Searching For SaaS

Growing Status List Again?

Today, Nate & Josh talk about what can be done to grow Status List. Messages to be clarified, trust signals to be added, pricing to be improved. There’s a lot to get through in this episode! This is episode 106

Colleen Schnettler is building a new product

Today on the show we talk to our friend Colleen about her SaaS journey, her latest product for the reporting space and her thoughts on getting from 0 to 1. This is episode 105

Nate’s Emerging vs Commodity SaaS

Today we talk about two products, one in an emerging market, one in a commodity and the challenges with each. This is episode 104

Why customers have complicated feelings about churning

Today we dig into the complex feelings of customers. A company could be on the way in, the way out or about to be dropped like a hot potato by it's customers. This is episode 103

Chris Savage: Building brand to meet early market needs over 18 years

Today, Chris Savage from Wistia joins us to talk about all things brand and video. We walk through Chris' journey building the brand of Wistia, making technical bets and navigating changes in the market. You don't want to miss this one! This is episode 102

Should apprenticeship make a comeback?

Today, we talk about the practise of apprentices and how we could benefit from that today. This is episode 101

What we liked, what we’d change after 100 episodes

Can you believe it?! Today we’re celebrating 100 episodes of Searching for SaaS! Nate & Josh take a trip down memory lane and look at fun times, great guests and things we’d change. Join us for the centennial episode of S4S 🎉

Experiments to help Nate grow MRR, Josh tests Pricing Changes

Today on the show we dig into Josh’s year long project to update pricing for his company. We also get an update from Nate on Testing Taxi growth and the guys talk about experiments Nate could try to grow MRR. This is episode 99

Nate’s 2 month Sales challenge!

On the show today, we talk about marketing Nate’s testing project from 0 to 200MRR. Josh has lots of questions. Let’s start off 2024 with a bang! This is episode 98

Happy New Year!

Happy new year everyone! We're working on some new episodes for you. See you soon!

Talking to competitors: insightful or terrible?

Today we discuss how to balance the nuance of what info to discuss, what insights we can gain, and how to mentally prepare for a meeting like this. This is episode 96

Mistakes on CMS Choices and Josh’s No-Code Project

Today on the show we talk about tech for marketing sites (wordpress, headless CMS, web flow…) and Josh tells us about his experience building a little no-code project. Links: Jesse Hanley https://twitter.com/jessethanley This is episode 95

Business Retreats & Building Community

On the show this week, we talk about business retreats and why some are so great! There are things we love, and things we’d rather avoid and today we talk about it all. This is Episode 94

A/B Testing Tools, Approaches, and Experiment Logs

Today on the show we dive into the world of A/B testing and the tools around that. This is episode 93

Quick takes on Categories, WOM and Frameworks

On the show this week we share our quick takes on category creation (Christopher Lockhead), word of mouth, abandoning business frameworks and Google Podcasts shutdown. Links - Lenny’s Podcast (https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/podcast) - Category creation - https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/how-to-become-a-category-pirate-christopher#details - WOM - https://www.lennyspodcast.com/how-to-drive-word-of-mouth-nilan-peiris-cpo-of-wise/ - Frameworks - https://commoncog.com/reality-without-framewor...

Colin Nederkoorn on growing Customer.io, pricing and branding

Today on the show we’re joined by Colin from Customer.io. He takes on the journey of building an integrated messaging platform and his thoughts on pricing and branding. Colin’s Twitter: @alphacolin This is episode 91

4 Validation Strategies and Honing Value Props

Today on the show, we dive into 4 validation strategies Lenny Rachitsky suggested in a recent newsletter. Nate & Josh lean into what’s worked for them and which methods they think are the most effective. Lenny’s article: https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/how-to-validate-your-b2b-startup This is episode 90

Brainstorming Marketing Strategy for Testing Taxi

Today on the show Nate & Josh look at Testing Taxi and how to reach the audience - and which audience to go after. We also dive into some side tunnels with messaging and early MVPs. Buckle up, this is a good one! Links: - https://www.linkedin.com/posts/heyrobk_voice-of-the-%3F%3F%3F%3F%3F%3F%3F%3F-voice-of-activity-7101581893774573568-tdtv/ - https://sparktoro.com/blog/modern-content-marketing-your-new-growth-flywheel/ This is episode 89

Swipe files, finding your spirit animal

On the show today, Josh tells us all about Swipefiles, how it helps his creative process and his team. We also into how Josh tracks interesting companies and ideas. Links: - Corey Haines: https://twitter.com/coreyhainesco This is episode 88.

Josh and Nate talk Value Props for Testing Taxi

Today on the show, we dive into value propositions and how to to make better ones. We dive into Nate’s value prop for Testing Taxi and how it could be improved. Links: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oICXfZg68x0 This is episode 87

How Nate and Josh keep themselves aligned on the “Right Things” to do

Today we dig into the tools and habits we use to stay on top of things and prioritize the right things. Josh comes at it from the angle of working with a team, while Nate is in the ever changing landscape of consulting clients. This is episode 86

Luca makes a huge pricing change

Today we talk to Luca from Customerly.io about last month's huge pricing change. He walks us through the thinking behind it and discussed previous pricing choices he'd never do again. Join us for a great chat about everything pricing. You can find Luca at https://twitter.com/iLucaMicheli, and the pricing we're discussing at https://www.customerly.io/pricing/ This is episode 85

What Nate learns by embedding himself in a community

Today we talk about embedding in a customer community. Nate gives an update on Testing Taxi and Josh weights in. Join us for a good discussion on the early stages of customer development. This is episode 84

Founders with Strong Opinions

Today, we explore some strong opinions of serial entrepreneur, Hiten Shah (https://twitter.com/hnshah). We dig into our own ways of thinking differently and how strongly we express that. This is episode 83

Why Nate and Josh slow their roll on AI

On the show today Nate and Josh talk about AI and why we aren't jumping in with both feet. This is episode 82

Keeping successful partnerships aligned (in business + life)

Today on the show, we dig into partnerships - what makes them work and what doesn’t, what keeps them alive and what undermines them. Josh has had over 5 partnerships and he weighs in on some of the insights he’s uncovered. Further reading: - https://joshho.substack.com/p/staying-aligned-on-the-big-things This is episode 81

To Build in Public or Not to Build in Public

Today on the show we have Mike from Wafris talking about his fledgling internet security company and how he's using social media to get off the ground. We explore where social is working for Mike and what he can do to get even more reach. Links: - https://wafris.org/ - https://wafris.org/ip-lookup This is episode 80

Designing a High Touch Signup Flow

Today on the show we talk about the signup process for Nate's new SaaS - Testing Taxi. Self-guided trials are not an option so what should he do? We also check in on Nate's SEO push on Status List and where he's running stuck. Links: https://testing.taxi This is episode 79

Would we buy either of these SEO, AI, or Chrome Plug-in SaaS?

Today Nate and Josh dive into 3 different SaaS companies and ask: would this be a good business to buy? We dive into how we might market, position or turn a profit with each. The results may surprise you. We also dig into the AI-powered things SaaS businesses are spinning up lately - a full gamut on the show today. This is episode 78

Time to market Nate’s new project?

Today we talk about Nate’s latest project and if it’s time to buy a domain and tell the world. Josh weights in and gives some helpful SEO tips to get started. Also today, we talk about abilities and environment and how those have both shaped our entrepreneurial journey. Links: https://lawrenceandco.com/your-oxygen-mask-first This is episode 77

Domain Hoarding: Guilty Pleasure or Asset?

Today, Josh and Nate discuss the value of domains. What would you pay for a used domain? Why do people pay millions of dollars for special domain names? Some of us like to hold 90+ domains for a "rainy day". Others only buy domains when they're ready to launch something. More on aquisition of chat.com https://twitter.com/dharmesh/status/1641094109187260421 This is episode 76

A Project Back from the Dead and Josh’s Retreat

Nate shutdown a project because it wasn't panning out. All of a sudden, customers are showing up asking to have it turned on. Nate shares the story and what he's going to do about it. Also today, Josh went on a founders retreat. He shares the wonders of diverse paths in company building and how finding "your people" is so meaningful. This is episode 75

Thinking in Bets, easier said than done

Today, we talk about poker star Annie Duke's book on decision making. As founders, we often look at the world through rose colored glasses. Today we talk about ways to be realistic, limit failure and increase our chance of success. You can find Annie Duke's book on Amazon: https://www.amazon.ca/Thinking-Bets-Making-Smarter-Decisions/dp/0735216355/ref=asc_df_0735216355/ This is episode 74

Teardown of Nate’s Landing Page – Video

Nate’s landing page hasn’t been converting. Today, we dive into a tear down of what’s good, what’s missing and how we can improve it. You can find the video version of this episode at: https://joshho.substack.com/p/c18f4386-f062-463e-9f31-8d632de6e2ea This is episode 73

Raise prices? Maybe, not so fast

This week we talk about the common advice to “raise prices”. Josh talks about where this can go wrong and how he thinks about pricing. Links: Peep Leja - podcast episode - https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/laying-the-foundation-for-long-term-company-alignment/id1575516851?i=1000601807767 This is episode 72

Naming your SaaS so no one forgets

Do you have trouble remembering the names of software tools? We do too! Today, we talk about SaaS names and how some stick and some are impossible to remember. This is episode 71

A Biz Idea & Exploring by Listening

Today Josh has an idea for a site map research tool that could be in Nate’s wheel house. We bat it around and figure out what the key product is and what next steps would be. We also talk about learning by exploring and listening to others. This is a huge part of how Nate & Josh learn and it’s neat to hear about their experiences with this. This is episode #70

Hard things and SaaS drift

Nate's been reading and today we discuss his questions on SaaS strategy and company management. SaaSTR Drift Article: https://www.saastr.com/10-lessons-learned-scaling-to-1b-valuation-with-drifts-co-founders-david-cancel-and-elias-torres-pod-626-video/ The Hard Thing about Hard Things By Ben Horowitz https://www.amazon.ca/Hard-Thing-About-Things-Building/dp/0062273205 This is episode 69

Emil Shour Answers Our SEO Questions

Emil Shour is a long time demand gen builder. He’s worked with fin-tech, prop-tech and other saas companies over the last number of years. Today, we ask Emil all our SEO questions.

Nate & Josh’s Goals for 2023

Today we review 2022 and make some big goals for 2023. What do you think our most listened to episode of 2022 was? What should Nate & Josh focus on this year? Find out more on today's pod This is episode #67

Vitamins vs Painkillers: Josh says neither!

Vitamin and painkiller products are a classic analogy used in SAAS circles. Which type of business would you prefer to operate? Why? And perhaps the larger question, are these actually useful ways to describe a business? Let us know what you think! We’re always reachable on Twitter Josh is @jlogic, Nate is @natebosscher

Selling Pepsi & Netflix AutoPlay Psychology

This week we talk about selling brown sugar water and why netflix would want you to watch more tv. Have you seen the Pepsi Where's my Jet documentary on netflix? They've got some interesting marketing strategies that we get into today on the show. Who knew that selling carbonated water could require next-level marketing? We've all hit that feature on netflix that auto-plays the next episode in the show. Why would netflix do that? It costs them more bandwidth, people go through shows faster,...

EP64: Josh Kickstarts a Repositioning Exercise

Josh and his team take another look at the positioning of Referral Rock. Today we talk through some of the exercises and factors he'll use with his team.

EP62: Pete Caputa – CEO of Databox (Part 1)

EP63: Pete Caputa – Databox’s New Moat (Part 2)

EP61: Would we buy any of these SaaS businesses?

Today, Josh and Nate look through 3 SaaS listings - would they buy them and turn them around or take a pass?

EP60: Josh’s Unconventional Personal Knowledge Base

Today Josh shares his methods for continued education and his how he keeps track of his ideas and learnings.

EP59: Reprioritizing Nate’s Goals

Nate has goals for his saas, but he keeps discovering new requirements he has but didn't realize. Today we dig into those requirements and how to prioritize them with the existing goals.

EP58: Can’t we just solve deep tech problems?

Nate seems to been in his happy place with technical challenges, how can we use this to help him create a business out of it?

EP57: The Idea Feed and Some Interesting Findings

Today we catch up with Nate's progress implementing the idea sources from last episode.