Tweets

Once you've taken a family of 7 to Disneyland, everything else feels affordable. 😜

If I could do college all over again, I would:

- live on campus
- participate in more social activities
- find other curious, ambitious people
- take more philosophy, sociology, psychology, economics, politics, and ethics classes
- have more fun
- not be in a rush to "grow up"

I'm all for positivity and optimism.

But we still need to make space to talk about topics that might make us feel uncomfortable.

Discussing a difficult issue (like climate change, racism, sexism, pandemic response) in public shouldn't be labeled as "negativity" or "complaining"

84% of Canadians are vaccinated.
80%+ of Canadians support vaccine mandates.

And we just elected this government 132 days ago. https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1487876118870777856

🙄 "Under the radar."

He's talking about:
- Kalya Itsines (who has 13.1 million followers on Instagram)
- Tobi Pearce (160k followers on IG)
- Their startup, Sweat, was one of the most downloaded fitness apps ever.

They get TONS of press. Nothing "under the radar" about this. https://twitter.com/MichaelMartocci/status/1415111499694186496

When you start a business, you’re making a bet. Not all bets are equal!

Investing $100k in Business A vs Business B could have dramatically different outcomes.

What’s surprising is how few entrepreneurs consider the possible range of outcomes (the upper and lower bounds).

Choosing the right market it is like tapping the right vein. 🩸

Podcasting still has lots of upside. 😉

https://www.reddit.com/r/podcasts/comments/eizc1e/kind_of_funnyfor_the_first_time_ever_i_clicked/

We got some snow here in #vernonbc

Generally, your pricing should reflect:

- the value you give,
- the market segment you're targeting,
- the economy (weak/strong) you're in,
- the stage of your company,
- customer demand.

"Charge more" can be good advice.

But, depending on the context, so can "charge less."

The goal with bootstrapping is not to change the way people behave!

Instead, we're trying to recognize where people are already in motion and build solutions for the direction they're headed.

We don't create the waves; we ride them.

Netflix: $16.00
Disney+: $7.00
Apple TV: $4.99

🤔 Will folks cancel Netflix, and going with Disney+ & Apple TV?

“How disappointed would you be if you could no longer use this product?”

Startup folks use this question to determine if their product (or a competitor!) has product-market fit.

If 40% or more reply that they’d be “very disappointed,” you’re thought to have product-market fit.

"Our culture's telling us to 'stick to it.' I think we should quit fast." – @AnnieDuke

Fascinated by Annie's take on quitting on the @PeterAttiaMD podcast:

https://peterattiamd.com/annieduke/

I know this won't be a big deal to the devs here, but @adamwathan taught me some basic @vuejs + @tailwindcss stuff yesterday, and it blew my mind.

First time I've ever really written JavaScript. Feels magical. ✨

https://youtu.be/s3yWEtGpp_A

“Systems with slack are more resilient.”

https://wp.me/p9XDcM-77y

Lots of folks asking which Disney biography I'm reading. It's this one:

Warning: it's long! Took me until chapter 2 before I really got into it.

https://www.amazon.com/Walt-Disney-Triumph-American-Imagination/dp/0679757473/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=walt+disney&qid=1556863531&s=books&sr=1-1

Hiring managers at Google (and startups) should be scared about these results. https://twitter.com/thepatwalls/status/1116863301449728000

☝️ this is why most of my book, @marketingdevs, is about:

1. Choosing the right market
2. Building something they want

"If your product is remarkable, getting noticed is a lot easier." – @peldi

I think we've overemphasized DIY learning.

Yes, you can learn some things on your own, but a skilled teacher, mentor, or coach can accelerate how quickly you learn.

https://twitter.com/fortelabs/status/1024486111538597889?s=21

Ultimately, a business serves whoever is paying them.

(Regardless of who the end-user is)

If you sell ads to advertisers, you'll be building your product around what advertisers value. The needs of users will be secondary.

One way to define your target niche:

"[People] who want to achieve X but struggle with Y."

Example:
"Content marketers who want to run A/B tests but struggle with getting consistent traffic from the right sources."

Make a landing page before you code.

It helps you figure out:
1. How hard is it to get traffic?
2. Do folks want it so bad they'll sign up?

My favorite part about living in #vernonbc is having this perfect Christmas village 20 mins away 🎄

I don’t think most businesses fail because their execution was bad.

I think most businesses fail because they chose to build on a weak idea.

Execution is important, but the opportunity you choose to pursue matters more.

This fire in Kelowna is really bad. This is about an hour away from where I live.

Thousands of people being evacuated.

Sending lots of ❤️ to the people there.

Imagine putting an 𝕏 here (upper right of an embedded post).

Won’t users think that just “closes” that piece of content?

me waiting for my frens to show up at the metaverse christmas party

Hey friends, I'm doing a podcasting AMA on Reddit right now!

"4 years ago I co-founded @TransistorFM. I've learned lots of stuff about podcasting that's not commonly known. AMA!"

Would ❤️ to see some good podcasting/indie podcast business questions. 🙏

https://www.reddit.com/r/podcasting/comments/xciarj/4_years_ago_i_cofounded_transistorfm_ive_learned/

Honestly, billionaires are boring.

"Ivy League-educated kid with rich parents builds a trillion-dollar company"

isn't nearly as interesting as

"Kid grows up in small-town, learns how to code, finds a wave of demand, builds a $1 million company, and changes their family's life"

I don't buy this narrative that indie hackers don't have good team skills or "wouldn't make good employees."

Sure, they're escaping something (bad bosses, bad pay, boring work), but you (as an employer) can create a positive environment that encourages autonomy, creativity, etc.

@jasonfried @dhh (David quickly emails the link to Jason)

Big Money™ investors are hoping podcasting will provide them with YouTube-level returns.

(Sequoia got a 57x return on its $9 million investment in YouTube).

I'm highly skeptical that podcasting is ever going to provide that level of returns.

Audio's growth curve is different.

“Hey, welcome to Digital Advertising, the show where everything is made up and the points don't matter.” https://twitter.com/nandoodles/status/1345903078357270528

One of the most interesting characteristics of market demand is “people want things more when other people show demand for that thing.”

When folks see more people buying a thing it ignites an increased desire for them to also buy that thing.

(The “Tickle Me Elmo effect”)

“Need Apple Pro XDR Display so that I can count votes. Please send cash.”

This. 💯

Fighting climate change is not political.

Globally, it should be our #1 priority.

Let’s save the planet, create new jobs, and make our lives better. https://twitter.com/JVBainimaramafj/status/1324941240731840512

Why am I not seeing Republicans publicly denounce this?

(And, him claiming he’d won two days ago?) https://twitter.com/TIME/status/1324615568083820545

I’m not going to lie: Spotify’s move to become the end-to-end, integrated “YouTube for podcasters” scares me.

We’ve seen what happens when one megacorp™ owns everything: they use that leverage to pay creators less.

Ultimately, for creators, open is better than closed.

It doesn't matter how good of a surfer you are.

🌊 No wave? 🏄‍♂️ No surfing.

It doesn't matter how talented of a founder you are.

🌊 No demand? 🏄‍♂️ No business.

Increasingly, I think the *who* is less important than the *what*.

✅ "What are people spending money on right now? What problems are they actively trying to solve?"

❌ "Who has money to spend and what might they need?"

In retrospect, being able to visualize the database model, create relationships between tables, and define how inputs would be stored, was amazing for visual thinkers.

I’m hopeful for the future of our society, but only if we recognize the fundamental flaws in our current system.

It’s like programming: when your software crashes, it’s an opportunity to rearchitect things (or refactor) until the underlying flaw has been remedied.

@JustinTrudeau @WestJet @AirCanada Please support local businesses first: restaurants, cafes, pubs, main street shops.

These places are the bedrock of the economy.

Don’t give bailouts to mega corps!

Marketing is about directing the people, who are already searching for a solution, towards your product.

People ask me all the time "who uses @TransistorFM for their podcast?" so I've made a quick page here:

https://transistor.fm/shows

If you’d told me in 1995 that I’d be able to run my own talk radio station and reach thousands of listeners, all for $20 a month, I would have signed up in an instant. https://twitter.com/davegerhardt/status/1137869975421706241

For business (and fishing) the problem is almost always related to one or more of these things:

1. Wrong market (targeting the wrong fish)
2. Wrong spot (you're not where the fish are hanging)
3. Wrong bait (you're not offering them something they want)

To move forward, I had to let go of my ego and my cynicism.

I grieved my lost dreams.

But then, I moved on.

I focused on making progress towards new dreams, bit by bit.

⚡️There's a myth that public speaking is only for overconfident extroverts.

This isn't true!

New blog post:
https://justinjackson.ca/speak

In 1989 I was super pissed that my dad wouldn't buy me a Tandy 5000.

Think about it:

- Walt needed Roy to build Disney.
- @jasonfried partnered with @dhh to build Basecamp.
- @macklemore collaborated with @RyanLewis to produce his breakthrough album, The Heist.

Greatness is almost never a solo endeavor.

This is true product-market fit:

1. Do they pay for it?
2. Do they use it?
3. Does it give them the outcome they want?

My book (@marketingdevs) is on @producthunt today! 🤘

https://www.producthunt.com/posts/marketing-for-developers-2-0

It's funny. When I look at my To Do list, "Check Twitter" isn't on there.

And yet, here I am. (Again)

Big day for Vue.js

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15050841

My best writing happens when I'm:

open,
vulnerable,
taking risks,
challenging norms.

Good writing doesn't play it safe.

There's this fallacy that good content always get's discovered; but the truth is that good content needs *distribution* in order to be seen.

Super excited to be headed back to @LaraconUS on Monday.

(@laravelphp is one of my favorite communities on the internet)

🏀 Apparently, I'm playing basketball (live on the internet?!?) for the @terminaldotshop team?

It's been way too long since @adamwathan and I caught up.

One of my favorite thinkers + doers.

We chatted about the results of @tailwindcss' recent hiring process. Had some pretty big takeaways for small teams!

(With any luck, this will be published on @hackersincpod soon)

Looks like @jonbuda and I have been working on @TransistorFM together for 6 years! ❤️

@ryanseanbadger @stripe It is absurd. The best exploration on this topic is @GeoffTRoberts’ blog post:

https://www.outseta.com/posts/global-sales-tax-compliance-and-remittance

Fun hangout in Antwerp after day 1 of @FullStackEU with this crew. 👍

#fseu23

In my 20s, I started a few businesses that didn’t give me a better life: it was a grind, and we just weren’t getting ahead.

Generally, every time you start a small business you’re making a bet. The payoff should be a better life for you and your family. https://twitter.com/mijustin/status/1638562016536453120

Just gorgeous day.

Too often, we treat people in a binary way.

You're either
- an introvert or extrovert
- new guard or old guard
- a pessimist or optimist
- an insider or outsider
- positive or negative
- smart or dumb

The truth is that folks behave in various ways in different situations.

It's been nearly 10 years of renting an office in downtown Vernon with friends.

For remote workers, "working with a community of people you like, outside of your home" is the ultimate life hack.

One of the best decisions I've made. https://twitter.com/mijustin/status/1622406112103505920

Apparently it's my FIVE-YEAR ANNIVERSARY of working at @TransistorFM ?!??!

https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:7019868328223551489/

Now on Twitter, when you click any old links to Mastodon, they label it as “unsafe.”

Also, Twitter won’t let you post any new links to any Mastodon instance.

Total bullshit.

There's a potential dark side of AI-generated written content, and GPT-3, that nobody's really talking about:

If you're Russia or Iran, you're probably thinking, "How can I get our propaganda to be suggested in these language models?"

@arvidkahl "Avoid survivorship bias when learning"

Studying failure in business isn't that helpful. All sorts of folks start all sorts of businesses; examining an unlimited number of failure modes isn't that instructive.

Success stories are more helpful than people give them credit for.

Elon (the world’s richest man) is crying publicly about having to pay taxes.

The only reason he is paying billions in taxes is because he *waited too long to exercise his options.*

He could have exercised them at $6.24, but is now paying $1k per share.

https://fortune.com/2021/11/10/tesla-elon-musk-stock-options-tax-mistake/

The creator of Evolved Apes NFT disappeared with $2.7 million. But the project is still verified (and being traded) on OpenSea.

This means the scammer is still receiving 4% royalties from each sale. 🙈

https://www.vice.com/en/article/y3dyem/investors-spent-millions-on-evolved-apes-nfts-then-they-got-scammed

Speed test: @TransistorFM vs a competitor.

Dashboard loads 48x faster on Transistor. 🤯

There's a reason creators are leaving platforms like YouTube and going to more open platforms like:

- @SubstackInc, @ConvertKit (email)
- @WordPress, @TryGhost (RSS)
- @podia, @memberful (CSV)

You can take your email list, RSS feed, customer list anywhere. YOU OWN IT.

@taylorotwell Yes. Thanks for speaking up! 🙏

I’m not sure I buy the saying:

“It’s the journey, not the destination.”

Destinations matter!

Life is a series of destinations.

You pick a destination.
You journey towards it.
You arrive.

And, sometimes, you leave.

Another favorite: close Twitter on my computer, then take out my phone and open Twitter. https://twitter.com/mattragland/status/1336508283423760394

While reading @chriscoyier's blog, I had a thought about "value-based pricing."

Many products provide enormous value (like felt pads for your chairs) but aren't priced accordingly.

Why?

Because (ultimately) it's customers who ascribe a value to your product. They decide.

A thought about Substack: lots of folks are writing off these subscriptions as a business expense (like subscribing to industry trade magazines).

Something to keep in mind if you’re thinking about starting a paid newsletter. 📰

(Focus on industry, finance, business, tech)

Super excited about today’s new http://Transistor.fm release! 🎉 https://twitter.com/TransistorFM/status/1321870332983042048

WTF. What kind of leader speaks like this?

This man is narcissistic, delusional, and destructive.

https://www.rev.com/transcript-editor/shared/Pp7iBgGVnXgsHRcMzHGYomVvgnZI6lIPzzEblcgc1pMivyIkv2bxomeSWvgDdnxE0p0EpLJGlinKufxilIfXXLcre70?loadFrom=PastedDeeplink&ts=207.19

When you’re in a strong market, and it’s a good fit for you as a founder, finding good distribution channels shouldn’t be a mystery.

If you know something about the market, you should have a pretty good idea on how you’ll reach people!

Brand awareness + WoM + keyword searches drives most SaaS revenue.

If a customer is ready to buy, they don’t need to be told the benefits. They just need to know:

a) are they in the right place (does this product do what they want it to do)
b) can they trust you

All the folks replying saying: “it’s not a big deal to cancel your Apple subscription and create a new subscription on the web/Android...”

Um, not a big deal to get customers to update their credit card details?

There’s a reason that expired cards make every SaaS company 😱.

Don’t look for “problems that need solving.”

Look for categories where people/businesses are already spending money.

From an entrepreneur’s POV, if folks are willing to spend money on it, it’s a problem worth solving.

Related: my biggest problem generally isn’t going to bed, but rather waking up at 2am-3am and not being able to fall back asleep.

One day, I parked a Porsche and got 25 cents.

After I returned to the front desk, a guy pulled up in a big rusty Ford truck. I rolled my eyes and parked it.

He gave me $20. 😮

In college, I was a bellboy at a Delta hotel.

Our natural inclination is to respond to situations immediately:

"I've got to make a decision quickly! Be decisive!"

But... I've found it's often better to wait.

I wrote about it here:
https://justinjackson.ca/wait

Did your competitor launch a new feature? Wait and see how it works out.

Get a new idea in the shower? Wait and see if you're still excited about it in a week.

Get a suggestion from a customer? Wait and see how important it really is.

Wait, and see how things develop.

Whoa. If this news from @Podnews is correct, Anchor's valuation multiple was much lower than Gimlet's:

Anchor
- $14.4M in funding
- Acquired for $50M
- Multiple: 3.5x

Gimlet
- $28.5M in funding
- Acquired for $250M
- Multiple: 9x

🤔 Usually valuations are = Software > Content.

Today I learned how to set up basic user authentication (login, register) and a database in Laravel! 🙌

(If you like my "Dumb programmer questions" series, you'll dig this 😜)

https://youtu.be/wXyHR42QpOo

Being a solopreneur has risks.

(That don't get talked about enough)

You get 100% of the upside, but you also bear all of the risks.

If you get sick, or if something doesn't go as planned, there's no one there to pick up the slack.

https://justinjackson.ca/solorisk

You could be working on something the market doesn't want. Every day you work on it, you're wasting your time.

On the flip-side, you might be on the right track. In which case, you'll need the endurance to go the difference.

Again, the challenge is knowing which path you're on.

Those #AppleEvent commercials are super smart.

They help people visualize how the product fits into their lives.

Folks go from: "I don't need that..."

To: "Oh wait, that use-case does it for me."

The more I hang out with successful founders, the more I see this commonality in their products:

"Useful, well-made, and desirable for its time."

Still in Chicago, hacking on @TransistorFM with @jonbuda.

We launch on August 1st! 🎉

So excited to finally announce this! 🎉

https://twitter.com/TransistorFM/status/1019649231219388418

Once I could afford it, I rented a little office downtown.

It cost $200 / month. (Utilities, common area includes)

Now, I use a cowork space.

Having an office outside my house is one of the best investments I’ve made. 👍