On today's episode of Startups For The Rest of Us, Rob Walling (@robwalling) talks with David Newell (@davidsnewell), a Senior Advisor at Quiet Light Brokerage, about the dos and dont's of SaaS valuations. The topics we cover 4:12 Running your business as if it were a sellable asset 5:15 Quiet Light deal count and other stats 8:53 SaaS valuations today and how SDE valuations work 17:50 How revenue valuations work 21:19 David Newell shares stories of dos and donts of valuations 29:52 What do the ...
Sep 08, 2020•34 min•Transcript available on Metacast On today's episode of Startups For The Rest of Us, Rob Walling (@robwalling) talks with David Newell (@davidsnewell), a Senior Advisor at Quiet Light Brokerage, about the dos and dont's of SaaS valuations. The topics we cover 4:12 Running your business as if it were a sellable asset 5:15 Quiet Light deal count and other stats 8:53 SaaS valuations today and how SDE valuations work 17:50 How revenue valuations work 21:19 David Newell shares stories of dos and donts of valuations 29:52 What do the ...
Sep 08, 2020•34 min•Transcript available on Metacast Join us for a Rob Solo Adventure version of Startups for The Rest of Us as Rob Walling talks about the power of optionality. He explores the importance of having different paths and avoiding backing yourself into a corner and being constrained when making important life decisions. The topics we cover 1:27 The story of Gary Gygax and Tactical Studies Rules (TSR) 6:56 The Entrepreneurmobile 13:00 How to keep your options open 17:33 DotNetInvoice and fake reduction of options Links from ...
Sep 01, 2020•21 min•Transcript available on Metacast Join us for a Rob Solo Adventure version of Startups for The Rest of Us as Rob Walling talks about the power of optionality. He explores the importance of having different paths and avoiding backing yourself into a corner and being constrained when making important life decisions. The topics we cover 1:27 The story of Gary Gygax and Tactical Studies Rules (TSR) 6:56 The Entrepreneurmobile 13:00 How to keep your options open 17:33 DotNetInvoice and fake reduction of options Links from the show Ta...
Sep 01, 2020•21 min•Transcript available on Metacast Show Notes On today's episode, Rob chats with Mike Ritchie about how they got their first paying customer in 30 days of launch, listening to your customers, and doing a massive pricing revamp. SeekWell is looking for a freelance SEO marketer to help grow the top of their funnel. If you have experience in analytics and B2B SaaS marketing, please email Mike at mike@seekwell.io The topics we cover 2:35 How Mike Ritchie and his co-founder, Thabo Fisher of Seekwell discovered the need for their produ...
Aug 25, 2020•32 min•Transcript available on Metacast Show Notes On today's episode, Rob chats with Mike Ritchie about how they got their first paying customer in 30 days of launch, listening to your customers, and doing a massive pricing revamp. SeekWell is looking for a freelance SEO marketer to help grow the top of their funnel. If you have experience in analytics and B2B SaaS marketing, please email Mike at mike@seekwell.io The topics we cover 2:35 How Mike Ritchie and his co-founder, Thabo Fisher of Seekwell discovered the need for their produ...
Aug 25, 2020•32 min•Transcript available on Metacast On today's episode, Rob chats Wil Schroter about the story behind Startups.com , the importance of output vs. hours, being specific about the kind of things you don't want to do in life, choosing venture capital, and much more. The topics we cover 2:43 How soon after first acquisition did Wil Schroter, CEO and founder of Startups.com, want to start the next thing? 5:42 Wil on building an incubator in the early days 8:55 History behind swapalease.com 11:22 On choosing if and when to take on ventu...
Aug 18, 2020•35 min•Transcript available on Metacast On today's episode, Rob chats Wil Schroter about the story behind Startups.com , the importance of output vs. hours, being specific about the kind of things you don't want to do in life, choosing venture capital, and much more. The topics we cover 2:43 How soon after first acquisition did Wil Schroter, CEO and founder of Startups.com, want to start the next thing? 5:42 Wil on building an incubator in the early days 8:55 History behind swapalease.com 11:22 On choosing if and when to take on ventu...
Aug 18, 2020•35 min•Transcript available on Metacast Show Notes Today, we have a conversation between Rob and Anthony Eden from DNSimple as they revisit the six stages of SaaS growth starting with pre-launch and pre product-market fit to scaling and company building. Be sure to listen in until the end of the podcast as they talk about what lies beyond company building, the sixth stage of SaaS growth. The topics we cover 5:10 Stage 1 - Prelaunch 10:08 Stage 2: Pre Product-Market Fit 13:40 Stage 3: Product Market Fit 16:38 Stage 4: Escape Velocity 2...
Aug 11, 2020•43 min•Transcript available on Metacast Show Notes Today, we have a conversation between Rob and Anthony Eden from DNSimple as they revisit the six stages of SaaS growth starting with pre-launch and pre product-market fit to scaling and company building. Be sure to listen in until the end of the podcast as they talk about what lies beyond company building, the sixth stage of SaaS growth. The topics we cover 5:10 Stage 1 - Prelaunch 10:08 Stage 2: Pre Product-Market Fit 13:40 Stage 3: Product Market Fit 16:38 Stage 4: Escape Velocity 2...
Aug 11, 2020•43 min•Transcript available on Metacast Show Notes On today's episode, Rob is joined by Asia Orangio as they answer listener questions ranging from how to find the right marketing channel, how to build a brand for your business, as well as how to decide whether to start or join a startup. If you have questions about starting or scaling a software business that you'd like for us to cover, please submit your question for the next episode. We'd love to hear from you! The questions we cover 3:13 Mike Lollar - How to find the right marketi...
Aug 04, 2020•35 min•Transcript available on Metacast Show Notes On today's episode, Rob is joined by Asia Orangio as they answer listener questions ranging from how to find the right marketing channel, how to build a brand for your business, as well as how to decide whether to start or join a startup. If you have questions about starting or scaling a software business that you'd like for us to cover, please submit your question for the next episode. We'd love to hear from you! The questions we cover 3:13 Mike Lollar - How to find the right marketi...
Aug 04, 2020•35 min•Transcript available on Metacast Show Notes On today's episode, Rob chats with Damian Thompson, co-founder of LeadFuze. He's also the founder of VPSales. They talk about if and when to hire a sales team, the kinds of cold email outreach campaigns that are working well today, the sales stack, and much more. The topics we cover 5:43 Should a bootstrapper hire a Sales Development Rep (SDR)? 9:16 Assuming you understand your market, what kind of cold emails work today? 12:56 The formula to use for B2B cold email 14:37 Risks of boot...
Jul 28, 2020•44 min•Transcript available on Metacast On today's episode of Startups For The Rest Of Us, Rob catches up with guest Derrick Reimer as they discuss shutting down a slack competitor while building and preparing to launch a new calendar SaaS. They discuss topics like user research, defining and validating an idea, choosing a big market, viral loops, and more. The topics we cover with Derrick Reimer 2:49 Shutting down a Slack competitor 6:32 Building StaticKit to get something in the market 13:16 Developing the next idea 17:03 Validating...
Jul 21, 2020•28 min•Transcript available on Metacast Show Notes You've probably heard a lot about the #NoCode movement but may not know what it means, exactly. Today, we have the great pleasure of talking with someone who is knee-deep in the #NoCode movement. Helen Ryles has launched 42 projects over 10+ years and on this episode, she shares with us why she builds so many products, her process for choosing what to work on, and how she determines a good time to sell a #NoCode product. The topics we cover with Helen Ryles 6:11 Ryles on why she chose...
Jul 14, 2020•30 min•Transcript available on Metacast This week we chat with Tracy Osborn ( @tracymakes ) as we discuss 15 of the top tools we use to run our businesses. As a followup to a previous, popular tweet , we thought we'd give an update on what tools we continue to use today, as well as share some of the new tools we have started to use. While tools are necessary for founders, it's important to find a good balance between good-enough and perfect when it comes to evaluating which tools to use. As Tracy says in the show, "It's a good lesson ...
Jul 07, 2020•46 min•Transcript available on Metacast This week Rob answers some great listener questions. We discuss the best way to validate a product idea, how to expand a product with traction internationally, advice on launching a restaurant product during COVID-19, and whether to start an affiliate program. If you have questions about starting or scaling a software business that you'd like us to cover, please submit your question for the next episode. We'd love to hear from you! The listener questions we cover 1:39 [Arturo Ceballos] What's th...
Jun 30, 2020•33 min•Transcript available on Metacast In his second appearance on the show (he first appeared on Episode 367 ), we chat with Benedikt Deicke from Userlist. Along with his co-founder, Jane Portman, they are building an easy to use customer messaging tool catered specifically towards SaaS companies. In this show, we talk about some of the challenges in building a product while working full-time, finding the ideal SaaS pricing model, their underwhelming Product Hunt launch, as well as their recent purchase of the Userlist.com domain na...
Jun 23, 2020•26 min•Transcript available on Metacast In the first episode of Startups For The Rest Of Us since our 500th milestone, Rob checks in with Mike Taber about his progress with Bluetick. It's been nearly 7 weeks since Rob last checked in ( Episode 494 ) and a lot has happened in the world since then. They talk about business trajectory amidst COVID-19, the health of the sales pipeline and unique partnership opportunities, as well as technical debt and making decisions about code optimization. What we discuss with Mike Taber 6:38 Rob and M...
Jun 16, 2020•41 min•Transcript available on Metacast In the first episode of Startups For The Rest Of Us since our 500th milestone, Rob checks in with Mike Taber about his progress with Bluetick. It's been nearly 7 weeks since Rob last checked in ( Episode 494 ) and a lot has happened in the world since then. They talk about business trajectory amidst COVID-19, the health of the sales pipeline and unique partnership opportunities, as well as technical debt and making decisions about code optimization. What we discuss with Mike Taber 6:38 Rob and M...
Jun 16, 2020•41 min•Transcript available on Metacast This is a big milestone episode for Startups for the Rest of Us. Episode 500. Since the very first episode nearly a decade ago we've had more than 10 million downloads, answered more than 1,500 listener questions, and shared more than 292 hours of startup content. Over the years, this podcast has developed a particular lens through which we view building and growing startups. We've focused on: Maintaining freedom, purpose, and relationships throughout the journey Diving deep into topics relating...
Jun 09, 2020•41 min•Transcript available on Metacast This is a big milestone episode for Startups for the Rest of Us. Episode 500. Since the very first episode nearly a decade ago we've had more than 10 million downloads, answered more than 1,500 listener questions, and shared more than 292 hours of startup content. Over the years, this podcast has developed a particular lens through which we view building and growing startups. We've focused on: Maintaining freedom, purpose, and relationships throughout the journey Diving deep into topics relating...
Jun 09, 2020•41 min•Transcript available on Metacast This episode is part two in a two-part conversation. If you haven't already, listen to Part 1 first. This week is the second part of a conversation between Rob and Jordan Gal, the founder of CartHook. In the episode, Rob and Jordan dig into the 4th, 5th and 6th stages of SaaS growth and compare their journeys 1:1 between growing Drip and growing CartHook. They come across several parallels between their journeys, as well as some differences. This episode is part two in a two-part conversation. J...
Jun 05, 2020•32 min•Transcript available on Metacast Jun 04, 2020•2 min•Transcript available on Metacast This week is a conversation between Rob and Jordan Gal, the founder of Cart Hook. We dig into the six stages of SaaS growth. We compare our journeys 1:1 between growing Drip and growing CartHook. It's shocking how well the journeys line up with each other. Some of the differences in the journey are also quite striking. This episode is part one, and part two will go live later this week. Jordan started CartHook as cart abandonment software and became a checkout replacement solution for Shopify. H...
Jun 02, 2020•34 min•Transcript available on Metacast This week Rob talks with Steli Efti about selling during a pandemic. They also talk about how to set yourself up for success as a founder during a possible recession and how to adjust your sales process. You don't want to shy away from sales, but you also don't want to be tone-deaf to the current state of the world. Steli is one of the world's experts in startup sales and B2B sales. He runs a successful app called Close.com . He has written a number of ebooks on the topic of sales, and he has be...
May 26, 2020•40 min•Transcript available on Metacast This week Rob answers listener questions with TinySeed co-founder Einar Vollset. Einar has been on the selling side of many SaaS acquisitions. He is also a developer with a Ph.D. in computer science, so he has a well-rounded experience, and it makes him the perfect person to answer these listener questions. There are some interesting questions from listeners who are growing SaaS apps. The finer points of the episode: 2:38 - What metrics you should be documenting on your SaaS app 9:04 - The thing...
May 19, 2020•31 min•Transcript available on Metacast This interview was recorded several months ago, but is still relevant despite the pandemic. Colin Nederkoorn, the co-founder of customer.io has taken a unique approach to building their company. Customer.io does marketing automation for the entire customer lifecycle. They have raised funding, but not traditional venture money, and they've run it more like a self-funded SaaS. Colin and his cofounder John left their jobs with no savings, and they set out to build an analytics tool. Their story is ...
May 12, 2020•39 min•Transcript available on Metacast This interview was recorded several months ago, but is still relevant despite the pandemic. Colin Nederkoorn, the co-founder of customer.io has taken a unique approach to building their company. Customer.io does marketing automation for the entire customer lifecycle. They have raised funding, but not traditional venture money, and they've run it more like a self-funded SaaS. Colin and his cofounder John left their jobs with no savings, and they set out to build an analytics tool. Their story is ...
May 12, 2020•39 min•Transcript available on Metacast 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 yo...
May 05, 2020•24 min•Transcript available on Metacast 
