Build Your SaaS

Justin is interviewed by Nathan Baschez to talk about business strategy:

This is a long episode, but it's a good one!

• What made Jon and Justin feel like they had an advantage in podcasting?
• Original hypothesis: "Maybe we could be to podcasting, what WPengine was to WordPress hosting. Or what Wistia was to video hosting." How did that work out?
• Nathan's take on the podcast industry from his experience working for Gimlet.
• When should you focus on a niche?

Links:

• Nathan's intro post for Divinations: What is business strategy?
• Nathan on Twitter
• Subscribe to Divinations
• Rodney Mullen: you only win once

You can reply to this podcast here:

• Leave a comment on PodHunt; it's like Reddit, but for podcasts.
• Leave a comment on Breaker, the podcast app for iPhone.
• Interact on WhatPods.
• Otherwise, get us on Twitter: @transistorfm or email us: [email protected]

Thanks to our monthly supporters:

• Ward from MemberSpace.com
• Eric Lima
• James Sowers (like Flowers) with UserInput.io
• Travis Fischer
• Matt Buckley, from NiceThings.io 
• Russell Brown
• Evandro Sasse
• Pradyumna Shembekar (PD), pradyumna.dev
• Noah Prail, eventOneHQ.com
• Robert Simplicio, Simplicio.com
• Colin Gray alitu.com
• Josh Smith, hellosift.com
• Ivan Curkovic
• Brian Rhea (Pronounced “Ray”)
• Shane Smith, dev.transistor.fm
• Austin Loveless
• Simon Bennett, saasreality.com
• Michael Sitver, letterjoy.co
• Paul Jarvis and Jack Ellis, usefathom.com 
• Dan Buda danbuda.com
• Darby Frey
• Samori Augusto, thebicrowd.com
• Dave Young, magnusrush.com
• Brad from Canada
• Sammy Schuckert
• Mike Walker
• Adam DuVander
• Dave Giunta (JOOnta)

We are sponsored by:

• Kyle Fox GetRewardful.com

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

Justin is joined by podcast producer Chris Enns to talk about:

• How do you get Alexis Ohanian (cofounder of Reddit, married to Serena Williams) as a client?
• Getting out of the wrong business, into something better.
• Why you should get out of your comfort zone (and your town!)
• "We're all running the same race; how come that person is so far ahead of me?"

Links:

• Hire Chris to edit your podcast: www.lemonproductions.ca
• Alexis Ohanian's podcast: businessdad.initialized.com
• When to move on: justinjackson.ca/moving-on
• Scott Young: Success is stamina
• Good businesses have margin: justinjackson.ca/margin
• www.instagram.com/lemonproductionsca/
• www.instagram.com/russroe/
• Latitude Podcast: www.createlatitude.com/podcast

Ladybug podcast: https://www.ladybug.dev/

You can reply to this podcast here:

• Leave a comment on PodHunt; it's like Reddit, but for podcasts.
• Leave a comment on Breaker, the podcast app for iPhone.
• Interact on WhatPods.
• Otherwise, get us on Twitter: @transistorfm or email us: [email protected]

Thanks to our monthly supporters:

• Ward from MemberSpace.com
• Eric Lima
• James Sowers (like Flowers) with UserInput.io
• Travis Fischer
• Matt Buckley, from NiceThings.io 
• Russell Brown
• Evandro Sasse
• Pradyumna Shembekar (PD), pradyumna.dev
• Noah Prail, eventOneHQ.com
• Robert Simplicio, Simplicio.com
• Colin Gray alitu.com
• Josh Smith, hellosift.com
• Ivan Curkovic
• Brian Rhea (Pronounced “Ray”)
• Shane Smith, dev.transistor.fm
• Austin Loveless
• Simon Bennett, saasreality.com
• Michael Sitver, letterjoy.co
• Paul Jarvis and Jack Ellis, usefathom.com 
• Dan Buda danbuda.com
• Darby Frey
• Samori Augusto, thebicrowd.com
• Dave Young, magnusrush.com/
• Brad from Canada
• Sammy Schuckert
• Mike Walker
• Adam DuVander
• Dave Giunta (JOOnta)
• Kyle Fox GetRewardful.com

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

Justin does a solo New Year's Eve episode where he shares:

• Then (Jan 1, 2019) vs now (Jan 1, 2020)
• Justin's tweet: "Going all-in on Transistor in 2019!"
• Advice for new founders: "What products get bought every day?"
• Every day, millions of people wake up and buy a cup of coffee.
• Every day, there are people who wake up and sign up for web hosting.
• Will there be people lining up tomorrow morning to buy your product? And the next day?
• What's still going to be true tomorrow, six months from now, three years from now?

★ Thanks to our sponsors:

• Postmark. Postmark delivers your transactional email to customers on time, every time. You'll love their lightning-fast email delivery and developer-friendly features. Get one month free when you use coupon code BUILDYOURSAAS. postmarkapp.com/loves/buildyoursaas
• Clubhouse. Guess who's back? Clubhouse is the first project management platform for software development that brings everyone together. It's designed for developers, but product folks, marketing, support folks love using it. Now it's free for teams up to 10 people. clubhouse.io/build.

You can reply to this podcast here:

• Leave a comment on PodHunt; it's like Reddit, but for podcasts.
• Leave a comment on Breaker, the podcast app for iPhone.
• Interact on WhatPods.
• Otherwise, get us on Twitter: @transistorfm or email us: [email protected]

Thanks to our monthly supporters:

• Eric Lima
• James Sowers with UserInput.io
• Travis Fischer
• Matt Buckley, from Nice Things
• Russell Brown
• Evandro Sasse
• Pradyumna Shembekar (PD)
• Noah Prail
• Robert Simplicio
• Colin Gray alitu.com
• Josh Smith
• Ivan Curkovic
• Brian Rhea (Pronounced “Ray”)
• Shane Smith
• Austin Loveless
• Simon Bennett 
• Michael Sitver
• Paul Jarvis and Jack Ellis
• Dan Buda danbuda.com
• Darby Frey
• Samori Augusto
• Dave Young
• Brad from Canada
• Sammy Schuckert
• Dan Ericson
• Mike Walker
• Adam DuVander
• Dave Giunta (JOOnta)
• Kyle Fox GetRewardful.com
• ProfitWell
• Postmark – use coupon code BUILDYOURSAAS to get a free month of sending
• Clubhouse
• GetRewardful.com

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

Justin and Jon talk about:

• What's happened this year.
• "You shouldn't be worried about that, but you should be worried about THIS."
• The SaaS gold rush: “Building, Owning (& possibly Selling) a profitable remote SaaS business is the new American Dream.” – Tyler Tringas
• It’s harder to get the American Dream these days. “Productivity has increased by 80 per cent, but median compensation (that's wages plus benefits) has risen by just 11 per cent during that time. The middle-income jobs of the nation's postwar boom years have disproportionately vanished. Low-wage jobs have disproportionately burgeoned.” – Harold Meyerson, 40-year slump
• More companies will take a stand on privacy: they’ll stop using Google Analytics, Facebook Ads, etc...
• Privacy-focused companies like Fathom Analytics will become more popular.
• Profitable SaaS companies + wealth founders will turn their attention to climate change
• Less open startups.
• Simon Bennett tweet: "Unfortunately, I am stopping publishing SnapShooter numbers from now on."
• Small retreats > conferences

★ Thanks to our sponsors:

• Postmark. Postmark delivers your transactional email to customers on time, every time. You'll love their lightning-fast email delivery and developer-friendly features. Get one month free when you use coupon code BUILDYOURSAAS. postmarkapp.com/loves/buildyoursaas
• Clubhouse. Guess who's back? Clubhouse is the first project management platform for software development that brings everyone together. It's designed for developers, but product folks, marketing, support folks love using it. Now it's free for teams up to 10 people. clubhouse.io/build.

Show notes:

• Tyler Tringas tweet
• The American Prospect: 40-year slump
• Art of Product
• Bootstrapped Web
• Bootstrapping SaaS
• Bootstrapping Digest
• Product Journey
• Bright & Early
• Sanitycheck.io
• Stripe: “Stripe’s commitment to decarbonize”
• Shopify: “We need to take action on carbon”

You can reply to this podcast here:

• Leave a comment on PodHunt; it's like Reddit, but for podcasts.
• Leave a comment on Breaker, the podcast app for iPhone.
• Interact on WhatPods.
• Otherwise, get us on Twitter: @transistorfm or email us: [email protected]

Thanks to our monthly supporters:

• Eric Lima
• James Sowers with UserInput.io
• Travis Fischer
• Matt Buckley, from Nice Things
• Russell Brown
• Evandro Sasse
• Pradyumna Shembekar (PD)
• Noah Prail
• Robert Simplicio
• Colin Gray alitu.com
• Josh Smith
• Ivan Curkovic
• Brian Rhea (Pronounced “Ray”)
• Shane Smith
• Austin Loveless
• Simon Bennett 
• Michael Sitver
• Paul Jarvis and Jack Ellis
• Dan Buda danbuda.com
• Darby Frey
• Samori Augusto
• Dave Young
• Brad from Canada
• Sammy Schuckert
• Dan Ericson
• Mike Walker
• Adam DuVander
• Dave Giunta (JOOnta)
• Kyle Fox GetRewardful.com
• ProfitWell
• Postmark – use coupon code BUILDYOURSAAS to get a free month of sending
• Clubhouse
• GetRewardful.com

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

Justin is interviewed by Noah and Ben from the Product Journey podcast:

• Should you build an audience first?
• Why finding the right market is the first filter you should use on your idea.
• Justin also shares some stuff he's changed his mind about this past year.

★ Thanks to our sponsors:

• Postmark. Postmark delivers your transactional email to customers on time, every time. You'll love their lightning-fast email delivery and developer-friendly features. Get one month free when you use coupon code BUILDYOURSAAS. postmarkapp.com/loves/buildyoursaas
• Clubhouse. Guess who's back? Clubhouse is the first project management platform for software development that brings everyone together. It's designed for developers, but product folks, marketing, support folks love using it. Now it's free for teams up to 10 people. clubhouse.io/build.

Show notes:

• Product Journey Ep 14
• Wired: This economist has a plan to fix capitalism. It's time we all listened
• Corey Gwin: demonstrated demand
• Tweet: dirt flavored tacos
• Nathan Barry: The ladders of wealth creation

You can reply to this podcast here:

• Leave a comment on PodHunt; it's like Reddit, but for podcasts.
• Leave a comment on Breaker, the podcast app for iPhone.
• Interact on WhatPods.
• Otherwise, get us on Twitter: @transistorfm or email us: [email protected]

Thanks to our monthly supporters:

• Eric Lima
• James Sowers with UserInput.io
• Travis Fischer
• Matt Buckley, from Nice Things
• Russell Brown
• Evandro Sasse
• Pradyumna Shembekar (PD)
• Noah Prail
• Robert Simplicio
• Colin Gray alitu.com
• Josh Smith
• Ivan Curkovic
• Brian Rhea (Pronounced “Ray”)
• Shane Smith
• Austin Loveless
• Simon Bennett 
• Michael Sitver
• Paul Jarvis and Jack Ellis
• Dan Buda danbuda.com
• Darby Frey
• Samori Augusto
• Dave Young
• Brad from Canada
• Sammy Schuckert
• Dan Ericson
• Mike Walker
• Adam DuVander
• Dave Giunta (JOOnta)
• Kyle Fox GetRewardful.com
• ProfitWell
• Postmark – use coupon code BUILDYOURSAAS to get a free month of sending
• Clubhouse
• GetRewardful.com

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

Jon and Justin talk about:

• The new corporate condo in the french alps,
• Crazy to think about where we were last year when we recorded this episode.
• Spotify's growing market share
• What happened to our dynamic content feature?
• A big rant about Apple Podcasts

★ Thanks to our sponsors:

• Postmark. Postmark delivers your transactional email to customers on time, every time. You'll love their lightning-fast email delivery and developer-friendly features. Get one month free when you use coupon code BUILDYOURSAAS. postmarkapp.com/loves/buildyoursaas
• Clubhouse. Guess who's back? Clubhouse is the first project management platform for software development that brings everyone together. It's designed for developers, but product folks, marketing, support folks love using it. Now it's free for teams up to 10 people. clubhouse.io/build.

Show notes:

• Article: 2019 podcast predictions

You can reply to this podcast here:

• Leave a comment on PodHunt; it's like Reddit, but for podcasts.
• Leave a comment on Breaker, the podcast app for iPhone.
• Interact on WhatPods.
• Otherwise, get us on Twitter: @transistorfm or email us: [email protected]

Thanks to our monthly supporters:

• Eric Lima
• James Sowers with UserInput.io
• Travis Fischer
• Matt Buckley, from Nice Things
• Russell Brown
• Evandro Sasse
• Pradyumna Shembekar (PD)
• Noah Prail
• David Colgan
• Robert Simplicio
• Colin Gray alitu.com
• Josh Smith
• Ivan Curkovic
• Brian Rhea (Pronounced “Ray”)
• Shane Smith
• Austin Loveless
• Simon Bennett 
• Michael Sitver
• Paul Jarvis and Jack Ellis
• Dan Buda danbuda.com
• Darby Frey
• Samori Augusto
• Dave Young
• Brad from Canada
• Sammy Schuckert
• Dan Ericson
• Mike Walker
• Adam DuVander
• Dave Giunta (JOOnta)
• Kyle Fox GetRewardful.com
• ProfitWell
• Postmark – use coupon code BUILDYOURSAAS to get a free month of sending
• Clubhouse
• GetRewardful.com

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

Jon and Justin talk about:

• American Thanksgiving
• Is it better for a product to be simple?
• The benefits of having a "smaller menu."
• Why we started a private podcast for our advisors and trusted friends
• "My opinion is you need to grow fast and become THE platform for managing your podcast. Consider raising venture money."
• But, if we add investment money and a bunch of employees, and then our company is no longer simple.
• Tired before the holidays; a break will be good.
• What should we do with this show in 2020?
• Should we rebuild the customer dashboard using Tailwind?

★ Thanks to our sponsors:

• Postmark. Postmark delivers your transactional email to customers on time, every time. You'll love their lightning-fast email delivery and developer-friendly features. Get one month free when you use coupon code BUILDYOURSAAS. postmarkapp.com/loves/buildyoursaas
• Clubhouse. Guess who's back? Clubhouse is the first project management platform for software development that brings everyone together. It's designed for developers, but product folks, marketing, support folks love using it. Now it's free for teams up to 10 people. clubhouse.io/build.

Show notes:

• Video: Thanksgiving LA traffic
• Podcast: Happiness Lab: Episode 8
• Restaurant: Louis' Lunch (their menu only has 8 items)
• Transistor's private podcast feature
• Progressive Web Apps
• Tailwind CSS

You can reply to this podcast here:

• Leave a comment on PodHunt; it's like Reddit, but for podcasts.
• Leave a comment on Breaker, the podcast app for iPhone.
• Interact on WhatPods.
• Otherwise, get us on Twitter: @transistorfm or email us: [email protected]

Thanks to our monthly supporters:

• Eric Lima
• James Sowers with UserInput.io
• Travis Fischer
• Matt Buckley, from Nice Things
• Russell Brown
• Evandro Sasse
• Pradyumna Shembekar (PD)
• Noah Prail
• David Colgan
• Robert Simplicio
• Colin Gray alitu.com
• Josh Smith
• Ivan Curkovic
• Brian Rhea (Pronounced “Ray”)
• Shane Smith
• Austin Loveless
• Simon Bennett 
• Michael Sitver
• Paul Jarvis and Jack Ellis
• Dan Buda danbuda.com
• Darby Frey
• Samori Augusto
• Dave Young
• Brad from Canada
• Sammy Schuckert
• Dan Ericson
• Mike Walker
• Adam DuVander
• Dave Giunta (JOOnta)
• Kyle Fox GetRewardful.com
• ProfitWell
• Postmark – use coupon code BUILDYOURSAAS to get a free month of sending
• Clubhouse
• GetRewardful.com

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

Jon and Justin talk about:

• New albums from DJ Shadow and Beck
• Why we aren't sharing our revenue metrics publicly anymore
• "Sometimes, you can worry more about your public image, more than actually focusing on the problem in a safe place."
• Why did Buffer stop sharing their revenue numbers?
• Three questions we ask:
  • Who is this for?
  • What is it for?
  • How will we evaluate success?
• New podcast analytics features
• "The numbers on their own don't really mean anything."

★ Thanks to our sponsors:

• Postmark. Postmark delivers your transactional email to customers on time, every time. You'll love their lightning-fast email delivery and developer-friendly features. Get one month free when you use coupon code BUILDYOURSAAS. postmarkapp.com/loves/buildyoursaas
• Clubhouse. Guess who's back? Clubhouse is the first project management platform for software development that brings everyone together. It's designed for developers, but product folks, marketing, support folks love using it. Now it's free for teams up to 10 people. clubhouse.io/build.

Show notes:

• New Beck album: Apple Music and Spotify
• New DJ Shadow album: Apple Music and Spotify
• Peter Suhm's tweet
• Open Startups on Baremetrics
• Why Buffer stopped sharing revenue metrics
• Listen Notes' podcast stats

You can reply to this podcast here:

• Leave a comment on PodHunt; it's like Reddit, but for podcasts.
• Leave a comment on Breaker, the podcast app for iPhone.
• Interact on WhatPods.
• Otherwise, get us on Twitter: @transistorfm or email us: [email protected]

Thanks to our monthly supporters:

• Eric Lima
• James Sowers with UserInput.io
• Travis Fischer
• Matt Buckley, from Nice Things
• Russell Brown
• Evandro Sasse
• Pradyumna Shembekar (PD)
• Noah Prail
• David Colgan
• Robert Simplicio
• Colin Gray alitu.com
• Josh Smith
• Ivan Curkovic
• Brian Rhea (Pronounced “Ray”)
• Shane Smith
• Austin Loveless
• Simon Bennett 
• Michael Sitver
• Paul Jarvis and Jack Ellis
• Dan Buda danbuda.com
• Darby Frey
• Samori Augusto
• Dave Young
• Brad from Canada
• Sammy Schuckert
• Dan Ericson
• Mike Walker
• Adam DuVander
• Dave Giunta (JOOnta)
• Kyle Fox GetRewardful.com
• ProfitWell
• Postmark – use coupon code BUILDYOURSAAS to get a free month of sending
• Clubhouse
• GetRewardful.com

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

Jon and Justin talk about:

• A stressful Rails 6 upgrade (and how it broke the app).
• We often use data to make decisions, but we don't often examine the underlying data we're using to make decisions.
• How do we know if our marketing efforts are effective?
• "What's happened to your data since last quarter?"
• "If a billion people are listening, but not reacting, does it matter?"

★ Thanks to our sponsors:

• Postmark. Postmark delivers your transactional email to customers on time, every time. You'll love their lightning-fast email delivery and developer-friendly features. Get one month free when you use coupon code BUILDYOURSAAS. postmarkapp.com/loves/buildyoursaas
• Clubhouse. Guess who's back? Clubhouse is the first project management platform for software development that brings everyone together. It's designed for developers, but product folks, marketing, support folks love using it. Now it's free for teams up to 10 people. clubhouse.io/build.

Show notes:

• Justin's tweetstorm about using data.
• Libsyn's quarterly financial results.
• Facebook inflated video views
• Daniel Ek (Spotify) interview

You can reply to this podcast here:

• Leave a comment on PodHunt; it's like Reddit, but for podcasts.
• Leave a comment on Breaker, the podcast app for iPhone.
• Interact on WhatPods.
• Otherwise, get us on Twitter: @transistorfm or email us: [email protected]

Thanks to our monthly supporters:

• Eric Lima
• James Sowers with UserInput.io
• Travis Fischer
• Matt Buckley, from Nice Things
• Russell Brown
• Evandro Sasse
• Pradyumna Shembekar (PD)
• Noah Prail
• David Colgan
• Robert Simplicio
• Colin Gray alitu.com
• Josh Smith
• Ivan Curkovic
• Brian Rhea (Pronounced “Ray”)
• Shane Smith
• Austin Loveless
• Simon Bennett 
• Michael Sitver
• Paul Jarvis and Jack Ellis
• Dan Buda danbuda.com
• Darby Frey
• Samori Augusto
• Dave Young
• Brad from Canada
• Sammy Schuckert
• Dan Ericson
• Mike Walker
• Adam DuVander
• Dave Giunta (JOOnta)
• Kyle Fox GetRewardful.com
• ProfitWell
• Postmark – use coupon code BUILDYOURSAAS to get a free month of sending
• Clubhouse
• GetRewardful.com

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

Jon and Justin talk about:

• The launch of the new marketing site: transistor.fm
• Built using Statamic CMS and with Tailwind CSS
• Got tons of help from Jack McDade, Adam Wathan, Ben Furfie
• "Tailwind is really nice. I have to hand it to Adam."
• Why working in tandem is better than working independently.
• DAYLIGHT SAVINGS TIME. NO.
• What's the next thing we're going to focus on?

★ Thanks to our sponsors:

• New: Postmark. Postmark delivers your transactional email to customers on time, every time. You'll love their lightning-fast email delivery and developer-friendly features. Get one month free when you use coupon code BUILDYOURSAAS. postmarkapp.com/loves/buildyoursaas
• Clubhouse. Guess who's back? Clubhouse is the first project management platform for software development that brings everyone together. It's designed for developers, but product folks, marketing, support folks love using it. Now it's free for teams up to 10 people. clubhouse.io/build.

Show notes:

• New website: transistor.fm
  • Replies on Twitter
  • Replies on Indie Hackers
  • Replies on LinkedIn
• Statamic CMS
• Tailwind CSS
• Derrick Reimer tweet
• Uncle Bob tweet
• What would happen if BC, Washington, California stop using Daylight Savings?
• The Verge: Why Daylight Savings time is hot garbage

You can reply to this podcast here:

• Leave a comment on PodHunt; it's like Reddit, but for podcasts.
• Leave a comment on Breaker, the podcast app for iPhone.
• Interact on WhatPods.
• Otherwise, get us on Twitter: @transistorfm or email us: [email protected]

Thanks to our monthly supporters:

• Eric Lima
• James Sowers with UserInput.io
• Travis Fischer
• Matt Buckley, from Nice Things
• Russell Brown
• Evandro Sasse
• Pradyumna Shembekar (PD)
• Noah Prail
• David Colgan
• Robert Simplicio
• Colin Gray alitu.com
• Josh Smith
• Ivan Curkovic
• Brian Rhea (Pronounced “Ray”)
• Shane Smith
• Austin Loveless
• Simon Bennett 
• Michael Sitver
• Paul Jarvis and Jack Ellis
• Dan Buda danbuda.com
• Darby Frey
• Samori Augusto
• Dave Young
• Brad from Canada
• Sammy Schuckert
• Dan Ericson
• Mike Walker
• Adam DuVander
• Dave Giunta (JOOnta)
• Kyle Fox GetRewardful.com
• ProfitWell
• Postmark – use coupon code BUILDYOURSAAS to get a free month of sending
• Clubhouse
• GetRewardful.com

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