Getting To Ramen: Recent Episodes
Joshua Anderton
Listen in as I navigate the slow SaaS ramp of death while asking for help along the way from people like Justin Jackson, Matt Wensing, and others who have gone before me...
Here's a quick update on how things are going with Meeps and Upscribe
- Megamaker Podcast
- Meeps.app - A better way to manage an online community
- Upscribe on MicroAcquire
Recovered from surgery and back with an exciting announcement. One of my businesses has been acquired!
Links
- Joshua's Newsletter (https://joshuaanderton.upscri.be)
- Micro Acquire - Startup acquisition marketplace
- Made With Grit - Podcast by Adreform's Landon Bennet and Kyle Conarro
- Adreform - Speed up your tedious ad ops tasks by 10x
- Userfeed - User feedback tool for Interom
- Putler - Consolidate all your stores, payment gateways and Google Analytics in a single app
- Billingly.io - Dunning emails and SMS
- Upscribe - No-bloat email marketing
Time to make a change. Here's how the last 7 months have gone and my plans moving forward.
- JoshuaAnderton.ca (Josh's personal portfolio site)
- Upscribe
- Podmelon (Josh's podcast editing business)
- Vidmelon (Josh's video business)
- Transistor.fm
- Build Your SaaS
- AdReform
- Josh's tweet
- MegaMaker
- Potion.so
- Sandwich Video
- Wistia
In this episode Josh talks to Landon Bennet of AdReform about finding and closing on larger SaaS customers.
Landon has a ton of experience in SaaS sales at several customers (including 3 companies that he's successfully bootstrapped with his co-founder Kyle Conarro). This is a must-listen for any indie hackers or bootstrap founders.
A few topics covered in the call are:
- Landon's approach to finding new (validated) business opportunities
- How early conversations with potential customer helped Landon and Kyle decide what to build
- Where to find bigger customers
In this episode Josh talks to Landon Bennet of AdReform about finding and closing on larger SaaS customers.
Landon has a ton of experience in SaaS sales at several customers (including 3 companies that he's successfully bootstrapped with his co-founder Kyle Conarro). This is a must-listen for any indie hackers or bootstrap founders.
A few topics covered in the call are:
- You should never be surprised by the outcome of a deal
- Time kills every deal
- Annual contracts
- Avoid forever discounts
Josh talks about what it's been like managing his mental health while trying to grow a software company full-time. There's also a tiny rant about a certain well-known exit and how the employees were "taken care of".
- Making a Living From the Paid Newsletter Ecosystem with Yaroslaw Bagriy of Newsletter Crew
Took the plunge! Josh talks about what it's been like after a month of working on Upscribe full-time.
As a maker, it's easy to get distracted by new technologies or emerging fads. But is it a great idea to start-up more than one thing simultaneously? Also, I started a new thing...
- Billingly.io - Dunning emails & sms for less (don't pay until we've recovered revenue for you!)
- Upscribe - No-bloat email marketing and opt-in forms
- Podmelon - Quality podcast editing
- Basecamp - The All-In-One Toolkit for Working Remotely
- WildBit - The team behind Beanstalk, Postmark, DMARK Digest, and People-First Jobs
- Ad Reform - Your intelligent ad ops assistant
- Tweet about balancing priorities as a founder
- Versoly
- Volkan Kaya Twitter
- DrawSQL
- Dennis Ong Twitter
- Userfeed.io
- Summit
- Matt Wensing Twitter
- BidSketch
- DocSketch
- Ruben Gamez Twitter
- Borrowing Brilliance
What will "business as usual" look like after this whole thing blows over? Plus; a few ways us techies can help during a pandemic.
Show Notes
- Still here!
- Can things go back to normal?
- How this affects us and our businesses forever
- Ways we techies can help (financial and otherwise)
Links & Resources
- The Tyler Stalman Podcast, EP80: Tech and the Pandemic, with Sam Sheffer
- Made With Grit Podcast, EP19: How we're dealing with COVID-19
A bit of an update about the fam & I (as we've been recovering from COVID-19). I also rant about one of the best differentiators I think a business can have in a crowded market.
Links & Resources
- Made with Grit podcast episode
- Landon's announcement on Twitter
- Userfeed - Build the right products and grow your business using Intercom data
Links & Resources
- Rob's Stairstep Approach to Bootstrapping blog post
- Josh's 2019 revenue tweet
- Rob's response to revenue tweet
While driving his mini-van home one evening, Josh talks about a Stripe dispute that happened over Christmas time and gives updates on Podmelon (his newly branded podcast editing business) and Upscribe.
Stuck in traffic on my way home from downtown Vancouver, I talk about how the repositioning of Upscribe is going. I also give an update on the podcast editing business, and do some solo-founder venting...
Upscribe
https://upscri.be
Podcard - Podcast editing services
https://editing.podcard.fm
Matt's Tweet
https://twitter.com/mattwensing/status/1176469847468859392
Matt Wensing
https://twitter.com/mattwensing
SimSaaS
https://simsaas.co
Matt's podcast Out of Beta
https://outofbeta.fm/
Userfeed
https://userfeed.io
@userfeedio
AdReform
https://adreform.com
@adreformers
Landon and Kyle's Podcast Made With Grit
https://madewithgrit.fm
Landon on Twitter
@LandonB32
Kyle on Twitter
@conarro
Mubashar Iqbal on Twitter
https://twitter.com/mubashariqbal
PodHunt
https://podhunt.app
Quuu
http://quuu.co
I Worked On
https://iworkedon.com/@mubashariqbal
Matt Wensing
https://twitter.com/mattwensing
SimSaaS
https://simsaas.co
Out of Beta podcast
https://outofbeta.fm/
Justin Jackson
https://justinjackson.ca
Transistor.fm - Host all of your podcasts on Transistor
https://transistor.fm
MegaMaker - A community for bootstrappers
https://megamaker.co
Baremetrics Open Startups
https://baremetrics.com/open-startups
Upscribe's open metrics
https://upscribe.baremetrics.com
Derrick Reimer
https://www.derrickreimer.com/
StaticKit
http://statickit.com
Follow @benediktdeicke on Twitter.
Userlist.io - A behavior-based customer messaging tool for SaaS companies.
StageCMS - The Content Management System for unique band website design.
Slow & Steady Podcast - A podcast by Benedikt Deicke and Brian Rea about what it's like to build and launch a bootstrapped startup while working for yourself full-time.
Also, check out Benedikt's co-founder Jane Portman's podcast UI Breakfast!
Userlist blog post about their launch strategy:
https://userlist.io/launch-strategy/
Check out the Ramen Games list.
https://ramengames.podcard.co/
Making a change! One that will affect Upscribe, and this podcast. I also reflect on my time in a rock band and how it has influenced the way I build software.
After receiving some extremely appreciated listener feedback I go into more detail about how I started Upscribe following a failed project (that I also talk about) and the lessons learned. I also talk about the successful Product Hunt launch that brought in Upscribe' first 1000 users in just over a week.
Customer service has become one of my favourite parts of running a small SaaS company. You learn so much about your product and what people are feeling when they use it. Here are a few examples how to turn an angry customer into a true fan or just truly churned.
I’ve been doing a poor job lately of being present while with my family. In this episode I talk about some of the pressures of having a young family and trying to start a company as well as some of the benefits. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/gettingtoramen/message
In this episode I talk about my phone call with Corey Haines from Baremetrics (https://baremetrics.com) and how he showed me how I’ve been building a bunch of features no one needs (as well as how to fix this). Then I really nerd out like a number-one-fan about bootstrapping SaaS. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/gettingtoramen/message
This No Code fad has been huge. Tools like Bubble, WebFlow, etc. are killing it and changing the way we launch and build products. But there may be a cost I think most people aren’t thinking about. I also talk about a conversation I had with a multi-millionaire business man (who shall not be named) about “learning whatever it takes”.
Balancing a day job, a family, and a side project can be a rollercoaster of emotion. So are revenue analytics. I talk about these (while trying to say “umm” less), how founders are addicted to checking their baremetrics dashboard, and a more (not a lot more).
Wistia, Basecamp, Transistor.fm...companies that are run by teams who actually need and use the product they build. Here’s another rant about the advantages of being your own customer and NOT JUST knowing your own customers.