Startups For the Rest of Us

Episode 703 | The Accidental SaaS Entrepreneur


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In episode 703, Rob Walling interviews Jordan Hansen, founder of Cobalt Intelligence. They dive into Jordan's unexpected journey into SaaS and the growth of his company, which specializes in business verification through API. Jordan reflects on quitting his job to pursue his startup and the benefits of community and mentorship he has received from TinySeed. 

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Topics we cover: 
  • 2:30 – What does Cobalt Intelligence offer?
  • 5:45 – Team scale, market, and business origins 
  • 9:55 – Starting YouTube and finding motivation to continually publish
  • 13:27 – Working with a savings runway and applying to TinySeed
  • 23:50 – Finding product-market fit
  • 26:58 – Unlisting content to align with business goals
  • 31:50 – “Accidental” SaaS founder
  • Links from the Show: 
    • Register for MicroConf US in Atlanta, April 2024
    • TinySeed
    • The SaaS Playbook
    • Jordan Hansen (@JordBHansen) | X
    • Cobalt Intelligence (@CobaltIntell) | X
    • Cobalt Intelligence 
    • Lianna Patch (@punchlinecopy) | X
    • The Stair Step Method of Bootstrapping
    • Soft Skills: The software developer's life manual by John Sonmez 
    • Episode 698 | How to Launch a Million Dollar Business (With Noah Kagan)
    • Episode 696 | The Truth about Product-Market Fit + Doing Sales as an Introvert (With Ruben Gamez)
    • Cobalt Intelligence YouTube channel
    • If you have questions about starting or scaling a software business that you’d like for us to cover, please submit your question for an upcoming episode. We’d love to hear from you!

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      Startups For the Rest of UsBy Rob Walling

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