Product People

Amy Hoy is known for her unfiltered, straight-shooting opinions on building product businesses. Her and her husband  Thomas Fuchs have built  Freckle, an awesome time-tracking web app – and have become well known in the bootstrapping, design, and Ruby on Rails communities. Amy is also a passionate teacher: her and Alex Hillman run the excellent  30×500 bootcamp whose students include the likes of Brennan Dunn,  Chris Hartjes, and  Jaana Kulmala.

Our topic was: finding an audience, discovering needs, and building products people want.

Notable quotes

“The core problem with so many businesses is that they’re based on what the business owner wants.”

“They’re fantasizing about being the hero: “I’m going to ride in on my white ‘software’ horse, and save these poor people.”

“As much as you can, you want to sell to people who will use your product. People who buy your product and don’t use it will never buy from you again.”

“Target people already in motion.”

“Selling to wannabes has the least amount of upside; people who already have a business are more likely to spend money.”

“I would rather have no money, than know that the vast majority of people that gave me the money aren’t achieving what they wanted to. If that’s true, I don’t want to be in that business.”

“Being in business forces you to become a better human being.”

Show notes

Freckle Time Tracking

30×500

Amy’s blog post on why Freckle became successful

The legend of 30×500

A note from Justin:

A big thanks to Amy Hoy for being Amy: no bullshit, nothing held back. Just real, hard advice for product people.

Cheers,

PS: I’m writing a new book right now called Marketing for Developers. Click here to sign-up for updates (and get a sample PDF).

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Welcome to a brand new episode of Product People: this is the show that exposes you to the scrappy underworld of people creating their own products. No bullshit, no pretending: what does it take to build and launch your own thing?

This my conversation with Nathan Barry. It originally occurred on the community I run for bootstrappers called JFDI.BZ (Just Fucking Do It). JFDI members were able to ask questions live, and have access to the full (video) interview. The podcast version is abridged, but has a lot of great stuff: specifically for building an email list.

If you’d like to become a JFDI member, you can sign-up here.

Show notes

Nathanbarry.com

Convertkit.com

Nathan on Twitter

PS: want more?

Get bootstrapping goodies, and advice on how to build and launch your own thing: justinjackson.ca/newsletter

Read my latest post:  Succeed with your own products in 2014

Subscribe to my free course on building your own email list.

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Jakub Linowski  is a Toronto (Canada) based interface designer. He surprised everybody this year (including himself) by releasing a viral hit called GoodUI.org. In this interview we go behind the scenes, and try to unpack that success. There’s lots of good insights in here for content marketing and conversion optimization.

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Notable quotes

“What stirred the discussion was that people were pissed off about the fat, big footer (where the email signup was).”

“People were asking: what’s this ‘good ui’ guy doing with that big footer?”

“If you look at conversion optimization, the footer was a clear success. My conversion rate on that email sign-up is 20%. I have over 26,000 people on my list right now.”

“There’s a few factors that affected the success of sign-ups: the visibility of the call to action, plus a promise for future content, plus visuals that a depict a clear idea (they were sketched out on purpose), social proof, a small number of fields (just email), no commitment, the ability to unsubscribe at any time”

“It costs me $200/month to send emails to this list.”

“Your landing page should be opinionated. This will fuel the debate and discussion. On Goodui.org I had this element of ‘this vs that’; I think stat stirs interest.”

Show notes

Linowski.ca

Jakub on Twitter

GoodUI.org

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Part 2 of our conversation of my conversation with Ruben Gamez and how he outsourced the early development of Bidsketch.

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• Are you creating an application that needs charts or a dashboard? FusionCharts is a JavaScript charting solution trusted by over 450,000 developers around the world. They have tons of interactive and animated charts with advanced features like tooltips, drill-down, chart export and zoom. Their charts also work across PCs, Macs, iPads, iPhones and Android devices. You can download a free-trial at:
•  Go to fusioncharts.com
• Sprint.ly has been there from the beginning. Perfect for software teams of 3 or more people, Sprint.ly is the easiest way for managers and developers to track the software development process. You and your team can try Sprint.ly for free, go to  www.sprint.ly.
•  Use the code productpeopletv2013 to get 10% off!

Notable quotes

“In the early days, I spent from $6-$10 an hour on programmers from Odesk. Nowadays, when I hire developers I pay in the $20’s. It’s ways easier to find someone of better quality, when you pay them in the $20-$30 range. Now both of the developers I have are in Argentina.”

“The developers I’m hiring now, from Odesk, are better than the developers I worked with the USA that were making 6 figures.”

“I treat my full-time outsourced developers the same way I would treat a normal employee.”

“By outsourcing, I was able to build Buildsketch in 4 months. Quick.”

Show notes

• Ruben Gamez on Twitter
• Bidsketch.com
• Bidsketch blog

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Ruben has some great advice on outsourcing, staying focused, getting work done, and building a profitable business that’s not based on your personality.

Sponsors

This show wouldn’t be possible without these great sponsors. When you support them, you support the show!

• Are you creating an application that needs charts or a dashboard? FusionCharts is a JavaScript charting solution trusted by over 450,000 developers around the world. They have tons of interactive and animated charts with advanced features like tooltips, drill-down, chart export and zoom. Their charts also work across PCs, Macs, iPads, iPhones and Android devices. You can download a free-trial at:
•  Go to fusioncharts.com
• Sprint.ly has been there from the beginning. Perfect for software teams of 3 or more people, Sprint.ly is the easiest way for managers and developers to track the software development process. You and your team can try Sprint.ly for free, go to  www.sprint.ly.
•  Use the code productpeopletv2013 to get 10% off!

Notable quotes

“When you’re browsing Odesk, I always filter by 4 stars or better.”

“In the early days, I spent from $6-$10 an hour on programmers from Odesk. Nowadays, when I hire developers I pay in the $20’s. It’s ways easier to find someone of better quality, when you pay them in the $20-$30 range. Now both of the developers I have are in Argentina.”

“The developers I’m hiring now, from Odesk, are better than the developers I worked with the USA that were making 6 figures.”

Show notes

• Ruben Gamez on Twitter
• Bidsketch.com

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This week I get into the meat and potatoes with Chase Reeves. This is part 2 of our discussion.

This week we talk about that struggle of building products, especially when you’re just starting out, and trying to figure out which direction to go in.

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Notable quotes

“I’m essentially a marketing guy, who’s trying to make something instead of just sell something.”

“I have my Bachelor of Science in Religious Studies. It’s true. I have one of those.”

“Why do I love Louis CK so much? He makes me feel comfortable in my own skin.”

“Why am I working so hard? Why wouldn’t I just become a janitor?”

“What could I do? I’m just a guy that could be a pretty decent blues band.”

“How much do you worry about money now?”

“You can have a successful business in 10 years, if you start right now. You can’t expect it to happen in 1 year; you should probably think about it happening over 4 years”

Show notes

Chase Reeves on Twitter

Chase Reeves’ blog

Fizzle.co

His old blog: Write to Mean

Chase Reeves on Adam Clark’s the Gently Madd

Proper Confidence

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This week, I’m joined by a man. A man named Chase Reeves. We’re going to talk about the business they’re building over there at Fizzle.co.

Chase and I both like to talk, so this is a two-parter! This is part 1.

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Notable quotes

“There’s a lot of drama and pasta in how you say JavaScript.”

“I was a self-taught, no lessons webby designer guy.”

“My first freelance gig was with Corbett Bar; by the time I was done his website, we were in partnership discussions.”

“That church background steeps you into existential questions: and these lead to creative endeavours. It also gives you lots of opportunities to be creative.”

“The tip is, be willing to be an apprentice underneath someone who’s more advanced than you.”

“With partners: waste as much time as you can, just talking. Get on the phone and just talk.”

“There’s something humanizing in just talking to someone; hearing their voice.”

“Do your creative stuff in the morning. In the afternoon do customer support, email, meetings.”

“Good for you Ryan!”

Show notes

Chase Reeves on Twitter

Chase Reeves’ blog

Fizzle.co

His old blog: Write to Mean

Chase Reeves on Adam Clark’s the Gently Madd

Kevin Rose’s conversation with Ryan Carson (Foundation)

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In our last episode we talked about how David started working as a contractor for 37signals making $15 an hour. He eventually worked his way up, and became an owner in the company (along with Jason Fried). In this episode we talk about he and Jason work together on a daily basis – and we go behind the scenes on their decision to rebuild Basecamp. We also talk about how he got into driving race cars (a mere 2 years after he got his license).

This is part 2 of the interview.

Sponsors

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Notable quotes

“When you’re starting to build something new, it doesn’t really help to have a bunch of cooks in the kitchen.”

What are you doing now?

“We have a new product idea in mind. I’m doing the same thing I did on BCX; just me and a designer, just spiking things out. If we decide to go ahead and build it, we’ll involve more people.”

Do you just like building new stuff?

“No, I’m not just about greenfield development. I get a lot of pleasure about building things to last – I’m still working on Ruby on Rails a decade after I made the first changes. That’s still really satisfying to me. To me it’s just programming that’s fun.”

“Driving race cars is a dangerous amount of fun.”

“When I discovered Ruby, I wanted to spread the wealth – to share it with as many programmers as I could.”

“What is really interesting  to me (about programming) is getting in the zone; where you lose track of time, and other concerns. That’s a rare state of mind to be in.”

Show notes

Remote: Office not required (David and Jason’s new book – out October 29, 2013)

DHH Racing on Twitter

DHH Racing website

DHH Racing YouTube channel

Book: Flow

DHH on Twitter

David’s personal blog

Ruby on Rails

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David Heinemeier Hansson started working with Jason Fried as a contract worker from Denmark. How did he eventually become a partner at 37signals?

I’ve kept in touch with David over the years, and we’d planned on doing an interview for awhile now. It finally happened this past week. This is a pretty personal interview. I spoke with David about growing up in Copenhagen, and how he met Jason (there’s a great story in there). We also discussed his new book (with Jason Fried) called  Remote, and how he stays motivated when writing. This is part 1 of the interview.

Sponsors

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Go to fusioncharts.com

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Notable quotes

Can anyone at 37signals take advantage of moving to warmer climates? 

“Absolutely: I think about 1/4 of our people are in Chicago. We have quite a few people have moved around a lot. I think Jeremy Kemper, who’s on the Rails core team, has moved about 4 or 5 times; mostly to warmer places on the West Coast. One of our support people, Kristin, just moved from Chicago to Portland. So, we definitely have people who take advantage of wherever they want to live. This is one of the great benefits of remote working – you can choose to live exactly where you want to, and it doesn’t really matter. I don’t drop a beat: it doesn’t matter if I’m in Spain or Chicago.”

“For me, personally, it’s great to not be in the same city as everyone else. I do my best work in solitude. I love those short bursts of bandwidth with in-person collaboration.”

“People overemphasize the benefits of collaboration. Collaboration is great; but it’s overused in terms as a tool.”

“For me, the most important part of writing is having something to say.”

What’s your strategy for writing?

“I’ve been working on this book for the past 10 years (in terms of my forming the ideas, and gather the experiences). When it came to recording it all, the best strategy for me was to put on the turbo chargers and get it done.”

“[Growing up] I always loved good writing. That was my inspiration for starting my own magazine in high school.”

“That happens a lot: I get inspired by something, or someone, and say – ‘Hey, I want to do that to.'”

Show notes

Remote: Office not required (David and Jason’s new book – out October 29, 2013)

“Inspiration is perishable”

DHH on Twitter

David’s personal blog

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