Startup to Last

Here are some topics from this week:

• Less Annoying CRM was named the #1 CRM by U.S. News and World Report.
• Tyler restarted employee raises after temporarily freezing them when the pandemic started.
• Rick now has fully self-serve onboarding.
• We discuss how to write a terms of service and privacy policy.
• Rick is making trade offs between sales and product time.
• Rick wants to retain some of his interns after the summer.
• Rick has validated that real estate is a good customer segment and is planning next steps.

Here are some of the topics we discussed this week:

• All of Rick's interns are onboarding, and things are going well
• Rick is building up a bit of sales momentum
• We discuss whether or not it makes sense to create artificial scarcity by requiring a referral before signing up.

Topics from this week:

• Tyler talks about the reaction he got when telling his customers about an upcoming price increase.
• Rick launched his referral program.
• Tyler is working on a new API for LACRM.
• Rick has finalized the interns he'll bring on this summer.
• Rick wasted a bunch of time talking to the IRS about a notification that was sent in error.
• We discuss HEY, the new email program from Basecamp.

Here are the topics we discussed this week:

• Rick's interns are acting as a forcing function to keep him more productive.
• Tyler has decided on a plan for LACRM pricing changes.
• Tyler has refined how he talks about project priorities with his team.
• Akshay from UserBit (a boostrapped company that makes software for UX teams) wrote in to ask about how we should handle inbound enterprise leads.

Here are the topics from this week:

• Tyler and Rick both have interns and need to figure out what projects they should be working on.
• Rick has been working on a client referral program.
• Tyler is wondering if there's anything for him to do to partner with customers who love LACRM.
• Rick was considering an intrapreneurship opportunity (working as an entrepreneur within a larger company) and decided against it.
• Tyler is struggling to prioritize product improvements.
• Less Annoying CRM will need to raise prices at some point. Tyler is wondering if now is the right time.

Disclaimer: This is an awkward topic to discuss, but it needs to be discussed. We do not claim to be experts, but we believe that as privileged white men, it's our responsibility to try to learn, challenge ourselves, and evolve. This conversation is a part of our attempt to do so.

Here are some of the topics we covered this week:

• Tyler's interns started and they're keeping him busy.
• Rick took a vacation over Memorial day weekend and feels refreshed.
• Tyler has been brainstorming his product strategy more since last week.
• Tyler gives an update on how May has been for Less Annoying CRM financially.
• Rick has added his first non "beta" client.
• Tyler used GDPR to get a company to delete some data.
• Rick has a new professional opportunity that would come at the expense of LegUp Health.
• We discuss the merits of masterminds and talk about the Microconf community.

Here are some of the topics we discussed this week:

• Rick made his first revenue with LegUp Health
• Tyler pimped out his home office with a new chair
• Rick is using Heap for product analytics
• Less Annoying CRM had a "CRM Coach day of rest" where developers handled support for the day
• Rick's intern has started and is already paying off
• Tyler has a new framework for thinking about product improvements
• We discuss how several tech companies are moving to a more permanent remote work model

Here are the topics we covered this week:

• Tyler got a new standing desk.
• Rick hit a wall with his product.
• Both Rick and Tyler have interns starting soon. There's a lot of work to do to prepare.
• Less Annoying CRM had a breakthrough with their demo call workflow.
• Rick learned from the wisdom of Charlie Munger.
• Tyler is thinking about analytics because of a fan suggestion.
• LegUp Health got their first user referral.

We tried out a new format in this episode. Instead of picking a deep dive topic and spending most of the time on that, we both had a lot of updates to give, so we spent the entire episode on that. Here are some of the topics we covered:

• Rick finished a project for a consulting client that probably won't get used. He talked about how deflating that feels, and how managers should be careful when doing this to employees.
• Less Annoying CRM just received money through the PPP and we discuss what should be done with the extra cash that frees up.
• Rick is dissolving one of his businesses as of July.
• Tyler reached a better understanding of when optimizations are good (i.e. everyone benefits) vs. when they're bad (i.e. the company makes money but the customer experience becomes worse)
• Rick's business taxes are done and we discussed the value of having an accountant who understands your unique needs.
• Tyler is thinking about moving Less Annoying CRM's marketing site to Webflow. We discussed the merits of building web sites in-house vs. using a third-party platform.
• Rick is looking into analytics tools to help understand user behavior.
• College students have been reaching out to Rick asking about internships for Startup to Last.