Build Your SaaS

What do you think?

• Leave a comment on Breaker, the podcast app for Android and iPhone.
• Leave a comment on CastBox, the podcast app for Android and iPhone.
• Otherwise, get us on Twitter: @transistorfm or email us: [email protected]
• Create your own podcast at transistor.fm 

Show notes:

• Cards Against Humanity
• Laracon Chicago (photos here)
• Photos from Transistor's launch week
• The new Transistor website
• Jon's new signup page
• We were #1 on Product Hunt!

★ Please review us in iTunes – it helps other folks find the show!

🎙️ Podcast hosting is provided by Transistor.fm.
📺 Learn how to start your own podcast!

In 2013, I interviewed Jason Calacanis, the angel investor.

One of the things I asked him: "Why do venture capital investors take these big risks with their money?" 

Uh. What an interesting idea: "the money is bored."

Jon Buda and I are bootstrapping Transistor.fm and Spots.fm. We've invested our own money into both of these projects.

When you're self-funding a startup, your money is the opposite of bored. Your money is stressed. You're caught between these two realities: you're investing real time and money into the product, but the product isn't yet giving you anything back.

For example, we're launching Transistor.fm on August 1st.

Right now we have 51 early access customers and $781 in MRR.

Let's say that when we launch on August 1st, we double MRR to $1,500.

To get to $21,000 in MRR (enough for Jon and me to focus on Transistor full-time), it will take five years (assuming 10.0% exponential growth and 5.0% churn).

Five years. 60 months. That's a long time to wait for a paycheque.

There's this tricky tension when you're bootstrapping a SaaS. On one side, you're investing in this product that could be an incredible asset.

If Transistor hits $20,000 a month, that's dependable, recurring revenue.

But on the hand, investing all that time and money in something that isn't a sure bet is a risk.

It's easy to see why bootstrapped founders get stressed. It's easy to see why many experience burnout and have to quit.

That's something Mike and Fred talked about on their podcast, Hit Reply.

Bootstrappers who are building something new have to walk this fine line:

• We need to invest a considerable amount of effort to launch our product.
• But we also need money to live, and it can be years before a SaaS can support you full-time.

Which has me thinking about Basecamp.

What Jason Fried and DHH achieved with Basecamp is what most bootstrappers aspire for. Heck, most of us would be happy for even a fraction of their success.

They've long been the example of how you can self-fund a product, bring it to market, grow it, and have it succeed.

But the story many of us are telling ourselves about how they achieved that success isn't quite right.

Yes, they've bootstrapped Basecamp since 2004.

But in 2006 they didn't something a lot of us bootstrappers haven't paid a lot of attention to.

They took investment!

I recently read this interview with DHH on Startup.co. The interviewer asked:

David's answer is interesting:

This is something the bootstrapping culture doesn't think about a lot.

37signals, the poster child of the bootstrapped world, took investment two years after they launched the product.

That Bezos money didn't go into the company. It went into their personal bank accounts.

Jason and David were able to hedge their bets. That Bezos investment removed a lot of the stress and risk that comes from bootstrapping a product.

Bootstrappers have created a religion out of building something from scratch and self-funding the entire thing.

But what if that ideology leads to burnout? Or bankruptcy? Or not being able to go the distance?

Here's David again:

It's something we need to think about.

What do you think?

• Leave a comment on Breaker, the podcast app for Android and iPhone.
• Leave a comment on CastBox, the podcast app for Android and iPhone.
• Otherwise, get us on Twitter: @transistorfm or email us: [email protected]
• Want to get notified when we launch? Sign up at transistor.fm 

Show notes:

• Product People, 33, with Jason Calacanis
• Forecast your MRR (a tool by Baremetrics)
• Hit Reply, ep 3, with Fred and Mike
• Foundation podcast, 26, Jason Fried interview
• Startup.co interview with DHH

★ Please review us in iTunes – it helps other folks find the show!

🎙️ Podcast hosting is provided by Transistor.fm.
📺 Learn how to start your own podcast!

Three tweets Tuesday

Justin Kan: 

Stephanie Hulburt: 

Naval on making decisions:

Show notes

• John Fogerty
• Justin Kan: “Why I Love B2B over B2C”
• Naval: How to get rich(without getting lucky)
• Muneeb Ali: “Hard conversations, easy life. Easy conversations, hard life.”
• Follow Stephanie Hulburt on Twitter!
• Book: Difficult Conversations
• Transistor.fm
• Transistor.fm on Instagram
• Transistor.fm on Twitter
• Jon Buda is back on Twitter: @jonbuda
• Justin Jackson on Twitter here: @mijustin
• Leave a comment on Breaker, the podcast app for Android and iPhone.
• Leave a comment on CastBox, the podcast app for Android and iPhone.

★ Please review us in iTunes – it helps other folks find the show!

🎙️ Podcast hosting is provided by Transistor.fm.
📺 Learn how to start your own podcast!

How to build anticipation for your product launch

• Have a mailing list! Email them consistently during development.
• The week of launch you should send the following emails:
  • Pre-launch announcement: "We're launching in a week!"
  • Day before announcement: "The launch is tomorrow. Here's how much it will cost."
  • Launch day email: "We're launched! Sign up here"
  • Day after email: "You've still got time to sign up."
  • Launch discount is ending email: "This is your last chance to register"
• Use services like Product Hunt, Product Hunt Ship, BetaList, to build anticipation.
• On Twitter, FB, LinkedIn, Instagram: constantly send out product updates.

Show notes

• Spots.fm - “what if advertising on podcasts was as easy as advertising on Facebook?”
• Taylor Otwell, creator of Laravel
• See you at Laracon!
• Video: Buddy Guy'Meet Me in Chicago' at the Hollywood Bowl 8-21-13.
• Product Hunt Ship
• BetaList
• Adam Wathan at MicroConf talk
• The Best Pizza in Chicago
• Chicago vs New York Hot Dogs
• Anthony Bourdain on Chicago
• We’re going to XOXO 2018!
• Transistor.fm
• Transistor.fm on Instagram
• Transistor.fm on Twitter
• Jon Buda is back on Twitter: @jonbuda
• Justin Jackson on Twitter here: @mijustin
• Give us some love on Breaker, the podcast app for Android and iPhone.

★ Please review us in iTunes – it helps other folks find the show!

Check out these new shows on Transistor:

• Goodstuff.fm
• atU2 podcast

🎙️ Podcast hosting is provided by Transistor.fm.
📺 Learn how to start your own podcast!

Jon and Justin are still moving forward with Transistor. We're planning to launch in July. But we're being realistic: this could be a slow-growing business. The good news? We're both okay with that. We talked through different funding scenarios – VCs, fund-strapping, bootstrapping – and realized what really matters is building something meaningful with people we like. In the meantime, Justin is exploring a side project called Spots.fm (think Calendly for podcast sponsorships). The plan is to start manually, helping a few podcaster friends fill their ad slots, before we build any software.

Show notes:

• Spots.fm – "what if advertising on a podcast was as easy as advertising on Facebook?"
• Spots.fm/story - the Spots story so far.
• SaaS Your Later
• Derek Sivers - Start now, no funding needed
• Transistor.fm
• Transistor.fm on Instagram
• Transistor.fm on Twitter
• Jon Buda is back on Twitter: @jonbuda
• Justin Jackson on Twitter here: @mijustin
• Give us some love on Breaker, the podcast app for Android and iPhone.

★ Please review us in iTunes – it helps other folks find the show!

Check out these new shows on Transistor:

• Remote Ruby
• That's a thing?
• Tech Nest - Real Estate podcast

🎙️ Podcast hosting is provided by Transistor.fm.
📺 Learn how to start your own podcast!

Show notes

• Justin’s Instagram TV episode
• MegaMaker.co
• Indie VC
• Canada’s Startup Visa
• Transistor.fm
• Transistor.fm on Instagram
• Transistor.fm on Twitter
• Jon Buda is back on Twitter: @jonbuda
• Justin Jackson on Twitter here: @mijustin
• Give us some love on Breaker, the podcast app for Android and iPhone.

★ Please review us in iTunes – it helps other folks find the show!

🎙️ Podcast hosting is provided by Transistor.fm.
📺 Learn how to start your own podcast!

Show notes

• Transistor.fm
• Transistor.fm on Instagram
• Transistor.fm on Twitter
• Jon Buda is back on Twitter: @jonbuda
• Justin Jackson on Twitter here: @mijustin
• Give us some love on Breaker, the podcast app for Android and iPhone.

★ Please review us in iTunes – it helps other folks find the show!

Show notes

• This is the recording from the Art of Product Podcast. Full episode will be there!
• Ben Orenstein on Twitter
• Derrick Reimer on Twitter
• Derrick's new app: level.app
• Transistor.fm
• Transistor.fm on Instagram
• Transistor.fm on Twitter
• Jon Buda is back on Twitter: @jonbuda
• Justin Jackson on Twitter here: @mijustin
• Give us some love on Breaker, the podcast app for Android and iPhone.

★ Please review us in iTunes – it helps other folks find the show!

🎙️ Podcast hosting is provided by Transistor.fm.
📺 Learn how to start your own podcast!

Jon and Justin are probably 1-2 months away from the launch of Transistor.fm. That means we need to figure out pricing.

We've both worked in SaaS before, but we're trying to not pretend we know everything. We want to do this right, so we reached out to two experts this week: Patrick Campbell (from Price Intelligently) and Rob Walling (from Drip).

Show notes

• Full interview with Patrick Campbell on Product People
• Price intelligently
• Patrick Campbell, founder of Price Intelligently
• Rob Walling, founder of Drip
• Transistor.fm
• Transistor.fm on Instagram
• Transistor.fm on Twitter
• Jon Buda is back on Twitter: @jonbuda
• Justin Jackson on Twitter here: @mijustin
• Give us some love on Breaker, the podcast app for Android and iPhone.

★ Please review us in iTunes – it helps other folks find the show!

🎙️ Podcast hosting is provided by Transistor.fm.
📺 Learn how to start your own podcast!

Today's show is not a full episode!

Jon and I have been busy with our day jobs, plus Memorial Day, and didn't have time to record a show.

But, to be honest, this pricing discussion isn't something we can solve in a 30-minute conversation. We've realized it's going to require more research. We need to talk to folks who know more than us.

So that's what we've been doing. This week, I have a call booked with Patrick from Price intelligently, as well as Rob Walling (who just his company Drip).

I'm hoping to get some useful insights on pricing from these folks. Mostly so we don't make the same mistakes that other SaaS companies have made. These chats will also benefit you, the listener, because we'll be sharing as much as we can in future episodes.

As a teaser, I'm going to share a phone call I had with Nathan Barry.  He has one of the fastest growing SaaS products in existence right now: ConvertKit.

They just crossed 1 million dollars in MRR. That's an Annual Run Rate of $12.8 million! They've grown fast, and Nathan's had to learn fast. 

So here are some of his thoughts on the pricing of podcast hosting. 

Show notes

• Price intelligently
• Nathan Barry, founder of ConvertKit
• ConvertKit's revenue numbers
• Transistor.fm
• Transistor.fm on Instagram
• Transistor.fm on Twitter
• Jon Buda is back on Twitter: @jonbuda
• Justin Jackson on Twitter here: @mijustin
• Give us some love on Breaker, the podcast app for Android and iPhone.

★ Please review us in iTunes – T-shirt contest!  Leave a review you’ll be entered to win a limited edition Transistor t-shirt!