Startups For the Rest of Us

Episode 718 | When to Give Up, Open Source Competition, Painful Features, and More (with Derrick Reimer)


Listen Later

In episode 718, Rob Walling and Derrick Reimer tackle listener questions about giving up on ideas, competing in crowded markets, and developing painful features. They also chat about SavvyCal’s recent design refresh, finding founder-market fit, and whether Derrick has retired from podcasting.

Episode Sponsor:

Is your outsourced development team dropping the ball?

Maybe you’ve worked with a team that just couldn't grasp your vision and needed constant oversight because they weren’t thinking strategically. Or maybe you ended up wasting hours micromanaging, often needing to jump on late-night calls across massive time zone differences to get alignment. And in the end, they delivered a sluggish app with a frustrating UI that didn’t come close to the solution you had envisioned. If any of that sounds familiar, you need to reach out to our sponsor - DevSquad.

DevSquad provides an entire development team packed with top talent from Latin America. 

Your elite squad will include between 2 to 6 Full Stack Developers, a technical product manager, plus experts in product strategy, UI/UX design, DevOps, and QA - all working together to make your SaaS Product a success.

You can ramp up an entire product team fast, in your timezone, and at rates 75% cheaper than a comparable US-based team. And with DevSquad, you pay month to month with no long-term contracts. 

Get the committed, responsive development team that your business deserves.  

Visit DevSquad.com/startups and get 10% off the first three months of your engagement.

Topics we cover: 
  • 3:59 – Which feature felt harder and took longer than imagined?
  • 9:14 – When is time to give up on a SaaS idea and move on?
  • 17:51 – Finding customers in crowded markets with large incumbents
  • 23:32 – Has Derrick officially retired from podcasting?
  • 25:57 – Handling competitors that are copying differentiating product features
  • 28:48 – Evaluating SavvyCal’s refreshed design
  • 31:10 – Considering vertical vs. horizontal SaaS for SavvyCal
  • 34:05 – Why did Derrick decide to pursue the idea for SavvyCal?
  • 40:19 – Finding “founder-fit”
  • Links from the Show: 
    • The SaaS Playbook by Rob Walling
    • TinySeed
    • Derrick Remier (​​@derrickreimer) | X
    • SavvyCal
    • Group scheduling mode
    • The Build In Public Podcast
    • The Art of Product Podcast
    • 8 B2B Marketing Strategies That Got My Startup to $10 Million (and 1 that FAILED)
    • Finding My Next Bootstrapped Business Idea
    • 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!

      Subscribe & Review: iTunes | Spotify 

      ...more
      View all episodesView all episodes
      Download on the App Store

      Startups For the Rest of UsBy Rob Walling

      • 4.9
      • 4.9
      • 4.9
      • 4.9
      • 4.9

      4.9

      683 ratings


      More shows like Startups For the Rest of Us

      View all
      This Week in Startups by Jason Calacanis

      This Week in Startups

      1,281 Listeners

      a16z Podcast by Andreessen Horowitz

      a16z Podcast

      1,008 Listeners

      The SaaS Podcast - SaaS, Startups, Growth Hacking & Entrepreneurship by Omer Khan

      The SaaS Podcast - SaaS, Startups, Growth Hacking & Entrepreneurship

      180 Listeners

      The Twenty Minute VC (20VC): Venture Capital | Startup Funding | The Pitch by Harry Stebbings

      The Twenty Minute VC (20VC): Venture Capital | Startup Funding | The Pitch

      525 Listeners

      Built to Sell Radio by John Warrillow

      Built to Sell Radio

      208 Listeners

      The Official SaaStr Podcast: SaaS | Founders | Investors by SaaStr

      The Official SaaStr Podcast: SaaS | Founders | Investors

      179 Listeners

      Founders by David Senra

      Founders

      1,754 Listeners

      Noah Kagan Presents by Noah Kagan

      Noah Kagan Presents

      901 Listeners

      Masters of Scale by WaitWhat

      Masters of Scale

      3,986 Listeners

      Y Combinator Startup Podcast by Y Combinator

      Y Combinator Startup Podcast

      214 Listeners

      REWORK by 37signals

      REWORK

      212 Listeners

      My First Million by Hubspot Media

      My First Million

      2,616 Listeners

      The Startup Ideas Podcast by Greg Isenberg

      The Startup Ideas Podcast

      185 Listeners

      Marketing Against The Grain by Hubspot Media

      Marketing Against The Grain

      346 Listeners

      Moneywise by Hampton

      Moneywise

      633 Listeners