Tweets

"Success comes from persistently improving, not persistently doing what’s not working." – @sivers

https://youtu.be/mBlJVazr4A0

It’s not the “form” of your product that matters; it’s the FUNCTION.

Too many founders are focused on the form (SaaS, iOS app, etc.)

Biggest lessons for people making stuff: focus on your customers, ignore the rest. https://medium.com/mega-maker/focus-on-your-own-shit-b8dc14f8c7c0#---0-83.8sghywv9h

Just posted "Are you a solopreneur or teampreneur?" on @producthunt:

https://www.producthunt.com/podcasts/megamaker-039-are-you-a-solopreneur-or-a-teampreneur

Excited to be a @MicroConf keynote speaker this year in Vegas! #microconf

https://twitter.com/dotNetkow/status/783359474958422017

Clearly, TV executives have never had to explain "licensing deals" to a 7 year old whose favorite show is no longer on Netflix...

4. Employees: your boss is not a benevolent parent.

All you owe them is the work they hired you to do in the hours you have to do it.

Whoa! Over 108 💚 on this Medium post: “Are we at peak SaaS?”

https://medium.com/product-people/saas-is-ripe-for-disruption-56429324a0ed#.h0cwoqmch

The freedom ladder https://justinjackson.ca/freedom/

High five to all the real humans out there. 🖐

“This is the only common thread with successful entrepreneurs: they keep trying…” — @pjrvs https://medium.pjrvs.com/success-is-for-the-lucky-579e30576eb2#---0-112.yrqpjk888

Holy wack-a-mole-ee.

I just looked up the stats: @marketingdevs has sold 2,442 copies. 🎉

http://buff.ly/29fs6kO

“Dad if I get rich can I have a mini fridge in my room?”
— my 6 year old

Reminder for tomorrow:

https://twitter.com/mijustin/status/730142089996951553

Chewing on this.

"If you can get anyone to show up and pay you $1, you've made it on the internet." – @danmartell

“Make good stuff” is good advice, but hard to unpack.

What you make has to be exceptional + compelling in a way that surprises people.

#microconf 🔑

"Keep pricing in line with the outcome you're trying do create." - @cjlew23

Your biz model should reflect your biz values!

Wow. Almost 300 ♥!

https://medium.com/product-people/focus-on-your-own-shit-b8dc14f8c7c0#.sy212nwra

Marketing automation used to feel really intimidating for me.

But once you start doing it it makes way more sense. You just have to start.

Troubling trend: founders earn $ from side-gigs but don't let their staff do the same. What's good for the prince isn't good for the pauper?

Happy new year! Just added the "2016 Maker Challenge" to @ProductHunt.

Check it out:
https://www.producthunt.com/tech/2016-maker-challenge

The secret to products is this: people don't want to do any work.

They want you to take away the drudgery. Make it easy, fun, undemanding.

@hotdogsladies @johnroderick it's true because they put it in Jeopardy blue.

“We want to produce great work, but our desks are full of distractions.” — @mijustin @mijustin/things-ive-quit-doing-at-my-desk-b9cfd73d44e7?source=tw-a02dd1574d08-1436649581065#3e0e--share-0-70" rel="noopener noreferrer">https://medium.com/@mijustin/things-ive-quit-doing-at-my-desk-b9cfd73d44e7?source=tw-a02dd1574d08-1436649581065#3e0e--share-0-70

Quit comparing yourself to other people’s success. Results will vary!

Focus on your own results. Improve those 1% every week.

“The fastest way to change yourself is to hang out with people who are already the way you want to be.”
— Reid in Hoffman

I love @gumroad pay day.

✊

#buildandlaunch

I keep coming back to this excellent post by @chrisbowler: "Side projects and being a family man" http://buff.ly/1tNCKYi

Slack research hack:

1. Log into Google Analytics
2. Search for "slack"
3. See who's talking about you

http://buff.ly/1yAh5kB

The whole point of building software is to help real human beings accomplish something significant.

Let’s make this count.

If this is secret advertising by WinRar... it's brilliant.

http://i.imgur.com/3eHxWD5.jpg

“Starting small puts 100% of your energy into solving real problems for real people” - @sivers

"The way to get started is to quit talking and begin doing."
-Walt Disney

"Long projects zap morale. The longer it takes to develop, the less likely it is to launch." - @dhh & @jasonfried

Now on the @LaraconUS stage: @joetannenbaum on building terminal UIs.

Love Joe’s presentation style. 👏👏👏

#laracon

🫣 Spoiler - here's the listing, location, price:

Price: $799k CAD ($584k USD)
Location: Edmonton, Alberta, Canada
Neighborhood: Summerside

https://www.redfin.ca/ab/edmonton/3137-Spence-Wynd-SW-T6X-0H8/home/157552823

Maybe I should publish all my youtube videos at 250x speed. 🤔

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

Every time I get raptured, this message appears on my phone

"Pay-once" works if:

a) you're selling a high-ticket $$$ item ($100k, custom install), but most small bootstrappers aren't set up for that.

b) you have a very high volume of interest with a strong built-in distribution channel (@tailwindcss and @tailwindui)

@levelsio It’s not the warmest place, but Calgary, Alberta, Canada gets 2405 hours of sunshine a year (333 days).

Need some help:

Hoping to publish this YouTube video today; just need help choosing a thumbnail! 🙏

Title of the video: "Starting a podcast: is it worth it?"

Do any of these work? (Reply with the number you like the best)

I'm also open to suggestions!

The pandemic revealed that many of our desires remain unexpressed until the right moment. There's a lesson here for business owners.

During the lockdowns, folks had more free time. And, for many, this was the push they needed to start doing new things: they played music, started…

Does Apple not benchmark CPU and GPU performance against Intel and Nvidia?

Observation: The content I post on LinkedIn has a long shelf life.

People continue to discover, share, and comment on posts I made days/weeks ago.

(Unlike here, where engagement seems to fall off a cliff within hours of posting)

Heading to Edmonton to see @IronMaiden tomorrow! 🤘

#yeg

@aarondfrancis It's Christmas break in the year 1992, and you're 12 years old.

Mom made pizza. You figured out how to play Duke Nukem 3D over a dial-up modem with your friend Greg.

Thirty years later, you'll still remember it and wish you could go back.

I've been enjoying @mattwensing's newsletter.

I agree with him here, "target a real felt cost," but there's another feeling (besides pain) that motivates buying behavior:

DESIRE.

Some folks might have bought an iPod because they were tired of carrying 1000 CDs, but many bought…

In product design, we associate "more friction = bad," but that's not always true.

One of the things I enjoy about podcasting is that it takes extra effort for a listener to reach out.

That extra effort often results in thoughtful emails, DMs, tweets, etc.

Culturally, many of us were taught to push the limits: pedal to the metal, give 110%, and turn your amp up to 11!

We max ourselves out in every area: our finances, our relationships, our health, and our careers.

It's OK to create space and calm for the season of life you're in.

“People in an Idea Lab don’t usually take arguments personally because Idea Lab culture is built around the core notion that people and ideas are separate things. People are meant to be respected, ideas are meant to be batted around and picked apart.”

– @waitbutwhy

I just created a public "Bootstrappers / @IndieHackers on Bluesky" list here:

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1Tz5ihnzD5t6-o_8SZFn3WFqLS-PVLDYClJnbCcq75Hk/edit?usp=sharing

Last night, Lorinda started repainting my office background for video.

@theKevinShen suggests that folks with a skin tone like mine choose a dark “cool” tone for the back wall.

We’re painting it a matte black to create a contrast between me (the subject) and the background.

Broadly, these are the five most important variables in business:

- how much demand is there from customers for your type of product?
- how many of these potential customers are there?
- how much are they willing to pay?
- how much competition is there?
- what are your costs?

I talk more about how "the main thing" often gets most of the revenue in a value chain here:

https://justinjackson.ca/the-main-thing

I see this happening with ChatGPT (the main thing) and many of the startups being launched (most are "side dishes").

When we started our company, @jonbuda and I defined our principles and values early on, but we knew the business still had to have a good "engine" to sustain those values.

The "engine" of a company is capturing customer demand sustainably, with sufficient margins.

I asked ChatGPT:

“Which cities in North America are world class?”

It answered:

1. New York
2. LA
3. Toronto
4. Vancouver, BC
5. Montreal
6. Chicago
7. San Francisco
8. Mexico City
9. Miami
10. Seattle

Do you agree, or disagree, with this ranking?

If you're a podcaster considering switching hosting providers, let me know!

In the last few months, we've had a bunch of people switch to @TransistorFM from:

- bigger, more complicated, "enterprisey" DAI tools
- free hosting providers who have limited support and functionality

So many of us business owners end up being a slave to our companies, and we forget why we started our businesses in the first place: to give us, our families, and our employees a better life!

I love receiving @balsamiq's year-end report.

Inspiring to see @peldi and his team building a bootstrapped business like this:

"We’re focused on longevity over growth and remain profitable." 🎯

Happy team, happy customers: better life! 🤩

https://mailchi.mp/balsamiq/looking-back-at-balsamiqs-2022?e=0a71629d7f

Honestly, this is probably the best SaaS/indie hacker/bootstrapper podcast interview of the year.

Results! 🤣

<warning: elon criticism>

"Move fast and don't give a shit about FTC rules or the privacy and security of your users."

"This will put huge amount of personal, professional and legal risk onto engineers. All of this is extremely dangerous for our users."

https://www.theverge.com/2022/11/10/23451198/twitter-ftc-elon-musk-lawyer-changes-fine-warning

I'm trying something new for my email newsletter.

Here's my first attempt:

https://justinjackson.ck.page/posts/a-few-thoughts-from-today

(let me know what you think)

(subscribe if you want)

Make the credit card companies do sales tax compliance.

They have the infrastructure to handle calculation, collection, and remittance for every transaction.

Govts would see a huge increase in sales tax revenue because they're no longer asking millions of small biz to do it.

Also, a big thank you to @EpikMontreal. 🙌

We rented their penthouse suite to have a common room to meet, work, and hang out in and it was perfect.

They’re a small hotel with really friendly staff, and it’s walkable to everything in Old Montreal.

SO EXCITED ABOUT THIS NEW FEATURE:

🧔‍♂️🤹‍♀️ People Profiles for your podcast!

@jonbuda did such a good job building this one. 🙌 https://twitter.com/TransistorFM/status/1575920428068937728

It makes sense for creators to be on platforms where there are lots of people.

But it still feels weird to me that we rely on these megacorps for distribution.

Time after time, we've been lured with the promise of distribution, only to have them shut down organic reach.

Fun vibe at the @spotifypodcasts event tonight.

Finally got to hang with @aarondowdtx 👋

#pm22

Lots of folks believe that there's a "peak happiness/income inflection point."

But @penn research found:

"Larger incomes were associated with significantly higher levels of all positive feelings and significantly lower levels of all negative feelings."

https://www.pnas.org/doi/full/10.1073/pnas.2016976118

@taylorotwell @adamwathan 🔥

@adamwathan 💯

I see companies doing the same revenue as @TransistorFM, but have 10-20 people! 😮😧

Many success stories highlight how founders had to overcome financial hardship: running out of money, eating ramen, having cheques bounce, etc.

This is not the ideal way to build a company.

Much better to give yourself some financial margin, than to be living on the edge.

This is coming for us in North America as well.

We can expect more extreme heat and wildfires this summer. 🔥🌲

Here’s one simple action we can all do:

✍️ Write your political reps right now. Urge them to commit to carbon emissions targets with a clear plan (nuclear, etc) https://twitter.com/billmckibben/status/1519523035786584065

"On the importance of naming things."

This episode of http://Makers.dev (with @cgenco and @chrisachard) was great. 👍

🎧 https://share.transistor.fm/s/8050c9a2

(Also worth listening for Christian's home automation discoveries)

For a proper exploration of why

🐦 Twitter is not a public square,
📜 the First Amendment was written to restrict governments, not private companies,
💭 we need to "imagine [better] spaces designed for democracy"

Read @ma_franks' paper in @YaleLJournal:
https://www.yalelawjournal.org/forum/beyond-the-public-square-imagining-digital-democracy

My take:

Elon's stated aim is to "improve free speech on the platform."

This acquisition won't change how Twitter falls under free speech legislation (private platforms can ban users).

Folks who align with Elon ideologically will be happy, though.

https://justinjackson.ca/elon-musk-and-free-speech

I just subscribed to @CasJam’s new podcast: “conversations with founders about software startups, entrepreneurship, and life.”

https://overcast.fm/+46sG6iIG0

What are the best walking shoes you’ve ever had? 👟

Anyone else getting a ton of these spam SMS messages lately?

@philipbrown When a brand is new, I recommend succinctly describing what your software is/does in your H1.

(Help people immediately answer: "what does this do? who is it for?")

It's also better for SEO.

How's this for our next @TransistorFM ad?

In my experience, here are things that reduce the stress in a business, and improve a founder's quality of life:

1. Build something that people are already searching + paying for.
2. Build stuff that's easy to maintain.
3. Keep your payroll small.
4. Keep expenses low.

We've tried lots of live chat widgets, and @crisp_im is the best by far. It's an incredible value. 👍

https://twitter.com/hapsize/status/1503825592646574093

Setting up a shared office space is simpler than you think.

We started with four people, found an office space for $800/mo, and just split the cost.

We created the environment we wanted to work in.

Eventually we expanded and opened it up to other members, but it started small.

Start with a lower-priced “early access” tier.

It’s hard to charge what competitors are charging when you don’t have their features.

But as soon as you have baseline functionally, offer early access users a lower priced plan.

For our first 6 months, we had a $10/mo plan.

Agreed.

Anyone following the protests in Canada closely can see that the @nytimes’ coverage has been abysmal. https://twitter.com/AdrianMorrow/status/1495088078599372800

In fact, I’d wager that many of the indie tech companies you admire have a substantial % of customers who are working on side-projects, are aspiring creators, hobbyists, etc…

@ConvertKit, @Mailchimp, @heyreform, @savvycal, @usefathom, @ZipMessage, @typefullyapp, @iloAnalytics

Love this meme!

In this arrangement, power is equalized between creators and the listening platforms.

(h/t @tfyhpodcast)

Broadly, the element that aspiring startup founders lack is *context*:

- what are the dynamics of this market?
- who are the customers? Where do I find them?
- traditionally, what motivates these folks to buy?

Usually, to get these insights you’ll need first-hand experience.

"I need email newsletter software, but this looks like... shopping cart software? What's a 'marketing platform'? Wait... it says 'grow sales,' so maybe it's a CRM?"

My top blog post every year (for the last three years) has been "Non-alcoholic drinks you can order at the bar."

All search traffic.

👉 more restaurants should offer *good* sober options. Non-alcoholic beers, cocktails, etc. Put in on your menu!

https://justinjackson.ca/nobooze

Let’s take this new COVID variant seriously.

“There’s a good chance that Omicron will be able to bypass existing immunity to a much greater extent than other variants.” https://noahpinion.substack.com/p/the-omicron-situation

This.

Lots of strong ideological rhetoric, delivered in way that’s *desiged* to attract new adherents.

There’s currently no oversight or protection for normal people who get swept up in the mania. https://twitter.com/EricaJoy/status/1461113961080713223

Tech giants like FB & Google are trying to take credit for the creator economy.

I've been reading YouTube's "state of the creator economy" report. It's self-aggrandizing, and completely misrepresents YouTube's financial impact on creators.

https://resources.oxfordeconomics.com/hubfs/YT_OE_ImpactReport_.pdf

🧵

Thoughts on wealth, from @Logic301:

"People with money tend to be happier. The money gives them comfort; and when you're comfortable, you can focus on other shit. You're not stressed out all the time, you know what I mean?"

On @JordanHarbinger's podcast:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VkscZWXe3tA

Jumping on the mics with @jonbuda in about ~45 mins to record @buildyoursaas.

Anything you want to hear us discuss?
Any questions/things you'd like to know?
Anything about @TransistorFM you want an update on?

The most interesting stat for me: Spotify has really captured the 13-23 year-old demographic.

Spotify is where Gen Z listens to podcasts.

They’ve clearly “grown up” with this app! It's a part of their identity.

There’s a reason the scientific process works: “tough, sustained scrutiny” by a group of experts (not just friends and colleagues).

If crypto is as world-changing as you believe, it deserves some serious scrutiny (on multiples fronts). https://twitter.com/mijustin/status/1432068592246444035