Tweets

Oh my god.

It sounds like it was written today.

But it was written by James Baldwin in 1966.

“This arrogant autonomy, which is guaranteed the police, creates a situation which is as close to anarchy as it already, visibly, is close to martial law.”

https://www.thenation.com/article/archive/report-occupied-territory/

I went and grabbed a coffee.

Now I’m walking around a park, and spending time with @zenfounder and @theSamParr.

For these platforms, content is a commodity.

When they can pay artists less for music, they will.
When they can pay vloggers pennies, they will.
When they can pay podcasters less, they will.
When they can pay writers nothing, they will.

Now I’m hanging out with @derrickreimer and @r00k while I walk.

@side_seeing I love all the bootstrapper podcasts:

https://transistor.fm/podcasts-for-bootstrappers

If you're not generating good ideas it's probably because:

- you haven't had enough experience in a given sector,
- you haven't learned to observe the way people behave,
- you haven't honed your instincts for recognizing the "pull" of a market.

@smgrieser I don’t know.

I think the reason most businesses fail isn’t because their execution was bad.

I think most businesses fail because they chose the wrong thing to build.

It’s estimated that Amazon’s market share will increase to 70% because of COVID-19.

Meanwhile, their workers get none of the benefits of this increase. Instead, they experience incredible hardships!

Shame on you @JeffBezos and @amazon. https://twitter.com/SamAdlerBell/status/1254475472559357953

@DanPriceSeattle @kamikaze_crow Yes! What we need is more collaborative commerce.

https://justinjackson.ca/main-street-fights-back

The other world crises don’t care that we can only focus on one crisis at a time. https://twitter.com/MichaelRLowry/status/1249061412896464896

@kvlly 5. I no longer eat “meals;” my day is now just a series of snacks.

Incredibly sobering #covid19 thread.

https://twitter.com/jeremycyoung/status/1239975682643357696

“Even if you’re young and healthy, it’s your job to follow social distancing measures to avoid spreading it to others, and keep the epidemic in slow motion.”

https://www.vox.com/2020/3/10/21171481/coronavirus-us-cases-quarantine-cancellation

A telling tale:

“Building a customer base from scratch is actually quite hard — and expensive. DTC companies market on Facebook. Everyone is armed with the same millions of dollars in funding and they’re all driving each other’s marketing costs up.” 💸

https://link.medium.com/QP4vxlUuJ4

Round 2: building a marketing site with @tailwindcss UI https://www.pscp.tv/w/cSbW9jM4NTU1MXwxak1LZ1FhWVh6V0pMJ9biVJQ0UOoN19nHW40J_wE_KNKKWpW4wOXsZm_Fd8I=

Generally, folks only focus on other founder’s late-stage success.

They don’t see all the years they spent in the water, learning to paddle, trying to catch waves, and learning to recognize good waves.

Going up.

“Any preconception about the way things ‘ought to be’ always interferes with your sense of reality; it prevents you from seeing what is actually going on – and this will always prevent you from making the environment alive.”
– Christopher Alexander

What factors shape market demand?

- Changes in price or supply for related goods
- Government policy, investment, R&D
- The ubiquity of related technologies
- Evolving societal trends and tastes
- Evolution in a product category
- Rising (or falling) incomes
- Economic cycles

If you're a Rails dev, this is an incredible remote opportunity.

(Podia is an awesome company + you get to work with incredible people like @ideasasylum)

https://twitter.com/ideasasylum/status/1229761004990541825

This @stauffermatt guide is so good!

https://mattstauffer.com/blog/setting-up-your-webcam-lights-and-audio-for-remote-work-podcasting-videos-and-streaming/

@CoreyEasterday I wrote a quick “get started” guide here:
https://transistor.fm/how-to-start-a-podcast

If you haven't read this NYT piece on cellphone tracking yet, it's definitely worth your time.

https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2019/12/19/opinion/location-tracking-cell-phone.html

@CasJam @robwalling Most of my blog posts start as twitter threads. 😉

Twitter, for me, is like a comedian working on material at a local club.

Blogging, for me, is like performing the full act on a special.

This is a good answer!

Price is important, but for most businesses “purchase frequency” is what really makes the difference.

(You can only scale price increases so far.)

https://twitter.com/ishisdeep/status/1208516882556428291?s=21 https://twitter.com/IshBaid/status/1208516882556428291

Strategy, product, sales and marketing all matters, but only if you’re in the right market.

@MicroConf ARE WE ALL GETTING MICROCONF SOCKS? 😮🧦🙏

As an example:

There are 5 million PHP developers in the world.

Let’s say, on average, each gets paid $25,000.

That means, on salaries alone, the PHP market is...

(checks math)

$125 BILLION?!!

The fallacy goes like this;

“There are a million of people in this group. Surely 1% will want what I have for sale.”

But, it’s completely possible to have access to a large group where nobody wants what you have for sale.

Love seeing when other thinkers have come to the same conclusions. Here's how @ScottHYoung puts it:

🍩 Happy #donutfriday everyone!

(I’ve already had two 🤫)

The definition of “niche” is:

“relating to products, services, or interests that appeal to a small, specialized section of the population.”

Here’s my concern: just because it’s small (or specialized) doesn’t mean it’s profitable.

Niches ≠ Riches

Another good filter could be:

“How many folks are actively looking for a solution?”

This approach can work, but can also produce false-positives (because there’s no proof that people will pay).

There aren't enough photos of computer stores from the 80s and 90s on the internet.

"To succeed is to destroy ourselves. To fail is to destroy ourselves. That is the bind we have created." – @GeorgeMonbiot

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/may/27/if-we-cant-change-economic-system-our-number-is-up

As founders, it's hard enough to wrestle with the "normal" issues, much less wrestle with existential questions.

But this is the kind of stuff that keeps me up at night...

OH HECK YES!

@FounderQuest is back for Season 2.

“I am not in the market for a new project management tool. But, as with everyone else on this planet, I am always looking for new tribes to join.” – ⁦@rcvictorino⁩ https://rcvictorino.com/opinionated-brands/

You can listen to his full interview, with @Veen, here:
https://www.relay.fm/presentable/69

How I dynamically generate my "/now" page (hat tip to @sivers) https://www.pscp.tv/w/cGKENzM4NTU1MXwxTVl4TlBRTHFrWEd3hyKdmd1jVK7jtzlascBP66CbQledBwKbXPjlhpNLpAA=

Building a mobile landing page for podcasts (that opens episode specific links) https://www.pscp.tv/w/cFEtBjM4NTU1MXwxT2RKckxrTE1RT0tYg3_yoCCRfkAT0vsvRG9BkTX-_DvF-hEFTB05myZguWI=

Happy Monday! ☀️

What are you working on this week?

The easiest way to test this is to see if people are searching Google (or any search engine) with the intent to buy.

When people search "best wordpress hosting" they're indicating they want to buy.

They're attracted to the product category already; no need to educate/convince.

Good reasons to start a podcast:

- you have something to say
- you want to hear what others have to say
- you want to learn more about a topic
- it’s fun!

(from @StegoSarahs on the @podsummit stage)

I'm in Calgary for the weekend. 👌

Speaking at @podsummit tomorrow, but I'll also have some free time before I fly out on Sunday. DM me if you'd like to meet up!

It’s going to take a long time to get there, so you might as well start now!

Before you ask: "Did you try to optimize WP to run faster first?"

YES! For months I've been trying CDNs, caching plugins, reducing the number of plugins, minifying scripts, optimizing images...

The whole architecture of WP and our theme just has too much cruft.

@r00k pix of what u r eating

@taylorotwell @michaeldyrynda @adamwathan Can’t wait to toss these out at #laracon!

If you want to level up your SQL, this course looks good. 👌 https://t.co/OapuZyo3Z1

Lol. No plans to sell right now! https://twitter.com/takeitev/status/1131957835552743424

Doing some live coding (@laravelphp + @statamic + @tailwindcss) on a Friday afternoon https://www.pscp.tv/w/b6XvYTM4NTU1MXwxT3d4V2t5V2VYTXhRK5Bs7vzmVcB6NP1NkuenX5P2IJY0DWXAkf2Mt1gFjDI=

@taylorotwell So there’s a lot of buttons, eh? 🤔

Starting a Pinterest marketing experiment. 😜

https://pin.it/4yztmr553ccn3d

The challenge is that most of these are "qualitative" observations:

- Stuff I'm seeing (repeatedly) in customer conversations
- Stuff I'm noticing on social media and in forums
- Stuff I'm getting in DMs
- Stuff I overhear in coffee shops
- Stuff that's going on in the industry

Next, I remember reading this @patio11 newsletter in 2012 and being really impacted by it. (I've re-read it a few times since then!)

https://training.kalzumeus.com/newsletters/archive/saas_pricing

Especially, this case study with @earthlingworks (which potentially has a parallel with Transistor's current pricing)

Update: it's the next morning (7am).

Just answered 4 support tickets.

(These include pre-sale questions)

Late night live hangout anyone? https://www.pscp.tv/w/b2mV8jM4NTU1MXwxdkFHUnlPd21PREtsLixnyzv6Zkxa7KzIb5BvnPwxN9SfBxtD0VhyqqRm1Ws=

Testing the sign up + onboarding flow for my SaaS (live) https://www.pscp.tv/w/b1v5DjM4NTU1MXwxcm1HUFFrZHlsakpOWgDBfqVEjk6cQHPKvLVdDkTwgJ6Df-Z5EWt4Jgb2OhI=

What are your best Disneyland hacks? 👨‍👩‍👧‍👦

@adamwathan @ianlandsman @r00k This keeps getting truer every day.

Roald Dahl's writing hut looks splendid.

https://youtu.be/nQkz_X1Rg60

For example, Omny Studio (one of my competitors) just crossed $300k in MRR.

- That's ~$3.6M in ARR
- If they sold at a 10x multiple (that's high) that'd be $36 million.

If Spotify is spending $500 million, they could buy 14 companies like Omny!

🤯 "Spotify says it isn’t done — it says it has other podcast acquisitions in mind and that it expects to spend up to $500 million on deals this year."

https://www.recode.net/2019/2/6/18213456/spotify-podcast-gimlet-anchor-q4-results

@Shpigford When I re-launched http://justinjackson.ca I was surprised by how many folks noticed the feed was broken (now it's fixed!).

Lots of folks still using RSS readers it seems. 👌

Spotify also changed their name on the App Store

(added music and *podcasts*).

They're betting big on podcasts.

I like this idea:

👨‍💻 @glenmccallumcan is writing a "Developer Journal" to track what he's working on each day:

https://glenmccallum.com/2019/02/02/first-developer-journal-entry/

Hanging out live with @ichris talking about podcasting in 2019 https://www.pscp.tv/w/bySo-DM4NTU1MXwxbER4TE1Bb1BYd0ttyWpPGryCzvAcFASZRb8AjmAIOsXEfcPtIJ_mMjLuHek=

Damn. This is exactly why I'm aiming to go all in on @TransistorFM in 2019.

https://twitter.com/jamesclear/status/1088595152980058112?s=21

I've always thought about podcasting, but this year I want to make it my primary focus.

The best podcast industry news I've found is from @JamesCridland and his daily newsletter: http://podnews.net. 👍

I agree:

“Podcasting is still the Wild West. Its best qualities go hand in hand with its worst ones.” – ⁦@nickfthilton⁩ https://medium.com/s/story/all-the-lies-youve-been-told-about-podcasting-eb5271746677

Well, it's time for another late-night solo episode of the "Build your SaaS" podcast!

Uploading episode 39 right now.

Subscribe here to get it 👉 http://saas.transistor.fm/subscribe

Frightening.

https://twitter.com/OmarNajam/status/1066212662428631040

One way to visualize your expenses is to use @siftery.

Here, I can see I've spent $405 on Google Apps in the last 12 months.

But... I could have spent $60 (because I only needed 1 account!) 😭

@Shpigford pleaze send pics of u riding 2 bird scooters at once with a cape. thanx

Ain't no rest for the wicked. Building a campaign + landing page with @tailwindcss for @studiofellow. https://www.pscp.tv/w/bpTPkDM4NTU1MXwxZFJLWmdkQU9rZ0dCl8pPP1lpgzsT3fr8KS803ZbSiKb5maEPQ67SV9vOUy4=

"Why it's different building a startup in 2018."

https://twitter.com/holman/status/1043162032638386176

Even the whales working for views.

https://twitter.com/ABC/status/1040924068986449920

Creating a podcast (live) from nothing; how to get started https://www.pscp.tv/w/bmqmbTM4NTU1MXwxT3d4V1dkTWphcHhRiWcBxp0NrZRni5kc7K9Jct_dA9dQC6RBKoReJQ7WzIY=

What age do you think you'll retire from digital work?

What do you think retirement will look like for web professionals?

What factors are we not considering?

Still looking for a small business bank in 🇨🇦 that has features + pricing comparable to @AzloNow and @RevolutApp.

Starting your day with Inbox Zero is 💯.

After my last blog post (http://justinjackson.ca/solopreneur) lots of folks asking me how to find a co-founder / collaborator.

What's worked for me:
- @prodpeopleclub (where I met Hamish, Carl, Tim, Gary)
- XOXO fest (where I met Jon, my partner in Transistor)
- Geek Beers (local meetup)

Maybe you shouldn't be a solopreneur.

https://justinjackson.ca/solopreneur/

Some founders have to make big sacrifices to get their companies off the ground. They should be rewarded for that.

But I've also seen startups who treat early employees like low-paid pawns. They're asked to sacrifice just as much; but without the upside.

https://twitter.com/dchymko/status/1007797178264252416

🎙 I was a guest on @derrickreimer & @r00k's podcast.

I posted a little sneak peek on "Build your SaaS"

https://saas.transistor.fm/episodes/bonus-three-founders-talk-about-building-a-new-saas

Back in January, I tweeted: "I would ❤️ a “mindful mode” on my iPhone."

@shawnblanc explains how Apple is making this happen with their newest version of iOS: https://thesweetsetup.com/calmest-iphone-yet/

If you're tired of 🏀, and you're into SaaS, check out my buddy @kylefox's project:

https://www.getrewardful.com/?via=earlybirds

He's reimagining expensive, janky, unusable affiliate software.

I'm in the beta, and it's 💯.

📦 Got some awesome custom @TransistorFM swag from @JessePoteet today!

He screenprints them by hand using water-based inks. Super great feel. 👌

I was building a product validation checklist for my own use, and decided to turn it into http://productvalidationchecklist.com.

DM me if you want an early access invite + discount.

First day at the beach!

⚡️ Product people: look at real world usage!

- How are people really using your product?
- What accessories are they "hiring" to make your product better?

👀 Read this whole thread:
https://twitter.com/mijustin/status/995056639630757888

“For solopreneurs, there’s a lot of safety in recurring revenue. Even if you’re laid-up in bed, you’re earning an income.”
– @garrettdimon #microconf

First #microconf escape room championship was a success!!

Live from #microconf Las Vegas!
(The biggest conference for self-funded startups in the world)

New episode of "Build Your SaaS" with @jonbuda:

https://share.transistor.fm/s/a30a18e5

About @adamwathan:

Adam is a machine. He doesn't back down from hard problems; he digs in. It's one reason why so many Laravel developers trust him: he helps them find answers to difficult questions.

He's also become a formidable businessperson, public speaker, and podcaster.

Smart advice (especially for solopreneurs):

https://twitter.com/ajlkn/status/983766574204059648?s=21

🎧 New episode of the “Build Your SaaS” podcast! https://itunes.apple.com/ca/podcast/build-your-saas/id1357295850?mt=2&i=1000408569746

🎙 I make three podcasts that you might like:

📈 Build Your SaaS - http://saas.transistor.fm
⚡️ @MegaMaker - http://podcast.megamaker.co
👫 @productpeopletv – http://productpeople.tv