Bootstrapped

If you've ever thought of selling your business, or acquiring one, you'll enjoy this episode. Matt Zeunert, founder of DebugBear , was curious about the details of my acquisition of Saber Feedback . So we switch roles for this episode, and the guest became the interviewer. Matt asks the questions, and I answer!  

Mark Littlewood runs the Business of Software, a series of annual conferences to help us run our software companies better. Mark very openly shares how COVID-19 has hit his business, and his need to adapt almost overnight. We talk about the upcoming Business of Software online conference, 27 - 29 September 2021, and how Mark's team make online events work. Business of Software website Use this cod...

In this solo episode, I talk about successful yet quiet SaaS business all around us. I also tell the full story of why our forum has been closed and put permanently into archive mode. Bootstrapped website Steve on Twitter Recommended alternative communities to our now-closed community: Indie Hackers - if you are just getting started and want to chat with others just getting started Founder Summit...

Peldi, founder of Balsamiq , drops by. We discuss two unrelated topics. First, resellers - why they exist and how to accommodate them. Second, the challenges and benefits of having a podcast for your product.  

Ed and Steve go in deep on some enterprise sales work they've both been doing lately for their bootstrapped, mostly self-service SaaS products.

Craig Hewitt runs Castos, a podcast hosting and analytics company. He returns to the show to talk about why he recently sold a chunk of his bootstrapped company to a round of investors. Links: Castos: https://castos.com/ TinySeed: https://tinyseed.com/ Craig on Twitter: https://twitter.com/TheCraigHewitt  

It's 15 months since I acquired Saber Feedback. I talk about the challenges I've faced so far, the bottleneck I'm currently facing, and where things are headed. Steve on Twitter: https://twitter.com/steveofmcleod Bootstrapped on Twitter: https://twitter.com/bootstrapped_fm  

While Steve enjoys a summer break, Ed Freyfogle steps in this week to interview Adam DuVander. Adam helps companies like yours market to developers. Ed chats with Adam DuVander about his book "Developer Marketing Does Not Exist" Adam on Twitter Adam's site Learn more about Developer Marketing Does Not Exist  

Moritz Dausinger, three-time bootstrapper, tells me why he recently sold a small stake of Refiner.io to Earnest Capital. Between recording and publishing this episode, Earnest Capital renamed as the Calm Company Fund. Links: Refiner.io Calm Company Fund (was Earnest Capital) Moritz on Twitter SAFE agreement      

Ed and Steve discuss what it is like when a core team member quits, how to reduce the chance of it happening, and how to make our businesses resilient enough to handle it. Watch this episode on YouTube .  

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 f...

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 delegati...

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 p...

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 Yo...

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, SEOTes...

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 (http...

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 acqu...

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...

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