[48] Bootstrapping Software Products w/ Ian Landsman

It’s the Productize Podcast 2018, Happy New Year!

Back out to January, it’s cold outside but here I am, staying warm inside recording podcasts.

Today I meet Ian Landsman. He is the founder of UserScape. Ian’s been around for few years now, bootstrapping and sustaining a self-funded software company.

Ian’s been involved in quite few different projects. HelpSpot, the help-desk software it’s been the bread and butter, but he’s been heavily involved in the Laravel/PHP community – he built a job board, a conference, and a recruiting service.

In this interview we talk about a new product that he is just getting off the ground this year, a SaaS with the freemium model called Thermostat.io.

We talk about marketing and shady tactics, and how to play it straight in 2018, and why that’s what works.

Also, we talk about bootstrapping, stair-stepping and sustaining a business and having the flexibility to take it slow.

Enjoy!

Episode Notes

[2:39] Involving yourself in many projects.

“That’s something nobody talks about. [Being an independent founder] you can choose to go as slow as you want.”

[11:33] LaraTalent. Building a marketplace in the HR space.

[23:09] Shady marketing tactics. The importance of building a Community. Community vs Audience.

“We are still picking your solution because you think about the problem the way we think about the problem.“

[32:17] Thermostat.io. building a Net Promoter Score surveys (NPS). Freemium vs Paid.

“Businesses like NPS surveys because they have a single number to track customer satisfaction.”

“The whole point is to get you so fanatical that you are doing 9 and 10.”

[50:25] Thoughts on business models for 2018.

“Days of easy wins are gone.”

“People may not buy software forever, but they’ll want somebody do they work for them forever.”

Links

Ian Landsman on Twitter

Ian Landsman’s umbrella company, UserScape and other projects

Ian’s co-hosted podcast, Bootstrapped.fm

Ian on the Bootstrapped Web podcast

HelpSpot

Ian’s Laravel/PHP related initiatives

LaraCon

LaraJobs

LaraTalent

Thermostat.io

Big Snow Tiny Conf

Shady Tactics – Ian Landsman’s blogpost

Zendesk