Tweets

Also, in terms of *young talent*, it feels like I know way more up-and-coming @laravelphp developers than Rails devs.

Many of them are high school students who have already released their own, well-designed SaaS apps. 🤯

Some of the most exciting indie SaaS apps are being built on @laravelphp right now:

- @usefathom (they're using Vapor + AWS Lambda)
- @SnapShooterio

Plus, there are more mature startups like @CartHook that are built on Laravel, killing it, and scaling well.

For example: @TransistorFM is a Rails app, but we use @tailwindcss + @Alpine_JS (both came out of the Laravel community).

Plus, our marketing site is essentially a Laravel app (@statamic CMS).

Initially, @laravelphp was inspired by Rails.

But these days, it feels like it's *Laravel* that's influencing the rest of the web dev world.

@ArlanWasHere @QueerGermanGirl Happy anniversary! 🙌

@jessethanley @TropicalMBA Listening now. 👍

Full interview: https://the.ink/p/noam-chomsky-wants-you-to-vote-for

“We have no shortage of immediate ways of getting involved. But immediate changes are another story. There's kind of an instant gratification culture: ‘I worked for Bernie Sanders, he didn't win. I'm going home.’ That's not the way political change takes place.” – @noamchomskyT

@JamesAddison @waterlooalex yup! A few good options:

@podysseyapp (my personal fave)
@BreakerAudio (also good)

@paidinsights @TwitterSupport 👋 same. @justinjackson

@getwelder @johan_cutych @marek_vybiral @PredragRisticc @AleksMiric Love the personable demo video!

The tech looks good too. 👍

@TheEricAnderson .... Eric Anderson?

@Shpigford Fam

@jmitch @davidfano @SlackHQ @discourse @CircleApp @srcasm @DavidSpinks @hueypriest I was on Discourse + Slack for years.

Just switched to @playgrouphq + Slack and love it.

Here's a quick video on how it works.

@dohertyjf @lovevalgeisler @clayhebert You don't think there will be a crash John?

@jonhainstock @CasJam @TransistorFM @ProductHunt @IndieHackers Based on Nathan’s experience at ConvertKit, we knew we wanted to try affiliates. That’s worked out well.

I also knew (from speaking with @earthlingworks) that SEO would be big for us (“it’s similar to web hosting.”)

@CasJam This was our experience with @TransistorFM as well.

Early-access customers: mostly people in our personal networks.

Launch customers: people in our network + the @ProductHunt / @IndieHackers community.

Traction customers: customers started coming through a reliable channel.

@bgardner Thanks!

Clarification: I'm not saying you should be getting hundreds of trials right of the bat.

You'll gradually ramp up over time.

Here's how it looked for @TransistorFM:

If you're looking for a senior-level Java or Python developer, DM me.

I know a good full-stack dev from Cincinnati, OH.

@caseyfulgenzi Nice! Congrats!

(That’s a big move for Brooklyn!)

“There’s a mismatch between how we’ve constructed cops and what they actually do.” – @barryfriedman1

@petersuhm Nice! What motivated the move? What was in Denmark that you were missing?

@dvassallo Got it.

One thing that’s been fascinating for me (looking at US real estate) is how expensive the PNW is compared to other areas of the country.

Basically, if your state has mountains it’s 2-5x more expensive than other parts of the country.

@dvassallo Is housing in SEA still quite high?

@matthewcrist Where are you moving?

What’s motivating the change? (More space, less density)

@mattscottnelson Dude. Let’s meet up (outside) at @ratiovernon sometime!

My office is just down the street.

@pcperini Nice! What's motivating the change? More space?

@yongfook @sinequanonh ✨ creating magical connections between Twitter followers in this Twitter thread ✨

😉

@mattscottnelson Are you here now?

@realictionboy Sorry to hear about the layoff. That sucks.

What made you choose Madison?

@adamstruve Damn! Sorry to hear that.

@dougblackjr What's motivating the move?

More space?

@mattscottnelson whaaaaaaat. NICE! 🙌

Welcome. Hope you love it here! (I do)

@syropian Nice! Congrats on your first home! 👍

@ColinBrauns Ah! So 🏙️ ➡️ 🚚.

😉

Curious: who's moving (or has moved) because of COVID?

🏙️ ➡️ 🏠

RT @ericabuddington: Learn in public. 💛

@jadechip @Mark_Goldberg_ @elonmusk I was skeptical about this story, but it checks out!

Just found this interview with @realGeorgeHotz:

https://cleantechnica.com/2020/08/01/george-hotz-teslas-going-to-win-level-5/

@sidyadav @CircleApp @teachable @shl Congrats! 🙌

@m1guelpf @ericlbarnes 😬

RT @amandaorson: Well that's an eye-popping stat: "Americans older than 50 have 70% of the buying power in the U.S."

https://t.co/TwWObLGQ…

Interesting question being posed here by @jayriverlong here: is the infatuation with tiny houses, FIRE, and van life the result of generational poverty?

https://jayriverlong.github.io/2020/08/08/poverty.html

@edzola @jayriverlong Agreed. Great post, but it doesn’t feel like remote work fits here.

(For me, it’s been incredibly liberating)

@alexandersix_ Loved this post. 👍

Refreshing to hear from someone who got into tech later (and wasn’t super into computers from age 5 on).

@chasewreeves 🤯

@stympy @FounderQuest @StarrHorne @heyjoshwood Also, loved BBSes.

Was the Co-Sysop of Absolute Future BBS in Edmonton. 😉

https://justinjackson.ca/bbs

@FounderQuest @stympy @StarrHorne @heyjoshwood loved alt.2600 and alt.binaries

From 2017: "the market you choose will determine most of your growth."

https://youtu.be/cVNYcj5HkLA

@chadkoh @TransistorFM Yup! I know some really good folks.

@iChris is awesome (he’s our editor).

@joshuaanderton is also incredible.

@theashguy @stripe 👀

https://twitter.com/driesvints/status/1291648194925989888

@beingbrad Hahaha. I’ll fund it!

@beingbrad 👋

@marcjohns Life hack.

You don’t need to create a new product category to win! (In fact, you shouldn’t)

I highly recommend this article by @grigoriy_kogan. Incredibly thorough, with lots of good case studies. 💯

https://www.gkogan.co/blog/category-creation/

@johnmurch @ianlandsman Yup. I’ve checked all those services out.

Personally, I feel like 3rd party services that do tax compliance are just a bandaid.

Plus: why should small businesses have to pay for services so governments can collect money?

This could all be painless if it was centralized.

@flowdee Yup, but doesn’t mean they couldn’t easily calculate the VAT, accept the payment, and remit it to the EU.

They already have the ability to split payments.

@ankurnagpal @teachable Stripe can already split payments.

@ankurnagpal @teachable Why not?

Why can’t the payment processor add VAT, and then just send that payment to the government?

@cptfellow Still feels like a central entity (like Stripe) can do this better with software that automatically determines what the vendor and buyer amounts are and charge accordingly (and then remit that to the government).

@smtm See? Already this is too complicated.

Plus: the rules (and exemptions) change for foreign companies!

@smtm But why make small businesses deal with that at all?

To me, it feels like we’re duplicating effort where we don’t have to.

The EU could deal with a handful of entities (Stripe, Paddle, Gumroad).

To me, it feels like we’re duplicating effort where we don’t have to.

It doesn’t make sense to have millions of businesses collecting, remitting, and doing the paperwork, when the EU could deal with a small group of entities (Stripe, Paddle, Gumroad).

@AlinaCSava To me, it feels like we’re duplicating effort where we don’t have to.

It doesn’t make sense to have millions of businesses collecting, remitting, and doing the paperwork, when the EU could deal with a handful of entities (Stripe, Paddle, Gumroad).

@mjwhansen @mrkirkland @tylertringas That could all be handled automatically, with software. 👍

@ianlandsman State tax compliance is the Wild West: filled with Quora answers and Google-suggested results.

For a perfect illustration of the confusion around VAT for US-based startups, look no further than this Reddit thread.

https://www.reddit.com/r/startups/comments/enmh6n/saas_companies_tax_evaders/

Another thing:

I’m not against taxation (or privacy laws), but the EU really needs to look at how hard they’re making it for small businesses.

The compliance is going to kill EU based startups, because companies in the USA are going to be able to move faster.

If I was the EU, I would mandate that @stripe collect and remit VAT immediately.

My guess is 80% of Stripe’s USA customers aren’t collecting and remitting VAT.

It will be a huge burden lifted off the shoulders of small businesses.

Small companies don’t have an accounting department. They don’t have a legal department.

They don’t have the resources to wade through the regulations and make themselves compliant.

3rd party services that do tax compliance are just a bandaid.

Asking a small business to collect and remit sales taxes to dozens of different government entities is ridiculous.

The result? Tons of non-compliance. It’s just too much work for most companies.

(Paddle and Gumroad already do a version of this)

@adamwathan @tylertringas Don’t tempt @jonbuda. It’s a daily conversation in Slack. 😬

Quick way for governments around the world to 2x VAT and GST revenues:

Instead of asking millions of small businesses to *voluntarily* collect and remit taxes for foreign governments, ask Stripe to do it on their end.

@mrkirkland @tylertringas +1

I wish Stripe would just solve tax compliance issues on their end (the same way Paddle has).

Asking thousands of small businesses around the world to collect and remit taxes to foreign governments is 🤯 to me.

@tylertringas Understanding cross-border legal and accounting ramifications.

(ie. Founders in different countries, owning a Canadian/US subsidiary)

@adampatterson @TransistorFM The CMS is @statamic. We were hosting not on Digital Ocean.

We just switched to @statamic’s static site generator and @Netlify. 👍

@kjaymiller 🙏

Great new bootstrapping podcast from @mjwhansen and @leenyburger!

“It’s hard to find something that sticks. Nobody cares about you until you’re a success.”

https://overcast.fm/+gJ-VMXHDE

@itsjustamar http://Waveapps.com did this for a long time.

@billmeeks @TransistorFM You might have loaded that page right when we were deploying. Can you try it again?

@vavroom @TransistorFM @benedmunds @morethancodefm We're a team of two people. We'll do our best. 👍

We're doing some shaping work on transcripts right now. After an initial idea is shaped, we like to work on it within a few months.

RT @mijustin: The market you choose, and the idea that you focus on, are the most important business decisions you’ll make. They determine…

@fedesdp It depends on the market: Transistor starts at $19, and that’s perfect for our market.

https://justinjackson.ca/charge-more

@marvin_hosea Thanks!

@StephenWilson Just picked these apricots! C’mon over and have one. ❤️

@MarkJHenderson Got it. 👍

@zavzen Yes. Biggest channels seem to be:

1. SEO
2. Content (podcast, blog, video)
2. Personal brands (founder + affiliates)
4. Usage as marketing (other people running into the product during its use-case)

@earthlingworks Yup. All CC upfront.

@MarkJHenderson Lol. I’m not trying to get into a pissing match with you Mark.

BTW - are we talking about the same thing? Trial to paid with credit card up front?

40-60% seems pretty common with all my friends running SaaS.

RT @polluterofminds: As someone who just shut down a SaaS that targeted SMBs, this is a fantastic and accurate thread. You can trick yourse…

I just spoke with three other bootstrapped SaaS founders (all who have launched within the last 5 years and have traction).

Here's how many monthly trials we're getting:

250
400
300
600

(These are 2-3 person companies.)

@GregorySchier @chasers For credit card upfront, yes (ours is actually way higher).

These are the general benchmarks I've used over the years (taken from @patio11 and @robwalling talks):

SaaS is more akin to selling cups of coffee than selling heavy-duty machinery.

You want to see a lineup of people queuing up for your product every day. (Like at a coffee shop)

Otherwise, you're selling enterprise software (which is fine; just a different model).

@yongfook You're "ratcheting up" to that number. It takes time to get up to 200 trials per month (you start at 10, then go to 30, then 50...)

My point is there's a "floor" where the fundamentals make sense.

Accounting for churn, trial time, etc.. you'll need hundreds of trials (not 10s).

@saronyitbarek I think the biggest realization I had re-reading that post was just how stressful that stage was!

In that moment, I felt stretched incredibly thin.

Many aspiring bootstrapped SaaS founders are former consultants, who are used to getting a few leads per month.

The fundamentals of SaaS are different.

You can't dedicate significant resources to nurturing just a few leads a month.

@MarkJHenderson I've always used these numbers as a general benchmark (pulled over the years from @robwalling and @patio11).

(I've worked for three SaaS companies, and now co-own Transistor. These numbers match up with my experience)

@marccardillo I've always used these numbers as a general benchmark (pulled over the years from @robwalling and @patio11).

@derrickgrigg Yeah, generally these are the benchmarks I use.