Tweets

This phenomenon is probably best exemplified by @sivers’ story:

He spent 12 years pursuing his dream of being a professional musician, but it was his small side project (CD Baby) that became his first “hit.”

https://youtu.be/mBlJVazr4A0

We're live now! https://twitter.com/i/broadcasts/1jMKgLNeeWkGL

Exactly.

If you make junk food that's DESIGNED TO BE ADDICTIVE, of course, people will keep eating it.

And yes, McDonald's, Coca-Cola, etc will make more money and make shareholders happy.

But that's not a net positive for society.

https://twitter.com/misterparker/status/1569736081867968513

This is the hard truth when it comes to growing your podcast:

"You've got to be better than your competition"

Your podcast has to be so good that listeners will:

1. choose your podcast over other options
2. like it so much they share it with a friend

https://www.reddit.com/r/podcasting/comments/xciarj/comment/io6n75l/?utm_source=reddit&utm_medium=web2x&context=3

How serious of an opportunity/threat do you think AI is for your business?

https://twitter.com/PaulYacoubian/status/1565172224050561025

Here’s a fun game for parents to play:

“What objects have the kids stuck to my ceiling?”

Just looked up from the couch and can see:

- a sticky hand
- the letter “R”?

@kaleighf Unless that company is @IronMaiden, in which case it's literally made up of rockstars. 😎

I originally made this shirt to wear at @PodcastMovement #pm22, but it came too late, so I'm wearing it today. 😎

"RSS FOREVER"

✊ with my friends from @TransistorFM @buzzsprout @libsyn @blubrry @Podnews @PodcastindexOrg @rss @johnspurlock @Podverse @ApplePodcasts @pocketcasts

Creators have to play this weird game, where they chase algorithms developed by big corp interests.

"Twitter threads attract a lot of attention; let's make those!"

It's mutually beneficial for a time (the creator gets followers) but ultimately the benefit goes to the platform.

Owning an indie startup, or being an indie creator, can be incredibly rewarding.

In the right context, it can provide a better life: more margin, more freedom.

But getting there isn’t a sure bet. There are things you can do to increase your chances, but nothing is guaranteed.

Nice to finally meet @colinmcgray, from @thepodcasthost, in person!

Colin was a really helpful partner early in @TransistorFM’s history. 👍

He’s also a member of the indie product community (👋 @calmfund)

#pm22

We want to thank everyone who helped us with @TransistorFM along the way: our customers, the podcast community, the indie SaaS community, our founder friends, and our families.

Thank you. ❤️

I love that @calebporzio and @DCoulbourne are back with a new episode of @noplanstomerge, but I’m slightly concerned about what they think “being 42 years old” is like. 😅

https://overcast.fm/+pVpvtg25U

🎯 https://twitter.com/cassidoo/status/1546139632903110658

Someone might say "I need to lose weight," but their real desire is to look (and feel) good.

Workers might use PowerPoint because they "need" slides, but what they really want is the fun of getting to be creative at work.

@MrAsquith @acast @CaptivateAudio They spammed our customers as well.

It’s a pretty desperate move on their side.

This is what makes business so interesting: anyone can suit up and play at the highest level.

This isn’t true for most high-level pursuits: if you run on an NBA court, you’ll be asked to leave. ⛹️😄

In business anyone can play, but you’re up against serious contenders.

Ok. Just finished scheduling this episode with @Patticus to be published tomorrow morning.

You'll hear all about the ProfitWell sale to Paddle. 👍

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

Just heard the news about the shooting in Texas.

Completely devastating for the families, and the Uvalde community. 💔

Those poor kids. 😭

@earthlingworks I love @nathanbarry’s piece on this:

“Leave some value on the table.”

https://nathanbarry.com/value/

Yup. The horse (customer) has to be actively searching for water.

And, if they’re really thirsty, you don’t have to convince them to drink when they find your trough.

But, how do you keep a horse coming back to your trough every time they get thirsty? https://twitter.com/ryanchenkie/status/1526956211249233920

This is broadly my story:

I started building products at a similar time as many of my peers.

The difference is I started by swinging at every pitch, while my successful friends found a market with strong demand.

It wasn't until I settled down that I found something that worked

Found some old photos of touring around Barcelona with @marckohlbrugge (from 2015)

We desperately need real action on climate change.

The negative effects from a climate crisis will be substantially worse than what we saw during COVID.

More fires 🔥
More drought 🌾
More deadly storms ⛈
More disease 🦠
More deaths ☠️ https://twitter.com/ClimateHuman/status/1516617465878302720

Thanks Jason! 🙌

The project / business distinction is key. 🔑 https://twitter.com/asmartbear/status/1514384088098127876

In the Pacific timezone, evening Twitter is for reading Patio11 tweets. https://twitter.com/patio11/status/1514467200526008324

Too many creators underestimate the power of THE MARKET.

Because we're creative, we think that building something cool will automatically make it desirable.

But consistent, growing, sales revenue comes from building something that customers are already searching for. https://twitter.com/jayclouse/status/1513543735648440322

A rational society cannot thrive if it maintains a state of blissful ignorance.

The job-to-be-done:

"I want a public archive of my tweets, mirrored on a domain/site that I control."

Strong take by @itsurboyevan on Twitter's future in the ad game:

"Twitter is a victim of its own product-market-fit: by being great at intellectual engagement, it fails at passive consumption."

https://every.to/napkin-math/twitter-s-probably-screwed

@freekmurze Add a social image to your homepage!

(I use Twitter Card Validator to test for this: https://cards-dev.twitter.com/validator)

Bob Iger retired from Disney at age 70.

How many tech CEOs/founders are in their 60s?

(Do you think you'll still be working in tech in your 60s?)

This is a fairly representative week of support tickets at @TransistorFM.

It's about ~100 conversations per week:

60-70% of those are new conversations,
30-40% is us responding to existing threads.

At @transistorfm, we've had a live chat widget from the beginning.

I know some founders don't like them (or find them overwhelming), but from my perspective it's been a goldmine.

There's something special about being able to help customers right away.

Method 5: record YouTube product reviews and see which ones get the most traction

Look for SaaS categories that interest you, and make review videos:

- Alternative to [X]
- Best software for [X]
- [X] vs [Y]

@dohertyjf I used to invest heavily in marketing automation, tracking, attribution, configuring funnels, and retargeting. But after 13 years of doing marketing for SaaS companies... I'm convinced that 90% of it is unnecessary.

https://justinjackson.ca/marketing-steroids

This piece by @asmartbear is the must-read product/marketing article of the year.

His thesis:

"High-growth companies grow quadratically, not exponentially."

https://longform.asmartbear.com/docs/exponential-growth/

Your story is a compelling reason to switch!

The biggest advantage of “build in public” is that people become invested in your story; they want to see you succeed.

Many of @TransistorFM’s early customers signed up (or switched to us) because they’d been following our journey.

When potential users ask: “how do you compare to X in terms of features?” ask them:

“What brought you here today? What’s your goal for this project?”

Once they answer, say: “we don’t have all of X’s features, but I’ll work with you personally to help you achieve that goal.”

These images coming out of Ukraine are heartbreaking.

https://www.ctvnews.ca/world/in-pictures-what-it-looked-like-in-ukraine-after-russia-attacked-1.5794198

New version. Thanks @rememberlenny! 🙌

Big tech companies say they care about podcasting.

But, in reality, it's the *small* independent companies and devs who really care. ❤️

Many of these tech companies, with billion/trillion-dollar market caps, generate tons of customers support for small indies. https://twitter.com/marcoarment/status/1483455612419719172

Won’t web3 projects continue to need centralized aggregators like Spotify, Apple, Google, Facebook, Discord, Twitter in order to reach an audience?

If that’s true, in a web3 world, won’t big corporations continue to control distribution, and assert considerable power?

On @tferriss's podcast, @naval and @cdixon spoke about how web3 enables creators to own digital property.

But what about discoverability?

Spotify's power is in its distribution; it's a central place to find, discover, and consume music.

How will that go away under web3?

“The more that people in a group are alike, the more vulnerable they are to a single tension affecting the whole.”

– @lukeburgis, Wanting

This story, as told to @Sethrogen, is one hell of a Canadian adventure story.

It’s got everything: fresh crab romance, nude swimming, logging roads, Canadian Tire, a pocket knife, bears, hockey anecdotes, tourniquets, an escape, and the Beastie Boys.

https://pod.link/1583325095/episode/5a3942676040ed369934c5bdcd73dce3

The richest man in the world should not pay the lowest % in taxes.

The proposed wealth tax won’t apply to you, me, or 330 million US citizens.

It would apply to the 700 people who make $100+ million per year (or have more than $1 billion in assets).

https://www.forbes.com/sites/jonathanponciano/2021/10/27/new-billionaire-wealth-tax-targeting-assets-of-700-richest-americans-unveiled-heres-how-the-democratic-plan-would-work/

@lesley_pizza Personally, I would put “Publish your newsletters, directly from WordPress” as the H1.

“Halve your publishing time, double your reach” doesn’t tell me what your product does.

I wonder if the proliferation of vague headlines, value-props, and sentiment-based "benefit-driven" copy is actually working... or is this a case of marketers believing their own BS?

Reference: @tiffatiel's hilarious startup homepage generator.

http://tiffzhang.com/startup

I think many would-be founders underestimate the risk/cost/reward calculation when it comes to “start my own business vs find a good job.”

If you’re in a job you hate, you’re usually better to invest your energy into finding an awesome remote job (there’s way more of them now!)

Lots of great comments. 🙏

But nobody's really given me a better solution than Dreamweaver for editing HTML tables like this pricing table (a pretty common use-case).

If you have a better workflow, please send me a video!

If you’re the Captain, the most important questions you should be asking are:

“Where are we headed?” And, “is the ship headed in the right direction?”

Everything else (your crew, your boat, your instruments) are “necessary but not sufficient” for a successful journey.

Having + communicating core values is another way to attract strong applicants:

https://github.com/TransistorFM/handbook/blob/master/values.md

@SimonHoiberg The book + course I published in 2015 already has that title:

@marketingdevs

https://devmarketing.xyz

If you’re a political leader in 2021, and you think “view source” is hacking, you should probably step down.

If elected officials can’t figure out the absolute basics, how are they going to deal with more complicated issues like climate, crypto, etc?

https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2021/10/viewing-website-html-code-is-not-illegal-or-hacking-prof-tells-missouri-gov/

Don't evaluate someone's strategy when they're sowing seeds; measure their results when they're harvesting.

@stephsmithio Unpopular answer 👉 it definitely helps to build an audience elsewhere first (Twitter, newsletter, blog, TV, radio, YouTube, etc).

If you don’t have that audience, interview people who *do*.

@AliAbdaal’s recent launch provides a good case study:

https://transistor.fm/customers/ali/

According to her survey, the three most popular podcast apps for Gen Z are:

• Spotify: 47%
• Apple Podcasts: 16%
• YouTube: 10%

Motivated people will learn incredibly complicated/unfriendly software (VIM, Photoshop, Pro Tools).

I’m not saying we shouldn’t be trying to make user-friendly software!

I’m just saying that it’s incredibly difficult for us, as software makers, to provide/create motivation.

There’s probably not much you can do inside your product to motivate people to use it more.

People have to feel that pull themselves; they’re being motivated by a consistent problem or desire in their lives.

@hnshah I like @nbashaw's take:
https://twitter.com/mijustin/status/1437857391136051202

@dr It really depends on the product category you’re in.

Overall, SEO has been a consistently good channel.

In our category (as with most web hosting) affiliates work really well.

Finding (or starting) communities has been helpful too (for me: Reddit, @megamaker, Discord groups)

According to @HowIBuiltThis, MailChimp did $800 million in revenue in 2020.

(Forbes Magazine estimated that MailChimp would only sell for $4 billion)

https://www.npr.org/2021/07/09/1014699766/mailchimp-ben-chestnut

👀 https://twitter.com/every/status/1437253125732061190

"A lot of the dotcom boom & bust was excitement around all the things that could theoretically be possible with the internet.

There was a lot of (irrational?) optimism baked into the valuations of companies at the time because people had these wild fantasies of what was to come"

@nelsonjoyce @packyM Yeah. And until this stuff really gets solved... (and we see actual "I have an eth wallet" adoption widespread in the public), I can't see how this will work?

@noahwbragg @approximatedapp Yes! @joshuaanderton is using this on @meepsapp as well!

Game changer! 🙌

Big step for @jonbuda and I at @TransistorFM:

https://saas.transistor.fm/episodes/this-is-a-big-step-for-us

Wow, really cool to see @meepsapp getting mentioned in articles already (we're still in early access!).

Thanks for writing it @byvi_co!

https://byvi.co/2021/08/17/in-the-world-of-social-isolation-start-creating-communities/

@joshuaanderton @meepsapp I wrote a quick rundown of how we're doing early-access (and collecting pre-sales) for this new SaaS here:

https://meeps.app/newsletter/nddsog

Smoke on the water,
and fire in the sky

#vernonbc

The problem with running a “marketing test” is many tests are flawed.

Either they’re setup wrong, they’re using flawed assumptions (sampling bias), or they’ll never reach statistical significance.

Lots of folks pushing to make "podcasts more interactive." ✨

Think about Netflix shows, the movies, audiobooks... how have these been made "more in interactive?"

Maybe... there are good channels for interactivity that listeners already use (Reddit, group texts, Twitter).

I personally wouldn’t take money from a VC who says “their only responsibility is to return money to their LPs.”

VCs should feel some responsibility for the founders they invest in.

VCs & founders also have a shared responsibility towards employees, customers, and society.

Money has strings attached, but not all capital comes with the same strings. 😉

The underlying structure of the relationship (the incentives, the governance, who controls the money, who has the social influence) will determine "how good of a deal" you get as an entrepreneur.

In a healthy society, we need to identify and challenge power dynamics.

It's not OK for VCs to put all of the onus on the entrepreneur.

These structures can be fixed. Power can be re-balanced.

But not if VCs wash their hands of all responsibility.

Just made it "@indiehackers official:"

https://www.indiehackers.com/product/transistor/hired-our-first-full-time-engineer--MgDJjiwPSE51J49o1bG

@jonbuda @TransistorFM @jsonperl This brings the Transistor team to a total of 4 full-time people: me, @jonbuda, @HelenRyles, @jsonperl.

We believe that a small team can produce incredible software (in our case, podcast hosting & analytics), and provide the best customer experience in our industry.

Coming tomorrow on the @buildyoursaas podcast:

Spencer and I discuss whether "VCs are bad." 😜

Subscribe here to get it when it drops:
https://saas.transistor.fm/subscribe https://twitter.com/spencerfry/status/1415020244477808645

"Visitor --> trial" is an important KPI on many marketing teams.

But with so many people blocking tracking scripts, how is that number useful at all?

And even Google Analytics can't keep up with all the spam bots screwing up their data.

https://twitter.com/JackEllis/status/1420074019101966339

BTW – sometimes folks think I'm giving everyone prescriptive advice with these threads.

I'm not!

I'm just exploring what's going to work for me, the business I want to run, and the dynamics of the market I'm in.

https://twitter.com/mijustin/status/1416468286636584960

Was just reminded of @patio11's "low-touch SaaS vs high-touch SaaS" article.

https://stripe.com/en-ca/atlas/guides/business-of-saas

He talks about the challenge of mixing the two approaches here:

My sense is that there isn't enough demand in the $10k/year range for our service level.

There are enterprise-level private podcast companies (uStudio, Storyboard).

They charge $250k+/year, but that requires a TON of extra weight in the company (dedicated sales, IT, legal).

Before looking at my numbers, my thought was:

"These sales demos are a waste of my time. Most of them probably don't convert. Plus: I like having an open schedule, so they reduce my enjoyment in running Transistor."

But now that I've looked at the numbers, I'm not so sure...
👉

Forgot I had volleyball tonight! 😅

@levelsio YES!!! 💯💯💯

People don't get it.

https://twitter.com/mijustin/status/1303069042333286400

Thanks to

@theavigoldman, @useparcel
@uwwgo, http://namy.ai

for getting us to 20%! 🙌

@dragosilinca @pmarca @a16z Nope, not yet.

And I'm only doing what Marc asked me to do in his piece:

"We need to demand more of our investors. And we need to demand more from one another. We’re all necessary, and we can all contribute, to building."

@pjrvs Well, that's the last time I invite you to my "MLM Power Hour" show. 😤

RSS is holding the balance of power.

There will always be exclusives, but most podcasters want the biggest audience possible. That means reaching people on Apple, FB, Spotify, Google, @pocketcasts, @PodcastAddict, etc.

The only protocol that can power that (currently) is RSS.

The other unsung advantage of a good coworking community: you get exposed to more experiences and viewpoints.

I can watch how an engineering consultant does sales calls.

I can ask folks about salaries in other industries.

I can hear how bigger tech companies do software dev.

Live coding: @tailwindcss and @Alpine_JS on the @transistorfm site https://www.pscp.tv/w/c6pDdTM4NTU1MXwxQmR4WVlZZFBOQXhYlJwKs6fw9nNcjYjgrANo026sEeolV2kmhvYpMEQn0z4=


Best. Father’s Day. Ever.

Incredible! Congrats on 10 years of Laravel, Taylor! 🎉 https://twitter.com/taylorotwell/status/1402635622901338120

🤣

It's me. https://twitter.com/mjwhansen/status/1401979284777021443

Users *should* be able to write where they normally write, and then be able to copy and paste with minimal friction.

Word (in particular) adds terrible HTML/styling to their formatted text.

The problem is that Word has its own (shitty) rendering engine:

https://www.hteumeuleu.com/2020/outlook-rendering-engine/

I've worked with Yaz in the past. He's great! 💯 https://twitter.com/ninjaparade/status/1395428378711257088

I know some people reading this are going through a really tough time.

Others have been up all night with their newborn baby.

Someone may have just lost a parent to COVID.

In-person, I might be able to perceive that you're struggling. But online, you're just a smiling avatar.

🎯 "People are what they do. You are what you do. Let your actions be informed by what you read and hear, but always apply ideas with a critical and experimental mindset."

– @fakebaldur