SaaS Life (saaslife.fm): Recent Episodes

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Summary:

Today’s episode promises to be the last or at least the last for a while. Both Sam and Chris are making changes that make continuing to devote energy and effort to a podcast impractical, at least for now.

What’s happening and what’s the reason for the change? In today’s episode, Sam and Chris share information about the changes both of them are making in their projects and what those changes mean for them. They discuss the future of the show and why this may be the last episode. Then they close out by discussing the things that each of them is into right now before saying goodbye.

Episode Highlights/Topics:

• Sam is pivoting from TextRetailer to AudienceTap
• Why AudienceTap instead of TextRetailer
• Whether Sam is building out a new Shopify
• Managing multiple platforms running at the same time
• Changes in Chris’s projects
• How the changes affected team structure and how the market is pivoting
• How marketing helps clarify the product side
• The future of the podcast
• Issues with transparency
• Trying new things and understanding that they’re not always forever
• The Yellowstone series
• New MacBook Pro
• What’s great about a new install

Resources/Links:

AudienceTap

Damon Chen Tweet

The golden era of being an open startup is gone

Yellowstone

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Chris is back from his vacation, and today’s podcast episode begins with Chris and Sam discussing some of his experiences and highlights.

During this episode, Chris and Sam discuss their past week and the things that have been top of mind for them lately. They discuss a customer service issue that Chris dealt with and Sam’s custom fields, and they talk about the satisfaction of creating something that provides value to people.

Episode Highlights/Topics:

• Chris’s vacation experiences and highlights
• The customer service issue that Chris has been dealing with
• Whether it will be more common for customers to have a need for more customization down the line
• Portability for templates
• The satisfaction of providing value for customers with something you built
• Security concerns with SMS
• How marketing will be picking up in the next year
• How Sam’s week has been
• Zero-party data – what it is and how it’s collected
• Laying the foundation for custom fields and what the status is
• Revamping the design of the user interface
• Whether merchants can bring external data in
• How much segmentation Sam allows
• The portable battery charger that Chris is into
• The Eero Pro router that Sam is into

Resources/Links:

saaslife.fm

Sam Schrup on Twitter

Chris McAleenan on Twitter

TextRetailer

Textiful

PipeTech Hub/Project

Battery charger

Eero Pro

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On this episode of saaslife.fm, Sam Schrup and Chris McAleenan talk about vacations, productivity, and how those two things intersect with each other.

It’s difficult to truly take time off, especially when you’re running your own business or working solo. Things sometimes just need to be done. On the other hand, sometimes you end up waiting in a holding pattern while things come together, and that can be a good time for a vacation and family time. Sam and Chris also talk about Linear, share updates on their businesses, and talk about what they’re into right now.

Episode Highlights/Topics:

• An overview of the last week
• Linear and 8 Dev Tools You’re Probably Not Using
• The features of Linear
• The fall changes in the weather
• Taking time completely off on vacation
• Business updates
• Feedback from newly onboarding customers
• Getting a communication channel going with customers
• Planning for next year
• Changes in the last year
• The challenges of the text messaging verification process
• New verification regulations and processes
• What Sam and Chris are into now

Resources/Links:

saaslife.fm

Sam Schrup on Twitter

Chris McAleenan on Twitter

TextRetailer

Textiful

PipeTech Hub/Project

8 Dev Tools You’re Probably Not Using

Linear

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On this episode of saaslife.fm, Sam Schrup and Chris McAleenan talk about customers breaking things and the continuing saga between TextRetailer and Shopify ecosystem.

There’s nothing like customers interacting with your product because sometimes they’ll break it or give you insights on new features, cases, and new things that you need to tackle. Sam already has experience with the text-to-buy concept via TextRetailer, so he has gone from politely asking to begging Shopify for access to the Shop Pay wallet.

Highlights from this Episode:

• PipeTech: Tons of development, lots of progress, big performance improvements.
• Functional Testing: Who should do it and why - developers or actual customers?
• Surprise Deliverable: Sales demo with real customer data to envision using it.
• Why Shopify is very protective of entire checkout process, payment facilitation.
• Approval: Shopify authorizes use cases as sales channels/payment processing.
• Rebuild Hurdle: Initial app rejected because change requirements not met.
• TextRetailer vs. Postscript: One approved and other held to different standards.
• Text-to-Buy: Shopify forcing new concept, takes away TextRetailer’s uniqueness.

Links and Resources:

saaslife.fm

Sam Schrup on Twitter

Chris McAleenan on Twitter

TextRetailer

Textiful

PipeTech Project/Hub

Sewer Jetter

Waterproof Borescope

Adam Neumann (a16z says ‘WeBack’ to WeWork’s Neumann with its biggest check ever)

iPad Stand

Intro music by Monkey Warhol licensed under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0).

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On this episode of saaslife.fm, Sam Schrup and Chris McAleenan talk about hiring additional resources via agencies and freelancers to contribute to plenty of work. It may cost more money and time, but it’s worth it if they are capable. If not, just move on to the next one to scale and survive.

Highlights from this Episode:

• Upwork: Both Chris and Sam have hired additional resources to get work done.
• Vetting Process: Same job post but totally different pool of applicants to skim.
• Thumbs Up/Down: Must speak fluent English and thoughtfully answer questions.
• Interview: Top contenders invited, but number quickly falls, hire within 3 days.
• Tech Layoffs: Leads to more and better applicants in the marketplace.
• Supply Chain: Making sales may be simple, but what about parts to fulfill orders?
• Help/Support: Why manuals, webinars, and more are competitive advantage.
• Strategic Decision: Why Sam attempts to get TextRetailer into Shopify app store.

Links and Resources:

saaslife.fm

Sam Schrup on Twitter

Chris McAleenan on Twitter

TextRetailer

Textiful

PipeTech Hub/Project

Upwork

Alex Beller on Twitter

Intro music by Monkey Warhol licensed under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0).

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Summary:

On this episode of saaslife.fm, Sam Schrup and Chris McAleenan talk about what it looks like for a bootstrapper to take paternity leave for a new baby or puppy sitting. Never a dull moment at home or work!

Highlights from this Episode:

• Demo Downtime: People were patient and willing to wait for Sam’s return.
• Work/Life Balance: First week back finds work just as exhausting as life at home.
• Stack Overflow Question: Chris likes to code, but hasn’t kept up his skill set.
• Mission Critical Dependency: What if something goes wrong while you’re gone?
• Edge Cases: Fixing issues takes time and holds you back from building features.
• Mental Shift: Actively cultivate mindset via previous experience, project patterns.
• Deliverable Size: Downloading large file on Google Drive isn’t a good experience.
• TextRetailer Website: Revamped and launched to drive customer engagement.
• Developer Resource: Sam’s hire made a widget to grow email and SMS lists.

Links and Resources:

saaslife.fm

Sam Schrup on Twitter

Chris McAleenan on Twitter

TextRetailer

Textiful

PipeTech Hub/Project

Kraken.io Image Optimizer

Stack Overflow

Userlist.io

Upwork

Basecamp

Linear

Braintree

Stripe

Monoprice Water Leak Sensor

Intro music by Monkey Warhol licensed under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0).

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On this episode of saaslife.fm, Sam Schrup and Chris McAleenan talk about navigating software, sites, and service providers to hire and expand teams. There’s a lot to do and build, but try your best and don’t sweat it to grow and scale!

Highlights from this Episode:

• Dialpad: Paying off administrative debt by using a phone call platform.
• Text/Multimedia Messaging (MMS): Ability for businesses to offer customer support.
• Downfall: Don’t give out your personal cell phone number—customers use it.
• Help Scout vs. Zendesk: Pros and cons of switching help site service providers.
• Marketing Site: Keep it up-to-date to highlight new features benefiting customers.
• Optimize Workflow: Offer development, staging, functional, and production sites.
• Checks and Balances: Make time to create processes for housekeeping tasks.
• Pop-up Project: When stepping away from business, possibly hire a contractor.
• Hire and Fire Slowly/Quickly? Produce and deliver deliverables to stay on track.
• Contractors vs. W-2 Workers: When, and where to hire based on core competencies.

Links and Resources:

saaslife.fm

Sam Schrup on Twitter

Chris McAleenan on Twitter

TextRetailer

Textiful

PipeTech Hub/Project

Dialpad

Help Scout

Zendesk

MicroConf

Upwork

ScrapingBee: Full-stack Marketer Job Listing

Intro music by Monkey Warhol licensed under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0).

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On this episode of saaslife.fm, Sam Schrup is super excited to share some big news, TextRetailer joins TinySeed as part of the Spring 2022 accelerator batches. Co-host Chris McAleenan offers Sam congratulations for not only TextRetailer becoming a TinySeed company, but for another addition due in May!

Highlights from this Episode:

• What is TinySeed? Startup accelerator designed specifically for SaaS founders.
• Why did Sam apply for TinySeed? Bootstrapped ethos and network of mentors.
• What program means for TextRetailer? Profitability and sustainable growth.
• TinySeed Topics: SaaS basics, such as establishing funnels, SEO, and pricing.
• More Big News: Shift in toll-free numbers going through verification process.
• Textiful: New and more than 3,000 existing toll-free numbers need to be verified.
• PipeTech: Churning through onboarding and busy with infrastructure projects.
• Big, New Features: Build in beta, add value, appeal to customers to win sales.

Links and Resources:

saaslife.fm

Sam Schrup on Twitter

Chris McAleenan on Twitter

TextRetailer

Textiful

PipeTech Hub/Project

Announcing TinySeed’s Spring 2022 Accelerator Batches

MicroConf

Esri

Intro music by Monkey Warhol licensed under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0).

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On this episode of saaslife.fm, Sam Schrup provides a recap of MicroConf’s talks/sessions, fun networking activities, and meeting like-minded founders. Chris McAleenan has never attended, but hopes to someday. Maybe the two will host their podcast live at the next one in Denver!

Highlights from this Episode:

• PipeTech: New client aligns with how services were designed, meant to be used.
• Data Import Process: Chris acts as hard-drive whisperer—don’t delete data, yet.
• Problems and Progress: How customers use platform changes UX, deliverables.
• Who attends MicroConf? Founders and small teams with bootstrapper mentality.
• MicroConf Talks: Give new ways to think about strategy and tactics to employ.
• Networking: Meet people you know, talked to, or have heard but never met.
• Sam’s Favorite MicroConf Talks:
• April Dunford: Buying software is difficult for companies and customers.
• Andrew Amann: Solve problems to maintain safety and humanity of Ukraine staff.

Links and Resources:

saaslife.fm

Sam Schrup on Twitter

Chris McAleenan on Twitter

TextRetailer

Textiful

PipeTech Hub/Project

Figma

MicroConf

MicroConf on YouTube

Castos

The Art of Product Podcast

Bootstrapped Web

Rogue Startups

Andrew Amann of NineTwoThree Venture Studios on LinkedIn

Obviously Awesome by April Dunford

What is MaP?

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Would you rather be sick with a stomach bug or handle difficult conversations and complex concepts with customers? On this episode of saaslife.fm, Sam Schrup and Chris McAleenan talk about how founders still need to get work done even when they want to take time off.

Highlights from this Episode:

• New Vision/Goal: Step away for a set amount of time and business continues.
• How? With help from coworkers who can handle some of a founder’s tasks.
• Customer Support Staff: Continues to successfully answer calls, emails, tickets.
• Real-time vs. Async Culture: There’s a place for both styles of work collaboration.
• Customer Expectations: How do you break bad news without losing their trust?
• Features/Functions: Transparency creates understanding, addresses concerns.
• SEO Strategy: Rather than build your own solution, use TextRetailer’s platform.

Links and Resources:

saaslife.fm

Sam Schrup on Twitter

Chris McAleenan on Twitter

TextRetailer

Textiful

PipeTech Hub/Project

Figma

MicroConf

Fellow Drops

Wine Text

The Dropout

Super Pumped

WeWork

WeCrashed

Ted Lasso

Ozark

Intro music by Monkey Warhol licensed under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0).

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On this episode of saaslife.fm, Sam Schrup and Chris McAleenan talk about how everyone loves budgeting, especially to not lose focus on planning priorities and making progress when it comes to new integrations, hires, and products.

Highlights from this Episode:

• Sam’s Strategy: Deeper integration with existing eCommerce platforms.
• MarketerHire: Sam hired a contractor comfortable with a small marketing budget.
• Experiments: What kind of marketing budget is needed to do things effectively?
• Chris’s New Product: PipeTech Inspection Interface (PII) Slice for sewers.
• Customers’ Needs: Do they strive for simplicity or all the bells and whistles?
• WWETT Show: Conversation with Chris leads to wanting to write plugin for app.
• Tools to Try: Summit is like Excel on steroids to build models and create results.

Links and Resources:

saaslife.fm

Sam Schrup on Twitter

Chris McAleenan on Twitter

TextRetailer

Textiful

PipeTech Hub/Project

BigCommerce

MarketerHire

Water & Wastewater Equipment, Treatment & Transport (WWETT) Show

Summit

Foresight

Finmark

Intro music by Monkey Warhol licensed under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0).

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On this episode of saaslife.fm, Sam Schrup and Chris McAleenan give a lot of updates on their businesses, TextRetailer and PipeTech. It takes not being a bottleneck!

They talk about everything from conferences and integrations to tools to use to track issues and music to improve focus, meditation, and sleep.

Highlights from this Episode:

• PipeTech at Water & Wastewater Equipment, Treatment & Transport (WWETT).
• TextRetailer integration with ShipStation for merchants to manage orders.
• Areas of Improvement: Need to get better at systematic marketing to scale.
• Content: What to say, who to say it to, why say it, what’s most important to say.
• Deadlines: Would you rather have something done right or done right now?
• Customer Confusion: Chris clarifies what PipeTech project vs. application does.
• Names, Logos, New Hires: Necessary evils because they’re used in many ways.
• Views/Collections: New features to slice and dice data, build custom reports.

Links and Resources:

saaslife.fm

Sam Schrup on Twitter

Chris McAleenan on Twitter

TextRetailer

Textiful

PipeTech Project

WWETT Floor Plan

ShipStation

ShipBob

ClickFunnels

Creative Melon

BigCommerce

Designjoy

Fiverr

99designs

Linear

Brain.fm

Dan Carlin’s Hardcore History

The Khan Dynasty

Intro music by Monkey Warhol licensed under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0).

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On this episode of saaslife.fm, Sam Schrup and Chris McAleenan talk about tasks, TinySeed, tradeshows, trends, and technology.

Sometimes, everything goes as planned. Other times, things fall apart. There may or may not be a lot of progress, and you may need to pivot to find funding as bootstrapped founders. Big things are coming down the pipe to build brand awareness!

Highlights from this Episode:

• TextRetailer Update: Final week of first block of mini-goals for the year.
• Tasks: How Sam stays focused to complete everything within his control.
• Tracking Issues: Chris has been using Linear and loves it.
• TinySeed: Why Sam applied for accelerator program for bootstrapped founders.
• TinySeed Playbook: How to properly price app and better optimize business.
• Funding/Financing: Freedom to build business without paying money back.
• Raising Money: Is it the right direction, time to deploy funds for the company?
• PipeTech Project: Chris continues customer onboarding to jump on application.
• Tradeshow Goals: Talk strategy, see familiar faces, learn new technology/trends.
• Marketing News: Chris was able to acquire the domain name, pipetech.com.

Links and Resources:

saaslife.fm

Sam Schrup on Twitter

Chris McAleenan on Twitter

TextRetailer

Textiful

PipeTech Project

TinySeed

Startups for the Rest of Us Podcast

Rob Walling

SimpleRink

MicroConf

GitHub Issues

Linear

Underground Construction Technology (UCT) Conference

Pumper Cleaner Expo

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On this episode of saaslife.fm, Sam Schrup and Chris McAleenan talk about how growing a family changes impacts growing a business. As founders of startups, paternity leave isn’t always possible when you are your own boss and a one-man-show.

Looking ahead, 2022 will be a year of change due to collaboration and shift to survival mode. It’s the year to get stuff done, expand, and accelerate progress.

Highlights from this Episode:

• Delivery Deadline: Sam doesn’t plan on building anything new for TextRetailer.
• Delivery Date: Once baby arrives in May, Sam will answer emails in wee hours.
• 2021 Recap:
  • Sam and Upwork contractor work on major infrastructure update.
  • Chris started working with a UX designer to create utility service app.
• Hiring Process: How to use Upwork to get and vett contractors/experts.
• Best Practices: Takes opinions/experience to know what works and what doesn’t.
• 2022 Plans:
  • TextRetailer: Strategize and be cognizant of the company’s priorities.
  • PipeTech: Get through backlog of customers that need to be onboarded.

Links and Resources:

saaslife.fm

Sam Schrup on Twitter

Chris McAleenan on Twitter

TextRetailer

Textiful

PipeTech Project

Upwork

Amazon Web Services (AWS)

Figma

Windows Tray App

Electron

The Art of Product Podcast, Episode 191 – Shaping Up with Adam Wathan

Shape Up by Ryan Singer

Shopify App Store

Gjetost Norwegian Cheese

Intro music by Monkey Warhol licensed under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0).

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On this episode of saaslife.fm, Sam Schrup and Chris McAleenan take some time to reflect on 2021.

Highlights from this Episode:

• New TextRetailer Merchant: Sam shares news about onboarding My Beauty Text.
• Inbound Issues: Chris gets to focus on other priorities while things get done.
• Sales: Chris got two existing customers onboard with new PipeTech software.
• Marketing Strategies: Build upon long-standing relationships versus fresh leads.
• Tough Decision: Chris delayed an enterprise beta customer’s official launch.
• Balancing Act: Catering to customers versus what’s best for the business.
• Year in Review and Beyond:
  • TextRetailer: Sam built MVP in two phases and shares metrics/stats.
  • PipeTech Project: Chris focused on what needed to be done.
• Guiding Lights and Inflection Points:
  • Sam focuses on ideal customers and features they want included.
  • Chris decided to take on the risk to grow and take PipeTech to next level.
• Systematic Planning: Should resources focus on one priority? How to choose?

Links and Resources:

saaslife.fm

Sam Schrup on Twitter

Chris McAleenan on Twitter

TextRetailer

Textiful

PipeTech Project

My Beauty Text

Retool

Flow State Coffee by NooWave

YouTube Repair Videos

Intro music by Monkey Warhol licensed under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0).

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On this episode of saaslife.fm, Sam Schrup celebrates an informal milestone and troubleshoots a unique issue with Canadian phone carriers. Chris McAleenan made a mistake and set the team temporarily off-track.

Highlights from this Episode:

• Cyber Monday: TextRetailer’s first and best day for volume, number of orders.
• Challenge: Issue sending messages to Canadian phone carriers too quickly.
• Informal Milestone: Email inbox flooded with TextRetailer orders put in Slack.
• Milestone Mistake: Deviation, acceleration, customization for PipeTech Mobile.
• Disruption: Data not quite ready; delays customers waiting to pay for product.
• Strategy Shift: Only paying customers, no data migration/free trials due to value.
• Ultimate Goal: Faster customers are onboarded, faster the revenue comes in.
• Price Expectations: Costs driven by data storage, transcoding fees, bandwidth.

Links and Resources:

saaslife.fm

Sam Schrup on Twitter

Chris McAleenan on Twitter

TextRetailer

Textiful

PipeTech Project

Oura Ring

Intro music by Monkey Warhol licensed under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0).

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On this episode of saaslife.fm, Chris McAleenan shares specific updates and highlights progress made on the PipeTech Project. In the past week, he did not get in 40 hours of work, but did manage to find windows of time while being a family man.

Sam Schrup understands the need to triage and focus on what’s most important. He’s well-rested and relaxed because TextRetailer released quick carts and merchants are starting to use them.

Highlights from this Episode:

• Milestone: Core of PipeTech Project is “done.” Paying customers onboard soon.
• Product Positioning: PipeTech has a reputation and expectations to uphold
• Scope Creep: Features and expectations are deeper than traditional MVP/MSP.
• PipeTech Promise: Help customers supercharge and utilize their data.
• Extract, Load, Transform (ETL): Get data in and out of system to make decisions.
• Essentials Set: Greenfield data, gain customer feedback on features to set core.
• Asset vs. Inspection Data: Internal knowledge to normalize mapping, structure.

Links and Resources:

saaslife.fm

Sam Schrup on Twitter

Chris McAleenan on Twitter

TextRetailer

Textiful

PipeTech Project

MongoDB

Steve Blank’s Startup Tools

TaxJar

AWS Services

Johnny Mnemonic 1995 Official Trailer

MicroAcquire

MicroMRR by MicroAcquire

12v Air Compressor

Intro music by Monkey Warhol licensed under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0).

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On this episode of saaslife.fm, Sam Schrup shares a major update for TextRetailer. He announced the launch of quick carts and other features within TextRetailer. Although he is exhausted, Sam is relieved and excited for what this means for the future of TextRetailer.

Chris McAleenan is in a similar boat - heads down, building, building, building, and not taking too much time off from work to get stuff done. He will share specific updates and highlights on the next episode of saaslife.fm.

Highlights from this Episode:

• Lessons Learned and Launched: Separation of products from campaigns.
• Quick Carts Concept: Basically a Web-based checkout platform.
• Schema Updates/Migration Steps: Involved different versions and storing orders.
• Showstoppers: Version 1 of Shopify campaigns caused major issues post launch.
• Conversations: Quick carts preview motivated potential and current customers.
• Convenience Factor: Make it simple for customers to buy - basis of TextRetailer.
• TextRetailer Road Map: Revamp marketing site and quick carts experience.
• Rebrand and Rename? Text-forward product will continue to be main emphasis.
• Time to Outsource: Creative Mellen to take over WordPress marketing site.
• Dev Ops/Stack: Move TextRetailer into own environment, be more professional.

Links and Resources:

saaslife.fm

Sam Schrup on Twitter

Chris McAleenan on Twitter

TextRetailer

Textiful

PipeTech Project

Creative Mellen

LogRocket

SavvyCal

Fast

AWS Workspaces

MongoDB

DigitalOcean

Intro music by Monkey Warhol licensed under

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On this episode of saaslife.fm, Sam Schrup and Chris McAleenan celebrate a couple milestones - Chris’s 40th birthday and the one-year anniversary of TextRetailer.

It’s been a full year since Sam registered the TextRetailer.com domain name, he started coding last November, and the first paying customer came in May. Chris encourages Sam to do a year in review to indicate commits and other milestones.

Highlights from this Episode:

• Where did Sam hope to be by now with TextRetailer? Further than Textiful.
• Textiful vs. TextRetailer: Different projects, products, potential for growth/revenue.
• Sam’s Scope Creep: Build bigger product with better understanding of problem.
• Growing Pains: Hire, onboard, and transfer knowledge to focus on founder tasks.
• Founder Feelgoods: What doesn’t feel good - less money in Chris’ bank account.
• Chris’ Customer Expectations: All need core product but different needs/features.

Links and Resources:

saaslife.fm

Sam Schrup on Twitter

Chris McAleenan on Twitter

TextRetailer

Textiful

PipeTech Project

Governor Mike Parson on Twitter

Missouri governor accuses journalist who warned state about cybersecurity flaw of criminal ‘hacking’

I hacked and rickrolled my entire high school district

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On this episode of saaslife.fm, Sam Schrup and Chris McAleenan talk about tech debt. It can be good, especially when you have the time and resources to build a product the right way for new and existing customers to drive revenue.

Sam shares lessons learned from working with various types of merchants and different ways to provide offers to sell products to customers. Chris reiterates that to have a viable product, it needs to be sellable. People need to pay money for it.

Highlights from this Episode:

• Epic Refactor: Expansion of where TextRetailer needs to go to grow.
• Challenge: Reinvent Shopify or put a version of TextRetailer on Shopify?
• Minimum Viable vs. Sellable Product: People need to pay you money for it.
• Proof of Concept: Actual customers need to use a product to validate it.
• Paying Customers: What do they expect and what can you learn from them?
• PipeTech’s Massive Data Migration: Needs to be dynamic to get right information.
• Main Goals: Need for flexibility and customization for merchants and customers.
• Good vs. Bad Debt: Necessary to take on deliberate tech debt to move quickly.

Links and Resources:

SaaSLife.fm

Sam Schrup on Twitter

Chris McAleenan on Twitter

TextRetailer

Textiful

PipeTech Project

CleanShot App

Intro music by Monkey Warhol licensed under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0).

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Labor Day - is that a day startup founders should work on their business or not? What about other holidays? The weekends? You can get a lot done depending on your priorities, products, and projects.

On this episode of saaslife.fm, Sam Schrup and Chris McAleenan discuss work cadence and taking some downtime to reset. Then, fuel and launch the rocket ship. Countdown to blast off!

Highlights from this Episode:

• TextRetailer: Sales demos/product tours turn into deals with new merchants.
• Purpose of Call: Forget features, sell the concept - have you heard enough?
• Pre-qualifying Clients: What are their most pressing needs? Pain points?
• Customer Customization: Show don’t tell them how product works with demos.
• Feature Request: TextRetailer delivers/rolls out new coupon discount system.
• Discount/Coupon Codes: Foundation for a subscriber referral system.
• Customer Success: Content and education on what works and what doesn’t.
• Strengths and Weaknesses: Optimize customer support and development.
• How Not to Hire: Don’t skip over the employee handbook side of things.
• Contractors: Come onboard and do what they know to add value to company.
• Company Culture: Understand why and how to work together w/ preferred tools.
• Reason to Change: When existing tools do not meet needs, be open to change.

Links and Resources:

SaaSLife.fm

Sam Schrup on Twitter

Chris McAleenan on Twitter

TextRetailer

PipeTech Project

SavvyCal

Help Scout

Zendesk

Linear

GitHub Issues

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Even if you are not involved in the day-to-day operations of a business, you may have to make major strategic decisions. After all, family comes first and progress needs to be made on your To Do list!

On this episode of saaslife.fm, Sam Schrup and Chris McAleenan are ready to get back to a regular routine between family and business(es).

Highlights from this Episode:

• TextRetailer’s First Cancellation: First figure out marketing/product infrastructure.
• Give Notice: How much time to try tools before cancelling subscription, contract?
• Churn: Depends on nature of what’s provided being integral to get things done.
• Data and Information: Good or bad, you want it all to learn and keep churn low.
• Shopify App Store: Sam’s strategy to get merchants to use TextRetailer platform.
• Integrations: Can’t separate selling from big eCommerce fulfillment process.
• Onboarding Process: Taking longer than expected for customers and new hires.
• Target Market: Small municipalities are as excited as big ones to use PipeTech.
• Contractor/Municipality Messaging: Benefits are similar, priorities are different.
• Inflection Points: New hires, customers, building a product to building a business.

Links and Resources:

SaaSLife.fm

Sam Schrup on Twitter

Chris McAleenan on Twitter

TextRetailer

PipeTech Project

Shopify

ESRI

Steadyrack

Intro music by Monkey Warhol licensed under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0).

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On this episode of saaslife.fm, Sam Schrup and Chris McAleenan share their thoughts on customers, merchants, and building a sustainable team structure and culture.

In the world of TextRetailer, Sam has been heads down for the last few weeks doing a lot of product updates. Some have been customer-driven and others are on the product road map.

Chris follows a similar road map for his PipeTech Project. When a customer or core team member needs something, listen to and learn from them to build and grow your business. Add features that benefit them to solve problems and decrease pain points.

Highlights from this Episode:

• Passwordless Login: Positive customer experience, feedback from merchants.
• Feature Deficient: Always more features to build that can benefit customers.
• Customer Challenges: Balance engineering by assessing good vs. bad features.
• Onboarding: Involves lengthy approval process for integration, data conversion.
• Fancy Features: Solve bugs, problems or expect poor and incorrect experiences.
• Platform and System Testing: You’re not going to use it like your users use it.
• Scale, Scale, Scale: Start hiring and bringing on additional people and resources.
• Remote First/Contractor-Only Business: How to build a team for future of work.
• Ideal Business Model: Includes core team and contractors to drive strategy.

Links and Resources:

saaslife.fm

Sam Schrup on Twitter

Chris McAleenan on Twitter

TextRetailer

Textiful

PipeTech Project

Square

Shopify’s Shop Pay

Audience Ops

Veri

Intro music by Monkey Warhol licensed under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0).

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Welcome to the first episode of saaslife.fm, a podcast hosted by Sam Schrup and Chris McAleenan. They go back to basics by talking about who they are, who should listen, and why. Spoiler Alert: You might learn something and have fun at the same time!

saaslife.fm is a forum for Sam and Chris to discuss the current state of their businesses and bounce ideas off each other. They are in two completely different industries but help each other and listeners solve the same problems.

Sam is the founder of TextRetailer, a text-based shopping platform that allows merchants to send text messages (SMS) featuring a product that customers can buy. Prior to TextRetailer, Sam started Textiful, where companies capture emails through text messages to automatically populate email lists at live events.

Chris is working on PipeTech Project, a SaaS product designed for municipalities and contractors to inspect underground assets and manage data from such inspections. Once data is gathered, it is put in the PipeTech Project to make meaningful decisions and allocate resources to prevent catastrophic problems.

Highlights from this Episode:

• TextRetailer: No apps or shopping cart required. Purchase is 100% within SMS.
• Rules and Risks: Challenge of working with phone carriers and industry changes.
• Textiful: Collect information from audiences at live events using text messages.
• Sam’s Approach: Start with idea, build something small, take what works, and build something else.
• Measurements: eCommerce and text messaging increases conversion rates.
• PipeTech Project: Assets owned are anything from a park bench to a traffic light.
• Robotic Cameras: Pipeline inspections, perform maintenance, and fix problems.
• Chris’s Product: Collect aggregate inspection data, put it in PipeTech Project, make decisions, and take action (rehabilitate, repair, and allocate resources).
• Software Needs: Boring industries have cool and fun technical problems to solve.

Links and Resources:

saaslife.fm

Sam Schrup on Twitter

Chris McAleenan on Twitter

TextRetailer

Textiful

PipeTech Project

Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)

Intro music by Monkey Warhol licensed under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0).