Standing in the Fire

A lost episode, finally found and worth the wait. John and Kris get into the real conversations founders rarely have out loud. Topics covered: Recording in person vs. remote - why it changes everything from the conversation to the edit Zoom fatigue and the surprising reason video calls wear you out The compounding effect: Atomic Habits applied to building a podcast (and a business) Hiring contract...

In this episode of Standing in the Fire, Kris and John pull back the curtain on what life actually looks like when you're managing multiple SaaS products, a coworking space, and a life that doesn't have a quiet corner right now. What We Cover Into the Fire: What's Been Hard Kris opens up about a stretch where nothing feels like an oasis: hiring pressure, prepping for a big idea week at Momentum, a...

Ever feel like you're winning and burning out at the same time? That's the tension at the heart of this episode of Standing in the Fire, the show where SaaS founders Chris and John skip the highlight reel and get into the actual heat of building businesses. What's In the Fire This Week John opens up about hitting a wall after weeks of peak AI productivity. The work was getting done, more than ever...

What happens when the coffee runs out, and everything else goes sideways too? Kris and John are back with a new episode format built around three segments: what's been hard, what's been inspiring, and what's been shipping. No highlight reels. Just the real stuff. 🔥 Into the Fire - What's Been Hard Momentum was built around great amenities. Draft lattes. Cold brew on tap. Pour-over. The works. So...

In this episode, Kris and John dig into what's been hard and stretching lately — from December's packed schedules to leveling up the Box Out conference booth, hiring challenges at the print shop, and keeping Momentum's big vision alive through the day-to-day grind. John shares his obsession with Claude Supermax and how switching to Opus-level AI coding has unlocked a "Neo in the Matrix" moment — p...

In this episode of Standing in the Fire, John and Kris return after a summer break and settle into the new Fireside studio inside the Momentum Entrepreneurship Hub—an ambitious space they helped bring to life in South Bend. With Garrett remote in Colorado, the two hosts talk about why recording in-person felt like the right move for now, how the summer unfolded, and what it took to get the hub ope...

Inspired by John’s real-life annual physical, this episode explores what it means to give your SaaS app its own annual checkup. What should you audit regularly to keep your app healthy? The guys cover: • 🩺 Auditing automated onboarding and transactional emails • 🧪 Building a Customer Health Index to proactively reduce churn • 📉 How and when to talk to customers—without annoying them • 📬 Rethin...

What if you could focus only on what truly moves the needle? John and Kris dig into Buy Back Your Time by Dan Martell and explore how founders can delegate smarter, systemize better, and scale faster. Key Takeaways: You can always get more money, but you can never get more time. Outsource tasks that drain your energy and time. Creating playbooks can streamline delegation and training. Hiring shoul...

How does a growing SaaS company keep track of important knowledge? From server setups to customer success playbooks, every company builds a wealth of internal information—but too often, that knowledge is scattered, siloed, or locked away in someone’s head. In this episode, John, Kris, and Garrett explore how to document and share company knowledge effectively. They discuss real-world challenges, l...

Celebrating tech wins in a way that resonates with customers can be tricky—so how should SaaS companies do it? John, Kris, and Garrett break down how they approach communicating improvements, from backend optimizations to feature rollouts. They debate whether customers care about upgrades like Rails 6 and share ideas on writing updates that connect with both technical and non-technical users. The...

This episode tackles the highs and lows of Black Friday marketing and its relevance to SaaS businesses like Fireside. John, Kris, and Garrett discuss how customer-centric timing could outperform traditional holiday discounts, with ideas ranging from New Year podcasting pushes to conference-aligned offers. The trio also delves into the backend challenges of modernizing software, balancing Rails upg...

The art of prioritization takes center stage in Episode #3 of “Standing in the Fire.” John, Kris, and Garrett explore how they balance the demands of running multiple SaaS companies, tackling technical debt, strategizing marketing efforts, and avoiding burnout. From Rails upgrades to marketing plans and hard-stop productivity hacks, this conversation reveals how founders navigate the chaos to move...

The Standing in the Fire crew — John Nunemaker, Garrett Dimon, and Kristopher Priemer — returns with Episode #2, where they discuss: Customer feedback on integrating video and YouTube for podcasts. The friction points in podcast production, from editing to publishing. Ideas for simplifying workflows with tools, automation, and potential Fireside.fm features. Their recent development wins, includin...

Welcome to the first episode of Standing in the Fire, where John Nunemaker, Garrett Dimon, and Kristopher Priemer share their journey as the new owners of Fireside.fm. This podcast isn’t just about running a SaaS business—it’s about living the Fireside experience as podcast hosts and users. In this episode, we: Introduce the team and their backgrounds in software, marketing, and entrepreneurship....