Bootstrapping a business is like getting a plane to lift off the ground. But what do you do once the plane is in the air? Dave Giunta and Justin Jackson recorded a recent phone call about maintaining motivation after the initial startup phase. How does founder energy shift once you've achieved your early goals? Dave prods Justin to find new sources of motivation – whether through mentoring junior team members, connecting with customers in fresh ways, or knowing when it's time to explore new hori...
Dec 09, 2024•1 hr 13 min•Ep 160•Transcript available on Metacast How do founders of small bootstrapped companies hire new employees? Adam Wathan got over 1600 people who applied for two new roles at Tailwind Labs (a small team of six people). They ended up hiring two people, but neither of them actually applied. This wasn't how Adam expected (or hoped) this process would go. There were lots of surprising takeaways and lessons learned from the whole experience. "If you figure we spend 5 minutes on every single application, that was like 133 hours straight read...
Jun 04, 2024•2 hr 35 min•Ep 159•Transcript available on Metacast A panel discussion on 37signals' first ONCE product, the launch of Campfire ("pay for it once, install it, and run it on your own server"). Ian Landsman, Tyler Tringas, and Justin Jackson share what they expected to happen before the launch, what did happen, and what it means for indie hackers and bootstrappers who want to launch SaaS companies. Is this the end of SaaS? Links: Once landing page Campfire sales page DHH's tweet: "ONCE/Campfire hasn't even been for sale for a week, but we've alread...
Feb 10, 2024•1 hr 12 min•Ep 158•Transcript available on Metacast Fast Company called Acquired "the #1 tech podcast sensation." I've been a huge fan of the show for years. So, I was surprised when they contacted me and wanted to switch to Transistor for podcast hosting! Since switching, they've had a breakout year. Their clips started showing up everywhere on my social media feed; they had chart-topping episodes on Nintendo, Nike, and Costco, and they interviewed the CEOs of NVIDIA, Uber, and Charlie Munger. And this was the year that Ben Gilbert and David Ros...
Jan 25, 2024•1 hr 9 min•Ep 157•Transcript available on Metacast The whole team is on the show! Jon, Helen, Jason, Josh, and Justin are on the mics to discuss our recent team retreat to Nashville, Tennessee. If you're wondering what a retreat looks like for a remote team, you'll get a lot out of this episode. We also reveal some of our exploits in Music City: "Going to a Tiki Bar is usually a mistake." Highlights (00:10) - Welcome (01:15) - Highlights of our retreat in Nashville (13:00) - It's not easy to get everyone together (20:31) - Our schedule for the r...
Sep 26, 2023•46 min•Ep 156•Transcript available on Metacast Justin catches up with his old internet friend Paul Jarvis. Today, Paul co-founded Fathom Analytics with Jack Ellis : a simple alternative to Google Analytics. Paul is also the author of the book " Company of One ," which has influenced a whole generation of indie entrepreneurs (and has been reviewed by Cal Newport, Chris Guillebeau, Ben Chestnut, Tiago Forte, and more). Previously, Justin and Paul did a weekly mastermind , where they supported and encouraged each other around our indie business...
Aug 01, 2023•1 hr 12 min•Ep 155•Transcript available on Metacast Tim reached out after the Aaron Francis episode: "I wanted to pitch you on the idea of coming on the podcast and sharing my journey of building side projects for the last decade while raising a family. I can also share the guardrails I put in place before finally going full-time on T.LY ." Highlights: (00:12) - Welcome (01:18) - Who is Tim Leland? (03:25) - What guardrails did you put in place? (06:29) - What's the sales funnel? (08:18) - Family as a motivator (16:26) - How would you describe yo...
Jun 20, 2023•55 min•Ep 154•Transcript available on Metacast This week Jon and Justin are joined by Marcella Chamorro . Previously, she worked in startup marketing but has recently transitioned to coaching founders and teams. We discussed how startup founders and their team members can realize their full potential. Here are some highlights: (00:24) - Introducing Marcella (03:08) - How do you define your coaching? (05:15) - What do you see with rising stars? (09:42) - Do you navigate team dynamics or individual work? (14:45) - Any advice for founder's stre...
Jun 07, 2023•57 min•Ep 153•Transcript available on Metacast In this podcast episode, Michele Hansen ( Geocodio ) gives us an update on Section 174 and provides her take on "bootstrapping with kids." Michele explains you can be a part of the Small Software Business Alliance , and fight Section 174. If you're in the USA, please contact Congress ! In the second half of the episode, Justin and Michele talk about the challenges of balancing starting a business while you have young kids. For more on this topic, check out the last episode with Aaron Francis . F...
May 16, 2023•1 hr 2 min•Ep 152•Transcript available on Metacast In this episode, Justin speaks with Aaron Francis about being a new parent and trying to bootstrap a startup. Aaron argued the other side of Justin's tweet thread : "Wait until your kids are older to start a company." Aaron is well-positioned to talk about this because he has twins and is also bootstrapping Hammerstone with his co-founder Colleen. The whole conversation is a nuanced take on the topic and full of important insights, especially on: the risks involved (especially if you're not work...
May 09, 2023•1 hr 6 min•Ep 151•Transcript available on Metacast Jon and Justin welcome Joshua Anderton to the Transistor team! Josh is an amazingly talented full-stack web developer (Laravel, Rails, Tailwind CSS, Alpine, and more!) He's been helping us as a part-time contractor since Oct 2022, and we're excited to have him on board full-time! In this episode, we discuss why we hired another person and how we think about hiring at Transistor. (00:28) - 150! (01:32) - Trials into paid customers (09:22) - Hiring philosophy (27:45) - Hiring Josh (31:39) - Hiring...
Apr 20, 2023•46 min•Ep 150•Transcript available on Metacast Michele Hansen (co-founder of Geocodio) is raising the alarm about Section 174. This legislation could dramatically increase your tax bill this year if you're a small software company in the USA. Michele is organizing a response through the Small Software Business Alliance . 👉 ACT NOW: Sign up for Michele's list US citizens: tweet and call your Senators today. They need to know that this is a small business issue and that small businesses in their state are hurt by Section 174. Share the ssball...
Mar 28, 2023•34 min•Ep 149•Transcript available on Metacast Jon's back from his first real vacation in years. In this episode, we discuss how we've been removing inactive accounts on Transistor, SVB, Section 174, Revin is shutting down their Merchant of Record service, SaaS sales tax compliance: (00:37) - Jon in vacation mode (02:35) - Kicking off inactive accounts (04:35) - Silicon Valley Bank (06:11) - What is Mercury bank? (13:21) - Section 174 in the USA (19:23) - Sales tax compliance update (26:14) - What could we do? (32:31) - Patreon integration u...
Mar 21, 2023•40 min•Ep 148•Transcript available on Metacast "I don't get it: if that money is for the government, how come the pizza place put it in their cash register?!?" (Jon is on vacation - our next real episode is coming soon!) Listen to our past episodes on the headache that is SaaS sales tax compliance: Part 1 Part 2 Thanks to our monthly supporters Pascal from sharpen.page Rewardful.com Greg Park Mitchell Davis from RecruitKit.com.au Marcel Fahle, wearebold.af Bill Condo (@mavrck) Ward from MemberSpace.com Evandro Sasse Austin Loveless Michael S...
Mar 01, 2023•2 min•Ep 147•Transcript available on Metacast Last week's episode hit a nerve! "The idea that every small software company in the world will be able to be in perfect compliance will every foreign federal, provincial, state, and municipal government that imposes a sales tax is ridiculous. It's an impossible task. (00:11) - Follow up to previous episode (02:37) - Responses we got about sales tax (06:25) - A brief history of sales tax (09:01) - Many vendors aren't collecting sales tax (10:46) - What about Stripe Tax? (12:40) - It's new to Nort...
Feb 21, 2023•47 min•Ep 146•Transcript available on Metacast Sales tax compliance: nobody in SaaS wants to talk about it. Jon and Justin tried to do something about it and it turned into a nightmare. According to Stripe Tax, there are about 90 different regions that software companies may have to register in, and then calculate, collect, and remit sales tax on their behalf. But in North America, many SaaS companies don't seem to care: many that we looked at weren't collecting sales tax at all, while a few had just started collecting in the US states. (00:...
Feb 10, 2023•50 min•Ep 145•Transcript available on Metacast The whole Transistor team got together for a retreat in Montréal. Jon, Justin, Helen, and Jason chat about the experience. What should we talk about next? Twitter: @buildyoursaas , @mijustin , @jonbuda , @jsonpearl , and @helenryles Leave a review/comment on Podchaser ; it's like Reddit, but for podcasts. Email us: support@transistor.fm Thanks to our monthly supporters: Jason Charnes Mitchell Davis from RecruitKit.com.au Marcel Fahle, wearebold.af Alex Payne Bill Condo Anton Zorin from ProdCa...
Oct 18, 2022•46 min•Ep 144•Transcript available on Metacast It's the fourth anniversary of Transistor's public launch! This is part 2 of "Jon and Justin answer your questions." (00:37) - When did you start paying yourself how much you wanted to make? (01:39) - Any broad advice for startups? (11:43) - How did you decide on your tech stack? (14:21) - How did you prioritize features? (15:54) - Were you embarrased by the first version you shipped? (17:53) - How did you decide on pricing? (21:12) - How would you have found employees without your network? (27:...
Aug 16, 2022•36 min•Ep 143•Transcript available on Metacast It's the fourth anniversary of Transistor's public launch! In this two-part series, Jon and Justin answer your questions. 01:22 - Our history 14:51 - What is the secret to running Transistor as a company? See our values here . 21:19 - What was the most challenging aspect of the past 4 years? 22:14 - Where do you see Transistor at 5 or 10 year? 26:19 - Do you ever feel like you're not doing enough? Book: Running the Dream . 32:09 - Have we reached peak podcast? 34:36 - What's something you've got...
Aug 10, 2022•1 hr•Ep 142•Transcript available on Metacast Baptiste Jamin co-founded Crisp with a friend he met in high school. Highlights (go straight to 🔥 for the best stuff): 1:42 – Crisp competes with massive companies: Zendesk, HelpScout, Intercom 2:52 – How did Crisp get started? (they started young!) 4:40 – The key insight that lead them to start Crisp 🔥 7:03 – "Being young and in France, how much did you know about the startup ecosystem?" 9:39 – How they bootstrapped Crisp in their twenties 🔥 12:52 – Market insights and how they found their f...
Jul 12, 2022•1 hr 8 min•Ep 141•Transcript available on Metacast Dave Zohrob is the co-founder of Chartable (a podcast analytics startup), talks about selling his company to Spotify in February 2022 . Highlights (go straight to 🔥 for the best stuff): 1:00 – What's the Spotify office in New York like? 5:24 – Dave's first startup: he started an indie record label ( Tellall Records ) 7:12 – Founding in Chartable in 2017 8:00 – Behind the scenes: talking to Chris Enns (our editor at Lemon Productions ) 9:50 – Dave's first business as a kid: publishing programmin...
Jun 14, 2022•56 min•Ep 140•Transcript available on Metacast Patrick Campbell just sold his startup, ProfitWell , to Paddle for $200 million. Highlights (go straight to 🔥 for the best stuff): 0:00 – "My problem is I'm always curious if other people are living a better dream than me." 1:30 – The major downside to bootstrapping is the lack of network 2:20 – Selling ProfitWell to Paddle, and integrating the two teams. 4:15 – How ProfitWell got started (2012) 6:00 – Initially three co-founders ( Crunchbase ) 7:20 – Patrick's background (what he did before Pr...
May 31, 2022•1 hr 10 min•Ep 139•Transcript available on Metacast Philippe Lehoux and his two co-founders started working on Missive around 2015, and just passed $2 million in annual recurring revenue. 0:00 – Getting to know Philippe, and what it's like living in Quebec 3:09 – How Missive got started: "how can we quickly collaborate on an email as a team?" 8:15 – How they get most of their customers 10:30 – How their first product ( Conference Badge ), funded the development of Missive 13:55 – How the market dictates most of your success 16:30 – How they deal ...
Apr 26, 2022•1 hr 1 min•Ep 138•Transcript available on Metacast Taylor Otwell , is the founder of Laravel , a programming framework for PHP. But he's also one of the most successful indie SaaS operators I know. In this episode we discuss: 0:30 – Taylor is changing how he hires and manages people at Laravel 6:01 – How Taylor is finding new employees to work on Forge, Vapor, and his other products 7:34 – The Laravel ecosystem has incubated incredible talent: Miguel Piedrafita , Caleb Porzio , Adam Wathan , Aaron Francis , Jack Ellis ... 10:03 – More and more i...
Apr 05, 2022•52 min•Ep 137•Transcript available on Metacast Helen and Justin talk about the importance of customer support for indie SaaS companies. 1:08 The hardest part about podcasting is doing it every week 1:38 We just launched the new podcast website themes feature. 2:24 Getting feedback, or seeing people use your product, is fuel for indie makers 6:08 Helen's experience doing Customer Success for other companies: education, ConvertKit, MakerPad. 8:53 Justin's tweet : "Customer Support is the most under-appreciated role in SaaS." 10:00 The differen...
Mar 22, 2022•49 min•Ep 136•Transcript available on Metacast We got the whole band together: Helen and Jason join Jon and Justin to talk about what it's really like to work at Transistor Helen , Jason , Jon, Justin, all squeezed into the podcasting closet to make an episode 0:55 Jason's first podcast ever 1:12 Helen's been on other podcasts: Startups for the Rest of Us , Indie Bites , Indie Worldwide 3:06 Should we invest in the "auto publish to YouTube" feature? Tom Webster: why would people listen to podcasts on YouTube? 13:32 The best features the ones...
Mar 15, 2022•44 min•Ep 135•Transcript available on Metacast Jon and Justin recorded this episode sitting on the same couch! Photo of the Coeur de Boeuf The last time we were together in person: April 30, 2019 [ Photo ] 2022 roadmap planning. We're exploring what we'd like to accomplish this year. Update and improve the podcast website builder Build new podcast website templates based on Liquid Add tools that help podcasters promote their show Continue to improve our Dynamic Audio Insertion features Create new features that help podcasters monetize their ...
Jan 18, 2022•20 min•Ep 134•Transcript available on Metacast Jon and Justin reflect on 2021 and get excited about 2022: Rework podcast episode : the word "startup" Should we rename the show "Maintain your SaaS"? ;) Biggest highlights: hiring Helen and Jason Giving employees generous bonuses Justin's list of non-alcoholic drinks Captivate (one of our competitors) was just acquired Different types of founder stress Should we sell our company? Our friends at Rewardful were just acquired Plans and features for 2022 What happened in 2021? January: Clubhouse go...
Dec 24, 2021•59 min•Ep 133•Transcript available on Metacast In this guest episode, Justin chats with Brian Casel. Bootstrapped Web podcast ZipMessage Brian's other projects What should we talk about next? Twitter: @buildyoursaas , @mijustin , @jonbuda Leave a review/comment on Podchaser ; it's like Reddit, but for podcasts. Email us: mail@transistor.fm Thanks to our monthly supporters: Anton Zorin from ProdCamp.com Mitch Harris Kenny, Intro CRM podcast Oleg Kulyk Violette Du Geneville Take It EV podcast Ethan Gunderson Diogo Chris Willow Borja Soler Ward...
Dec 07, 2021•1 hr 27 min•Ep 132•Transcript available on Metacast In this bonus episode, Justin interviews his 18-year-old daughter, Sadie, about: A Gen Z perspective on podcasting Why women are the future of podcasting: Edison Research "Now, look at the rookies – 47% are men, but the majority, 53% are women." "Most women get their podcast recommendations from Spotify, social media, or their friends." We talk a lot about podcast advertising, podcast ads, and how the adtech industry should think differently about how they target women. "Most podcast ads are jus...
Nov 26, 2021•29 min•Ep 131•Transcript available on Metacast 
