Displaying episodes 1 - 30 of 43 in total
No Longer "Bootstrapped"
Michele makes some changes. Colleen, meanwhile, feels like she's building into a void.
Surprises
A major competitor enters the same space as Colleen's SaaS, and Michele gets new ideas about how to market her book from talking to early readers of her forthcoming book on talking to customers.
Approaching Nebulous Tasks
Colleen and Michele both work through making big tasks less scary.
Doing Different Things, Doing Things Differently
Colleen digs into Michele's feels about writing a book. They also talk about why Michele won't take meetings with potential acquirers.
Good Problems
Colleen leaves her SaaS alone for a few weeks, and Michele talks about being a founder with ADD.
Applying the Five Steps to Finding an Audience
Software Social listener Rossveth Lopez joins the show. Michele and Rossveth workshop her business together, exploring where she decided on an idea and what she's working through.
Customer Interview Part 2: The Debrief
Colleen and Michele talk about last week's customer interview and what Colleen learned from it.
Customer Interview Part 1: The Interview
Michele interviews one of Colleen's customers. Next week, Colleen and Michele will debrief on the interview.
Communication, Empathy, and Flexibility
Michele and Colleen discuss some lessons for bootstrapped entrepreneurs from Morgan Housel's Psychology of Money. Plus, a numbers update on how Colleen's new SaaS is doing.
MicroConf On Air + Software Social Crossover
ICYMI: Colleen and Michele talked with Rob Walling of MicroConf On Air on March 3.
To Take Funding, or Not to Take Funding
With the new crop of bootstrapper-focused funds, taking funding is possible for bootstrappers in a way that it just wasn't even a few years ago. Colleen and Michele work through whether it make sense for Colleen to take funding.
Giving Up On An Idea
When should you give up on an idea, and what does "giving up" mean? Michele and Colleen talk about Colleen's ideas that didn't pan out.
Raising a Business
New signups are exciting, but how do you deal with the hurt that comes when one of your few users churn? Colleen and Michele talk about how the things that are hard now will get easier, and how both the good and bad things are opportunities for growth.
First on Google
Colleen's committed herself to doing more marketing -- and it's already paying off.
Getting to 100
Colleen's been working for months to get 100 users of her SaaS so it can be released into the Heroku marketplace. Did she finally do it?!
Prioritizing Features and Yourself: An Conversation with Danielle Simpson, Co-Founder of Feedback Panda
Danielle Simpson, co-founder of Feedback Panda, joins Colleen and Michele for a conversation about Feedback Panda's ingenious prioritization system, the psychological side of selling your company, and figuring out what to do after selling.
What to Work On Next
Colleen gets her first paying customer! But what should she work on next, and which kinds of customers should she focus on?
Wading Through Feature Requests
Once you get your customers to talk to you, how do you sort through that and make sense of it? Colleen and Michele talk about how Jobs to Be Done thinking and tactics can be used at the very beginning to guide the roadmap and later on to guide overall strategy.
Getting People to Reply to Those Critical Early Feedback Emails
Colleen and Michele dissect why people stopped replying to Colleen's welcome emails. Later, Michele dives into Jobs To Be Done.
Competing with Huge Companies as a Bootstrapper
Michele talks about how the entry of a huge company into the geocoding space impacts their business strategy.
Getting Really Excited
Colleen shares the findings from her customer interviews, and Michele talks about how behavioral economics influences how they think about free tier abuse.
When Competitors Are Nipping At Your Heels
Michele reflects on competitor activity, and Colleen takes a moment to enjoy how she's finally launched a product after so time wandering through the proverbial woods.
Workshopping User Onboarding Problems
Colleen has people using her service...but there's a big drop-off, so Michele and Colleen workshop how to fix that. Also, some exciting news: we were nominated for Best Podcast, Best Hosts, and Best Episode in the MicroConf SaaS Podcast Awards! Vote for us: SaaSPodcastAwards.com
Snowballing One Project Into Another
When you're bootstrapping, it can he helpful to snowball one project into another until you find something that works. Today we dive into the nitty gritty of how a mobile app funded Geocodio's launch.
Choosing a Pricing Model
Colleen and Michele workshop what the pricing model should be for Colleen's SaaS.
Raising and Setting Prices
Colleen and Michele talk about how to (and how not to) raise prices -- and think through how to set them in the first place for Colleen's new product.
Who's the villain?
Somehow, despite a tumultuous week, Michele and Colleen still get things done. Michele talks about figuring out business incorporation from abroad, and Colleen talks through finding the "villain."
Founder/Business/Lifecycle Fit (aka "The Feelings Episode")
Michele and Colleen dive into striking a balance between business, founder, and lifestyle fit, and the trade-offs of running your own business versus working for someone else.
Vendor Lock-In, Heroes, and Timezones
Colleen considers the benefits and risks of changing vendors. Michele talks about a struggle they've had in the early days of their transition to being a remote company.
Health Insurance for Bootstrappers
Health insurance is complicated and expensive in the US...especially for bootstrappers. Michele walks through their own experience buying health insurance and gives a guide to the options out there. And Colleen hits her first milestone!
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