Build Your SaaS

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 th...

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: Mig...

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. 8:5...

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" fe...

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...

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 R...

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 Ole...

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...

This week Jon and Justin discussed: Tweet: what should we talk about? Justin's daughter wrote an article for the Transistor blog: https://transistor.fm/gen-z/   Customer case studies Dynamic audio insertion Integration with Descript Book: Range by David Epstein What should we talk about next? Twitter: @buildyoursaas , @mijustin , @jonbuda Leave a review/comment on Podchaser ; it's like Reddit, but...

This week Justin chats with Michele Hansen , founder of Geocodio . I got fired up about interviewing customers!  Get Michele's new book! Deploy Empathy Listen to Michele's podcast: Software Social "Empathy is a skill you can learn." Get Michele's newsletter "There's so much shame in the tech community." What are the boundaries for deploying empathy? When, and how, do we deliver critiques? Podcast:...

This week Jon and Justin discussed: Our values determine how we make decisions Hiring FT: we hired Jason Pearl ! Summer SaaS slowdown Tweet: worst month ever ConvertKit’s public numbers What should we talk about next? Twitter: @buildyoursaas , @mijustin , @jonbuda Leave a comment on PodHunt ; it's like Reddit, but for podcasts. Email us: mail@transistor.fm Thanks to our monthly supporters: Mitch H...

This week Spencer Fry, founder of Podia.com , joins Justin Jackson to talk about venture capital and bootstrapping. Spencer's tweet : "The hostility that the bootstrapper community has towards the VC community continues to perplex me." Justin's interview with Jason Calacanis (2013) VC brags Roy Bahat on Big Technology Podcast: Why VCs are mad 06:30 "Capital changes lots of dynamics in society. It'...

This week Jon and Justin discussed: Basecamp Note: we recorded this before Casey Newton's second article on Basecamp came out. Also: this article is a really thoughtful take on the whole situation. Ruby/Rails open source world. https://discuss.rubyonrails.org/t/effect-of-the-last-week-on-ruby-on-rails/77702   SO EXCITED: HELEN IS ON THE TEAM! 🎉 https://transistor.fm/helen/   Cost/benefit analysis...

This we, we chatted about: Evil Crypto Teletubbies Voltswagon Fathom has acquired Google Jon is trying out a new private office, in a coworking space ( Deskpass ) Justin had a quick chat with Derrick Reimer , SavvyCal Tweet : Two years ago (March 2019), Justin posted a screenshot of our revenue numbers and we were just about to hit $10k in MRR. Jason Fried: Your company history is a myth Justin we...

Real humans making a business together: Taking the leap Why is Justin jealous of Ben? Pros and cons of building a remote company in 2021 Limited exposure to your co-founder What would take to get Jon to move to Canada? Story: confronting a burglar with a crowbar The algorithm rewards you for being early Spending a lot of time on Clubhouse Apple Podcasts going into subscription podcasts roundtable...

Jon's back! He and Justin share their feelings/thoughts about the new year: Closing the door on the past Exciting revenue milestone Podcast companies losing money https://podnews.net/update/pocket-casts-for-sale https://www.cnbc.com/2021/01/15/spotifys-big-bet-on-podcasts-is-failing-citi-says.html   https://www.macrumors.com/2021/01/15/apple-podcast-subscription-service/ Twitter's Trump ban https:...

This week, Justin and Jason discuss the dynamics of market demand. Justin's original tweet Jason's response What should we talk about next? Twitter: @buildyoursaas , @mijustin , @jonbuda , @jasonfried Leave a comment on PodHunt ; it's like Reddit, but for podcasts. Email us: mail@transistor.fm Thanks to our monthly supporters: Take It EV podcast Ethan Gunderson Anton Zorin Bill Condo Chris Willow...

This week, Justin catches up with Simon Bennett of Snapshooter: Every once in a while, we highlight one of our listeners who are building their own SaaS. This week: Simon Bennett , comes back to tell us what's happened since he left his full-time job 7 months ago. Looking for automatic backups for Digital Ocean, AWS, WordPress, or Laravel? Check out https://snapshooter.io . Simon had just put his...

Justin is joined by everybody's favorite Twitter Uncle: Ian Landsman (founder of HelpSpot ). Ian's encounter with his internet hero Joel Spolsky Do you get worried that this all going to go away? How scared should we be of the competition? How do you hedge your bets? We prognosticate about what our bootstrapper friends' blind spots are. 🤣 We both ask for investors live, on air. How founders shoul...

We're back!  Justin's voice sounds terrible (sorry!) When is the next wave of economic despair going to happen? The maker/creator market is on 🔥 right now. How long will it last? How "soft" is the prosumer market? How fragile is it? A BUNCH OF NEW TRANSISTOR FEATURES: Zapier integration Podcast:locked Easily submit your podcast to the major podcast directories. Podcast distribution checklist How...

We have a bonus episode for you this week! Justin was on the Framework podcast. Check out the other Spec.fm shows Subscribe to Framework in Overcast Want to reply to something we said? Twitter: @buildyoursaas , @mijustin , @jonbuda , @tomcreighton , @therobhayes Leave a comment on PodHunt ; it's like Reddit, but for podcasts. Email us: mail@transistor.fm Thanks to our monthly supporters: Take It E...

Jon and Justin talk about "optionality" in bootstrapping. (Justin is concerned, Jon thinks we should just enjoy the moment). DHH : "Part of what gave us the confidence to turn down the whole world of venture capital was a small sale of equity to Jeff Bezos. That gave our personal bank accounts just enough ballast that the big numbers touted by VCs and acquisition hunters lost their lure." Are we a...

Late-summer update! This week on the program, we bring you a super spicy interview that Justin did on the TechZing podcast . Do you really need to build an audience before you build your product? Justin's tweet There's this idea that you need to grow an audience, talk to an audience, and then build something they want. Is that really necessary? IndieHackers interview with Vincent Woo justinjackson...

Mid-summer update! This week on the program, Justin and Jon talk about: If you're bootstrapping SaaS, how many monthly trials do you need? Tweet : "You probably need more trials than you think." Breaking out of your own way of thinking "All it took was someone talking to me to have a different way of thinking about it." Want to reply to something we said? Twitter: @buildyoursaas , @mijustin , @jon...

This week on the program, Justin and Jon talk about: Updates on Transistor: new API is almost done, static site generator, growth slowed in June? Questioning whether we should slow down for the summer Talking about the Simplecast acquisition What would sell for? Mike: “Anything that’s a life-changing amount.” Want to reply to something we said? Twitter: @buildyoursaas , @mijustin , @jonbuda Leave...