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@pascallaliberte I do!

http://justinjackson.ca/articles

Most businesses that get started have weak:

- overall market demand
- market advantages
- pricing potential
- fundamentals
- distribution
- product
- margins

Example: small retail shops. Bad margins, no differentiated advantage, high risk/low reward.

@EmmettNaughton 👀

@rswebdesigner For me, the turning point in my entrepreneurial career was when I started observing what made other entrepreneurs I knew successful.

There are so many failures (95% of attempts seem to fail). I didn’t learn as much from observing those.

When it comes to business success, people say: “don’t look at the outliers. Be wary of survivorship bias!”

But every successful entrepreneur is an outlier!

The vast majority of business attempts fail.

To see what works, look at the survivors.

@joshcirre 👏👏👏🎉🎉🎉

@MitchBernstein Congrats! 🎉

@theKevinShen I still need to do this in my studio!

@KeliWestgate Truly frightening to have one political party not willing to accept the election results.

@stauffermatt ❤️❤️❤️

RT @timcasasola: Awesome post by @mijustin — https://justinjackson.ca/margin

@timcasasola Thank you! 🙏

@hopelawrence Oh wow, thank you!

@dohertyjf Still skiing!!? 🤯

@AaronWeiche Super common. Happens to me too!

An important prerequisite if you want a calm company:

Your business needs a strong financial engine that’s working.

An important prerequisite if you want a calm company: a strong financial engine that’s working.

@JordanGal Listening now!

I drove out to the location I had my snowboard shop and it’s a weed shop now lol.

This video marks the relaunch of my YouTube channel. It would mean a lot to me if you could watch it and leave a comment! 🙏

This video describes how I emerged from that failure and was (eventually) able to bootstrap a successful SaaS company. It took a few steps to get there!

https://youtu.be/fBRDHyBoOk4

(It also has a bunch of my old clips and photos that I think you'll enjoy).

A lot of people don't know this about me, but in the early 2000s, I owned a snowboard shop in Alberta called the Real Deal.

It almost bankrupted me.

Here's the story of how I got from there to here 👉

@benediktdeicke Wow!!!! 🤩

@ericosiu @asmartbear @wpengine I listen to Jason every chance I get.

Just added it to @pocketcasts for my walk tomorrow! 🙌

@fredrivett Can you describe this one a bit more?

“2a. the missionary will always outcompete the mercenary given a long enough time period”

@JordanGal RallyCart[dot]com

@iChris Oilers are the most entertaining team to watch right now.

💯💯💯 https://twitter.com/aarondfrancis/status/1785831250478973093

@calebporzio This is some serious home ownership stuff.

Feeling completely inadequate about my hangers after listening to @MostlyTechPod

@mjwhansen 👀

@kylefox Yes, increasingly, I'm trying to get in the habit of just choosing:

- Hemming and hawing about which plane ticket to choose? I just make a decision not to care about saving a few $$ and choose.

There are, however, decisions (like hiring and long-term strategic choices) that…

@joshcirre Congrats! 🎉🎉🎉

@shrutibalasa 🤩

@MostlyTechPod @aarondfrancis @ianlandsman “Is MySQL dead?” would be a great YouTube title.

Love this website redesign! 🤩 https://twitter.com/derrickreimer/status/1785335382655091101

@mikeherreraTD @mxpx @Tomwisniewski Yesssss.

This is the Tom Wisniewski content we’ve been waiting for.

@nathanbarry @ConvertKit Nice! 🙌

@stauffermatt 🙌

@stauffermatt New podcast 👀

@mikeherreraTD @mxpx Nice 👍

@mikeherreraTD @mxpx Post some photos!

@dceddia That looks sweet!

@ianlandsman 💯

I have to constantly remind myself: “this is being edited, I don’t need to fill every bit of airspace.”

@ikoichi @daniel_nguyenx This new startup I’m advising (in beta) has a few ideas.

Connecting traffic to Stripe revenue is the key. A surprisingly high % of my revenue can be tracked to specific pages on my site and referrers.

We also have some ideas on how to backfill data where folks have used ad…

@goenning @daniel_nguyenx Prosumers are often categorized as B2C.

They often buy a product with the intention of eventually turning it into a business.

“I’ll start this newsletter on the side and hopefully one day it will earn revenue.”

@ikoichi @daniel_nguyenx I’ve been there!

(I wrote about it back in 2021)

But this tracking has been super helpful and revealed a ton of actionable insights.

@jwblackwell @daniel_nguyenx Not missing the point at all.

In these graphs we’re attributing to the first click (first time they came to my site).

In the example I gave (the feature being searched) they:

A) read the blog post
B) purchased soon after

We can also see other events that assisted in a…

@ikoichi @daniel_nguyenx Between the tracking I’m doing here, and the welcome email I send asking folks how they found us, I have much better handle on which marketing efforts are bringing in revenue. 👍

The point of this tracking is see which marketing experiments are bringing in results.

@dagorenouf @digitronex @pocketcasts Yup! It’s there.

Sometimes Pocket Casts is a little slow showing new episodes, but it’s there now. 👍

@arvidkahl 🥳🥳🥳 amazing!

@theKevinShen Wow!!! Incredible transformation 🤩

@michaelpward In my world (podcasting), that distinction is much more blurry.

We ask big governments and giant corporations to sign up the same way as everyone else, so the sales cycle is generally the same for both.

@ChrisBadgett 💯

@davidnix_ Yes! I wrote about this distinction last year:

https://justinjackson.ca/prosumers/

Is there still no software for vector and bitmap editing in the same tool?

The brilliance of Macromedia Fireworks was that it was like having a lightweight Photoshop and Illustrator in one app.

Would love it if @sketch added awesome bitmap editing tools. 🙏

@robwalling Many successful bootstrapped SaaS serve customers that look more like B2C than B2B: hobbyists, prosumers, non-profits, enthusiasts, creators, solopreneurs, etc.

ConvertKit, MailChimp, Mealime, Fathom, Transistor, Carrd, AudioPen, TypingMind, NomadList, Slopes, etc all fit this…

Wow. The FTC just banned non-compete agreements!!

(These contracts typically restrict employees from moving to a new job in the same industry)

RT @gilbert: Progress happens slowly, then all at once.

Across just 7 months in 1968:
- DRAM was invented
- Intel was founded
- We got th…

@danielzarick @ArrowsHQ 🙌 awesome!

@whereisjefe I know that’s the popular narrative, but Transistor’s customer-base is probably more B2C than B2B (although we serve lots of big companies too!), and our support emails are fine.

@asmartbear The narrative I’m pushing back against is that “B2B SaaS is a better option for bootstrappers,” which I don’t think is true.

Some of the most successful SaaS by indie hackers serve customers that look more B2C than B2B: hobbyists, prosumers, creators, solopreneurs.

ConvertKit,…

Broadly B2B SaaS is presented as a better option for bootstrappers, which I don’t think is true.

Some of the most successful SaaS by indie hackers serve “B2C” type customers: hobbyists, prosumers, creators, solopreneurs.

ConvertKit, MailChimp, TailwindUI, Fathom, Carrd…

@r00k I think customer spend is an interesting attribute of a product than a distinction between “B2B vs B2C.”

I can almost guarantee that some of the companies you’re charging $250k to are also Transistor customers! But the dynamics of our product are different.

Your B2B customers…

@jhooks Yup. I wrote about that a while back here:

https://justinjackson.ca/prosumers/

My point here is that blunt advice to entrepreneurs like: “you should only start a B2B saas” is pretty flimsy.

@_rchase_ Broadly, I don’t think that distinction holds true (or matters as much as we think it does).

Look at ConvertKit, MailChimp, Transistor, TailwindUI, Fathom Analytics.

A large portion of our customers are hobbyists, prosumers, creators…

💯 https://twitter.com/sjoerdhandgraaf/status/1783160504942297422

@sjoerdhandgraaf 🎯

@venatoria My argument is that increasingly there is no distinction between the two (especially on the SMB side of the scale).

And… I think a lot of entrepreneurs ignore the “B2C” market, when it’s actually full of opportunity: hobbyists, prosumers, creators, solopreneurs, etc

@_rchase_ I’m still wondering how the B2B vs B2C distinction is helpful for bootstrappers.

Why care about that at all?

If you can reach a mass of customers efficiently, and you’re able to earn solid recurring revenue, why use “muddy” terms like B2B or B2C?

@troypavlek Yup, this is exactly my point.

(Except, I’m very bullish on hobbyist, prosumer, and SMB customers!)

https://justinjackson.ca/prosumers/

MailChimp built the world’s most valuable bootstrapped SaaS by serving a mix of SMBs, hobbyists, nonprofits, creators, and prosumers.

How is the B2B vs B2C distinction helpful or important in their case?

They serve a spectrum of customers who want email newsletters.

@_rchase_ I understand this generalization, but it hasn’t been true in Transistor’s case.

@_rchase_ And I had the opposite experience:

When we started Transistor, we really wanted to be “podcast hosting for businesses.”

Creators like @AliAbdaal reached out and said: “it doesn’t feel like this positioning is for me.”

It turns out, advertising “better podcast hosting for…

@venatoria But these days, with the proliferation of “prosumer” YouTubers (who make money from YouTube, but buy their gear like consumers at Amazon), it seems like Nikon should be rethinking binary categories like “consumer” and “business.”

@_rchase_ MailChimp built one of the most valuable SaaS companies of all time by serving a mix of SMBs, hobbyists, nonprofits, creators, and prosumers.

How is the B2B vs B2C distinction helpful or important in their case?

@venatoria The camera company is selling the camera for the same price, regardless of whether the purchaser is using it for personal use (taking photos of their kids), or business (taking wedding photos).

The distribution is the same as well (the customer buys it off Amazon either way).

@asmartbear I’d argue that the distinction isn’t that helpful, especially when it comes to advice given to bootstrappers: “B2B saas is better.”

MailChimp, for example, serves a large consortium of hobbyists, prosumers, “creators,” who aren’t that different from SMBs.

@_rchase_ If it’s loosely defined, how is the definition helpful?

For example, if there’s no practical difference between serving an SMB vs a consumer, why make the distinction at all?

MailChimp, for example, charges consumers (hobbyists) and SMBs the same price for starting a…

B2B vs B2C feels like a flimsy distinction, especially in today’s economy.

If someone buys an expensive camera for personal use, and then two weeks later decides to start shooting weddings, would they be considered an SMB?

In this scenario, is the camera company B2B or B2C?

@GeoffTRoberts So, focusing on publishing quality outperformed just publishing consistently?

@derrickreimer 🤣🤣

Seriously, what is going on in my brain

@earthlingworks @derrickreimer 🤣

This is a real dream I had about @derrickreimer five years ago. https://twitter.com/mijustin/status/1137411001668648960

Love this time of year.

@joshcirre Oh yeaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhh 🔥🔥🔥

@levelsio Agreed that volume works for short-form content (X, TikTok, Reels).

Not so sure it works for long-form YouTube, podcasts, blog posts, and newsletters.

I really appreciated Thomas' thoughtful response to my tweet.

"You win by posting interesting content as often as possible."

I recommend reading the whole thing! 👉 https://twitter.com/TomFrankly/status/1782854712208798058

@TomFrankly I appreciate the nuance you've shared here! Publishing frequency hinges on several factors:

- if you're new (get those reps in!)
- if your topic suits frequent updates.
- 'You win by posting interesting content as often as possible.'

Thanks for the thoughtful response!

@arithisandthat In this episode, @iamjeremyenns and I break down our podcast stats for our first season (and share some mistakes we're hoping to correct).

https://episodes.fm/1725822754/episode/ZGExNjJmY2MtN2U4YS00MDA0LThiOGMtMDAyZjhhODBiYjQ2

☝️ listen in @ApplePodcasts, @Spotify, and all other apps.

On the other hand, folks like @patio11 and @sivers don’t have a publishing schedule, but when they publish something, I drop everything to check it out.

Think about this as a consumer of content.

For me, it’s rare that I’m watching, listening, or reading everything someone publishes.

These days, having a weekly cadence makes me less likely to open your newsletter: “Oh that again? Nah. I’ll pass.”

@jayclouse @jslackey @iamjeremyenns @erinollila_ 🤣🤣

For years, the rule for getting traction with a blog, newsletter, podcast, or YouTube channel was "consistency."

Generally, this meant publishing every week.

But nowadays, it seems a better strategy is to publish only when you have something compelling to say.

Thoughts?

For years, the rule for getting traction with a blog, newsletter, podcast, or YouTube channel was "consistency."

Generally, this meant publishing every week.

But nowadays, it seems a better strategy is to publish only when you have something awesome.

Thoughts?

@jslackey @iamjeremyenns @erinollila_ Thank you. 🙏

This is a good example of the kind of bureaucracy governments should eliminate, to encourage people to start businesses:

https://eidel.io/how-to-found-a-company-in-germany-14-easy-steps-and-lots-of-pain/

@thethoughtcard Congrats! 🙌

@chrislema Well done! 🙌

@alantocheri 💯