Startups For the Rest of Us

By Startups For the Rest of Us

Business Careers

What's Startups For the Rest of Us about?

The longest running (and most popular) podcast for bootstrapped and mostly bootstrapped startups, this show follow the stories of founders as they start, acquire, and grow SaaS companies. Hear when they fail, struggle, succeed, and take you with them through the tumultuous life of a SaaS founder. If you like Mixergy, This Week in Startups, or SaaStr, you’ll enjoy Startup for the Rest of Us.

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Episode 654 | Shipping Ever...

03.28.2023

In episode 654, Rob Walling chats with Tom Merritt, who is the host of multiple shows, including Daily Tech News, Know A Little More, Sword & Laser, Cordkillers, and more. Tom has more podcasts than anyone I know, and this ...

Startups For the Rest of Us episodes:

03.28.2023 Episode 654 \| Shipping Every Day for 10 Years with Tom Merritt In episode 654, Rob Walling chats with Tom Merritt, who is the host of multiple shows, including Daily Tech News, Know A Little More, Sword & Laser, Cordkillers, and more. Tom has more podcasts than anyone I know, and this ...
03.21.2023 Episode 653 \| Armageddon Beer, Developing Taste, and What if I Succeed? (A Rob Solo Adventure) In episode 653, join Rob Walling for a solo adventure where he talks through three topics, including the story of an Armageddon beer, developing taste, and an important question that all entrepreneurs should ask themselves. Episode Sponsor: Find your perfect ...
03.14.2023 Episode 652 \| Mixing No-code with Code, Developer Superpowers, $5k Angel Check, and More Listener Questions In episode 652, Rob Walling answers more listener questions with Derrick Reimer, the founder of SavvyCal. They cover topics from the most important superpower for developers to the best resources for learning how to code and should you ever mix ...
03.07.2023 Episode 651 \| From Side Hustle to Full-time & Profitable (with Mike Taber) In episode 651, Rob Walling catches up with fan favorite Mike Taber, who co-hosted the first 448 episodes of Startups For the Rest of Us. The last time he was on the podcast, Bluetick was still a side hustle. Now, ...
02.28.2023 Episode 650 \| Building vs. Buying a SaaS, Day Job Constraints, and More Listener Questions In episode 650, Rob Walling answers more listener questions. We cover topics like how to get more customers while working a full-time job, talking to users when there is a language barrier, and whether to buy vs. build a SaaS ...
02.21.2023 Episode 649 \| Learning to Sell SaaS as a Founder (Book Recommendation) In episode 649, Rob Walling chats with Pete Kazanjy about his book Founding Sales, which is designed to help SaaS founders learn how to sell as well as how to hire and scale sales. We cover a lot, including objection ...
02.14.2023 Episode 648 \| Competing with a Non-Profit, Driving Traffic to A Landing Page, and More Listener Questions In episode 648, join Rob Walling for a solo adventure where he answers a bunch of listener questions. Some topics covered include competing against a nonprofit, validating step 1 app marketplace businesses, and driving traffic to idea validation landing pages. ...
02.09.2023 Episode 647.5 \| Bonus Episode: TinySeed Application Q&A Livestream In this bonus episode, we are playing back the audio from yesterday’s TinySeed Application Q&A livestream. The TinySeed team (Rob Walling, Tracy Osborn, and Alex McQuade) answers questions from the audience about the application process. TinySeed is a year-long, remote ...
02.07.2023 Episode 647 \| Equipping Sales & Support With Critical Product Knowledge As You Grow In episode 647, Rob Walling chats with Whitney Deterding about product marketing and how to equip sales, support, and your entire team with critical product knowledge as you grow. We dive into how to communicate all aspects of your product, ...
02.02.2023 Episode 646.5 \| Bonus Episode: A Big Change to MicroConf In this bonus episode of Startups For the Rest of Us, we realized that we have never talked about the refocusing of MicroConf US and MicroConf Europe and growing our extended hallway track to focus on helping founders build more ...
01.31.2023 Episode 646 \| Building a Recurring, Annual Price Increase Into Your SaaS In episode 646, Rob Walling catches up with James Kennedy, the founder of ProcurementExpress, about James’s unconventional approach to price increases. Every year, James does an annual price increase across the board. He talks about how he communicates it to ...
01.26.2023 Episode 645.5 \| Bonus Episode: Mastermind Matching Applications Are Open Mastermind Matching applications are now open. Whether you are in the process of validating your SaaS idea and looking for product-market fit to finding a scalable marketing channel, or maybe you are looking for an extra dose of accountability and ...
01.24.2023 Episode 645 \| Anti-Bro, Nuanced Thinking, and Being Good vs. Being Great (A Rob Solo Adventure) In episode 645, join Rob Walling for a solo adventure where he covers whether bootstrapping is the anti-bro movement, the difference between working with someone good vs. someone great, and the rise of outrage culture on social media and how ...
01.17.2023 Episode 644 \| Buying Back Your Time with Dan Martell In episode 644, Rob Walling chats with Dan Martell about founder productivity, delegating, and the difference between being effective and efficient. Dan also shares the key frameworks from his first book, Buy Back Your Time, which was released this week. ...
01.10.2023 Episode 643 \| Feature Flags, Impostor Syndrome, and More Listener Questions with Derrick Reimer In episode 643, Rob Walling chats with fan favorite Derrick Reimer, the founder of SavvyCal, as they answer listener questions. They cover topics ranging from SaaS feature flags to communicating product needs to a technical founder and combating imposter syndrome. ...
01.03.2023 Episode 642 \| The Pros and Cons of Building a No-Code MVP In episode 642, Rob Walling chats with Tara Reed, who is the founder of Apps Without Code. We talk about her journey getting into no-code, bootstrapping Apps Without Code to $5M ARR, and the decision she made last year to ...
12.27.2022 Episode 641 \| Dealing with High Churn, Rolling Out an MVP, and More Listener Questions In episode 641, join Rob Walling for a solo adventure as he answers more listener questions. Topics covered range from dealing with high churn when your tool is project-based, what product feedback to listen to in the early days, and ...
12.20.2022 Episode 640 \| Hot Take Tuesday: Recession and Bootstrappers, ChatGPT, Twitter Drama In episode 640, join Rob Walling, Einar Vollset, and Tracy Osborn for Hot Take Tuesday, where they analyze and discuss some of the latest news. We dig into ChatGPT, the new tool everyone is talking about from OpenAI. We also ...
12.13.2022 Episode 639 \| The Secret Sauce to Building Happy, Motivated Teams In episode 639, Rob Walling chats with Andrew Berkowitz, the co-founder and CEO of Suggestion Ox, about the secret sauce to building happy, high-performing teams and how we as founders need to unlearn some of the strict policies that have ...
12.06.2022 Episode 638 \| How to Generate Startup Ideas (Plus 8 Ideas You Can Steal) In episode 638, Rob Walling chats with Justin Vincent about how to generate startup ideas. They share 8 startup ideas in this episode along with Justin’s approach for coming up with thousands of startup ideas. Topics we cover: 1:58 - ...
11.29.2022 Episode 637 \| B2B vs. B2C, Hiring for Sales, and Bootstrapping a 2-Sided Marketplace In episode 637, join Rob Walling for another solo adventure as he answers a handful of listener questions. Topics covered range from hiring your first salesperson and acquiring a web app to dealing with the fear of having your idea ...
11.22.2022 Episode 636 \| A Customer-Led Approach to Driving More Recurring Revenue In episode 636, Rob Walling chats with Claire Suellentrop about the new book she co-wrote with her co-founder, Georgiana Laudi. The book is called Forget the Funnel: A Customer-Led Approach to Driving Predictable Recurring Revenue. Gia and Claire have run ...
11.15.2022 Episode 635 \| Where Are They Now? Catching up with TinySeed Tales’ Tony Chan In episode 635, Rob Walling catches up with Tony Chan, the co-founder of CloudForecast, an AWS cost monitoring tool. Tony shared his victories, challenges, and failures in TinySeed Tales Season 3. It has been over eight months since we recorded ...
11.08.2022 Episode 634 \| Naming Your Startup, Tapping Out a Niche, and Licensing Your IP In episode 634, join Rob Walling for another solo adventure where he answers listener questions on topics ranging from naming your startup to initial aha moments and how to know if you have tapped out a specific niche. Episode Sponsor: ...
11.01.2022 Episode 633 \| Building SaaS Plus a Two-Sided Marketplace In episode 633, Rob Walling chats with Matt Wensing, the founder of Summit. Matt is no stranger on the podcast. And we talk about Matt's decision to change Summit's brand positioning and the far-reaching impact on his business. Episode Sponsor: ...
10.25.2022 Episode 632 \| Hot Take Tuesday: Figma Exit, Side Project Distraction, No Code Dogma In episode 632, join Rob Walling and Einar Vollset for Hot Take Tuesday, where they analyze and discuss some of the latest news. Some topics covered include the Figma exit, side project distractions, no-code apps, and more. Episode Sponsor: Find ...
10.18.2022 Episode 631 \| Re-writing Your Codebase, Stair Stepping, and Difficult Founder Decisions In episode 631, join Rob Walling for a solo adventure as he answers listener questions on topics ranging from when to rewrite your codebase to founder salaries and balancing your founder vs. developer mindset. Episode Sponsor Find your perfect developer ...
10.11.2022 Episode 630 \| Approaching $1M ARR as a Niche SaaS Founder In episode 630, Rob Walling chats with Jonathan Weinberg, who is the founder of Builder Prime, a CRM software for home improvement contractors. We chat about how he came up with the idea for Builder Prime, getting early traction, and ...
10.06.2022 Episode 629 \| TinySeed Tales s3e6: Looking Ahead to $1M ARR In the final episode of TinySeed Tales Season 3, Rob Walling checks in with Tony Chan of CloudForecast. They reflect on some of the most prominent challenges and milestones that the business has faced over the last year. Topics we ...
10.04.2022 Episode 628 \| The 5 P.M. Idea Validation Framework In episode 628, join Rob Walling on a solo adventure where he dives into his newest framework. The 5 P.M. Idea Validation Framework is a helpful way to evaluate different startup ideas through a set of criteria to gauge the ...
09.29.2022 Episode 627 \| TinySeed Tales s3e5: Meeting the Co-Founder In the penultimate episode of TinySeed Tales Season 3, Rob Walling checks in with Tony Chan of CloudForecast. Tony shares some recent big wins, including hiring a senior engineer. We also meet Tony’s cofounder, Francois Lagier, for the first time. ...
09.27.2022 Episode 626 \| Scratching an Itch, Launching a Free SEO Tool, and Growing to $18k MRR In episode 626, Rob Walling chats with Nick Swan, the founder of SEOTesting.com. SEOTesting helps SEO professionals and agencies automate the reporting of page updates and changes. Nick originally launched it as a free tool under a different name. In ...
09.22.2022 Episode 625 \| TinySeed Tales s3e4: Doubling MRR In the fourth episode of TinySeed Tales Season 3, Rob Walling checks back in with Tony Chan of CloudForecast. Tony shares that they’ve doubled their MRR in the last couple of months, and it feels like he has unlocked a ...
09.20.2022 Episode 624 \| Moving from Free to Paid, Prioritizing Marketing vs. Development, and More Listener Questions In episode 624, join Rob Walling for a solo adventure as he answers some listener questions on topics ranging from customer interviews to transitioning from a free to a paid product and prioritizing marketing vs. development. Topics we cover: 2:11 ...
09.15.2022 Episode 623 \| TinySeed Tales s3e3: Paternity Leave In the third episode of season 3 of TinySeed Tales, Rob Walling checks in with Tony Chan of CloudForecast to see how he is faring since his co-founder is now on paternity leave.During this time, Tony shares a big win ...
09.13.2022 Episode 622 \| Making Hard Product Decisions & Growth vs. Profitability with Derrick Reimer In episode 622, join Rob Walling and fan favorite Derrick Reimer, the founder of SavvyCal, as they discuss topics like balancing profitability versus growth and deciding which features to build and not. They chat about some specific features that Derek ...
09.08.2022 Episode 621 \| TinySeed Tales s3e2: Onboarding Their First Hires In this episode of TinySeed Tales, Rob chats with Tony Chan from CloudForecast about the progress his rapidly growing team has made over the previous few weeks.Tony is riding the roller coaster that is entrepreneurship and in this episode you ...
09.06.2022 Episode 620 \| Finding SaaS Ideas, Customer Pain, SaaS Metrics, and More Listener Questions In episode 620, join Rob Walling for a solo adventure as he answers some listener questions. These questions range from which SaaS business metrics to pay attention to and how to find good SaaS ideas to helping an employee transition ...
09.01.2022 Episode 619 \| TinySeed Tales s3e1: Moving from Bootstrapped to Mostly Bootstrapped Welcome to Season 3 of TinySeed Tales, where we follow the founders of one SaaS startup throughout a year as they share their struggles, victories, and failures. On the first episode of Season 3, Rob introduces us to Tony Chan, ...
08.30.2022 Episode 618 \| How to Achieve Financial Freedom In episode 618, join Rob Walling as he chats with Sam Dogen, the founder of Financial Samurai, which is one of the longest-running and most popular personal finance blogs. Over the last 13 years, Sam has personally written over 2,500 ...
08.23.2022 Episode 617 \| News Roundup: Profitwell $200M Exit, Spreadsheet Mentality, and Watching an Acquirer Ruin Your Company In episode 617, Einar Vollset and Tracy Osborn join Rob Walling for a bootstrapper news roundup episode. They cover a wide range of topics from ProfitWell’s big 200 million exit, spreadsheet mentality, watching an acquirer ruin your company, and much ...
08.16.2022 Episode 616 \| An 8-Figure SaaS Founder’s Approach to Remote Work In episode 616, Rob Walling chats with Liam Martin, the co-founder of Time Doctor and author of the new book, “Running Remote: Master the Lessons from the World’s Most Successful Remote Work Pioneers.” We dig into the fundamentals of asynchronous ...
08.09.2022 Episode 615 \| Bootstrappable Businesses, Cargo Culting, and How Pricing Affects Growth (A Rob Solo Adventure) In episode 615, join Rob Walling for a solo adventure where he covers what makes a business bootstrappable (and things to avoid), cargo culting, and how large of a business you can build at different customer lifetime value levels. Episode ...
08.02.2022 Episode 614 \| Deciding When to Quit Your Day Job, Founder Anxiety, and More Listener Questions In episode 614, Rob Walling chats with fan favorite Derrick Reimer. They start out by talking about Derrick’s decision to take a sabbatical from The Art of Product podcast after co-hosting it with Ben Orenstein for more than 5 years. ...
07.26.2022 Episode 613 \| Hacking Your Founder Psychology In episode 613, Rob Walling chats with Dr. Sherry Walling about the release of her new book, Touching Two Worlds: A guide for finding hope in the landscape of loss. They cover a lot in this episode, including the hustle ...
07.19.2022 Episode 612 \| Balancing a Side Project and Going Full-time on Your Product In episode 612, Rob Walling chats with longtime friend and repeat podcast guest Dave Rodenbaugh. Dave was even at the very first MicroConf back in 2011.In this episode, we have a candid conversation on our experiences balancing side projects with ...
07.12.2022 Episode 611 \| Bootstrapping ProfitWell to a $200M Exit (with Patrick Campbell) In episode 611, join Rob Walling as he chats with Patrick Campbell, the cofounder of ProfitWell, on how he and his co-founders bootstrapped ProfitWell to a $200 million exit.Profitwell was acquired by Paddle earlier this year. We dive into a ...
07.05.2022 Episode 610 \| How I Would Start Over Today, Bad Habits of Solopreneurs, and the Benefits of a Day Job (A Rob Solo Adventure) In episode 610, join Rob Walling for a solo adventure where he talks about the benefits of working a day job before launching your company, some bad habits he picked up in the early days, why the college dropout narrative ...
06.28.2022 Episode 609 \| Building Your MVP, the Bug Fix Hamster Wheel, and More Listener Questions In episode 609, join Rob Walling for a solo adventure as he answers a handful of listener questions ranging from when it makes sense to have multiple LLCs and hiring task-level vs. project-level thinkers to planning for large projects. He ...
06.21.2022 Episode 608 \| Bootstrapping (and Exiting) a 7-Figure Info Product In episode 608, Rob Walling chats with Adrian Rosebrock, who bootstrapped and successfully exited his seven-figure info product company, PyImageSearch, in 2021. PyImageSearch provided digital courses around visual image detection and image classification in Python.Adrian wasn’t always an entrepreneur. He ...

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