Tweets

I’m really enjoying @stauffermatt’s new podcast, The Business of Laravel.

It’s especially helpful for @laravelphp devs who are interested in entrepreneurship. 👍 https://twitter.com/businesslaravel/status/1800573899601576350

We’re also investing more in real human live chat support at @TransistorFM.

I personally can’t stand AI chatbots. Having a live human who’s fully empowered to help you solve your problem is 💯💯💯 https://twitter.com/ianlandsman/status/1759301142402503037

Very good bootsrapping podcast episode 👉

@stympy and @heyjoshwood talk candidly about revenue struggles, and then work through a real problem: how they're cutting costs in 2023, and their plans to increase revenue in 2024.

Highly recommended: https://lnkfi.re/9tYQ77

What was the last podcast you listened to?

Where did you listen? (in the car, on a walk, dishes)

Which app did you use?

The first time I saw @calebporzio introduce his ideas for @LaravelLivewire back in Jan 2019, it was his enthusiasm that impressed me the most.

If you watch his recent Livewire launch at @LaraconUS, it's clear how fired up he is about what he's building.

Happy Friday courtesy of my son’s drawing on the office whiteboard. 😄

"Build things; tell people about them." – @patio11

👀 Here are some of the SaaS marketing experiments that @joshuaanderton and I are running over at @TransistorFM.

Would love to hear what you think! 👂

There’s nothing like reading the local paper in a small town.

Once you've built a product that people want, these variables will affect your forward trajectory:

a) your product's reputation
b) the amount of distribution you can get

and

a) your competitors' reputation
b) which distribution channels your competitors own

I legit think I will get my son to edit my next YouTube video to see what he comes up with. 🤔

I think people like ChatGPT answers because... it often just agrees with the premise of your question.

As @ericnuzum states: "It is hard to argue with someone who agrees with you."

GPT has no critical thinking skills.

It defaults to saying the stuff you likely to want to hear.

This @nintendo episode of @AcquiredFM is so freakin’ good.

https://overcast.fm/+Faxl0lWnE

I just published my 2022 year in review.

If you're interested, you can read it here:
https://justinjackson.ca/2022-review

Back in 2016, I noticed how *bad* ads on Tumblr has become.

“These are clearly "bottom of the barrel" type ads.”

Today, in 2022, I’m seeing the same kinds of ads on Twitter.

Most social media companies that are acquired end up losing money, selling for way less, or are marked down to nothing.

Notable exceptions: YouTube, Instagram, LinkedIn.

Overall, "social" seems to be a tough winner-takes-all business. It's completely reliant on advertisers.

Last night I finished reading @sherrywalling’s book, Touching Two Worlds.

It explores a difficult topic: grief.

I thought it was going to be hard and heavy to read. I was wrong!

It’s an incredibly uplifting and hopeful book. Probably the most powerful book I’ve read this year

Perfect Sunday.

#vernonbc

"Our company has $2 million in annual revenue!"

That number is meaningless if your employees are stressed out, burnt out, and underpaid.

@ankurnagpal Here's our stack of newer products:

Affiliate management: @getRewardful
Podcast hosting: @TransistorFM 😊
Calendar scheduling: @savvycal
Video messaging: @ZipMessage
Onboarding emails: @userlist
Screenshots: @XnapperHQ
Analytics: @usefathom
Forms: @heyreform

Hey, I'm going to my first @PodcastMovement this month! 🙌

I'm excited (and a bit nervous).

What are some things I should know (as a first-timer)?

#PM22

Reading Tobi's letter to Shopify employees:

"We made the bet that [ecommerce] would permanently lap ahead by 5 to 10 years. It's clear that the bet didn't pay off.

What we see now is the mix reverting back to roughly the pre-Covid [trend]."

https://news.shopify.com/changes-to-shopifys-team

If you are overwhelmed by climate change, and feel powerless to act, I highly recommend this book by @KHayhoe.

She demonstrates how to have meaningful dialogue with folks all over the political spectrum on the climate crisis.

It’s a book about hope and practical action.

What's the best way to measure the success of an indie startup?

Is it freedom for the founder(s)?
Revenue per team member?
Overall societal impact?

How does it look for you?

Landing in a market with strong customer demand feels like you've been dropped in a kayak on a rushing river.

The river (the market) provides the momentum; you're just steering the best you can, and letting the river take you downstream (fast!).

I’m shorter in real life. https://twitter.com/JavaScriptCoff1/status/1479771822610604034

Success is the accumulation of consistent effort, over time, in the right direction.

I own a Tesla. I’m a fan of the product.

I also think billionaires should pay more tax.

lol. this customer comment made our day.

"@transistorfm – good shit"

thx for the kudos @rriggin!

“Find a great remote job instead of starting a business” is especially good advice for parents with young children.

A startup will require a lot of mental & emotional energy.

Young families require a tremendous amount of mental & emotional energy; very hard to do both.*

Sometimes you need to free up all that mental space, energy, and time you’ve been dedicating to trying to launch a business.

You don’t have to keep anything on the back burner; it’s ok to find a good job, and just stop working on it.

It’s ok to let it go.

You haven’t lived until you’ve had your 12 year-old put you in a headlock and make you beg for mercy.

Any Unity devs out there?

My 16 year-old has some questions. 😅

💃 Who else has kids going back to school this week? 🕺

Just added @Netlify's excellent podcast (hosted by @cassidoo, @shortdiv, @jlengstorf, @philhawksworth, and more!) to @TransistorFM's list of "Best podcasts for software developers." 🏆👩‍💻

https://transistor.fm/dev-podcasts/

Getting pretty apocalyptic downtown #vernonbc.

#WhiteRockLakeFire #BCWS #BCWildfire @Kamscan

@hnshah We should really be teaching founders that it’s ok for something to not work out and move on to something else.

https://justinjackson.ca/moving-on

Employers who are "afraid entrepreneurial employees will just leave" should turn it around:

"How can we create a work environment that will encourage (even our most entrepreneurial) employees to stick around and contribute at a high level?"

https://twitter.com/angrigoryan__/status/1405241398400593931

Ok. @calebporzio & @DCoulbourne are running my fave virtual conference ever.

Alpine Day has a live wood carving demonstration (brilliantly done by @jesseschutt!) as one of the sessions, and I just want to watch this all day. 💯

https://alpineday.com/

🤔 When you clean your keyboard do you turn it off (unplug it) before wiping, or do you keep it on and just YOLO it?

⌨️💦

@TwitterSpaces how do we access this on the web?

"Driving more traffic" to a product that doesn't already have underlying demand isn't going to produce more results.

✅ You want people who are already searching for a solution. The purpose of marketing is to take that existing momentum, and direct it towards your product.

Devastating to hear from my friends in India (and those with relatives in India).

Almost all of them have people in their families who have died from Covid. 💔

(Honestly, I must be thinking about all of this because I turned 40 in June and I’m having a midlife crisis. 😆)

It’s weird to think about internet people’s “age.”

For example, the people I looked up to when I got into bootstrapping and SaaS (in 2008) will always feel “older” than me.

The folks who got started at the same time as me will always feel like they’re my same age.

It's 2021, and software is eating the world.

But, if the government wants to buy your software you still need to browse a list of 20,000 product categories and find one that matches "software."

Without a doubt, @TransistorFM would not have grown as fast if it weren’t for @getRewardful.

I recorded a quick testimonial here:

https://www.getrewardful.com/friends/justin-jackson

This is a good point.

I hustled the hardest when I was working for businesses with low margins.

That’s the thing about low-margin work: you spend an enormous amount of energy treading water.

High-margin work gives you the space to do less tasks, with more impact. https://twitter.com/hsantana8/status/1376974222916997123

We as men, need to recognize:

- If our behavior makes women feel unsafe, it is not safe behavior.
- We need to understand the daily experience of women (harassment, fear, etc) and be vigilant about our own behavior and the behavior of other men.

👀 You’ll be able to charge for tweets soon?

https://www.theverge.com/2021/2/25/22301375/twitter-super-follows-communities-paid-followers

I know I’m a programming noob, but every time I learn something new I get so fucking pumped. 💪

Learning stuff like this gives me the same high as drugs. 💊

Ok. @helpscout seems to be getting the most recommendations.

Signing up now. I'll report back! 🤙

The true test of Clubhouse is how often I go to the app and find something I want to listen to.

Pages and pages of options... but nothing compelling for me to listen to on my drive.

Quibi is the perfect case study for overcapitalization.

Injecting $1.75 billion into an industry doesn’t do anyone any good if it’s not sustainable.

Shows get cancelled. People lose jobs. Dreams are dashed.

https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2021/01/quibis-1-75b-experiment-ends-with-roku-acquisition-for-less-than-100m/

If anyone here is on @joinClubhouse, I'm doing a "bootstrapping SaaS" chat in ~15 minutes:

https://www.joinclubhouse.com/event/dxnXBQam

Founders who haven't raised money (but are interested in raising money):

What would you use the money for?

How would it help move your company forward?

Why do you think it would be a good bet for investors to take?

It will be smaller, regional offices and flexible coworking spaces.

More folks will move to smaller cities. They'll do coworking sessions together. They'll rent smaller offices together. https://twitter.com/abarrallen/status/1349539596242075648

I started working in tech a bit later in life (age 28).

But once I got going, this was my progression: https://twitter.com/mijustin/status/1344777000905412609

🎧 A podcast player is the perfect “inbox” for your podcasts.

There’s nothing else here except for my “episodes to listen to next.”

📧 Still not convinced that my email inbox is the perfect place for all these newsletters.

🤔 Time to go back to an RSS reader?

Fascinating responses in this thread.

Really surprising how inexpensive the Midwest is compared to most other places (and how expensive the Pacific Northwest & California are!) https://twitter.com/thesamparr/status/1335710033741492227

The problem with having lots of followers is they're aligned around you, instead of being aligned around a problem-space.

If you're looking to build a product company, you need a group of people looking for that solution!

In most cases, only a tiny % of your audience will care.

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).

🇨🇦 Any Canadians here have an accountant/bookkeeper who understands businesses that are located here, but primarily invoice in USD?

Looking for someone who really gets the digital economy.

“Being an ally means getting uncomfortable. It means risking your status and your reputation. It’s not enough to make an Instagram post and donate. You have to do more. Put your lives on the line for black people.”

Powerful video from @RachRodgersEsq:

https://www.instagram.com/tv/CA1Ez5qHL6o/

Here’s another profitable SaaS (@honeybadgerapp) where the founders work 30 hours/week. Company policy!!!

https://twitter.com/heyjoshwood/status/1266201659018932226?s=21 https://twitter.com/heyjoshwood_/status/1266201659018932226

Many of us launched computer-related businesses when we were young. (IT support, web design, coding)

How were we able to do that?

We’d spent most of childhoods acquiring those skills (likely 10+ years of practice)!

Kids who didn’t grow up with PCs would have had a harder time.

The web was the first time in history where individual creators got some leverage.

It gave us the power to distribute our work, without gatekeepers.

When a single company controls distribution, we lose that leverage.

We’ve seen this every time one platform gains dominance.

Amazon, Facebook, Medium.

That’s the *play*. Destroy the open ecosystem and control all the economics.

Shareholders like monopolies.

Having my morning coffee and hanging out with @CasJam and @JordanGal.

@adamwathan I thought this was your most life changing tweet:

https://twitter.com/adamwathan/status/1001527706498957312?s=21 https://twitter.com/adamwathan/status/1001527706498957312

Anyone who's seen my coding livestreams can see I need serious help.

I think @calebporzio's new thing is the remedy I need! 🚑

https://learn-vscode.com/

@alexisohanian Everything by @steveschoger and @adamwathan: https://tailwindui.com/

The market you’re in determines so much.

Move to a different city and you can increase your income by 4x-6X? 😮

Even if rent is 4x-6x more, you still net more income.

(My hope: remote work levels this playing field) https://twitter.com/morewry/status/1211494789062881282

This isn’t something that “might happen.”

This stuff is happening now.

What are we going to do about it?

https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/2019/world/climate-environment/climate-change-tasmania/

@jasonfried @jonbuda 😅 I feel like I got caught with my hand in the cookie jar.

As @sivers explains, there is a number less than 1%.

https://overcast.fm/+VF_dXte2o

"SaaS companies" might be growing fast as a segment (meaning: there are more this year than last year), but that's only relevant if we know how they're spending their money.

It's interactions like these that make me want to keep doing @transistorfm support forever. ❤️

@ddevjani @hnshah I recently made this video (in response to another question on Twitter).

It should give you a good overview:

Can’t wait to watch this one and see what Steve came up with! 🙌 https://twitter.com/steveschoger/status/1162048820957630465

Excited to use this: @studiofellow's been building a tool for designers and devs who like to edit web pages in devtools. 👌

Beyond excited to have @benediktdeicke and @brhea launch their new podcast (@SlowSteadyPod) on @TransistorFM! 🎉

https://www.slowandsteadypodcast.com/episodes/who-are-we-and-why-are-we-here

Yes! @ApplePodcasts are front and center! 🙌

I think this is the fundamental misunderstanding about startups: you’re not “creating” a market.

The market is already there. (Or, there is no market).

Our job as product people is to serve that market better than they’re being served right now.

Podcasters! For the next 20 minutes, I'm happy to leave you a review for your podcast to get you started. https://www.pscp.tv/w/b7cYKTM4NTU1MXwxa3ZLcE9aV1ZaYXhFHMeZI0HAWba1nFuxOnXqB0UkcB9_20_nvwicuOrq4KI=

This was a really key part of my chat with @adamwathan.

We build on Seth Godin's idea of "People like us do things like this."

https://overcast.fm/+IoArliu40

@shl https://justinjackson.ca/heroes

Tomorrow! @r00k (http://Tuple.app), @JordanGal (http://Carthook.com) and I (http://transistor.fm) are doing a livestream about PRICING.

Subscribe here to get notified:
https://youtu.be/llGI3nQRA1E

"What makes people switch?"

and

"What keeps people from switching?"

These are the main questions every product person needs to ask.

https://twitter.com/brennandunn/status/1106001192000344064?s=21

Arguably, most tech businesses are built off someone else's platform:

- Indie Hackers was built off Hacker News.
- Airbnb was built off Craigslist.
- Most podcast businesses are built off Apple Podcasts.

The internet itself was originally someone else's platform (U.S. Gov)

This hits too close to home.

Good luck finding me on google now! 😭

#iShouldHavePlayedSports

Hey y'all, deep work is great and all, but I liked the good 'ol days when I could DM you and you'd reply instantly. lol. 😜

Just canceled Medium and Audible.

Only $5 and $14.95 respectively, but I wasn't really using either of them.

I thought I would love Medium membership, but it felt like the articles became more irrelevant to me after subscribing. 🤷‍♂️

I like Audible but have 10 books in my queue!

My journey's going to be different than @benchestnut's, but as a new bootstrapped founder, his advice here is encouraging:

"There’ll be times when it just keeps getting worse and worse and worse. You’ll feel like the only one who hasn’t figured it out yet."

⚡ I've been doing a bunch of livestreaming lately.

Here's my setup for broadcasting live on Twitch, YouTube, Facebook Live, and Periscope - all at the same time.

https://buff.ly/2PokfGD

🤔 @IndieHackers tracks the age of its users.

I would be super interested to know the "median age of an indie hacker." 😉

Love living here. 🏂

"I launched. No one showed up. What do I do now?"

https://tinymarketingwins.com/product-marketing-hard/

Another question to ask about that product you're building:

"How motivated is the customer to solve this problem?"

"[This person] was successful so I'm going to copy what they did and be successful too."

☝️ this almost never works.