Build Your SaaS

Justin sits down with Helen Ryles and Michael Green, the two people behind almost every chat, email, and demo call that comes into Transistor, to talk about the company's secret weapon: the thing that converts 75% of trials to paid and keeps people around for years. Chapters: (02:13) - What did Helen do before she joined Transistor? (03:00) - What did Michael do before joining Transistor? (05:05)...

Justin and Jon reconnect after a two-year podcasting hiatus. What's happened since their last episode? Lots! They talk about big changes in their personal lives, and then move on to how they're thinking about Transistor as a business. These discuss burnout and motivation, the evolution of the podcasting industry, the pressure of being a leader, and the possibility of taking a sabbatical. The Trans...

Harris Kenny was a long-time listener of the podcast, and dreamed about building his own software product. After multiple attempts, over 5 years, he finally did it. How? He shares his experiences transitioning from a corporate job to entrepreneurship. He also discusses the challenges of user engagement, the exploration of various SaaS ideas, and the importance of foundational work in entrepreneurs...

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...

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....

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 Ca...

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 interviewe...

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 (01:10) - Highlights of our re...

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 Pau...

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 (01:13) - Who is Tim Leland? (03:20) - What guardrails did you put in place? (0...

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 (03:03) - How do you define your coaching? (05:10) - What do you see with rising stars?...

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...

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 to...

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...

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 sma...

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 (02:30) - Kicking off inactive accounts (04:30) - Silicon Valley Bank (06:06) - What is Mercury bank? (13:16) - Section 174 in the U...

"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 Rewardful.com Mitchell Davis from sixsides.co Bill Condo (@mavrck) Ward from MemberSpace.com Evandro...

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 (02:32) - Responses we got about sales tax (06:20) - A brief history of sales tax (08:56) -...

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...

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 Da...

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? (01:34) - Any broad advice for startups? (11:38) - How did you decide on your tech stack? (14:16) - How did you prioritize features? (15:49) - Were you embarrased by the first version you shipped? (17:48) - Ho...

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?...

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 –...

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...

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)...