Tweets

Justin Jackson
Justin Jackson@mijustin
RT
RT @SethDKlein: We need our govts to approach #ClimateEmergency with the same ambition & urgency they confronted the pandemic. Only they arโ€ฆ
⟳ 0 ♡ 0
Justin Jackson
Justin Jackson@mijustin
RT
RT @petecodes: I just interviewed Justin Jackson @mijustin ๐Ÿ”ฅ

We chatted about

๐Ÿ’ฐFinding the best markets for bootstrappers
๐Ÿ’กHow to take onโ€ฆ
⟳ 0 ♡ 0
Justin Jackson
Justin Jackson@mijustin
Replying to @mijustin
Goal achieved! ๐ŸŽ‰

โ–ˆโ–ˆโ–ˆโ–ˆโ–ˆโ–ˆโ–ˆโ–ˆโ–ˆโ–ˆ 100%

25 new companies have enabled @stripe Climate, and are contributing at least 1% of their revenue towards fighting climate change and removing carbon from the atmosphere. ๐ŸŒฑ๐Ÿ™๐ŸŒŽ

https://transistor.fm/climate-change/
⟳ 7 ♡ 36
Justin Jackson
Justin Jackson@mijustin
Replying to @mijustin
Alright! @SeosHQ just turned @stripe Climate on in their account.

That brings us to...

โ–ˆโ–ˆโ–ˆโ–ˆโ–ˆโ–ˆโ–ˆโ–ˆโ–ˆโ–ˆโ–‘โ–‘ 84% towards our goal. ๐Ÿ™Œ
⟳ 0 ♡ 6
Justin Jackson
Justin Jackson@mijustin
Replying to @NathanG
@NathanG Just woke up. Iโ€™ll check it when I get to my computer. ๐Ÿ‘
⟳ 0 ♡ 1
Justin Jackson
Justin Jackson@mijustin
Replying to @mijustin
Actually, one more.

@CarterBryden from @approximatedapp just DM'd me:

"Love this initiative, hadn't even realized @stripe Climate was available out of the US now." ๐Ÿ’ฏ

โ–ˆโ–ˆโ–ˆโ–ˆโ–ˆโ–ˆโ–‘โ–‘โ–‘โ–‘โ–‘โ–‘ 52% towards our goal!
⟳ 0 ♡ 4
Justin Jackson
Justin Jackson@mijustin
Smoke in the sky. ๐Ÿ˜ต๐Ÿ˜ท

Wildfire smoke so thick, it gives you a headache and makes your eyes water.

#vernonbc
⟳ 0 ♡ 14
Justin Jackson
Justin Jackson@mijustin
Replying to @mijustin
Update: @tillkruss just joined with @ObjectCachePro! ๐Ÿ™Œ

โ–ˆโ–ˆโ–ˆโ–‘โ–‘โ–‘โ–‘โ–‘โ–‘โ–‘โ–‘โ–‘โ–‘ 24% towards are goal!
⟳ 1 ♡ 8
Justin Jackson
Justin Jackson@mijustin
Replying to @robmerki
@robmerki Had you already done it, or did you do it because of this campaign?

(Need to decide if I add you to the campaign goal or not)
⟳ 0 ♡ 1
Justin Jackson
Justin Jackson@mijustin
I'm about to launch a campaign to get 25 other companies to join @stripe Climate and give 1% of their revenue (or more!) to carbon removal.

Two people have already committed to join:
Francois, @like2have
@danhulton, @nodewood

Anyone else want to be a part of the announcement?
⟳ 24 ♡ 121
Justin Jackson
Justin Jackson@mijustin
Replying to @dialectik
@dialectik If you end up signing up for @stripe climate, let me know!

I'd love to add you to this blog post I'm writing.

(Goal: try to get 25 other startups to start giving to Stripe's climate program)
⟳ 0 ♡ 3
Justin Jackson
Justin Jackson@mijustin
Replying to @mijustin
For transparency: my company, @TransistorFM, is a small, bootstrapped 3-person company.

Last year we gave $10k to @RainforestUS.

This year, we've contributed nearly $10k to @stripe's carbon removal program (kudos to @patrickc for setting this up!)
⟳ 2 ♡ 30
Justin Jackson
Justin Jackson@mijustin
Replying to @mijustin
VCs: show me the money (you're investing climate change solutions).

You want to make a dent in the universe? Help us clean this shit up.
⟳ 0 ♡ 13
Justin Jackson
Justin Jackson@mijustin
Replying to @mijustin
Tired: "Software is eating the world."

Wired: "Climate change is destroying the world."
⟳ 1 ♡ 14
Justin Jackson
Justin Jackson@mijustin
Replying to @mijustin
๐Ÿ’ฏ @sethbannon:

โ€œItโ€™s super frustrating to see people that control hundreds of millions of dollars tweeting about the next e-gaming unicorn that theyโ€™re chasing, when you have millions of people who are being forced to migrate all because of a crisis that technology can solve."
⟳ 1 ♡ 17
Justin Jackson
Justin Jackson@mijustin
Replying to @dragosilinca
@dragosilinca @pmarca @a16z Nope, not yet.

And I'm only doing what Marc asked me to do in his piece:

"We need to demand more of our investors. And we need to demand more from one another. Weโ€™re all necessary, and we can all contribute, to building."
⟳ 0 ♡ 10
Justin Jackson
Justin Jackson@mijustin
Replying to @mijustin
Andreessen Horowitz seems to think they can help "build" by launching content sites like https://future.a16z.com/.

How about investing real ๐Ÿ’ต to *build* real solutions?

(Also, @a16z has tweeted about "climate change" exactly once).
⟳ 0 ♡ 12
Justin Jackson
Justin Jackson@mijustin
It's been 15 months since @pmarca & @a16z published "it's time to build."

Question: WTF have they done in support of this thesis?

Marc said we should be "solving the climate crisis by building."

From what I can see, @a16z has only made a few meager investments in climate tech.
⟳ 6 ♡ 74
Justin Jackson
Justin Jackson@mijustin
Replying to @ow
@ow The air quality in #vernonbc this morning was some of the worst in the world. ๐Ÿ˜”
⟳ 1 ♡ 6
Justin Jackson
Justin Jackson@mijustin
Replying to @ThomasSmale
@ThomasSmale @microacquire That's what I mean: way less qualified buyers.

(And, on the investment side, way less need for investment [generally])

There's just not as many people who can spend $5M+ on an acquisition.
⟳ 0 ♡ 0
Justin Jackson
Justin Jackson@mijustin
Replying to @mynameis_davis
@mynameis_davis @microacquire @robwalling Yup.

(That's why I said, "It depends on growth and how strategic a target is.")

But strategic acquisitions are quite rare. The most likely outcome for a bootstrapped SaaS is a private equity firm buying them for 2x-8x ARR.
⟳ 0 ♡ 1
Justin Jackson
Justin Jackson@mijustin
Replying to @mijustin
@microacquire โ˜๏ธ this is from a chat with my SaaS friends.

We observed the stages where we got the most interest from investors/acquirers.

What's curious: there's lots of interest for bootstrapped SaaS making $0-$50k MRR, but less after that.

Just harder to buy/sell once you're $50k MRR+.
⟳ 0 ♡ 4
Justin Jackson
Justin Jackson@mijustin
Replying to @einarvollset
@einarvollset @microacquire Thatโ€™s a good point.

What was curious to me and the friends discussing this, is the kinds of interest (and volume of interest) weโ€™ve gotten at each stage.
⟳ 0 ♡ 0
Justin Jackson
Justin Jackson@mijustin
Replying to @mynameis_davis
@mynameis_davis @microacquire @robwalling It all depends on growth and how strategic a target is.

But Iโ€™ve seen very high multiples when MRR is low ($6k ARR selling for 20x)

Once you cross over $1 million ARR, the most common range seems to be 2X-8X.

(Example: Baremetrics sold for ~2.65x ARR)
⟳ 0 ♡ 1
Justin Jackson
Justin Jackson@mijustin
SaaS MRR and investment interest:

$0-5k: folks on @microacquire are interested
$5k-10k: Earnest and TinySeed are interested
$10k-$20k: angels get interested
$20k-$50k: bigger companies get interested in acquiring at a cheaper price
100k+ : higher valuations (but lower multiples)
⟳ 22 ♡ 201
Justin Jackson
Justin Jackson@mijustin
Replying to @birbigs
@birbigs Ah. I just deleted that tweet to fix my grammar. You replied too quick! ๐Ÿ˜†
⟳ 0 ♡ 0
Justin Jackson
Justin Jackson@mijustin
RT
RT @mijustin: If you watch people make purchasing decisions, you'll notice they'll often get decision fatigue.

They're tired of experienciโ€ฆ
⟳ 0 ♡ 0
Justin Jackson
Justin Jackson@mijustin
@pjrvs Well, that's the last time I invite you to my "MLM Power Hour" show. ๐Ÿ˜ค
⟳ 0 ♡ 10
Justin Jackson
Justin Jackson@mijustin
Replying to @mijustin
How do you spot opportunities for new products and features?

@alanklement recommends looking for these magic words:

- give me
- help me
- free me
- make the
- take away
- equip me

"Can somebody *make the* hiring process easier?"

"Can somebody *free me* from these tax forms?"
⟳ 3 ♡ 17
Justin Jackson
Justin Jackson@mijustin
Replying to @mijustin
If you watch people make purchasing decisions, you'll notice they'll often get decision fatigue.

They're tired of experiencing the problem, and they're tired of looking for a solution.

Ironically, a lot of products make people think too hard about their decision!

Make it easy.
⟳ 1 ♡ 7
Justin Jackson
Justin Jackson@mijustin
Replying to @mijustin
Useful tools take away pain and help people make progress.

Here's how @decksetapp helps customers:

"Take away the frustration of creating attractive slides so that I can focus on delivering an awesome presentation."

Here's how that promise translates on their marketing page:
⟳ 0 ♡ 3
Justin Jackson
Justin Jackson@mijustin
Replying to @mijustin
@alanklement Case study: why did I buy @decksetapp?

- I wanted my slides to look as good as @SamuelHulick's
- Spent hours trying to design my own
- Failed; tried to buy PowerPoint theme and customize it
- Got frustrated; wasn't working on my talk!
- Saw DeckSet slides. They look good!
⟳ 0 ♡ 3
Justin Jackson
Justin Jackson@mijustin
๐Ÿค” What motivates people to buy your product?

Years ago, @alanklement and I explored this topic on a livestream.

Here are some of the key insights that emerged. ๐Ÿ‘‰
⟳ 4 ♡ 19
Justin Jackson
Justin Jackson@mijustin
@pjrvs It just cleared up yesterday and today.

Itโ€™s been really bad.
⟳ 0 ♡ 0
Justin Jackson
Justin Jackson@mijustin
After all that wildfire smoke in #vernonbc, itโ€™s so nice to get a beach day! ๐Ÿ™๐Ÿ˜Ž
⟳ 0 ♡ 34
Justin Jackson
Justin Jackson@mijustin
I think if we could see how people interpret and apply the advice we give on social mediaโ€ฆ we would probably give less advice. ๐Ÿ˜…
⟳ 1 ♡ 21
Justin Jackson
Justin Jackson@mijustin
Replying to @earthlingworks
@earthlingworks ๐ŸŽฏ So many different dynamics at play in every category.

Itโ€™s interesting to see how the same customer can have one mindset (regarding pricing) in a certain market, but a completely different mindset when it comes to buying a different product.

Lots of nuance.
⟳ 0 ♡ 1
Justin Jackson
Justin Jackson@mijustin
Replying to @mijustin
Entrepreneurs have incredible confirmation bias:

โ€œThis worked for me, so it *must* work for all peopleโ€

(Iโ€™m guilty of this)

The truth is, founders are successful when they understand their category and customer better than anyone else.

You, the founder, should be the expert.
⟳ 0 ♡ 16
Justin Jackson
Justin Jackson@mijustin
Donโ€™t take pricing advice from anyone who doesnโ€™t truly understand your category.

Pricing strategy is highly dependent on the characteristics of your market.

Folks keep giving generalized advice.

โœ… Understand the dynamics that drive your market.

โœ… Price accordingly.
⟳ 3 ♡ 33
Justin Jackson
Justin Jackson@mijustin
I really wish North America had more passenger trains (especially out west).
⟳ 0 ♡ 37
Justin Jackson
Justin Jackson@mijustin
Replying to @PierreDeWulf
@PierreDeWulf @SloanCam Yeah, this is really category-specific.

In podcast hosting (which is largely a Prosumer market) @TransistorFM is quite a bit higher than the lowest plans on Libsyn, but weโ€™re definitely anchored by the market.
⟳ 0 ♡ 3