Business of Software Podcast
191 episodes - English - Latest episode: 9 months ago - ★★★★★ - 3 ratingsBusiness of Software is a place that brings together the brightest minds and greatest practitioners in software into one place.
World-Class software leaders such as Joel Spolsky, Gail Goodman, Seth Godin, DHH, Dharmesh Shah, & Kathy Sierra come to teach everything except the code in how to scale great software companies that stay profitable in the long term. Expect the latest thinking and fresh perspectives from some of the world's leading software practitioners.
Stay up to date and hear about new talks, videos, podcasts and conference updates. http://businessofsoftware.org/updates
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Episodes
Ep 115 Autobooks Connecting Sales with Marketing (with Derik Sutton and Kyle Bazzy)
August 09, 2023 15:02 - 42 minutes - 39.4 MBIn our upcoming BoS USA conference in Raleigh NC on 2-4 October, we're doing a really interesting afternoon digging into a case study with the great folks at Autobooks. Mark sits down with to of the four Autobookers taking to the stage in the fall to discuss connecting sales with marketing. Happy listening! --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/business-of-software/message
Ep. 114 How to Hire an Agency (with Lucy Heskins)
May 16, 2023 08:00 - 37 minutes - 34.8 MBMark Littlewood talks to Oh Blimey's founder Lucy Heskins about how you can/should hire an agency. --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/business-of-software/message
Ep 113: Mergers and Acquisitions (with Christopher Moore)
November 16, 2022 15:56 - 36 minutes - 33.7 MBQuiet Light knows how to help SaaS founders like you to get the best value and deal terms for selling the business on. Christopher Moore joins Mark for a chat about the market for SaaS and Software companies. --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/business-of-software/message
Ep 112 Are You Recession Ready?
October 11, 2022 08:01 - 41 minutes - 38.6 MBJason Cohen of WP Engine fame introduced Mark to Jonathan Slain at Recession.com earlier this year. He and the WP Engine team work with Jonathan and found he is a pretty interesting guy. We invited him on the podcast to discuss how SaaS and software companies can prepare for, and take advantage of, a recession. --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/business-of-software/message
Ep 111 JTBD in your Copy (with Claire Suellentrop)
June 28, 2022 09:44 - 25 minutes - 23.7 MBTypically, when software companies write up their homepage, features page, or pricing page, they use messages and words their internal team is accustomed to using – but often, those words mean very little to their customers, users or prospects. Then they wonder why it’s so hard to acquire new customers. --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/business-of-software/message
Ep 110 The Lost Art of Meaningful Content (with Dave Collins)
June 14, 2022 08:00 - 53 minutes - 49.8 MBStand up against the pointless content that only distracts or overwhelms you, with Dave Collins --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/business-of-software/message
Ep 109 Customer Centered Innovation (with Tony Ulwick)
June 07, 2022 08:00 - 44 minutes - 40.9 MBWhat are your customers trying to achieve, and how can you help them get there? Simple questions, but creating a disciplined approach to uncovering and capturing the answers is a huge step forward for your business. --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/business-of-software/message
Ep 108 - Things I Wish I’d Known Before Selling My SaaS Business (with Jon Hainstock)
May 31, 2022 08:00 - 44 minutes - 40.8 MBMark Littlewood talks to Quiet Light's Jon Hainstock about selling a SaaS Business. Meet the Quiet Light team at Business of Softwares ONLINE Jobs to be Done Conf on 8 June and at the IN-PERSON conf in Boston, MA on 26-28 September 2022 --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/business-of-software/message
Ep 107 A BoS Conf Retrospective (with Steve McLeod & Joe Leech)
May 24, 2022 08:22 - 29 minutes - 27.4 MBJoe's website: https://mrjoe.uk/ Joe on Twitter: https://twitter.com/mrjoe Steve's company, Feature Upvote: https://featureupvote.com/ Steve's podcast: https://bootstrapped.fm/ Steve on Twitter: https://twitter.com/steveofmcleod --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/business-of-software/message
Ep 106 Strategy and Making Progress (with Bob Moesta & April Dunford)
May 17, 2022 08:19 - 35 minutes - 32.5 MBBoS Online Fall 2021 started with a conversation on Jobs to be Done and marketing with April Dunford and Bob Moesta. --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/business-of-software/message
Ep 105 Allyship (with B. Pagels-Minor)
May 10, 2022 08:48 - 56 minutes - 52.1 MBIn this talk, B Pagels-Minor will help you understand a little bit more what allyship might look like and how you can actually be a great ally in your workplace. --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/business-of-software/message
Ep 104 Setting up your business for a successful sale with FE International's Thomas Smale
May 03, 2022 08:30 - 54 minutes - 50.2 MBFE International works with founders and business owners to value, exit plan and ultimately sell their businesses on the best terms. FE uses hundreds of thousands of internal data points, accumulated from over a decade of successful exits to market and position businesses to the right buyers from day one. --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/business-of-software/message
Ep 103 Mapping the Future of your Business with Simon Wardley
April 26, 2022 08:15 - 58 minutes - 53.8 MBIn this talk from our Online Spring Conference in 2021, Simon Wardley walks us through how Wardley mapping helps you to understand where your business is, identify opportunities and threats to its existence, make plans for the future and, gameplay the routes to getting to where you want to be. It is a powerful tool to inform your strategy and monitor your progress. --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/business-of-software/message
Ep 102 The Three Mistakes That Defined Our Company (with Chris Savage)
March 15, 2022 09:58 - 46 minutes - 42.6 MBExplore the good, the bad, and the downright dangerous as Wistia's Chris Savage talks about the three mistakes he and co-founder Brendan Schwartz learned from whilst building Wisita. --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/business-of-software/message
Ep 101 Impossible Outcomes (with Bruce McCarthy)
March 08, 2022 09:37 - 42 minutes - 39.1 MBIn this session, Bruce will walk you through the cultures and practices of these organisations and help you think about how to tackle the big, scary challenges in your organisation with a few examples where the right vision, team, and plan have led to winning formulas. --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/business-of-software/message
Ep 100 The Pros and Cons of Setting Your Own Goals (with Sahil Lavingia)
February 22, 2022 13:21 - 1 hour - 58.7 MBSahil Lavingia discusses why and how he runs Gumroad with no full time employees, no meetings, no deadlines and no company perks. NB, This was a talk that polarized opinions --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/business-of-software/message
Ep 99 The Effort:Experience Ratio (with Ruth Everard)
February 15, 2022 09:57 - 15 minutes - 14 MBYou will learn how to prioritise your goals and achievements in all aspects of your life by weighing up the effort necessary against the experience to be gained in pursuing them with more everyday, mainstream, examples. --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/business-of-software/message
Ep 98 Positioning Jujitsu (with April Dunford)
February 01, 2022 09:52 - 57 minutes - 53.2 MBIn this talk you will learn how to: use strategic positioning to carve out a place in the market where you can win against any competitor of any size and share a set of detailed examples where she did exactly that. make sure your customers understand who your REAL competition is. take on a large competitor by literally naming them and then positioning them into a corner – using their own positioning against them. arm your sales people to teach customers how to think about the market – in...
Ep 97 Building an Accidental Business (with Cesar Kuriyama)
January 25, 2022 09:09 - 1 hour - 62.7 MBCesar worked in advertising before leaving it all behind to pursue his own personal creative endeavours; among them a personal project – 1SecondEveryday. --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/business-of-software/message
Ep 96 Lessons learned in 2021
January 18, 2022 09:24 - 33 minutes - 31.1 MBWe are back for another year! To kick us off, BoS's own Mark Littlewood joins Kirk for a discussion about what he has learned and will take away from 2021. Don't forget to sig up for the BoS newsletter and get regular updates about new events and talks at businessofsoftware.org/update --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/business-of-software/message
Ep 95 Developing Sales Talent (with Paul Kenny)
December 21, 2021 11:25 - 58 minutes - 53.7 MBUnderstand and conquer the challenges of scaling sales teams rapidly with a focus on the challenge of getting new hires up and running quickly and effectively with Paul Kenny --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/business-of-software/message
Ep 94 Old School Copywriting For New School Businesses (with Joanna Wiebe)
December 14, 2021 09:00 - 46 minutes - 42.6 MBJoanna looks at some old school copywriters' tips to help your SaaS stand out, including the Seven Sweeps to give your copy before you ship it. --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/business-of-software/message
Ep 93 Switching from Consulting to a Product Led Business (with Laura Roeder)
December 07, 2021 10:00 - 38 minutes - 35.7 MBAlmost everyone running a consulting, training or agency business, however successful, will admit at some point that they wish they could run a product business. Why don’t they? Laura Roeder talks about her experience. --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/business-of-software/message
Ep 92 The case for mindfulness at work (with Matthew Bellows)
November 23, 2021 10:02 - 50 minutes - 46.5 MBJoin Yesware's Matthew Bellows as he discusses the importance and helpfulness of mindfulness in the workplace. --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/business-of-software/message
Ep 91 How To Grow and Scale A Culture with Limited Funds (with Alicia Navarro)
November 16, 2021 09:41 - 50 minutes - 46.8 MBScaling is a challenge which presents itself to any company starting out. Further to this, cash flow is the single greatest reason companies fail in the beginning. So how do you scale, whilst remaining respectful of your budget? --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/business-of-software/message
Ep 90 Life's too short for bad software (with Leon Barnard)
November 09, 2021 09:50 - 55 minutes - 50.9 MBMark Littlewood spent some time with Leon Barnard, Balsamiq's education team lead, to discuss how Balsamiq's approach to marketing was conceived, why the focus of all their efforts has always been to support the growth and development of product design as a discipline. --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/business-of-software/message
Ep 89 Making Social Media Work in B2B (with Laura Fitton)
November 02, 2021 09:08 - 39 minutes - 36.3 MBOnce upon a time dubbed a “Queen” of Twitter, Laura “@Pistachio” Fitton co-authored Twitter for Dummies and founded oneforty.com (acquired by HubSpot) in 2009 when she recognised that software built on Twitter’s API was going to change the world. --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/business-of-software/message
Ep 88 Talk Sh*t, delegate & know what you want (with Michael Lopp)
October 19, 2021 08:09 - 51 minutes - 47.2 MBIn this talk, Michael will explore the soft skills necessary for building a product in a company full of bright people who all think they are right. --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/business-of-software/message
Ep 87 A Practioners Guide to Ecosystem Development (with Mike Milinkovich)
October 12, 2021 08:10 - 57 minutes - 53.1 MBSoftware Ecosystems is a continuously evolving ideology in the field of software engineering. Mike Milinkovich’s talk at BoS Conf USA 2008 looks at providing you with a practitioner’s guide to ecosystem development. --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/business-of-software/message
Ep86 Founders at Work (with Jessica Livingston)
October 05, 2021 08:00 - 43 minutes - 40.1 MBIn this talk Jessica Livingston - author of Founders at work - talks about the many lessons she learned from her interviews with the likes of Paul Graham, Steve Wozniak, Mitch Kapor and Joel Spolsky to name but a few. --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/business-of-software/message
Ep 85 Evolution and Challenge in Business Intelligence (with Charles Caldwell)
September 21, 2021 07:44 - 1 hour - 61 MBFascinating and wide-ranging conversation with Charles Caldwell, VP of Product, Logi Analytics --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/business-of-software/message
Ep 84 Predicting Your Company’s Success (with Matt Wensing)
September 14, 2021 08:00 - 55 minutes - 51.3 MBDrawing on his research, his experience, and physics Matt explains strategies and techniques CEOs can employ to spot patterns and trends in order to reduce uncertainty and get better at predicting strategic outcomes. --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/business-of-software/message
Ep 83 Why a SaaS Pricing Consultancy Gives Away Free Software (with Patrick Campbell)
September 07, 2021 08:00 - 44 minutes - 41.3 MBSaaS companies obsessed by User Acquisition and User Acquisition Cost are focusing on the wrong metrics, missing the far more important growth drivers for a SaaS business: monetization and retention. In this talk from ProfitWell's Patrick Campbell, we look at the importance of developing your product in collaboration with your current users to understand the needs of the people that are paying for your product. --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/business-...
Ep 82 From side hustle to 1000 people (with Jason VandeBoom)
August 31, 2021 08:00 - 57 minutes - 53.2 MBJason went against a lot of traditional advice for startups: staying in your lane; not going after big companies as your first customers; treating customer support as a cost center. Those unorthodox decisions have been key to the growth of ActiveCampaign. --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/business-of-software/message
Ep 81 Don’t Be The Last to Know (with Claire Lew)
August 24, 2021 08:00 - 57 minutes - 53.1 MBBe it Fear or futility, Those pesky employees aren’t telling you everything. Claire Lew looks at why and gives you actionable advice on how to build a better work culture. For more talks, check out businessofsoftware.org --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/business-of-software/message
Ep 80 Humanising the Web (with Sarah Hatter)
August 17, 2021 08:00 - 40 minutes - 37.2 MBAre you saying ‘sorry for the inconvenience’ and ‘Thank You for the Feedback?’. Is your customer support leaving your paying customers feeling more exasperated than fulfilled? Sarah Hatter is here with a talk to remind you of what you should be saying or what might be triggering negativity. For mroe great BoS talks, visit businessofsoftware.org/talks or sign up for our newsletter to receive regular updates direct to your inbox. --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/...
Ep 79 Praxeology – Lessons from a Lost Science (with Rory Sutherland)
August 10, 2021 08:00 - 1 hour - 58.5 MBPsychology, philosophy, and economics together demonstrate how software developers, entrepreneurs and engineers need to embrace the forgotten science of Praxeology. For more BoS Talks, visit businessofsoftware.org --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/business-of-software/message
Ep 78 10 Lessons Learned about Venture Capital (with Heidi Roizen)
August 03, 2021 08:00 - 29 minutes - 27.7 MBHeidi Roizen Is a Silicon Valley executive, venture capitalist, and entrepreneur. In this BoS Talk she discussed why are VCs so difficult? Heidi, will tell you why VCs behave the way they do, and what you should do to maximize your chance of success with a venture capitalist. For more great BoS news and updates, subscribe tot eh newsletter at businessofsoftware.org --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/business-of-software/message
Ep 77 Making Trend Spotting Help Your Future Business (with Eva Pascoe)
July 27, 2021 08:00 - 39 minutes - 36.8 MBSpotting trends is pretty easy if you know how. Using that knowledge is different – there’s one thing you really need to understand if you are going to capitalise on the future... For more great talks from BoS Conf, visit businessofosftware.org --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/business-of-software/message
Ep 76 Continuous Discovery Habits (with Teresa Torres and Mark Littlewood)
July 20, 2021 08:00 - 40 minutes - 37.5 MBIn this conversation with Fall 2021 and USA 2019’s BoS speaker Teresa Torres, Mark Littlewood digs into her latest on customer discovery and what to expect in her new book and her BoS Fall talk Continuous Discovery Habits. To be part of BoS Conf Fall 21, sign up now at businessofsoftware.org/fall --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/business-of-software/message
Ep 75 Harnessing Culture & Using Data To Build Value For Your Business (with Sarah McVittie)
July 13, 2021 08:00 - 29 minutes - 27.3 MBIn this talk from BoS Europe 2019, Sarah discusses why Dressipi started as a B2C play but the data it collected on customers has a much higher value to fashion retailers as it enables them to forecast demand more effectively and reduce their unsold inventory. You will leave with ideas to stimulate creative, data-driven, approaches to problem solving and how you can harness culture to build long-term value in your business. For more great BoS content, subscribe the the BoS newsletter at busi...
Ep 74 Creating early warning scenarios & thinking about the future (with Rita McGrath)
July 06, 2021 08:00 - 44 minutes - 41.6 MBWhat is the world of tomorrow going to look like? They say to find out what life is like in 20 years time, ask a current 10 year old as they are the future and what matters to them may not be the same as what matters to current adults. In this talk from BoS Conf Online Europe 2020, Rita McGrath looks at early warning scenarios and discusses with a high school student the pros and cons of the sudden dive into the deepend of online learning thanks to the 2020 pandemic. For more great BoS art...
Ep 73 The Developer’s Guide To Running Sales Teams (with Jeff Szczepanski)
June 29, 2021 08:00 - 1 hour - 57 MBJeff ‘Tall Jeff’ Szczepanski from Stack Exchange delivers a talk on his experiences of what happens when you think about and manage sales like you would manage a great development team. Don't forget to sign up for the BoS Newsletter and keep up to date with everything going on at BoS. Visit businessofsoftware.org and click Subscribe! --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/business-of-software/message
Ep 72 Iterating less and achieving more (with Radhika Dutt)
June 22, 2021 08:00 - 43 minutes - 40.2 MBIn this talk from BoS Conf Online, Radhika talks about where iteration goes wrong, Methodologies such as Lean and Agile have democratized innovation by teaching us to harness the power of iteration to innovate faster, but our ability to set a clear destination hasn't kept up with the pace. When we iterate without a clear vision or strategy, our products become bloated, fragmented, and driven by irrelevant metrics. They catch “product diseases” that are often fatal to true innovation. For mo...
Ep 71 Hard Wiring Sales into your Organisation (with Paul Kenny)
June 15, 2021 08:00 - 1 hour - 56.9 MBHaving a dialogue with your customer is worth so much more to you and your business than anything else; and the most important thing that you need to know is how to work out what your sales proposition is, what your story is. This talk from BoS Conf USA looks at The reason you should be talking to your clients, not just emailing them, not just blogging at them, the reason you should be talking to your clients is because they each have their own unique way of describing a problem. For more...
Ep 70 Simplicity vs Value in Software Development (with Joel Spolsky)
June 08, 2021 08:00 - 53 minutes - 49.1 MBFly in the face of what is often perceived as wise strategy and hear how building new features does add value to your product with Stack Overflow Founder Joel Spolsky. For more great talks, visit businessofsoftware.org and join thousands of other smart folk enjoying the benefits of the BoS community. --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/business-of-software/message
Ep 69 Things Great Software Companies Do That You Don’t Have To (with Rob Castaneda)
June 01, 2021 08:00 - 48 minutes - 44.7 MBWhat works for one company might not work for another; but other peoples mistakes are worth taking note of. In this talk, ServiceRocket's Rob Castaneda discusses the mistakes he made that could help you in your business. For more great talks, viist businessofsoftware.org and sign up to the free newsletter for all that BoS goodness direct to your inbox. --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/business-of-software/message
Things Great Software Companies Do That You Don’t Have To (with Rob Castaneda)
June 01, 2021 08:00 - 48 minutes - 44.7 MBWhat works for one company might not work for another; but other peoples mistakes are worth taking note of. In this talk, ServiceRocket's Rob Castaneda discusses the mistakes he made that could help you in your business. For more great talks, viist businessofsoftware.org and sign up to the free newsletter for all that BoS goodness direct to your inbox. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/business-of-software/message
Ep 68 Building software ecosystems (with Service Rocket's Peter Marquez & Bill Cushard)
May 25, 2021 08:00 - 47 minutes - 43.8 MBSoftware companies are often torn between meeting customer needs and product velocity. A well-designed ecosystem allows you to do both. Companies with flourishing ecosystems have several competitive advantages – moats, product development, customer advocates and more. Building and maintaining an ecosystem requires a clear plan and a systematic approach. Knowing where to begin, or where you’re going wrong, can be challenging. In this conversation, Peter and Bill from ServiceRocket discuss eve...
Ep 67 Nine ways to stop hurting and start helping women in Tech (with Brianna Wu)
May 18, 2021 08:00 - 59 minutes - 55 MBBrianna Wu is head of development at Giant Spacekat, a company specialising in cinematic experiences using the Unreal Engine. She’s known as a frequent speaker on women in tech issues, and is an advocate for increased diversity in the games industry. In this talk from BoS USA, Brianna looks at what we can do to start helping women in tech. For more great talks direct to your inbox, visit businessofosftware.org/update to sign up for the free BoS Newsletter. --- Send in a voice message: ht...