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Open Threads
Open Threads episodes
- From Selling a WordPress Business to SaaS with Justin Ferriman
Justin Ferriman, founder of LearnDash, talks to me about how he started, grew, and exited from this WordPress business in the LMS space.
Brian and Justin’s conversation was recorded on November 10th, 2023.
- (00:00) - From Selling a WordPress Business to SaaS with Justin Ferriman
- (01:22) - Justin's business transition to coaching
- (04:10) - Highlights of building a business
- (05:58) - Taking advantage of untapped markets
- (10:04) - Using your audience to promote your products
- (12:11) - Know where your audience hangs out
- (13:54) - Pricing *gasp* before subscriptions
- (15:10) - Growing the LearnDash team
- (16:33) - Biggest challenges growing LearnDash
- (20:03) - Justin's LearnDash exit
- (24:18) - After the exit: What next?
- (29:51) - AI and it's implications on software dev
37 min - The Science Behind a Creator Business with Jay Clouse
Jay Clouse, who runs Creator Science, joins me to talk all things creator businesses.
Brian and Jay’s conversation was recorded on November 8th, 2023
- (00:00) - The Science Behind a Creator Business
- (03:35) - Content as a product
- (10:03) - Seperating personal and creator brands
- (16:35) - Creator Science breakdown
- (26:11) - Creative energy and prioritization
- (29:20) - Content ideation, production and output
- (31:25) - Side hustle to full time creator
- (36:40) - Where to focus your creative energy
40 min - Scaling a Fitness Coaching Business with Adam Gilbert
Adam Gilbert, founder of My Body Tutor, joins me to talk about how he scaled a personal fitness coaching business.
Brian and Adam’s conversation was recorded on November 3rd, 2023.
- (00:00) - Scaling a Fitness Coaching Business with Adam Gilbert
- (01:30) - What is My Body Tutor?
- (02:34) - The evolution of Adam's business
- (05:15) - Adam's background in health and fitness
- (08:15) - Taking the leap and getting those first customers
- (12:32) - Good businesses solve a problem
- (13:58) - My Body Tutor today
- (15:40) - Maintaining core principles in a coaching business
- (17:28) - My Body Tutor milestones
- (18:48) - From solo coach to coaching business
- (21:33) - Practicing routines to turn them into habits
- (23:02) - Business growing pains
- (24:57) - Adam's routines
- (26:58) - My Body Tutor's new plan
- (28:30) - Catering to a wide range of customers
32 min - 3+ Years of Nomad Life with Dru Riley
Dru Riley, founder of Trends.vc, returns to the show to talk about his life as a digital nomad for 3+ years.
Brian and Dru's conversation was recorded on November 20th, 2023.
- (00:00) - 3+ Years of Nomad Life w/ Dru Riley
- (01:10) - Where in the world is Dru?
- (03:18) - Why choose the digital nomad lifestyle?
- (06:48) - Favorite places (so far)?
- (07:55) - Working across timezones
- (11:00) - Processes for life as a nomad
- (12:33) - Researching upcoming destinations
- (14:05) - Finding places to stay
- (15:54) - Social scenes as a digital nomad
- (17:35) - Challenges of living and working as a nomad
20 min - Products vs. Creator Businesses with Aaron Francis
Aaron Francis, creator of screencasting.com and prolific YouTuber joins me to talk about his “Era of Maximum Effort”. We get into building products businesses vs. creator businesses, and more.
Brian and Aaron's conversation was recorded on November 16th, 2023.
- (00:00) - Product vs. Creator Businesses with Aaron Francis
- (00:45) - Conversations across podcasts
- (03:18) - Aaron's "era of maximum effort"
- (09:11) - Focus vs. many "small bets"
- (14:55) - What are your goals as a creator?
- (25:05) - The initial business idea really matters
- (29:07) - How to find a break and relax?
32 min - The Laravel Ecosystem with Ian Landsman
Ian Landsman of HelpSpot joins me to unpack all things Laravel ecosystem.
Brian and Ian's conversation was recorded on November 3rd, 2023.
- (00:00) - The Laravel Ecosystem with Ian Landsman
- (00:34) - Ian returns to talk Laravel
- (04:20) - Laravel vs. Rails
- (06:51) - Developer ecosystem
- (08:55) - Upgrading Laravel
- (10:09) - Front-end frameworks for Laravel
- (16:29) - Young developers learning on today's tools
- (19:37) - Tradeoffs
- (19:55) - Funding open source innovation
25 min - Choosing & Sustaining Product Ideas w/ Colleen Schnettler
Colleen Schnettler, founder of HelloQuery, joins me for a wide-ranging discussion around the question of choosing the right product idea to commit to as an entrepreneur.
Brian and Colleen recorded this conversation on November 17th, 2023.
- (00:00) - Colleen Schnettler
- (01:02) - Twitter, Conference, and Podcast friends!
- (02:44) - Transitioning between between ideas
- (03:29) - Joining TinySeed
- (04:28) - the ZipMessage to Clarityflow story (as of Nov 2023)
- (15:55) - Emotional Runway
- (17:20) - Choosing a product idea
- (21:07) - Converting a service into a SaaS
- (25:34) - Riding a wave
- (29:31) - Evaluating potential ideas
- (33:05) - Validating ideas before building
- (40:34) - Audience growth vs. not
- (44:41) - What are you optimizing for?
- (50:05) - Survivorship bias
- (51:43) - Looking back on mistakes
- (54:04) - Shipping tiny ideas
59 min - Growing a Newsletter Business with Dru Riley (Trends.vc)
Dru Riley, founder of Trends.vc joins me to talk about building his Newsletter and Community business and the systems and processes he’s used to grow it.
Brian and Dru's conversation was recorded on November 20th, 2023.
- (00:00) - Systems to run & grow a newsletter business w/ Dru Riley (Trends.vc)
- (01:17) - Newsletter + Community
- (04:23) - Breakdown of revenue channels
- (07:18) - Launching a podcast for Trends.vc
- (10:46) - Pro membership model
- (12:55) - Process and delegation
- (18:02) - Choosing the right topics
- (21:38) - Marketing funnel
28 min - Rebuilding a SaaS from the ground up with Ian Landsman (HelpSpot)
Ian Landsman and his team at Userscape work on HelpSpot, a well-established SaaS product for customer support. And after well over 10 years in business, they decided to embark on a full rebuild of their app.
Brian and Ian's conversation was recorded on November 3rd, 2023.
- (00:00) - Rebuilding a SaaS with Ian Landsman
- (00:48) - Ian returns!
- (01:39) - Rebuild? Redesign? Relaunch? What is this?
- (02:36) - Is this a SaaS?
- (06:37) - Is this the first rebuild?
- (09:26) - Why rebuild? Why now?
- (15:49) - AI in customer support tools
- (20:19) - Killing vs. reworking features
- (23:38) - Thinking about competitors
- (26:58) - Roadmap and timeframe
- (28:06) - Founder designing vs delegating
- (31:52) - Rolling out the rebuild
36 min - Open Threads Returns!
Open Threads is returning!
This is a quick update where I (Brian Casel) give you a preview of what's to come in the upcoming weekly episodes of Open Threads. Plus a note on some changes to the format, including an interesting use of "dynamic audio" in Open Threads. Listen in to hear more.
The next full episode will drop on Wednesday, December 13th, followed by new episodes every Wednesday throughout 2024!
Talk soon!
5 min
About Open Threads
From the publisher's feed
Brian Casel hosts conversations with founder friends. We talk about startups, products, software, entrepreneurship, but also what's happening in our lives away from our screens and revenue graphs.