive partner shares your mental ups and downs The value of having a peer group ...
Peldi Guilizzoni steps in as host this week, and chats with GDPR expert Aleth Gueguen about how the GDPR is shaping and affecting our SaaS businesses. Topics include: Is the GDPR being enforced? How has it changed our businesses? How can we shape new businesses to ensure we meet data protection requirements? Does the GDPR give larger businesses an unfair advantage? GDPR4SaaS Peldi on Twitter You can also watch this episode on YouTube ....
Both Ed and Steve are feeling a little bit stressed, perhaps at the beginning of burnout. We discuss why this might be, and what we are doing about it. We also reveal our who guest host will be, stepping in for the next few weeks while I take a break. This episode is also on YouTube .
Nick Swan was about to launch paid plans for his SaaS when a sudden terrible life event changed everything for Nick and his family. "The doctor said, 'You have to go the main hospital now. Drive straight up there. Don't even pack a bag.' He didn't say what it was, but he said it was serious." We discuss how this affected his life, his family and his mentality as a bootstrapper. Nick's SaaS, SEOTesting
Aidan Doyle is a science fiction writer. Amongst his work are two self-published books, including The Writer's Book of Doubt. I'm planning to produce a book later this year as a marketing endeavour for Feature Upvote. So I chatted with Aidan to get tips on how to do this well. Aidan's website Aidan on Twitter The Writer's Book of Doubt Discuss this episode with the Bootstrapper community ....
Ed and Steve discuss the return of Microconf Europe as an in-person event working out if a new feature is worth the effort weighing the risk of becoming a customer of someone’s side project Discuss this episode and more with our community . This episode is also on YouTube .
My guest in this episode is Corey Haines, founder of Swipe Files. Swipe Files is a membership site that provides content, community, and courses to help you master marketing. Learn more about Swipe Files . Corey's podcast: Everything is Marketing . Discuss this episode on our community . This episode is also on YouTube ....
Ed Freyfogle is back! We talk about Ed's systematic attempt to reduce his support workload. Discuss this episode on our community . This episode is also on YouTube .
Alex Yumashev, founder of JitBit, returns to the show. We discuss: why Alex ditched Google Analytics from his website how he keeps his work interesting after so many years running the same business why differentiation is often not possible finding freelancers the good and bad of being a bootstrapping entrepreneur Alex's company: https://www.jitbit.com/ Also mentioned: Plausible Analytics (https://plausible.io/) https://f5bot.com/ This episode is also on YouTube . Discuss this episode on our comm...
Nick Franklin and I talked about what it is like to go down the venture capital route instead of bootstrapping. For me this was a glimpse into another way of doing things. Nick and I discussed: why he used outside investment to create ChartMogul ChartMogul's focus on creating good content finding a steady stream of interesting things to write about the difficulty of knowing how customers are acquired getting pricing right Nick on Twitter: https://twitter.com/Nick_Franklin ChartMogul: https://cha...
Peldi Guilizzoni is the founder of low-fidelity wireframing tool Balsamiq . Peldi and Steve discuss: why Peldi tracks almost nothing except revenue and profits talking to customers instead of using analytics on being "so good they can't ignore you" how to apply a coder's approach to marketing how Balsamiq is run like a "cozy restaurant on the web" not getting to code much when running a software company the painful experience of rewriting Balsamiq Wireframes from scratch that took five years (!)...
We argue for and against having a monthly email newsletter for your product. Ed is firmly in the "No way" corner. Steve represents the "You gotta have a newsletter" side. Let the debate begin! Also mentioned: Do Open - How a simple email newsletter can transform your business (and it can), by David Hieatt
Ed and I cover a lot of ground this week: podcasting nerves geotrivia as marketing a brief foray into geopolitics using Twitter for marketing the frustrating unpredictability of what marketing efforts will bear fruit the pleasure of working from home dealing with zombie customers The Bootstrapped podcast now has its own Twitter account - follow to receive daily tips for bootstrappers....
Ed and Steve talk about the mental stress of having real-time business metrics, how to find a business mentor, and Steve's attempt to get started with enterprise sales. And we talk about the blog that posts very infrequently . Discuss this topic and more with the Bootstrapped community .
Allan Jardine is the creator of DataTables , a popular jQuery plugin. We discuss his challenges and successes as he learned how to make a viable business from creating Open Source software. We also discuss Allan's new SaaS product, CloudTables . Discuss this topic and more with the Bootstrapped community .
In this episode I answer some listener questions about freelancers. I discuss how to find, hire, and communicate with freelancers. Discuss this topic and more with the Bootstrapped community .
Ed grills me on my progress with Saber Feedback, my B2B SaaS, nine months after I acquired it. We talk about SEO, competitors, getting backlinks, finding a niche, and resisting the temptation to write code instead of doing marketing. Discuss this topic and more on the Bootstrapped discussion forum .
Ed and I discuss what we want to achieve in 2021. Last year, unexpected world events turned our "goals for 2020" upside-down. Having learnt no lesson whatsoever from this, we fearlessly enter 2021 with plans! We mentioned Ed's personal blog in this episode. Discuss this episode and more on our discussion forum for Bootstrappers .
Steve and Ed look back at the goals they set for 2020 at the beginning of the year. What goals did we hit? What goals eluded us? What did we learn along the way? Discuss this episode and more on our discussion forum for Bootstrappers .
This is a talk I recently gave at Barcelona's ESIC business school. Ostensibly, I spoke on working with intangibles as products. But actually, I told the story of how I started as a bootstrapper - and revealed how clueless I was at the beginning. So, if you are curious about how I got started creating and selling software products, then you'll enjoy this episode.
Liz is an expert in onboarding email sequences. Over the course of this episode, Liz helps me design a great email sequence for Saber Feedback. On the way, there are plenty of practical tips for better emails that you can apply to your product's emails. Want to see the results of my conversation with Liz? Sign up for Saber Feedback , and experience the new onboarding sequence first-hand. Liz's agency: Comma Comma Copywriting Contact Liz: liz@commacomma.co.uk Liz recommends Userlist as a segmenti...
Ed and Steve talk about recent challenges and successes in their bootstrapped SaaS businesses. Ed tells of the agony of doing enterprise sales. Steve admits to self-doubt when waiting for SEO results. Some things we discussed: 2020 SaaS Podcast Awards Our forum thread on dealing with endless business administration Fathom Analytics...
Moritz Dausinger, founder of refiner.io , chats about his success as a serial founder of bootstrapped SaaS products. He founded and sold two B2B SaaS apps, and now he's doing it a third time. Moritz shares some real-world practical, proven tips based on his repeat successes. Moritz's current SaaS app: refiner.io Moritz's previous SaaS apps: Docparser and Mailparser . Moritz on Indie Hackers podcast Moritz on Twitter . Discuss this topic and more on the Bootstrapped discussion forum ....
Ed and Steve discuss the endless burden of busy-work that comes with running a business - and how we try to minimise it. We also mention Ed's new marketing-related hire, Feature Upvote 's dashboard design overhaul, and using a content agency to write blog posts for Saber Feedback . The invoice handling service we mentioned is GetMyInvoices . Discuss this topic and more on the Bootstrapped discussion forum ....
Discounts, discounts, discounts! Ed and I discuss how we respond to customers asking for discounts, whether we should offer Cyber Monday offers, and how offering discounts can hurt future sales. Discuss this topic and more on the Bootstrapped discussion forum .
Alex runs a successful help desk software company with only 3 employees, competing in a crowded market. We discuss: the importance of industry knowledge, the customer awareness funnel, advanced SEO techniques, bringing on a co-founder after you've already got traction. Links: Jitbit Alex on Twitter Gail Goodman's talk ‘The Long, Slow, SaaS Ramp of Death’ The Awareness Funnel aka the Buyer's Journey Discuss this topic and more on the Bootstrapped discussion forum ....
Robin Warren of Corrello tells me how he finds and recruits freelance developers for his bootstrapped software company. We also talk about: Robin's business creating Trello Power-ups Using Product Hunt to hone your marketing message Juggling multiple products Links: Robin on Twitter Corrello Blue Cat Reports Burndown Charts by Corrello Robin's previous interview on the Bootstrapped podcast...
