Tweets

I'm doing a design workshop with @laurium today if you'd like to join us!

(No cost)

https://my.demio.com/ref/qvSoKgBa9xU46Ld2

Founders (especially bootstrappers with co-founders):

How do you deal with the "what if I get hit by a bus?" problem? 😱 🚌

https://share.transistor.fm/s/a36d03eb

This article is largely about how the future of publishing is email.

However, I couldn't help but notice the similarities to podcasting.

https://www.wired.com/story/future-book-is-here-but-not-what-we-expected/

Live now: building a website for a podcast using @ajlkn's landing page tool. https://www.pscp.tv/w/bpYvczM4NTU1MXwxa3ZKcGFiUm1FbXhFLjKR_rBUxxFY4YRqYcHqHHoQL3lwkidm-9D9gHOgBEw=

Whoa. I like @Patticus's podcast style.

In his interview with @dcancel (Drift), he addresses the elephant in the room right away:

"Sooo... can we talk about Intercom?"

Great show. Subscribe!
https://share.transistor.fm/s/58b147b0

My most upvoted product ever on @ProductHunt is @marketingdevs (1080).

@TransistorFM is currently at 742. Will it beat my old score? 👀

https://www.producthunt.com/posts/transistor-fm

Now @wesbos is on the #laracon stage explaining CSS Grid. 👌🇨🇦

Noticing many of my friends are getting burnt out on digital work.

https://twitter.com/jongold/status/929461185077899265
https://twitter.com/kylefox/status/838873147336175622

They're turning to IRL experiences:
🌿 Permaculture
🛠 Building and woodworking
📷 Photography
☕ Building traditional businesses (coffee shops)

OLD PEOPLE RULE.

https://twitter.com/DanielPink/status/1011235089894789121

📊 Just had a great conversation about SaaS pricing with @Patticus.

DAMN, HE'S GOOD.

Can't wait to share it with you; his insights were incredibly helpful.

You'll be able to hear the full interview on http://productpeople.tv, and a summary on http://saas.transistor.fm

When to send someone a cold pitch:
- you've done your research
- you're certain you can help them get a better return on their business.

When not to send someone a cold pitch:
- you just want something from them, but have no relationship

Looking for a list of marketing ideas for your startup?

Check out @tiny_wins:
https://tinymarketingwins.com

“You don’t need help until you’ve tried something and got stuck.” – @jasonfried & @dhh

Just updated my "Successful SaaS" spreadsheet (added @zapier's new numbers):

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1RwrDxt1KwAB_MSoHN79adVhVXanHeMXZ2UvWIos_-oM/edit?usp=sharing

When @nathanbarry initially targeted his email newsletter app at “people who were frustrated with MailChimp” growth was slow.

It wasn’t until he positioned @ConvertKit as “email marketing for professional bloggers” that growth took off.

Positioning!

"Hey kids! If you want to see what 🎅🏻 is bringing you this year, just take a look at your parents' retargeting ads!"

@ezra_marc @jenndangerous What is going on here? 😮

It’s a winter wonderland in #vernonbc today.

Just had an incredibly uplifting chat with @nickd for @megaprofitable.

Yes, he shared revenue numbers, but he also gave so much more.

Just had an awesome call with @adamwathan about how devs can quit their jobs and go indie. 🎸

During my retreat with @pjrvs & @studiofellow I had a powerful insight about products.

Can u help me clarify it?

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1C6EFHulcgFUhfapQclJHsLaDjskU_U4NMBELdF3lIik/edit?usp=sharing

Anyone else feeling overwhelmed on a Monday? 👋

SO MUCH TO DO

Awwww yeaaah! Going on stage at #laracon right away. 🤘

https://twitter.com/MRyanMcCarthy/status/890245261238218752

Scary time to be visiting NYC! 😱

https://twitter.com/cwotd/status/889103420946296832

Often, buying a product helps me feel like I'm "going pro."

(An interesting #jtbd)

1. People have to WANT the progress you're selling. "Faster car = shorter commute"

2. They have to believe you can deliver on your promise.

Quality takes time to develop.

But... don't wait too long to ship.

(doing product means living in this tension)

This is why product / market fit is important.

https://twitter.com/evanderkoogh/status/874547353709027329

I'm a big fan of side-projects.

Just reviewed @basecamp's moonlighting policy. Feels fair.
👍 @jasonfried & @dhh!

https://github.com/basecamp/handbook/blob/master/moonlighting.md

Love this custom keyboard @coreywstone made for @ProductHunt. 🙌 ⌨️

https://www.producthunt.com/posts/hero-keyboard-v2-0

The craziest thing about @basecamp's story is they went from launch to 100,000+ accounts in two years. O_o

People who ship will always beat people who don’t ship.

Ever had this happen to you?

Your fingers remember your master password, but your brain momentarily forgets it?

This x 💯

https://twitter.com/benedictfritz/status/722937487358689282

#microconf confessional:

Last night @andrewculver and I had a McDonalds date.

People giving you their money is only the 1st step. After that comes:
1) Keeping those customers happy
2) Finding more customers efficiently

When you're building stuff you need momentum. You can't ask people for opinions all day. You need to sit down and do the work. Ship it.

Hey #microconf, here's a good intro to Jobs to be Done:

http://justinjackson.ca/hidden/

"Your product has hidden benefits"

Dear SEO consultants: I am the number one search result for "nerd mullet."

Your services will not be required.

How would you re-design this @serial landing page to make it more effective?

http://buff.ly/1xMbvfO

What does financial freedom look like to you?

- a certain amount of annual income
- a certain amount of money in the bank/investments
- or, a combination of both

Got to hang out with @DanielZarick, @iamcoreyg, and @andrewculver tonight!

After dinner, Andrew took us to this amazing rooftop bar.

Planning on getting a booth at @LaraconUS to sell "Landsman Weed."

"Try 10 things as fast as possible and see what works. Just start failing, start making mistakes, start getting some data, and see what happens."

Great advice from @r00k. https://twitter.com/r00k/status/1767929267889852777

Windy day, but still managed to get some good laps in!

Dad’s cookin’ tonight

Early results from my SaaS marketing survey.

"What are your top marketing channels when it comes to attracting revenue?"

Glad I caught this typo

"Timing and momentum are more important than talent."

Digging this quote from André 3000's GQ interview.

"There's a lot of people with talent, but it's your timing [that matters] – whether you're catching the zeitgeist of what's happening."

True in music and in business.

Yesterday, the news of Google Podcasts' shutdown prompted an experiment I've wanted to try for a while:

I've started a "Podcast Industry News" show.

It's going to be:

- a YouTube "podcast"
- a regular audio podcast
- a website with blog-style writing

Here's the workflow I'm…

The best part about @PodcastMovement is hanging out with great people.

#pm23

Asking my business partner if this can be a business expanse.

@arithisandthat We (@joshuaanderton) and I have been trying to make this the best guide for learning how to:

⭐ Pick a podcast topic
🎙️ Choose a microphone
💻 Record and edit your episode
🟢 Upload to @spotify, @ApplePodcasts, etc.
📈 Promote your podcast
💰 Monetize

https://transistor.fm/how-to-start-a-podcast/

About ~25 people at Geek Beers tonight in Vernon, BC. 👍

Patrick has always been good at distilling complex financial topics into terms people can understand.

Section 174 will be very bad for small software companies.

Go and sign @mjwhansen’s petition! https://twitter.com/patio11/status/1647047256879816704

I'm seeing more DMs from founders launching stand-alone products built on top of ChatGPT.

They ask me for my advice, and honestly, I don't know what to tell them.

Differentiation will be challenging (many of the products I'm seeing are similar to each other).

The building blocks for your life are:

- the experiments you try
- the people you meet
- the places you visit
- the books you read
- the skills you build

This all relies on what you get exposed to; it's hard to imagine something you've never experienced.

Searching for published studies on the "long-term effects of price increases in SaaS."

Haven't found anything yet that looks at how increasing SaaS pricing affects: LTV, customer acquisition (number of leads, conversion rate), etc.

Anyone have anything?

spicy https://twitter.com/TransistorFM/status/1604936837990322176

Notice that Elon isn't blocking traffic to Tumblr, Reddit, or Truth Social.

(All of which contain a multitude of malicious, spammy links and violent content)

There's no legitimate policy here; Elon is just mad.

Ok this is pretty good.

@derrickreimer ok, but can mine say justin jackson instead of derrick reimer

Business isn't a zero-sum game,

In business, "winning" means achieving a better life for yourself, your team, and your customers.

If you're profitable, have an awesome product, enjoy serving your customers, earn good money, and work with amazing people then you're winning!!!

@nathanbarry @ConvertKit Wow! I have a bunch of follow-up questions (I’ll collect my thoughts and ask later).

Thanks for sharing all this. 👍

Many of us grew up in scarcity, where there wasn't a lot of $.

We were told that buying certain things was a "waste."
We were taught to be fearful of losing money.

But if you have zero threshold for "wasted" money, you give yourself (and your family) a lot of unneeded stress.

Beach days are the best days

#vernonbc

My friends at @podia are on @ProductHunt today.

Let's give them some ❤️!

https://www.producthunt.com/posts/podia-get-your-free-website

What are some good strategies for teaching your kids to manage money?

This article by @DanielZarick on how startups can "work in bets" is good:

https://arrows.to/resources/building-arrows/working-in-bets/

Lol. 💯 true. https://twitter.com/ReamBraden/status/1475943270836580362

There's a reason that word-of-mouth is the holy grail for any product: it proves that people want it, and are willing to tell other people about it.

It's a simple, virtuous cycle:

User tries the product
User likes the product
User tells other people about the product

The way to get more insights, ideas, and innovation is to have more experiences, connections, and experiments.

When evaluating a company's success, we should go beyond "how much revenue do they make?"

Other crucial questions:

- How much drama is their internally/externally?
- How much freedom do they have?
- How much stress is there?
- Do they enjoy their work?
- What are their margins?

What’s great about science is that every claim has to be evaluated and independently replicated, multiple times.

Science doesn’t care about the “cult of the individual.” It doesn’t matter how well-known/popular an expert is.

You can’t make a claim based on reputation alone.

"The dotcom bubble was driven by suits who had nothing to offer except hype, and they oversold everyone (including themselves).

But the hackers didn’t really care. The bubble burst, the grifters skipped town, and the hackers kept hacking.

☝️ It could be the same with crypto."

Guess where I am

I wouldn't be surprised if *most* company's analytics and funnels are incorrectly configured.

Companies are making big decisions based on faulty data. (It's happened to me multiple times)

Also, many of the metrics we're getting from Google, FB, etc are inflated.

The market is a brutal judge.

It doesn’t care how good your intentions are, how many customer interviews you did, how hard you worked on the design, how skilled you are at programming, or how prestigious your investors are:

customers will decide your final verdict.

Most of these trends are still going strong in 2021. https://twitter.com/mijustin/status/1246097778914160640

Back in February, I wondered if Clubhouse would suffer the same fate as Meerkat: initial enthusiasm from the VC/early-adopter class, but fizzle out later.

https://twitter.com/mijustin/status/1356206249684004866

Save some space,
Give yourself margin,
Leave room in the budget,
Don't cut it too close.

You'll feel better.

Lots of startups are using stock Tailwind components + color scheme to get a nice site out the door (which is good!)

But, someone could come along and really make it feel custom. Tailwind is built for this!

https://twitter.com/jonhainstock/status/1334949451182583809

@Martin_Adams Yes, but only because of therapy, and doing some serious emotional work (that I ignored for years).

☝️ I realize this has become a trope (“40 year-old man goes to therapy and discovers emotions”) but I seriously neglected some internal stuff for a long time.

Too many founders have drunk the "charge more" Kool-Aid and try to offer a premium price from day 1.

In many established categories, you're not going to be able to compete if you have fewer features but a higher price point. 😜

Now I’m here.

@derrickreimer bold move! (I like it)

Had a really helpful session with @nickswan today.

He used http://seotesting.com to diagnose the SEO issues I'd noticed yesterday and gave me 3-4 solid suggestions.

@seo_testing is definitely going to be a key part of my toolbelt going forward (in addition to Ahrefs).

SaaS is the highest growth, highest-margin product in the world right now...

... and yet most banks, insurance companies, brokers, lawyers, accountants, and governments have ZERO clue how we work. https://twitter.com/_brandswell/status/1347269684442390528

It’s Grinch time.

(Happy holidays!)

I just trimmed my nose hairs which means THE PANDEMIC IS OFFICIALLY OVER.

“Audience” is an amplifier, but it’s rarely the foundation you build your business on.

There should be existing demand, outside of your influence; almost none of us have an audience big enough to carry a SaaS on our own. https://twitter.com/leandropinter/status/1321759961039335425

Watching @mxpx and @mikeherreraTD perform their first remote gig.

Impressed. (Amazing audio quality 💯)

Completing the @MicroConf bootstrapped saas survey, and I guess I've tipped over into the "old founders" group.

👋👴

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

What I’m railing against is the idea of writing long, benefit-driven copy, as opposed to specifically telling me what your app does.

This “so what?” methodology is a good example. To me, it leads to fluffy, abstract copy.

It’s enough to tell me “this oven preheats fast!”

“You can do whatever you want in life; but at what cost?” – Jamie Thomas

Someone just sent me this DM. ❤️

Also a big 🙌 to my fellow "bootstrapped" pods. Hearing my pals (all over the world) talk this out has been huge for me.

@JordanGal @r00k @benediktdeicke @brhea @CasJam @derrickreimer @arvidkahl @JackEllis @joshuaanderton @digitaltrouble @noahwbragg @BarrettABrooks @nathanbarry

This is hard to watch, but everyone should watch it: Claire just got back from Spain where she saw the effects of coronavirus firsthand.

#covid19 is no joke.

https://www.instagram.com/tv/B9xl0dpovjb/?igshid=1wdwz7p771bap

Alright, just updated this. Not sure if I made it better or worse! 🤦‍♂️

Let me know what you think:
https://justinjackson.ca/the-main-thing https://twitter.com/mijustin/status/1221207949810401280