Startup to Something: Recent Episodes
Marc LG and Matt Gale
A weekly podcast by two indie hackers, Marc and Matt. They share their ups and downs of building their bootstrapped online businesses. They prefer to show instead of teach, so you get to see the real story about what it's like to “startup to something” - raw and unpolished.
The guys discuss Stripe and how it works with SaaS companies, its shortcomings and benefits.
Mentions:
- PowerImporter
- MemberRow
Matt has updates about his projects. He’s trying to stay productive while enjoying his last few weeks in Lisbon.
Mentions:
- PowerImporter
- MemberRow
Matt is in the hotseat this week: he is trying to market the amazon product finder during a reddit blackout. He’s also breaking ground and making progress on his developer assistant. The guy's discuss how they'd monetize Jon Yongfook's engineering as marketing project onlinecertificategenerator.com.
Mentions:
- PowerImporter
- MemberRow
- ProductAI
Get in touch!
- Marc’s Twitter and Mastodon
- Matt’s Twitter and Mastodon
Marc was a part of the recent Webflow marketplace launch, but the rush burned him out. Matt is getting inspired by AI businesses showing up in his facebook feed and contemplating an offer to be a technical cofounder. The guys discuss how to come back from burnout and moving away from building in public.
Mentions:
- PowerImporter
- MemberRow
- PowerImporter on Webflow's marketplace
- Holographic trading cards css
Get in touch!
- Marc’s Twitter
- Matt’s Twitter
Matt is drinking port and finally offloading the operations of his business. Marc is drinking rum and coke and is questioning if the job of marketing that he dislikes so much is serving him. The guys discuss the definition of work and AI powered products.
Mentions:
- PowerImporter
- MemberRow
Get in touch!
- Marc’s Twitter
- Matt’s Twitter
Matt is in Portugal slacking off. Marc has found and fixed a very profitable bug in PowerImporter. The guys discuss foreign transactions and the best ways to retain revenue when moving between currencies.
Mentions:
- Tiago
- Evergreen Support
- PowerImporter
- MemberRow
Get in touch!
- Marc’s Twitter
- Matt’s Twitter
Marc has been working on a new WordPress importer. Matt is about to head to Portugal. The guys discuss the shift in popular media away from creating lifestyle businesses, and how the lifestyle is the reason they both began indie hacking.
Mentions:
- Start Small, Stay Small book by Rob Walling
- 4-hour workweek book by Tim Ferriss
- Digital Nomad lifestyle
- Lifestyle businesses are not compatible with Tinyseed
- Bootstrapped 233: Running a lifestyle business and proud of it
- PowerImporter
- MemberRow
Get in touch!
- Marc’s Twitter
- Matt’s Twitter
Matt is back after vacation/sickness and is working on cultivating Matt Time. Marc is feeling filled with podcast related business ideas after taking over editing this podcast for a few weeks. The guys talk through Marc's business ideas and evaluate their potential.
Mentions:
- PowerImporter
- MemberRow
Get in touch!
- Marc’s Twitter
- Matt’s Twitter
Xavier Coiffard of FocusPlus joins Marc to chat about productivity and mental well-being as a bootstrapped founder.
Topics covers:
- How to improve the Pomodoro method for deep work
- The importance of design and UX in a competitive market
- How to break down your todo list into smaller tasks
- Dealing with anxiety and imposter syndrome as a developer
- Tailwind UI
- Running a job board for remote jobs
- Using Copy.ai to help with blog writing and SEO
Links:
- FocusPlus: Get more done, feel better
- RemoteFR
- PowerImporter: integrate Airtable and Webflow in seconds
Get in touch!
- Xavier's Twitter
- Marc’s Twitter
Noah Bragg of Potion and Marc chat about the challenges of being a solo founder while balancing marketing and building the product.
Topics covers:
- Programmatic SEO
- Twitter's algorithm changes
- Talking to customers
- Building in public might not be as effective as it once was
- Juggling wearing multiple hats as a solo founder
- Marc's failed 60-day build in public challenge
- Working on product vs marketing
- Outsourcing customer support
- Churn
Links:
- Potion: Create custom websites in minutes. All on Notion
- PowerImporter: integrate Airtable and Webflow in seconds
- Evergreen Support
Get in touch!
- Noah's Twitter
- Marc’s Twitter
Matt has been consulting with a company to help find and screen a developer for them. Marc has been honing in on the type of candidate he'd like to make as part of his first hire. The guys discuss how to identify desirable candidates and how to screen people with no much experience.
Mentions:
- PowerImporter
- MemberRow
Get in touch!
- Marc’s Twitter
- Matt’s Twitter
Emma Fletcher (@emmafletcher) of learntosolderkits.com fame stops by to tell the story of the genesis of learn to solder kits, how she grew her e-commerce operations and her newest venture Evergreen Support. She talks through hiring her first employee, building systems, dealing with supply chain bottlenecks and learning about businesses from the inside.
Mentions:
- @emmafletcher
- learntosolderkits.com
- evergreensupport.co
- PowerImporter
- MemberRow
Get in touch!
- Marc’s Twitter
- Matt’s Twitter
Marc has shipped a Webflow to Airtable sync to PowerImporter and it's getting use in the wild. Matt is searching for an accountability partner to stay on the momentum wagon. The guys discuss testing business ideas, having goals, and what success looks like to each of them.
Mentions:
- PowerImporter
- MemberRow
Get in touch!
- Marc’s Twitter
- Matt’s Twitter
Marc is back from camping and is making progress on his side project. Matt is having problems regulating his freelancing, but has some new insights for how to keep it from happening. The guys discuss platform risk and next experiments for Marc's project.
Mentions:
- PowerImporter
- MemberRow
Get in touch!
- Marc’s Twitter
- Matt’s Twitter
Marc is shipping a new PowerImporter feature before going on a camping trip. Matt is just about ready to start his product hunt preparation to market his slackbot. The guys discuss how they see the work they do today and how it fits in the era's of their lives.
Mentions:
- PowerImporter
- MemberRow
Get in touch!
- Marc’s Twitter
- Matt’s Twitter
Matt is finished the slackbot and is deciding whether to charge or not. Marc is feeling better, and getting his momentum back. The guys discuss when to charge for a product and Microconf masterminds.
Mentions:
- PowerImporter
- MemberRow
Get in touch!
- Marc’s Twitter
- Matt’s Twitter
Marc has been derailed from his challenge due to being sick. Matt's momentum is still high and he's making progress on his slackbot. The guys discuss ideal onboarding enablement for platforms and marketplaces.
Mentions:
- PowerImporter
- MemberRow
Get in touch!
- Marc’s Twitter
- Matt’s Twitter
Matt stumbled a little bit in his slackbot development and is aiming to be done development this week. Marc has started a 60 day build in public challenge for a side business he's been fantasizing about. The guys discuss building in public and the no-audience approach to building.
Mentions:
- PowerImporter
- MemberRow
Get in touch!
- Marc’s Twitter
- Matt’s Twitter
Matt has been meeting his goal of 1 hour per day of Matt Time™ and hopes to finish development of his slackbot this week. Marc is itching to take on a side project, but feels torn that PowerImporter should be his sole focus.
Mentions:
- PowerImporter
- MemberRow
Get in touch!
- Marc’s Twitter
- Matt’s Twitter
Matt is back from NFT NYC and full of stories about it. Marc professes his love for chrome extensions and hacking with most websites he visits. The guys discuss an idea for a project planning tool idea Matt has.
Mentions:
- PowerImporter
- MemberRow
Get in touch!
- Marc’s Twitter
- Matt’s Twitter
Matt and Marc are getting momentum back! Matt got some actionable advise for workstation setup that have already yielded results and Marc is taking on small bugs to get his groove back.
Mentions:
- PowerImporter
- MemberRow
Get in touch!
- Marc’s Twitter
- Matt’s Twitter
Matt and Marc have a coaching session: Matt is feeling a lot of frustration around getting something off the ground. Where is his time going? What mistakes is he making? Why is he not making the progress he wants?
Mentions:
- PowerImporter
- MemberRow
Get in touch!
- Marc’s Twitter
- Matt’s Twitter
Matt is doing more research around assisting people. Marc is reconsidering building in public. The guys discuss the potential recession and meaningful tests Matt can run for a potential offering.
Mentions:
- PowerImporter
- MemberRow
Get in touch!
- Marc’s Twitter
- Matt’s Twitter
Marc is knee deep in PowerImporter support and boxes of his stuff during his move. Matt has pushed his smart contracts to production and has been writing blog posts. The guys discuss an idea from Matt: professional service partnership with up and coming platforms.
Mentions:
- PowerImporter
- MemberRow
Get in touch!
- Marc’s Twitter
- Matt’s Twitter
Marc is living the dream in the Montreal springtime, working on the newest importer and moving house. Matt is doing more customer interviews about hiring assistants. The guys discuss ways Matt can continue to vet his idea and test the market.
Mentions:
- PowerImporter
- MemberRow
Get in touch!
- Marc’s Twitter
- Matt’s Twitter
Matt has some very early insights from customer interviews and Marc is in the throws of packing and moving apartments. The guys discuss opportunities for how to use their unfair advantages to invest their money and diversify.
Mentions:
- PowerImporter
- MemberRow
Get in touch!
- Marc’s Twitter
- Matt’s Twitter
Matt is quite taken with exploring productized services through being an assistant. Marc has been sick and unproductive. The guys talk through Matt's idea and ways to begin evaluating it.
Mentions:
- PowerImporter
- MemberRow
Get in touch!
- Marc’s Twitter
- Matt’s Twitter
Matt is back from vacation and Marc is paving the way for hiring some dev help. The guys discuss a business idea: white-glove onboarding for virtual assistants.
Mentions:
- PowerImporter
- MemberRow
Get in touch!
- Marc’s Twitter
- Matt’s Twitter
Volkan joins Marc this week to commiserate about running a bootstrapped SaaS as a solo founder. Volkan is the founder of a website builder called Versoly.
They talk about:
- Engineering as marketing
- How to get more word of mouth
- Launching on ProductHunt
- Tailwind
- Open source as a business
- Buying a business on MicroAcquire
Mentions
- Versoly
- SaaS Pages
- PowerImporter
Reach out
- Marc on Twitter
- Volkan on Twitter
Xavier joins Marc this week to chat about building in public on Twitter, testing new product ideas and MVPs, and what he would do differently if he started over.
Xavier talks about:
- how building in public on Twitter grew his account from 1k to 10k followers - and whether it was worth all the time and effort.
- building and testing a productivity tool by starting a community first
- why his Twitter product MVP failed... but might now be revived
- the daily grind of appeasing the Twitter algorithmic gods
"I wanted to create passive income, but now I'm a f**ing hamster in a wheel"Tweet this quote
Mentions:
- UserBooster
- FocusPlus
- PipeSocial
- PowerImporter
Get in touch!
- Marc’s Twitter
- Xavier’s Twitter
Marc is working on the google docs importer and dealing with an explosion in new customer support queries. Matt is working with Web3 auditors and learning more about the guts of Solidity. The guys discuss online communities as a business and how unattractive they seem.
Mentions:
- PowerImporter
- MemberRow
Get in touch!
- Marc’s Twitter
- Matt’s Twitter
Marc has successfully executed his price increase and has sent his first email blast to his customers. Matt is funding significant mental relief billing by the day. The guys discuss appropriate pricing and approaches to building new features.
Mentions:
- PowerImporter
- MemberRow
Get in touch!
- Marc’s Twitter
- Matt’s Twitter
Marc's first AudienceOps article hitting his blog shortly and is loving having the help marketing. Matt has been digging into upgradeable smart contracts and troubleshooting some serverless infrastructure issues. The guys discuss how "easy" it is to get MicroAcquired given the numbers.
Mentions:
- PowerImporter
- MemberRow
- Mircoacquire Doubts Tweet
- Local blockchain
- Freelancing hours
- Marc on Wannabe Entrepreneur
Get in touch!
- Marc’s Twitter
- Matt’s Twitter
This week Marc has been fighting with Stripe hosted checkout in his efforts to increase prices. Matt's contracting in web3 and thoroughly impressed by the ecosystem. The guys discuss the best ways to communicate price increases.
Mentions:
- PowerImporter
- MemberRow
Get in touch!
- Marc’s Twitter
- Matt’s Twitter
Marc is revisiting his pricing and is forming big plans. Matt is way overbooked with his consulting and figuring out how to move forward with his project. The guys discuss charging on value, while keeping pricing simple for customers.
Mentions:
- PowerImporter
- MemberRow
Get in touch!
- Marc’s Twitter
- Matt’s Twitter
Marc has used his new found Twitter enthusiasm to amazing effect. Matt has knocked out initial developer podcast research and has guests booked. The guys discuss interviewing developers and what makes for stimulating audio.
Mentions:
- PowerImporter
- MemberRow
Get in touch!
- Marc’s Twitter
- Matt’s Twitter
Guest Aaron Francis of Hammerstone.dev joins Matt and Marc to defend Twitter after the guys criticized the platform as a hellhole of grifters in the previous episode.
Aaron talks about why he loves Twitter, how to make your individual experience on the site more positive, and how to overcome the fear of sharing your work.
And it seems to be working for him. He grew his twitter following from 1.2k to 5.1k followers in just one year by doing exactly that—all without any schedulers or automations.
Mentions:
- Aaron Francis on Twitter
- Hammerstone
- Laracon
- Blog Post: Do Things, Tell People
- PowerImporter
Get in touch!
- Marc’s Twitter
- Matt’s Twitter
Marc's marketing adventures continue with incredible results. Matt is getting strict with his schedule. The guys discuss Matt's idea discovery experiments.
Mentions:
- PowerImporter
- MemberRow
- YC Should you follow your passion?
Get in touch!
- Marc’s Twitter
- Matt’s Twitter
Marc has been outsourcing with moderate success. Matt is weighing out ideas for 12 startups in 12 months to find something small he can begin with. The guys think through some ideas off of Matt's idea list and talk them through as potential ideas.
Mentions:
- PowerImporter
- MemberRow
Get in touch!
- Marc’s Twitter
- Matt’s Twitter
Marc is taking his first steps towards outsourcing marketing and Matt is strongly considering 12 startups in 12 months. The guys discuss customer acquisition on fiverr and ideas small enough for one a month.
Mentions:
- PowerImporter
- MemberRow
- fiverr
Get in touch!
- Marc’s Twitter
- Matt’s Twitter
The guys are back from vacation and recharged to tackle 2022. They go over highlights from 2021 and plans and resolutions for 2022.
Mentions:
- PowerImporter
- MemberRow
Get in touch!
- Marc’s Twitter
- Matt’s Twitter
Marc has successfully shipped the bi-directional sync and Matt is gushing over Python. The guys are heading into the end of year vacation.
Mentions:
- PowerImporter
- MemberRow
- Shipper of the Week Award 🎖: https://twitter.com/noahwbragg
Get in touch!
- Marc’s Twitter
- Matt’s Twitter
Marc has finished the bi-directional relationship sync and now that it's in production he's squashing bugs. Matt is thinking about how to price his consulting work and talking about his investigations into crypto.
Mentions:
- PowerImporter
- MemberRow
- Starting a YouTube channel from scratch
Get in touch!
- Marc’s Twitter
- Matt’s Twitter
Marc is finishing up the bi-directional relationship, but testing is slow. Matt is beginning his crypto-education journey. The guys discuss the open web and how the rest of the year will shake out.
Mentions:
- PowerImporter
- MemberRow
- https://devdocs.io/
Get in touch!
- Marc’s Twitter
- Matt’s Twitter
Nocode conf is over and webflow has announced a lot of changes that have shaken up Matt’s ideas for GDPR webflow hosting. Marc is finishing up the bi-directional importer and is planning a rollout. The guys discuss shape-up planning and how to prioritize as solo founders.
Mentions:
- PowerImporter
- MemberRow
- Webflow
Get in touch!
- Marc’s Twitter
- Matt’s Twitter
Marc has been planning and coding a rewrite of the PowerImporter sync to support bi-directional relationships and is having a blast. Matt is stuck in a rut and working out how to manage his time. See you at NoCodeConf!
Mentions:
- PowerImporter
- MemberRow
- Webflow
Get in touch!
- Marc’s Twitter
- Matt’s Twitter
Marc is setting MemberRow aside for now while he regroups on PowerImporter and handles support and adds new features. Matt is feeling stuck, he’s feeling a lot of fear and that’s getting in the way of moving forward. The guys talk through pricing and feelings.
Mentions:
- PowerImporter
- MemberRow
- Webflow
Get in touch!
- Marc’s Twitter
- Matt’s Twitter
Marc is realizing that his development efforts have taken too much of his time and he needs to spend more time marketing. Matt has been taking a small break to avoid burnout. The guys discuss affiliate marketing and how awesome vim is.
Mentions:
- PowerImporter
- MemberRow
- Webflow
Get in touch!
- Marc’s Twitter
- Matt’s Twitter
Marc was taking it easy last week and recovering, but is back on the shipping train this week. Matt has learned a lot from his Webflow research and is thinking about the right approach to validating his idea. The guys discuss accounting and legal strategies.
Mentions:
- PowerImporter
- MemberRow
- Webflow
Get in touch!
- Marc’s Twitter
- Matt’s Twitter
Marc has finished the MVP of MemberRow and is ready to show his earliest customers. Matt has been approaching people for customer interviews on the Webflow forum. The guys discuss the next steps in marketing their products and how dumb the postgres json query syntax is.
Mentions:
- PowerImporter
- MemberRow
- Webflow
Get in touch!
- Marc’s Twitter
- Matt’s Twitter
Marc hit a snag with devise and dynamic roles, delaying the shipping of the MemberRow MVP. Matt hit a milestone with his Webflow proof of concept and is on the road to interview customers. The guys talk through setting expectations with yourself and how to have a sense of urgency but also treat yourself with kindness.
Mentions:
- PowerImporter
- MemberRow
- Webflow
Get in touch!
- Marc’s Twitter
- Matt’s Twitter
Marc is coding his brains out on MemberRow and is close to shipping his alpha. Matt is working through the last bit of the technical uncertainty for his Webflow tool MVP. The guys discuss online communities and how interesting and annoying NFTs are.
Mentions:
- PowerImporter
- MemberRow
- Webflow
Get in touch!
- Marc’s Twitter
- Matt’s Twitter
Marc invested in a rails SaaS template and is using it to great effect to code his face off on MemberRow. Matt is experimenting with Webflow’s APIs and hitting technical problems that the guys discuss.
Mentions:
- PowerImporter
- MemberRow
- Webflow
- Jumpstart Pro
Get in touch!
- Marc’s Twitter
- Matt’s Twitter
Marc is coding up a storm for the MemberRow MVP while support requests begin to ramp up for PowerImporter. Matt is diving into his latest project: helping Webflow users break the 10,000 row limit. The guys discuss Matt’s new project and how to take it to market.
Mentions:
- PowerImporter
- MemberRow
- Webflow
Get in touch!
- Marc’s Twitter
- Matt’s Twitter
Marc is seeing a big response to the launch of MemberRow and is interviewing beta customers. Matt has finished his big deliverable for his freelancing client and is returning to normal life. The guys discuss MemberRow and what the best course of action is for next steps.
Mentions:
- PowerImporter
- MemberRow
- Webflow
Get in touch!
- Marc’s Twitter
- Matt’s Twitter
Marc has announced his newest addition to the WAP ecosystem: MemberRow and Matt is busy stressing out about delivering value for his freelancing client. The guys discuss MemberRow and its role in the WAP stack and plans for taking it to market.
Mentions:
- PowerImporter
- MemberRow
Get in touch!
- Marc’s Twitter
- Matt’s Twitter
Marc is getting set for the launch of his side project and the new version of rails doesn't play well with the defaults for past defaults. Matt Is having trouble setting boundaries and is fighting with feelings of guilt. The guys discuss scoping for Marc's launch and how to start putting out the word.
Mentions:
- PowerImporter
- Webflow
Get in touch!
- Marc’s Twitter
- Matt’s Twitter
Marc is overcoming both the technical and mental hurdles for his next move for PowerImporter and Matt is getting his ducks in a row for his next project. The guys go over a plan for goals for the next month of Matt's project.
Mentions:
- PowerImporter
- Webflow
Get in touch!
- Marc’s Twitter
- Matt’s Twitter
Matt has had a spiritual awakening around goal setting, and is learning to work backwards from them. Marc is coming out of summer mode and building proof of concepts for new entrants into the PowerImporter ecosystem. The guys discuss staying authentic on social media and trying out surfing in the local river.
Mentions:
- PowerImporter
- Webflow
Get in touch!
- Marc’s Twitter
- Matt’s Twitter
Marc is returning to normal life and it's giving him a surge of productivity. Matt is getting interesting opportunities and is trying to understand how to evaluate if they are right for him. The guys discuss how to set goals and to use them as a framework to evaluate decisions.
Mentions:
- PowerImporter
- Webflow
Get in touch!
- Marc’s Twitter
- Matt’s Twitter
Marc has support under control and is getting time for deep work as his vacation looms and he considers businesses that fire their customers. Matt is considering working for a more senior entrepreneur as a way of learning and mining for new ideas- or is he avoiding the pain of uncertainty?
Mentions:
- PowerImporter
- Webflow
Get in touch!
- Marc’s Twitter
- Matt’s Twitter
Marc is busy with support and his deep work on his side projects. Matt is in the middle of moving, and preoccupied with finishing his R&D consulting. The guys discuss opportunistic entrepreneurship and how that relates to their unfair advantages.
Mentions:
- PowerImporter
- Webflow
Get in touch!
- Marc’s Twitter
- Matt’s Twitter
Matt is dealing with deadlines for his SRED consulting and it’s eating up his time. Marc is feeling stuck- it’s difficult to get motivated to take on new commitments when the nice weather and freedom of his family is drawing him away from his computer. The guys talk about business-finance literacy and the ways that starting a business is hard.
Mentions:
- PowerImporter
- Webflow
Get in touch!
- Marc’s Twitter
- Matt’s Twitter
It’s summer time and the guys are feeling the pull away from their desks into the outdoors. Marc has been contemplating white labelling and how it fits his strengths and Matt is seeing a pattern in how his time is being split between indie hacking and freelancing.
Mentions:
- PowerImporter
- Webflow
- Founders' Club
Get in touch!
- Marc’s Twitter
- Matt’s Twitter
Marc is planning a Notion importer and having fun brainstorming marketing ideas. Matt is interviewing more developers but is feeling like he isn’t making progress. The guys discuss partnerships and Marc gives some tough love around the discoveries Matt has had around developers and remote whiteboarding.
Mentions:
- PowerImporter
- Fiverr
- Tailwindcss launch video
Get in touch!
- Marc’s Twitter
- Matt’s Twitter
Marc is finally winning the war on support and has time to ship improvements to PowerImporter. Matt has been interviewing lots of developers and shares some of the things he’s learned. The guys discuss interview tactics and the consequences of finding customers who aren’t a perfect fit.
Mentions:
- PowerImporter
Get in touch!
- Marc’s Twitter
- Matt’s Twitter
Matt has been doing lots of customer interviews and learning a lot about developers doing remote work. Marc has had enough of the support grind and is figuring out what opportunities to say no to. The guys bond over a mutual distaste for the typical FAANG interview process.
Mentions:
- PowerImporter
- HELL YEAH! or NO
- Guidepoint Global
- Clarity.fm
- Karat
Get in touch!
- Marc’s Twitter
- Matt’s Twitter
Marc had another support heavy week and is looking for ways to ease his support burden so he can maximize time building. Matt is interviewing every developer in his network and hungry for more. The guys discuss doing customer discovery, the demands of social media and staying authentic while being a good community member.
Mentions:
- PowerImporter
- Webflow
- Notion
- Coda
- SavvyCal
- Indie Worldwide
Get in touch!
- Marc’s Twitter
- Matt’s Twitter
Marc is dealing with affiliate programs for his soon to be announced side project. Matt is experiencing a flurry of activity around consulting and trying to finally finish it off. The guys discuss The Mom Test and have a coaching session around Matt’s growing fear of talking with people to do customer discovery and Marc's desire to create space to celebrate his wins.
Mentions:
- PowerImporter
- Webflow
- The Mom Test
Get in touch!
- Marc’s Twitter
- Matt’s Twitter
Marc is gearing up for a side project to help market PowerImporter and is trying to sort out referrals. Matt is bad at taking vacation and trying to figure out how to rest while being in a holding pattern. The guys discuss ramifications of GDPR and what remote work will look like post-pandemic.
Mentions:
- PowerImporter
- Webflow
- Chris Herd’s remote work tweet storm
- Statistics Canada remote work survey results
- Kingdom Hearts origin
- Marc on Talks with Sara No Socks
- The Mom Test by Rob Fitzpatrick
- Obviously Awesome by April Dunford
Get in touch!
- Marc’s Twitter
- Matt’s Twitter
Marc is investigating side projects as additional offerings for Webflow users and thinking about a new marketing project. Matt is shutting down fbars.app and is taking a vacation, contemplating what is next for him. The guys discuss affiliate programs and how to tackle reading books.
Mentions:
- PowerImporter
- Webflow
- Michele Hanson
- Michele’s Mailing List
- Fast Inverse Square Root
- Building a Chess AI
- Masters of Doom
- War of Art
- Shoedog
- 100in100
- 100in100 creator, Anthony Castrio
- WordPress
- Justin Jackson
Get in touch!
- Marc’s Twitter
- Matt’s Twitter
Marc is taking a break from marketing to do product development and loving it. Matt is thinking what to do in the next few months after his consulting finishes up and he decides what to focus on next. The guys discuss playbooks and how to not repeat past mistakes.
Mentions:
- PowerImporter
- FBARs.app
- Webflow
- Carri Craver
- BuildSquads
- On Deck No-Code Fellowship
- 100 users in 100 days challenge
- Stacking the Bricks
- Dev.to
Get in touch!
- Marc’s Twitter
- Matt’s Twitter
Matt and Marc are both feeling burnt out and are trying to figure out how to plan for and get some rest when global pandemics rob them of their usual healthy habits. With summer coming, there's a big opportunity to recover from this long year.
Mentions:
- PowerImporter
- FBARs.app
- Webflow
- Podrise.com
- MicroAcquire
Get in touch!
- Marc’s Twitter
- Matt’s Twitter
Matt finished his initial Facebook ads run and has lots of thoughts about how it went and what he learned. Marc is continuing with copywriting but is having a hard time finding people to hire to help him. The guys try to figure out what a meaningful vacation looks like as the weather improves for summer.
Mentions:
- PowerImporter
- FBARs.app
- Webflow
- Stripe
- Microconf
- The WAP stack
Get in touch!
- Marc’s Twitter
- Matt’s Twitter
Marc and Matt attended Microconf remote last week and thoroughly enjoyed themselves. This episode is a recap of their experience, and ideas for how to apply some of the takeaways.
Mentions:
- PowerImporter
- FBARs.app
- Microconf
- Webflow
- ProductHunt
- SavvyCal
- AppSumo
- DocSketch
- SeekWell
- JetBoost
- Quora
- Rob Walling
- Software Social
- Swipe Files
- Michele Hansen
Get in touch!
- Marc’s Twitter
- Matt’s Twitter
Marc is looking for ways to take some things off of his plate. Marketing takes a lot of time and it’d be very helpful to have someone to offload some of that work to. Matt is creating his first landing pages to run PPC campaigns against and trying to not get stuck in the muck. The guys are attending MicroConf Remote and hoping to make some new connections in the hallway track.
Mentions:
- PowerImporter
- FBARs.app
- Webflow
- FriendlyCapcha
- Julian Shapiro
- Julian’s Growth Handbook
Get in touch!
- Marc’s Twitter
- Matt’s Twitter
Marc’s been looking to hire a marketer to help him, but they’re a bit out of reach for now, so he’s investing his marketing budget into PPC. Matt is trying to make progress in his marketing, but is struggling to overcome consulting work busyness and uncertainty.
Mentions:
- PowerImporter
- FBARs.app
- Mojca Žove
- Regex Crossword
- Jim Zarkadas
- Copy.ai
- Headlime
- Facebook ad library
Get in touch!
- Marc’s Twitter
- Matt’s Twitter
Marc has had a major breakthrough in his approach to marketing and is finally feeling like he understands the marketing game. He’s having lots of marketing wins by embracing that marketing work flow is fundamentally different from writing code. Matt is researching PPC advertising and continuing his cold outreach campaigns.
The guys discuss a shared hatred of sites that hijack scrolling and hiring marketers for copywriting and positioning.
Mentions:
- PowerImporter
- FBARs.app
- Webflow
- Hunter.io
- JetBoost
- Corey Haines
- SwipeFiles
- Microconf Remote
- Building a Second Brain
- Tiago Forte
Get in touch!
- Marc's twitter
- Matt's twitter
Theme music composed by Jon Lunman.
Matt shares his good vibes derived from his first full-on week of marketing and is making plans for how to go forward. Marc wrapped up his 1-month experiment of marketing every second week and shares his insights and plans for the next month.
Mentions:
- PowerImporter
- FBARs.app
- Webflow
- Art of product podcast
- Savvy cal
- Ricardo Macario
- Corey Haines
- David Perell
Get in touch!
- Marc's twitter
- Matt's twitter
Theme music composed by Jon Lunman.
This week is marketing week for Marc. The demo video he created last week for CSV upload is working amazingly and going forward, he’s looking for the right balance between dev and marketing. Matt didn’t do the marketing he said he would because of guilty feelings stemming from not working for his consulting clients.
The guys discuss the pains that come with multitasking, taking lessons from the book “Traction”, creating bite sized marketing tasks and how to talk to existing customers to discover new opportunities to improve your product.
Mentions:
- PowerImporter
- FBARs.app
- Webflow
- War of Art (book)
- Traction (book)
- Airtable
Get in touch!
- Marc's twitter
- Matt's twitter
Theme music composed by Jon Lunman.
Marc recounts his last weeks marketing activities and talks about how hard it is to create high quality video content. This coming week is a development week for him and he’s looking forward to it. Matt got swept up in his consulting work and has feelings about it. The guys discuss their goals for the podcast and give a peek into how the podcast sausage is made.
Mentions:
- PowerImporter
- FBARs.app
- Webflow
- Ben Orenstein
- Art of Product
- Audacity
- Transistor
- Podcast bitrates
Get in touch!
- Marc's twitter
- Matt's twitter
Theme music composed by Jon Lunman.
Marc is seeking the right cadence between development and marketing, especially when marketing is something he doesn’t enjoy. Matt is on the brink of bankruptcy after being overdrawn in Stripe and is kicking off marketing efforts to get back in the black.
Mentions:
- PowerImporter
- FBARs.app
- Webflow
Get in touch!
- Marc's twitter
- Matt's twitter
Theme music composed by Jon Lunman.
Matt has been struggling with the consulting business he’s been running and talks about what he’s learned and how he feels about it after 6 months of operation. Marc is fighting the battle of fun vs valuable development work as he improves the UX of his onboarding flow. The guys discuss making money while building products and how to juggle living off of savings while indiehacking.
Mentions:
- PowerImporter
- FBARs.app
- Webflow
Get in touch!
- Marc's twitter
- Matt's twitter
Theme music composed by Jon Lunman.
Marc is really feeling like he has achieved product market fit! Now he’s trying to find the right cadence between product development and marketing to be as productive as possible. Matt is getting bogged down with financial year-end activities with his consulting clients and it’s distracting his product development efforts.
The guys discuss a shared love for static sites.
Mentions:
- PowerImporter
- FBARs.app
- Webflow
- Surge.sh
- Vercel
Get in touch!
- Marc's twitter
- Matt's twitter
Theme music composed by Jon Lunman.
Marc was able to deploy the redesign of PowerImporter and his next project is to tune his user onboarding. Most users don’t like to read, so he needs to find a way to get them through that isn’t a dusty old FAQ. Matt is worried about edge cases around incomplete data from Plaid and how to offer support.
Mentions
- PowerImporter
- FBARs.app
- Webflow
- Plaid
Get in touch!
- Marc's twitter
- Matt's twitter
Theme music composed by Jon Lunman.