Bootstrapping Saas

Pricing–change rollercoaster of emotions

Newsletter: https://blogstatic.io/blog/old-pricing

A conundrum 🤔

Weighing the pros and cons of either keeping blogstatic as is and making it the best possible product at blogging OR going down the monetization route where there's more financial opportunity, but a new can of worms and a departure from the initial idea (rebrand/reposition). The big question: Are these limiting beliefs that are not allowing me to grow?

Pomodoro to the rescue

EP70 — 11 months later 🤗

After an 11-month hiatus recording these, I'm trying to make a comeback.

blogstatic's Product Hunt launch and the aftermath

The road to 5000 paid blogs

A quick look at what it will take to get to 5,000 paid blogs in total and make blogstatic a self-sustaining operation.

Is this product market fit? 🤔

The week that tanked and what's next

It was a rough week. With the registrations and payments crashing down to zero.

A quick recap since my last solo episode

Visit valsopi.com for more details on the latest.

Online authenticity and 'Build in Public' with Kevon Cheung

Pierre de Wulf's story to $1M ARR with ScrappingBee

Doing Email and Content "Write" with Samar Owais

Saas and Productized Services with Benedicte Raae

Saas business lessons with Michele Hansen

Sat down with Michele to talk about Geocodio, Saas lessons, luck, switching gears, and more.

Challenges founders face with Stefan Manku

Stefan Manku is a founder whisperer. He has the ability to help founders guide themselves. We sat down to talk about various challenges founders face based on Stefan's continuous work with other founders.

SEO & Content Talk with Dominic Kent

Dominic's blog-writing course with 30% off for Bootstrapping Saas listeners  https://domkent.gumroad.com/l/khHYb Code: bootsaas for 30% off

with Spencer Jones: indiehacking, parenting, big startup jobs...

Indiehacking vs working at big Startups, marketing vs product, rebranding, and what it's like to make products while raising a family.

with Brian Casel — "How far we can push with marketing until we notice the pull"

I sit down with Brian to talk about his new product ZipMessage, picking fights with the Goliath, Saas lessons from his journey, marketing, selling, business operations...

Resilience, purpose, and being as we are.

Sat down with Alex to talk about presenting in public, happiness, social anxiety, productivity, some deep aspects of self and everything in between.

Resilience, purpose, and being as we are with Alex Mathers

Sat down with Alex to talk about presenting in public, happiness, social anxiety, productivity, some deep aspects of self and everything in between.

How to sell ethically with Martin Stellar

Martin Stellar (https://twitter.com/martinstellar) talks about what it means being a Monk and how all that relates to ethical selling. We talk about products, Martin's coaching, his new services and apps, and even tailoring. It's along one full of gems.

"You don't need to get your personal brand from your business!"

I got a chance to talk to my long time online friend, Cam Sloan, who's currently working on Hopscotch. We talk about the challenges of being a solo founder, b2b/b2c Saas opportunities, personal brand, photography, and more.

Cam Sloan: "You don't need to get your personal brand from your business!"

I got a chance to talk to my long time online friend, Cam Sloan, who's currently working on Hopscotch. We talk about the challenges of being a solo founder, b2b/b2c Saas opportunities, personal brand, photography, and more.

Talking shop with Noah Bragg

Noah just quit his job to fully focus on Potion.so. We go deep and talk about the benefits of running a growing product, exiting, VC money, growth, lessons, building vs marketing, and more.

Talking to Ben: Does going slow(er) sabotage our growth?

Ben Mann (@digitaltrouble) comes up to share what he's been up to.

The pull

blogstatic's momentum is growing and I'm trying to maintain my pace without being overwhelmed.

Reloading

A quick update after a 5-month break from recording.

Claritask, sold!

Lessons from selling Claritask and what's next

A quick update

Agency work, new ideas, Claritask...

Wellbeing

I share my tools that help me stay healthy emotionally and physically.

Back after the break

Back after a 3-month break. Talking about what I've been up to. Claritask update. Client work. And what I'm up to now/next.

Taking a little breather

Signup for Claritask.com to run your team and projects A list of various Podcasts on bootstrapping: https://transistor.fm/podcasts-for-bootstrappers Bootstrapping Saas Playlist on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/5ANZLmlqW5LODRP2P11MTR?si=rk_FG5BdSVK65mZ5HrcmOw

Spilling beer with Ben Mann

Ben is the founder of https://playgroup.community/ who just launched it with their first paying client, the notorious MegaMaker forum. You can also find Ben on Twitter at https://twitter.com/digitaltrouble He runs his podcast with Noah Bragg https://productjourney.fm/ You can also find Ben's website here https://benmann.de/ === Signup for Claritask.com to run your team and projects A list of various Podcasts on bootstrapping: https://transistor.fm/podcasts-for-bootstrappers Bo...

Giving Value vs Solving a Problem, with Louis Nicholls

This show was an elaboration of a discussion/argument we had with Louis a few weeks ago on Twitter. You can find the entire tweet here: https://twitter.com/valsopi/status/1267489835863998472 Some questions we try to answer are: The difference between idea/execution What it means to give value What is Marketing vs Sales (a sort of new take, at least for me) You can find out more about Louis in the following places His salesforfounders.com Course Twitter account https://twitter...

What's a good idea/solution?

The two tweets I mention heavily on the show https://twitter.com/valsopi/status/1266052752901373952 https://twitter.com/valsopi/status/1267489835863998472 And signup for Claritask.com to run your team and projects A list of various Podcasts on bootstrapping: https://transistor.fm/podcasts-for-bootstrappers Bootstrapping Saas Playlist on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/5ANZLmlqW5LODRP2P11MTR?si=rk_FG5BdSVK65mZ5HrcmOw

Claritask as a side project

This week I am listening to: Hermanos Gutierrez and their album Hoy Como Ayer HUGE Thanks to my Patreon supporters: Jace Richardson — RepoGuard.com RepoGuard. Protect your GitHub repositories from common mistakes that cost time and energy to fix. Whether it's force pushes to master or just bad commit messages, RepoGuard can help. Visit RepoGuard.com for more info. Flamur Mavraj — Ornio.no Merott Movahedi — Xebel.co - Engaging Students Online Zoli Veres Valon Badivuku You can ...

Catching up with Corey — Part Deux

It's Friday, so we slip into philosophical thoughts and let that lead us to the end. HUGE Thanks to my Patreon supporters: Flamur Mavraj — Ornio.no Jace Richardson — RepoGuard.com RepoGuard. Protect your GitHub repositories from common mistakes that cost time and energy to fix. Whether it's force pushes to master or just bad commit messages, RepoGuard can help. Visit RepoGuard.com for more info. Merott Movahedi — Xebel.co - Engaging Students Online Zoli Veres Valon Badivuku Y...

The importance of having the right co-founder

Among other things, I talk about: My personal experience with cofounders Thoughts on finding a co-founder Audio clips from: Arvid Kahl of Zero to Sold and The Bootstrapped Founder Justin Jackson of Transistor.fm and JustinJackson.ca Simon Bennett of Snapshooter.io A quick update on Claritask A list of various Podcasts on bootstrapping: https://transistor.fm/podcasts-for-bootstrappers Bootstrapping Saas Playlist on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/5ANZLmlqW5LODRP2P...

Online Friends

In this episode... Spoke about the importance of having friends that share the same journey Claritask Scrum being ready How we don't have to be perfect Thinking about AppSumo Dan Miller's book on Scrum: https://gumroad.com/danmiller#CDPpF And a few other things... Bootstrapping Saas Playlist on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/5ANZLmlqW5LODRP2P11MTR?si=rk_FG5BdSVK65mZ5HrcmOw HUGE Thanks to my Patreon supporters: Jace Richardson RepoGuard. Protect your GitHub repos...

1 Year of Bootstrapping Saas

My panic attack, Claritask progress, issues, and hope ahead. Mentioned in the show: Dwayne Perkins Standup Bertram — Craft and Wilderness

Sales and marketing efforts

I talk about about, how I am using Linkedin  Email Twitter Direct Email Blogging A BIG Thanks to my Patreon supporters: Jace Richardson RepoGuard. Protect your GitHub repositories from common mistakes that cost time and energy to fix. Whether it's force pushes to master or just bad commit messages, RepoGuard can help. Visit RepoGuard.com for more info. Merott Mohavedi - xebel.co Simon Benett - snapshooter.io Dean Leyton-James - cloudperiscope.com Zoli Veres Valon Badivuk...

Selling a solution VS a comodity

I had a thought earlier today about how maybe selling a solution (like Claritask) requires an offline effort (networking, in person sales, conferences, presentations, etc.). Here's the original tweet on that conundrum: https://twitter.com/valsopi/status/1233382562728378368 HUGE Thanks to my Patreon supporters: Jace Richardson RepoGuard. Protect your GitHub repositories from common mistakes that cost time and energy to fix. Whether it's force pushes to master or just bad commit me...

Claritask is 1

Enjoying Claritask, more than ever because: Claritask is quite complete Current clients are happy New pricing New activity  New paying clients My consultancy financing Claritask And talking about one problem/conundrum/question that I have, which I don't know how to solve. A BIG Thanks to my Patreon supporters: Jace Richardson RepoGuard. Protect your GitHub repositories from common mistakes that cost time and energy to fix. Whether it's force pushes to master or just bad com...

How to find an idea... my way

I was invited on Product Journey podcast to share my story and had a great time speaking to Noah and Ben. One thing that got my mind churning was on how I would go about finding what idea to work on next. It was specifically Noah's frustrations after interviewing people and being left with less inspiration than when first started. This is that episode: https://share.transistor.fm/s/4ea4839f HUGE Thanks to my Patreon supporters: Jace Richardson RepoGuard. Protect your GitHub repos...

Talking Shop with Helen Ryles

Had the pleasure to speak to my long time internet friend, Helen Ryles (@HelenRyles). We covered topics from product making, validation, marketing, timing/luck, staying sane, and more. One of the longest episodes I believe, but felt like a breeze. Let me know if you have any comments by replying to the shows tweet here:  Helen's current projects: Namesace: https://namesace.com/ FeedbackFridays: https://feedbackfridays.com/ A BIG Thanks to my Patreon supporters: Jace Richardso...

How I got here

Would I have been able to make Claritask as a side project? The talk I had with my wife April Dunford's Obviously Awesome book HUGE Thanks to my Patreon supporters: Jace Richardson RepoGuard. Protect your GitHub repositories from common mistakes that cost time and energy to fix. Whether it's force pushes to master or just bad commit messages, RepoGuard can help. Visit RepoGuard.com for more info. Merott Mohavedi - xebel.co (spelled with an X) Simon Benett - snapshooter.io Dean Leyton...

Just a quick update

Took a few questions from Noah https://twitter.com/noahwbragg/status/1218625288633847808 and Dan https://twitter.com/mrdanmiller/status/1218627320807772161 New registrations coming in from my sales/marketing efforts Bought a new domain for a blog/publication I've been wanting to make for the longest time Josh's tweet https://twitter.com/Shpigford/status/1217841243213922310 and positioning/distribution issues And a few other things: Thinking about launching on ProductHunt, my NYs resolut...

Feeling like a cheat

Among other things... Running a product in the sea of many competitors My readings: David & Goliath, Stillness is the Key, Atomic Habits, Obviously Awesome Claritask currently: Lower pricing, new registrations, my sales activity New client work Personal habits: fasting, working out,  A BIG Thanks to my Patreon supporters: Jace Richardson RepoGuard. Protect your GitHub repositories from common mistakes that cost time and energy to fix. Whether it's force pushes to master or ju...

Moving forward this 2020

A recap of last year: bad things & good things The $20K bank loan I was about to take New Pricing and why I did it (the reasoning behind it) Healthy habits: Intermittent fasting Started Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/bootsaas More open financials: What else will I be sharing moving forward Patreon Supporters A BIG Thanks to my Patreon supporters: Jace Richardson RepoGuard. Protect your GitHub repositories from common mistakes that cost time and energy to fix. Whether it's force pu...

Get Lucky! (A blog post)

Not a regular episode, just something I wrote about how I think about Luck and Getting Lucky!