The hosts of the SaaS Podcast Award nominated Software Social Podcast join Rob to chat about all things SaaS, early stage marketing strategies, and more. 

https://microconfonair.com

Michele Hansen @mjwhansen 

Co-founder of Geocodio @geocodio, A geocoding SaaS, which she and her husband started in 2014. It started as a side project and she went full time in 2017. She is co-host of Software Social Podcast, which was nominated in several categories for MicroConf's 2020 SaaS Podcast Awards. She also recently launched a free newsletter about customer research for bootstrappers. 

Colleen Schnettler @leenyburger

Colleen  is a Ruby on Rails consultant. She has spoken at both RailsConf and RubyConf, and loves being part of the developer community.She recently launched her first product - https://www.simplefileupload.com/. You can hear all about her journey launching and monetizing a software product on her podcast - Software Social. She's a mother and a military spouse and loves chatting about all things software and business.

MicroConf Connect ➡️  http://microconfconnect.com

Twitter ➡️  https://twitter.com/MicroConf

E-mail ➡️  [email protected]

MicroConf 2021 Headline Partners

Stripe

https://stripe.com

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Hey

https://hey.com

@heyhey

Just as designers benefit from learning a little bit about programming, programmers, marketers, product managers, and salesfolk, can benefit from learning a little bit about design.

https://microconfonair.com

Tracy Osborn is the Program Manager of TinySeed, Founder of WeddingLovely, and an all around genius when it comes to operational efficiency and web design.  Her book, Hello Web Design, will be published nationally, and is available for pre-order at https://nostarch.com/hello-web-design. 

What elements should you consider when making a choice about fonts for your website?

"Too many cooks spoil the broth": does too many designers spoil the design too? 

What factors should founders consider when getting a logo designed? Should they always go bespoke? What's the cost for a custom logo design generally?

I find that most dev-tools screenshots of their features can be a bit busy or boring (sometimes it’s code, numbers, analytics etc.). Any design advice for dev-tool SaaS companies to help visualize these features where screenshots of their product might not work well? 

When you're looking at a website, what are 2-3 things you always look at to evaluate how "well" it is designed?

MicroConf Connect ➡️ http://microconfconnect.com

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MicroConf 2021 Headline Partners

Stripe

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Hey

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Comprehensive data about the state for bootstrapped (or mostly) founders and how to use the report to make meaningful change in 2021.

To access the full report, head over to https://stateofindiesaas.com.

For nearly a decade MicroConf has helped startup founders grow faster through access to world-class experts, and the world’s most trusted community of ambitious, bootstrapped and mostly bootstrapped founders. MicroConf has become the mothership for founders like yourself looking to learn and share strategies, tactics, advice, and inspiration.

The beauty of creating this 2nd report is our ability to draw comparisons from one year to the next. While the overall structure is very similar to last year, you’ll notice we’ve drawn comparisons wherever the data deviated to a point that it became interesting.

In addition, we’ve mixed up the visuals in many areas from simple bar and pie charts to now include word clouds and micro-infographics. The idea is to optimize the presentation of this information to help you understand it at a deeper level.

This all lines up with our mission to help you be successful, faster.

MicroConf Connect ➡️  http://microconfconnect.com

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E-mail ➡️  [email protected]

MicroConf 2021 Headline Partners

Stripe

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Hey

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The inimitable Steli Efti has been a leader in the startup and SaaS sales landscape for years. Check out this live Q+A focused on sales processes.

- Any tips on how I can use to my advantage the fact that I am a client as well as a co-founder in marketing, sales or during onboarding calls? 2- I have had extensive success in Marketing & Sales in the Sports & leisure industry selling an in-person Service in the B2C world. Any tips on how to translate those skills into the SaaS and B2B world?

- If you were to start a CRM system today from scratch, how would you try to launch and build it up in todays world? From Max Sinclair a big fan and user of Close

- How do you know when to put a fork in a cold outreach campaign?

- Any advice for selling to non-technical industries when your domain expertise is in tech & not their field?

- What are the best sales books?

http://microconfonair.com

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MicroConf 2021 Headline Partners

Stripe
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Twitter ➡️ https://twitter.com/Stripe

Hey
https://hey.com
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http://microconfremote.com

We asked our MicroConf Remote speakers to answer the question: "What is one thing I can do today that will make a meaningful impact on by business in the future?"

Bjork uses a simple expense audit and asks 3 questions for each transaction:

Should I cancel this?

Should I change this to a yearly discount plan?

Can I ask for a discount?

Check out the video and get registered for MicroConf Remote!

MicroConf Connect ➡️ http://microconfconnect.com

Twitter ➡️ https://twitter.com/MicroConf

E-mail ➡️ [email protected]

MicroConf 2020 Headline Partners

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Basecamp

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Chapter 4: Onto something new…

There is something to be said about bootstrapping your business to millions in revenue, to stick by it and still hold the keys, over 2 decades after launch. It is rare to see the founders of any company stick it out for that long… but there isn’t much that isn’t rare about the founder journey that our next storyteller can share. It begs you to wonder, when the only pre-ordained next step in your roadmap to building your business is “The End”, but you’ve not reached that ending… what is there left to do to fill the next few chapters.

That is how we’re going to end our story. And ending that keeps moving forward but jis yet untold.

With our guest, Jason Fried, Co-Founder of Basecamp and Hey!, we hosted an open ask me anything about what it took to grow Basecamp to the degree of success it reached, how the small bootstrapped team was able to develop a competitor to the likes of Gmail or Yahoo Mail, and their very public spat with the Apple App Store in mid-2020.

Check out the full-length conference video at https://youtu.be/q1WNvRoSays

If you want to join in on the conversation with over 1400 other founders, join MicroConf Connect, a slack community space where you can meet founders from around the globe working on cool products in a sustainable way. Head over to http://microconfconnect.com for more details.

This video was recorded on September 1, 2020 in Minneapolis MN. All proper social distancing, PPE, and health and safety measures were taken in the production of this show

Note, this is not a live session, so calls for questions, survey, etc… are all pre-recorded.

http://microconfremote.com

Let’s face it – there comes a time in a founder’s lifecycle within their company where having them on support emails is a terrible idea. Eventually, you’re going to have the assets to be able to afford a marketing person, and THAT person is now responsible for all of the copyrighting. You cannot be the only person doing demos. In time, if your company has found product market fit and your growing in ways that allow you to bring on more help – its time to create a structure so that you can let them know how to move through a project…. without you.

Nate Grahek, Founder of Sticky Albums, is going to share a few pointers for how he optimizes his internal operations so that his team of much smarter people doing their own thing can get their jobs done without him being the bottleneck.

If you want to join in on the conversation with over 1400 other founders, join MicroConf Connect, a slack community space where you can meet founders from around the globe working on cool products in a sustainable way. Head over to http://microconfconnect.com for more details.

This video was recorded on September 1, 2020 in Minneapolis MN. All proper social distancing, PPE, and health and safety measures were taken in the production of this show.

Note, this is not a live session, so calls for questions, survey, etc… are all pre-recorded.

Curious about TinySeed, MicroConf's accelerator and fund? The TinySeed accelerator team (Tracy Osborn, Rob Walling, and Einar Vollset) recorded this live webinar to answer questions about their third application round.

Jump to a question:

2:43 - Why is it called TinySeed?

8:52 - What are TinySeed's basic investment terms?

13:55 - Do we invest in non-US countries?

16:03 - Do we invest in B2B companies?

18:34 - Is there a requirement for the application process?

21:43 - What is your policy against repeat investment in the same space?

22:48 - How many months would you estimate the churn rate over for small business?

24:24 - I feel our evaluation now may be above the standard investment terms for TinySeed. Will there be any flexibility in terms?.

25:08 - What industries or companies did you see thriving this year due to COVID?

25:55 - We just started providing annual payments were people can pay in advance for a year — should we advertise those when calculating MRR in our application ?

26:55 - My SaaS isn't launched yet but it's making a $1000 or more in the MRR — am I right for the program?

27:36 - I believe you looking to fund to 20 to 25 companies, which is 2 times more than previous batches. How will you maintain the camaraderie and intimacy the with a bigger batch?

31:46 - We have a B2B SaaS system, we have 15000 active free users and 25 paying customers — 15000 looks better than 25, which one should I use for customers?

32:30 - Is Edu/Research Tech under your domain?

33:05 - Do you have a preferred formula for LTV?

35:04 - Can salary cap be adjusted with inflation overtime, or market changes?

36:16 - Is the investor dividend based on equity?

36:30 - If there are multiple founders, do you require all founders to be full time?

38:00 - What factors do you look at before onboarding a company?

40:25 - Is there an option to buy your shares out?

42:43 - Do you invest in S-Corps?

44:32 - What is the process and timeline after the application has been submitted?

46:19 - How do you approach the application if you had previously had a SaaS?

47:00 - What happens after the accelerator year?

50:18 - When is the next application process and when is the next batch?

51:16 - If you're recently launched, should I apply now (to be on the radar) or later?

52:12 - In your application, you ask the number of team size — is this the number of founders?

55:04 - How do you compute monthly churns, if only yearly churns are counted?

56:07 - Is growth more important than profitability?

57:25 - Apart from investing, what else can we get from TinySeed? 

58:28 - How should you represent monthly payments when it consists of one-time payments?

More about TinySeed

→ https://tinyseed.com

The program and how to apply:

→ https://tinyseed.com/latest/2021-apply

Questions?

→ [email protected]

→ https://twitter.com/tinyseedfund

#tinyseed #microconf

http://microconfremote.com

What are Quick Fixes?

We asked some pretty smart people a pretty hard question: What is 1 thing you can do today that is going to make tomorrow and on easier for you to run your business?

And finally, we have Asia Orangio of Demand Maven who think that paying off your Analytical Debt as early as possible will clear up a lot of question marks later on in your business.

If you want to join in on the conversation with over 1400 other founders, join MicroConf Connect, a slack community space where you can meet founders from around the globe working on cool products in a sustainable way. Head over to http://microconfconnect.com for more details.

This video was recorded on September 1, 2020 in Minneapolis MN. All proper social distancing, PPE, and health and safety measures were taken in the production of this show.

Note, this is not a live session, so calls for questions, survey, etc… are all pre-recorded.

http://microconfremote.com

Chapter 3: Accelerating to $100K MRR and Beyond

While the first $10K MRR may be one of the tallest hills to climb, sometimes, if you time things right and you’ve put in the work to be a known quantity within the communities, the social media circles, and the leading voices in your target market, you can feel the slow rumble of blastoff that has you moving towards your next milestones faster than you could imagine.

That was the experience of lifelong friends and co-founders of Squadcast.fm , Zach Moreno and Rock Felder. It took them nearly 2 years to go from Launch to $10K MRR. In the last year, they’ve 10x’d that MRR to beyond $100K. In this talk, they’ve cover the three things that they can point to that carried them through this milestone, and the direction that they are currently headed.

If you want to join in on the conversation with over 1400 other founders, join MicroConf Connect, a slack community space where you can meet founders from around the globe working on cool products in a sustainable way. Head over to http://microconfconnect.com for more details.

This video was recorded on September 1, 2020 in Minneapolis MN. All proper social distancing, PPE, and health and safety measures were taken in the production of this show.