100 Dude, where's my email list?
Chris is still getting used to his job at Google. Christian may have (or not?) lost his email list when a service went down.
Dec 29, 2022•1 hr 7 min•Ep. 100
Makers.dev
Chris and Christian build some software businesses.
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Episodes
99 Dude, where's my crypto?
Christian has some bad news about crypto. Chris is still working on the gravity competition.
Dec 16, 2022•57 min•Ep. 99
98 The Video Clipper
Christian renames clips.marketing to thevideoclipper.com and is trying to figure out what he wants it to be. He also wonders if he should hire someone else to run fileinbox while he builds the video clipper. Chris is still working on the Kaggle gravity waves competition.
Dec 08, 2022•59 min•Ep. 98
97 MeetingPlace shuts down, Musk buys twitter, and crypto crashes
Chris found out that the person who bought MeetingPlace shut it down :/. Christian is evaluating whether or not he should go all in on clips.marketing, or what to do about it vs FileInbox.
Dec 03, 2022•1 hr 2 min•Ep. 97
96 When customer conversations feel bad
Christian has a potential customer conversation for clips.marketing that didn't feel very great. Chris joins a kaggle competition about gravity waves.
Nov 18, 2022•59 min•Ep. 96
95 Consultancy vs Software as a Service
Chris has his first full week of Google, and also got his prize money from the Kaggle competition! Christian wonders if he should focus more on clips.marketing as a consultancy, or as a service, or just focus on FileInbox.
Nov 10, 2022•52 min•Ep. 95
94 Freemium features
Christian tries to figure out where his customers are coming from, and how to get more signups for FileInbox. He also is trying to figure out what freemium features are best for clips.marketing. Chris starts his first week at Google. (timestamps coming later)
Nov 03, 2022•54 min•Ep. 94
93 $157.126 per hour
Chris is prepping to start his new job. Christian got $157.126 per hour on his latest consulting project for Ali Abdall, and is now wondering if he should spend a lot more time on clips.marketing instead of FileInbox. 00:00 Intro 01:07 Prepping to start a job 07:51 Acornchat changes 13:20 Marketing ideas outside an app store 17:34 Consulting project for Ali Abdaal 24:01 RailsSaaS conference 29:13 No progress on FileInbox 34:13 Stringing pearls 37:27 Being close to the audience of clips.marketing...
Oct 27, 2022•47 min•Ep. 93
92 Getting a job at Google
Chris gets a job! Christian talks about his latest marketing experiments, and wonders if he should start working on clips.marketing again. 00:00 Intro 01:28 Google Photos DevRel role 03:52 What about acornchat? 05:20 Compensation at FAANG companies 09:03 Salary negotiation 11:34 Hiring freeze 12:33 Using Google ads for FileInbox 23:13 Promoted tweet experiment 25:57 Education as marketing 28:04 Low price file sending plan? 34:01 Detecting bots 36:25 Consulting project update 41:47 clips.marketin...
Oct 20, 2022•51 min•Ep. 92
91 Unexpected Google ads results
Christian quickly bought a google ad for Chris (for acornchat), but there were some unexpected results that required a lot more tweaking. Christian is doing a consulting project and enjoying it, and is wondering how to get more projects like that one. 00:00 Intro 02:15 Dedicated marketing days 03:07 Buying google ads 08:45 Adding more documentation for certain install paths 15:37 Conversion tracking and SEO 17:32 Google metadata tip 20:23 Filesize vs memory error in Google cloud 25:24 Building f...
Oct 13, 2022•52 min•Ep. 91
90 100% user growth and profitable
Chris gets another customer for acornchat, which is 100% user growth! Christian is thinking about marketing for FileInbox using SEO, youtube, a new feature, and more. 00:00 Intro 05:55 2nd Acorn Chat user 09:18 Buying Google ads seems hard 16:35 Winning $5k from Kaggle 21:54 Twitter recommendations 30:09 FileInbox SEO changes 38:04 Youtube is underused for SaaS 45:34 File sending feature as a marketing channel 52:11 Serverless transition - using less memory 58:04 Doing more consulting 01:03:51 M...
Oct 06, 2022•1 hr 11 min•Ep. 90
89 Winning $5000
Chris wins $5k from Kaggle! Christian fixes some bugs and picks up woodworking to fix his new organization troubles. 00:00 Intro 02:43 Winning $5000 in an AI competition 12:10 The hardest problem in the competition 24:41 AI master's class 32:15 AcornChat: why people switch 38:32 Motivation comes and goes 42:03 FileInbox bugs and features 49:26 SegMetrics Analytics 54:27 Woodworking hobby 58:42 Cleaning and organizing 01:01:39 iPhone vs Android Timestamps created with https://clips.marketing by @...
Sep 29, 2022•1 hr 10 min•Ep. 89
88 10,000 Downloads + end-to-end testing
We've reached 10,000 downloads for makers.dev! (a while ago). Chris has started his next master's class and is working on AcornChat. Christian is doing end-to-end testing with Playwright, and is still trying to figure out how to get better metrics for FileInbox. 00:00 10,000 downloads 00:54 3 redactions 03:29 Kaggle CTF updates 07:24 Learning things through challenges 10:43 Case studies in Machine Learning 15:33 AcornChat updates 19:59 Violent and original work 28:14 End to end testing 40:13 Met...
Sep 22, 2022•57 min•Ep. 88
87 Christian comes to Indy
Christian came to Indy! Chris started his new ML class and is onboarding his first AcornChat customer. Christian tries to figure out a way to test dropbox file uploads. 00:00 Intro 01:28 Kaggle 4th place 04:04 AcornChat motivation 08:12 Case studies in machine learning 10:29 Christian's travels 12:27 How to test Fileinbox 14:40 File uploads to dropbox 20:14 Next steps for fileinbox Timestamps created with https://clips.marketing by @cgenco
Sep 13, 2022•23 min•Ep. 87
86 First paying customer
Christian got married! Chris got his first paying customer for AcornChat. 00:00 Intro 01:24 First paying customer 07:32 Heroku is removing the free tier 10:43 Kaggle CTF competition 20:13 Taxes 24:36 Killing grass weeds 30:03 Next marketing thing for acornchat 39:48 💍🎉 Christian got married! 47:15 2nd customer migrated for fileinbox 51:43 Next marketing channel for fileinbox 56:22 Youtube as a search platform 59:57 TikTok for B2B saas? 01:05:36 Smartwatch for kids Timestamps created with https...
Sep 08, 2022•1 hr 8 min•Ep. 86
85 Is DALLE going to take over art? + Business taxes
Christian is in up state New York so he hasn't done much SaaS stuff this week - but he is preparing his business taxes. Yippee! Chris is recovering from being sick, so he's working on an AI security competition on Kaggle. 00:00 Intro 03:19 Kaggle DefCon AI security competition 15:07 DALLE prompts and AI art 22:40 Tricks to make AI art generators output a specific style 24:31 Systems to reduce friction 28:37 Business taxes 37:56 Full sized CNC machine 40:28 Neat wedding gifts with 3d printers 43:...
Aug 26, 2022•45 min•Ep. 85
84 What do you use for analytics?
Chris got covid; Christian is in upstate New York, and wonders about a new marketplace project. 00:00 Intro 05:09 AcornChat feature requests 12:41 Marketing for acornchat 15:23 What do you use for analytics? 21:20 Outreach strategies 29:59 GPS Gold Medal 32:57 AI driving to the woods 39:28 Weird birthday project with artist commisions 55:15 FileInbox Timestamps created with https://clips.marketing by @cgenco...
Aug 21, 2022•58 min•Ep. 84
83 Christian loves TDD now
AcornChat has real users now! Christian loves how TDD makes his code bulletproof. 00:00 Intro 06:58 Kaggle GPS update 14:09 AcornChat real users 15:33 Reaching out to users is hard 19:00 Analytics 27:50 MarketingChangelog ? 30:32 FileInbox work time 33:55 New features for fileinbox 35:16 TDD 41:45 Dropbox OAuth 43:09 File uploads and virus scanning 48:32 SEO links 50:03 How to get MRR up faster 52:42 Personal updates Timestamps created with https://clips.marketing by @cgenco...
Aug 05, 2022•54 min•Ep. 83
82 Face on a billboard
Chris had his name and face on a billboard. Christian is pushing forward FileInbox stuff, and is looking for the next marketing task. 00:00 Intro 01:40 Face on a billboard 10:10 How to evoke emotion 11:09 Marketing strategies work until they don't 14:38 AcornChat trials 21:17 DALL-E 2 25:21 Kaggle GPS 28:12 Free shirt 30:01 FileInbox SEO 32:08 Live video chat widget 34:46 Next marketing activity 38:14 Next projects for EA 45:23 Paramotoring is dangerous Timestamps created with https://clips.mark...
Jul 29, 2022•54 min•Ep. 82
81 Tired of Coding
Chris is tired of coding. Christian has too many ideas and should focus on SEO. 00:00 Intro 03:53 AcornChat on Slack App Store 06:01 Developer advocate 11:42 Grass is greener 17:38 Three years 21:07 Controversial figures 25:07 Don't break the chain 27:03 Josh Kaufman's personal master plan 30:17 Therapy is great 30:42 SEO 39:44 Sending large files: Hot take 51:20 Rails vs serverless 53:53 Increase revenue Timestamps created with https://clips.marketing by @cgenco...
Jul 22, 2022•56 min•Ep. 81
80 5 Marketing Hot Takes for FileInbox
Christian has been reading the book "Traction" by Gabriel Weinberg and Justin Mares and has 5 marketing hot take ideas that he wants feedback on. 00:00 Intro 03:33 Kaggle updates 07:58 AcornChat resubmitted 09:54 Cold call update 12:33 Traction book about marketing 17:56 Marketing hot take #1: Blogs 26:16 #2: Publicity 33:46 #3: Unconventional publicity 41:08 #3a: Live video feed of Christian 43:28 Intermission 45:59 #3b: How Jason Bourne would send files 51:12 #4: Search engine marketing 55:19 ...
Jul 15, 2022•1 hr 5 min•Ep. 80
79 SaaS Deep Dive with Johnny Tong
We talk with Johnny Tong about how he bought a SaaS and is now struggling to grow it. Should he rebuild it? Dive into marketing? Rework the onboarding flow? Buy a bunch of ads? 00:00 Intro 02:47 What Johnny is looking for 10:01 SurveyBot overview 15:29 Buyer's guide 22:00 "The funnel" 28:45 Onboarding friction 33:49 The ups and downs of build vs buy 41:19 Conversion rate 44:19 Marketing vs coding 50:47 The end goal 57:43 Getting professional help 59:00 Deeper understanding Timestamps created wit...
Jul 11, 2022•1 hr 8 min•Ep. 79
78 Ways to organize and live your life
Christian went to Greece and got a new perspective on how he could be living. Chris resubmitted AcornChat to the Slack app store and finished up a Kaggle competition. 00:00 Intro 03:17 AcornChat submitted to the Slack app store 06:40 Kaggle Patent competition 16:51 Reinforcement learning 21:06 Covid (again) 25:40 Building a Second Brain 38:05 On Looking 47:14 FileInbox cold calling 53:24 Consulting update 56:26 Switching to iOS Timestamps created with https://clips.marketing by @cgenco Book reco...
Jun 30, 2022•1 hr 2 min•Ep. 78
77 Cold calling is spooky
Chris wants to spend a bunch of money. Christian got advice to do some cold calling, but it sounds spooky 👻. plus 2 bonus hot takes 00:00 Intro 01:30 3d printer, camera and gpus 06:52 Kaggle update 15:49 Slack app update 17:52 Advanced Operating Systems 21:28 Rust 23:30 Personal productivity 25:30 FileInbox update 28:09 TDD 33:21 Firebase security rules 38:26 Spooky recommendation to increase MRR 43:16 100 paperclips 52:13 Hot take 1: Finance tracker (again but different) 59:02 Hot take 2: NFT ...
Jun 09, 2022•1 hr 7 min•Ep. 77
76 $20k MRR in 12 months (also Christian gets engaged 💍🥳)
Chris is prepping for an AI for JS devs course. Christian gets engaged! Also, he wants to get to $20k MRR in 12 months, so we talk about how that would be possible. 00:00 Intro 01:28 AI for JS devs course 19:33 Too many Kaggle competitions 26:00 Christian gets engaged!!! 31:19 Parable of the pottery class 39:25 $20k MRR in 12 months 44:04 Do you really want that? 46:42 Is it better for customers? 50:08 Chris is mean and hypocritical 51:32 Personal life is all over the place Timestamps created wi...
Jun 03, 2022•58 min•Ep. 76
75 What sells well
Christian makes an easy way to send email templates from FileInbox. Chris got a response from the Slack App Store, and is wasted a bunch of time on an ML bug. 00:00 Intro 02:47 Chris's week 04:21 Slack app store 11:18 Working on things that don't go anywhere 16:36 Christian did a bunch of stuff 21:31 Fileinbox email system 24:03 What sells well 28:57 ffmpeg 32:18 Free Fileinbox for marketing? 37:40 3D printing bezier curves 45:24 Tick Tock development (again) 51:44 Just do stuff (again) 53:32 Ti...
May 26, 2022•59 min•Ep. 75
74 Getting started is the hardest part
Chris is in 3 different AI competitions (anyone want to know how GPS works?) and Christian was gone and describes how it feels to get back to work. He's also selling a paramotor, so hopefully that goes well 😆 00:00 Intro 01:07 Life and death reflections 07:00 Give yourself some leeway 12:10 Work is hard until it's easy 16:00 Kaggle competitions 18:17 Objective measures of learning 27:39 Christian wants Black Mirror 🤨 29:24 Different types of AI problems 31:15 How GPS works 41:46 Patent competi...
May 19, 2022•1 hr 1 min•Ep. 74
73 SaaS math is bananas
Chris was on a trip, and Christian fell off the co-working wagon. Also, focus on authenticity (on YouTube, but everywhere too) 00:00 Intro 04:06 Tests 08:57 Having a beginner's mind 10:32 Fileinbox bugs 16:21 Consulting 18:52 SaaS math is bananas 23:50 Talking to customers 24:31 Focus is fickle 27:20 Makers.dev early episodes 34:54 Youtube as a reliable source of information 36:17 Prioritize authenticity 50:18 Attaboy 54:13 Hot Take #1: personal private podcast host 56:49 Hot Take #2: ffmpeg as ...
May 12, 2022•1 hr 7 min•Ep. 73
72 Weeding and contract jobs
Chris created his buyer's guide for acornchat. Christian gets another contracting job and wonders how to leverage that or if he should try to get more similar contracts. 00:00 Intro 00:50 SaaS buyer's guide 11:20 Look at all these salad dressings! 14:00 Machine learning theory and math 19:01 Fileinbox updates 24:37 Errands and engagement rings 32:09 Face follower contracting job 39:16 Making an automated Fiverr service 42:58 Modularizing code Timestamps created with https://clips.marketing by @c...
May 06, 2022•48 min•Ep. 72
71 $183.60 per hour
Christian calculates his consulting rate per hour. Chris soft launched saastips.com and was immediately overwhelmed by email bot signups. After fixing that problem, it led to three new SaaS ideas. 00:00 Intro 02:57 Launching saastips.com 12:25 Fixing fake bot email signups 18:54 Hot take #1: email signup saas 23:55 Hot take #1.5: better newsletter sending UI 32:29 Hot take #2: Marketing Changelog 39:11 $183.60 per hour 51:45 Back to SaaS 57:14 Hot take #3: Face follower Timestamps created with h...
May 03, 2022•1 hr 5 min•Ep. 71
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