Tweets

"Aristotle had discovered that there are fairly universal limits to the amount of information which any human can absorb and retain. When it comes to persuading other people, less is always more."

– @edithmayhall, Aristotle's Way

@nbashaw I used to admire Elon, I don’t any more.

I think we should save our admiration for leaders who are mindful, respectful, treat people well, and can act with a reasonable amount of restraint.

Related:

https://twitter.com/mijustin/status/1620913277869096960

So far, all I’ve received is messages from salespeople.

Have any SaaS *founders* done this transition?

Switching payment providers is a huge PITA (and a huge churn & conversion rate risk).

Would like to hear from SaaS that have actually done this.

@adamd I'm really liking @valsopi's @blogstatic for blogging.

I'm using it on a few side projects.

The pricing is perfect: $19/year per blog.

https://blogstatic.io/

@threehourcoffee I think most folks would understand something like this:

“It’s going well! It’s turned into a full-time business for me. It’s a subscription software business, similar to Netflix.”

$699.99 in 1991 is equivalent in purchasing power to about $1,525.37 today.

@thepatwalls From earlier today: https://twitter.com/shawnblanc/status/1620865631884304384

@joshuaanderton @TransistorFM @statamic ☝️ besides @statamic, we also used tools by @usefathom, @seo_testing, @tailwindcss, and music by @_JosephMcDade.

View the updated page here:
https://transistor.fm/free-podcast-intro-music/

@yongfook So true! 😅

(Btw, we’re using @shortcut at @TransistorFM too!)

Fundamentally, you're looking for good business opportunities, but most entrepreneurs need to have built a strong personal foundation (based on experience) to recognize and take advantage of those opportunities.

I can't believe it's been that long.

Elon just sold $3.6 billion more Tesla shares.

https://www.cnbc.com/2022/12/15/elon-musk-sells-another-huge-chunk-of-tesla-shares-.html

BTW - the article in question seems completely reasonable to me.

You can read it here:

https://techcrunch.com/2022/12/09/is-chatgpt-a-virus-that-has-been-released-into-the-wild/

This feels like an appropriate amount of scrutiny for disruptive tech like ChatGPT.

As someone who is Extremely Online™, helping to promote local businesses is one way to give back.

I know from experience that posting about local shops in Vernon helps them tremendously.

(I've had numerous people tell me they visited @ratiovernon because of one of my posts)

Customers are choosing between multiple options!

So ask yourself:

"How can I make my product/service the more attractive choice?"

The answer will depend on what customers value. It could be:

Pricing
Service
Features
Your story
Packaging
Reputation
Distribution
Product quality

@ChaseGiunta @TheWorthyHouse @elonmusk He completely ignores the possibility that revenues have likely fallen. https://twitter.com/mijustin/status/1594577764736434182

Tons of weirdness on the bird site today. https://twitter.com/jayclouse/status/1593030897007140864

Another affordable option: buy a license of @jackmcdade's @statamic CMS, and use the Static Site Generator package:

https://statamic.dev/deploying/netlify

You can write your blog posts on your machine (locally) and then publish/host them on Netlify for free.

Video: https://youtu.be/4bTk5JeKydU

The concept of trajectory is fascinating to me.

If you're steering a ship, pointing your nose just a few degrees in one direction can wildly change where your end up.

This is true in business (and life)!

Your initial trajectory matters, as do the subsequent adjustments.

More thoughts on Mastodon (and how to join) here:

https://justinjackson.ca/thoughts-on-mastodon

@raae @philhawksworth YESSSS

@adamwathan Congrats! Amazing achievement. 🎉

@nathanbarry As @MKBHD says: "The internet runs on ads. 90% of Twitter's revenue comes from ads."

Today, five of the execs responsible for Twitter's ad business quit (brand & safety, ad sales, security, compliance).

This doesn't look good.

https://techcrunch.com/2022/11/10/twitter-elon-musk-resignations-yoel-roth-robin-wheeler/

These are pretty wild. 😆

Did a second run of AI photos with a different training set (using @dannypostmaa's
ProfilePicture AI) and got pretty different results this time.

http://www.profilepicture.ai/?ref=W0TMtiqAvmd4uxEihXWXWWmqDvr2

Ultimately, our purpose at @TransistorFM is to make people's lives better.

This includes our customers and team (and their families).

But that mission also includes broader society: we want to help make the world a better place.

https://transistor.fm/climate-change/

Optimize for business opportunities that have good margins with minimal complexity. And choose work that gives you lots of breathing room.

More on that here:
https://justinjackson.ca/margin

Vine: acquired by Twitter for $30 million, later shut down (marked down to $0).

Bebo: acquired by AOL for $850 million, later sold for $1 million.

Path: raised $62.5 million, rejected a $100 million offer. Later, their assets were sold to Kakao and Path was shut down.

GeoCities: acquired by Yahoo for $3.7 billion, later shut down (marked down to $0).

Digg: raised $49 million, was almost acquired by Google for $200 million, later marked down to $16.5 million

Friendster: raised $48.5 million, later marked down to $39 million.

@adamwathan You and the @tailwindcss team should be super proud of everything you’ve accomplished. 🎉

Most of my friends with more followers and engagement aren’t verified. https://twitter.com/kylegawley/status/1587243553138294786

Should you give out candy to teenagers who show up Halloween?

HELL YES.

If you have the opportunity to spread some good cheer on Halloween to a teenager (or really, anyone who shows up at your door) why wouldn’t you?

Being a teenager is tough; show them some kindness!

4. Make your contributions to fighting climate change automatic.

For founders, @stripe’s climate program is the easiest way to get started.

@TransistorFM also donates to @RainforestUS.

https://stripe.com/en-ca/climate

3. Start making changes in your own life. Focusing on your own carbon footprint won’t be a meaningful change on its own, but as a larger movement it helps.

I’m not talking about virtue signaling.

For most high-income workers, the most impactful change we can make is to fly less

Avoiding topics that make us uncomfortable isn’t a strategy (in business, or in dealing with threats like climate change).

What can you do?

1. The first thing you can do is care. Care about this enough to look at the research, and see the trend for yourself.

@Patticus @jessethanley I’d like to see that.

Based on the calculations I did, Stripe + Avalara would be significantly cheaper.

(Plus, there would be significant switching costs for us to adopt to Paddle)

Stripe: 2.9% + $0.30 per transaction
Paddle: 5% + $0.50 per transaction

The annual cost to be on Paddle would be significantly more than Stripe + annual sales tax compliance costs. 😞

@SahilBloom @penguinrandom Congrats! I’ll pre-order it as soon as it’s available! 🙌

I just finished reading @nbashaw's piece exploring artificially generated content:
https://every.to/divinations/the-infinite-article

I was glad to see him address some of the ethical concerns at the end.

I wrote a quick piece on my blog to explore more of those ethical questions:
https://justinjackson.ca/the-ethics-of-ai-driven-content

For example, many people become creators/entrepreneurs so that they can spend more time with their families.

But then they get themselves on a work treadmill where they're so overcommitted they don't have time or energy to spend with their families.

Omg!! New (reunion) @Fizzle episode!

I’ve spent so much time with @CorbettBarr, @chasewreeves, @CalebWojcik, @BarrettABrooks, @heystephcrowder in my ear holes.

What a fertile group!

https://overcast.fm/+Jq453U1o

I think creators have always had a "bad deal" from social media platforms: we provide the content for free/low cost, we upload our address books, we cross-promote on other platforms...

But that deal will go from bad to worse in an AI-driven world.

If you're responding to this personally, please include a link to your portfolio (or, at the very least, a cool Shopify theme you've developed)

@BryanBarletta “Finding listeners” is a creator issue.

I rarely hear listeners complain about discoverability.

Listeners get podcast recommendations the same way we get book recommendations: from friends, from reviews, other word of mouth… https://twitter.com/mijustin/status/1423436556593995778

@JackEllis I just finished @TransistorFM’s queue sitting here on the ferry ⛴😄

@earthlingworks @JackEllis @aarondfrancis @megamaker @marketingdevs @asmartbear Yeah, this is more about continually adding more to your plate with the hopes that you’ll reach the revenue scale you need (but then you have to simultaneously manage multiple projects/businesses).

"Put more wood behind fewer arrows.”

Nice to meet @webby2001 in person: “the calm voice of truth in the podcast industry.”

Now he’s on stage with some interesting @SoundsProfNews research on how different types of podcast ads perform when split-tested against each other.

#pm22

@nbashaw It depends on company size.

Indie/bootstrapped businesses: "They"
↪️ "I like @usefathom; they're good guys."

Megacorps: "It"
↪️ "Apple thinks it can gloss over privacy issues."

@AndyGCook Exactly.

That's why this calculator from @EconomicPolicy is so useful:

https://www.epi.org/resources/budget/

@tdinh_me @TransistorFM “I love it.”
– Justin Jackson

@tdinh_me Congrats! The first $10k MRR is the sweetest. Enjoy it!

@phuctm97 @nbundle_com @queue_so @acnebs @miguelreng @Kamphey @sobedominik @antoncherkasov_ @chrisdengso This looks so fun! I’ve got to visit Bali someday.

Every day, Jon and I wake up and feel incredibly lucky:

We get to work on a product we love (@TransistorFM), serve creative customers (podcasters), and work with people we like (@HelenRyles and @jsonperl).

Our weekly team Zoom calls have become the highlight of our week:

What kept us going?

Two things:

1. Hearing from customers who loved using @TransistorFM for their podcasts

2. Encouragement from other startup founders, like @earthlingworks

It’s hard to communicate what it’s like to launch a new product to the public. It’s a mixture of relief, fear, and hope.

We were relieved, but at the same time we were anxious: would people like it? Would people sign up and use it?

And, would it one day support us full-time?

Another example:

In 2014, Paul Jarvis, @studiofellow, and I started doing a weekly mastermind.

This short, weekly practice compounded (over time) into major breakthroughs for all three of us.

https://justinjackson.ca/mastermind

Good thread! https://twitter.com/asmartbear/status/1548322097524445185

This is one of @TransistorFM's biggest positioning challenges: we serve both B2Prosumer and B2B customers! 😅

https://twitter.com/aprildunford/status/1546875330413182976

Over the years, I've learned so much about mental health from Dr. @sherrywalling.

Her new book is coming out on July 26.

It's a vital "guide for finding hope in the landscape of loss."

I've already pre-ordered it! (And you should too)

https://www.touchingtwoworlds.com/

@jappleby @jacobtender @Podnews I've reported Acast to the ESP sending these emails. The ESP sady this kind of cold outreach is against their TOS.

In Canada, and the EU, sending this kind of cold email outreach is illegal (CASL here in Canada).

The key is to build an iteration that matches the direction and velocity of the existing momentum.

You can't pull potential customers too far off their existing behavior, expectations, or desires. (It's too big of an ask)

@leenyburger Yes! 🙌 It’s been amazing to follow your journey.

@noahwbragg nice to hear this update!

There’s a lot of SaaS companies that have been stagnant these last 6 months. You’re not alone!

https://overcast.fm/+T3ki6rgW4

I'm writing an update to my newsletter on our Product Hunt launch for @PodcastSites.

Anything specific you'd like to know?

@lovevalgeisler @SlackHQ Lol. Reminds me of when my teenage son saw me using on Slack on my phone:

https://twitter.com/mijustin/status/1458906465016565761

I’m not saying we should block anyone from trying to be an entrepreneur: it’s good to try!

(And one characteristic of those who “make it” is they try, repeatedly, until they make it)

But statistically, most folks won’t persist or succeed (same is true in music, art, sports).

@sherrywalling @robwalling Looks like you just need a larger spatula drawer.

@arvidkahl @dvassallo @csallen @ChanningAllen listening to this now and really enjoying it 👍

https://overcast.fm/+JmiNG8DzQ

"Some of these markets are not big enough [to build a good business on]. Take, for example, the subscription market: it's not that big! There are, max, 150,000 companies!" – @Patticus

Not all businesses are sellable assets.

If you're going to invest thousands of hours in a startup, it makes sense to consider whether Business Idea 1 will be more acquirable than Business Idea 2.

Generally, main street, consulting, and content businesses are not easy to sell.

@coreyhainesco @SwipeFilesco Really interesting to go back and look at these initial numbers for @TransistorFM.

These first 50 customers came entirely from our existing networks (audience, contacts, friends), many of whom switched to us from different podcast hosting providers.

@TransistorFM Too many entrepreneurs get stuck in a life-long grind, where the business is making them (and their families) miserable.

We want the good things that a business can give us; if those benefits disappear, there's no reason to keep going.

@aarondfrancis @dvassallo I’ve done “100 projects in a year” and it didn’t teach me a ton.

It wasn’t until I saw friends like Wathan and Otwell responding to strong “market pull” that my 💡 came.

Identifying market pull is less about prediction, and more about seeing evidence of demand in the present.

The Bob/Jane example is just illustrative of a broader point for entrepreneurs:

Two founders can start at the same time, with the same resources, and one can do 100x better than the other.

The difference in outcomes is almost always attributable to which market you choose.

It’s me. https://twitter.com/wesbos/status/1297896603286724610

Worth considering: as a private owner, Elon will have tremendous leverage to do whatever he wants.

He can say he won't shadowban, and that he'll increase transparency.

But under the hood, there's nothing stopping him from checking your DMs.

https://twitter.com/elipariser/status/1518594947393466368

To call this "a win for free speech" is a misnomer.

*Whose* definition of free speech are we using here?

If it's a win for your personal ideology, please say so.

Otherwise, nothing is changing about how free speech is defined under the First Amendment.

https://twitter.com/JohnnaCrider1/status/1518588460843642880

@aarondfrancis @tuple @stripe Whaaaaaat 😮

This is going to be amazing! Definitely following along.

I have multiple teenagers at home.

Teens #1 and #3 use Snapchat exclusively for DMing their friends.

(Teen #2 uses Discord, Teen #4 uses iMessage) https://twitter.com/Kantrowitz/status/1517317440392282113

I know only 16.6% of you care, but I've summarized my thoughts on @elonmusk taking over Twitter here:

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

Back from easter break.

Do you want me to tweet about 'elon and free speech' or bootstrapping stuff? (Or something else?)

🎯 https://twitter.com/GeoffTRoberts/status/1515444413895303168

We can’t forget about Ukraine. 🇺🇦

Listen to this episode of @sciencevs and hear a Russian and a Ukrainian report on what they’re seeing on the ground.

Eye-opening. Sobering.

This invasion is a tragedy.

https://overcast.fm/+Tr3_L9dTs

@BryanBarletta @arithisandthat really enjoyed this @PodcastMovement recap!

https://overcast.fm/+mhLjvjZmQ

🥲 wish I could have been there!

🤞 will you two be at the Dallas conf? (I will!)

Instead of following the same “business podcast” formula, Brian is introducing something that feels quite different.

It’s kind of like a variety show for indie hackers. 💯

date night, @MicroKelowna

@AlbanBrooke @savvycal @Calendly We've been using it at @TransistorFM for a while, and love it.

The founder, @derrickreimer, is a gem. 👍

@lylemckeany Quick win: get that social media image + metadata working!

https://cards-dev.twitter.com/validator

https://metatags.io/

If these folks are out there, I wish more of them were on Twitter!

I'd love to follow more SaaS founders in their 50s, 60s, and 70s.

In many industries, older workers model a full career arc for younger folks. We need more of that in tech.

https://twitter.com/ThomasSmale/status/1508137836469313537?s=20&t=gCb4S3oNW1ZXR2Tg7S-rQw

@asmartbear @vinthanedar Jason, I’d just like to figure out a way of analyzing this in a manner that confirms my personal biases. 😜

Here's a teaser:

Method 4: observe whenever people complain about a product

Whenever your peers, or folks on Twitter, complain about an incumbent, write a note in your notes app.

- Name of product
- What people are unhappy with (pricing, bugs, features)

Who you’ll be in the future is determined by what you start doing today (and what you keep doing tomorrow).

Definitely.

At Transistor we use the TAL stack (Tailwind, @Alpine_JS, Laravel) and the RAT stack (Rails, Alpine, Tailwind). 😉

https://twitter.com/CasJam/status/1502049457189404675

When I was a kid, a vacuum salesperson came to our door.

We didn't need a vacuum.
We didn't want what he was selling.

But he tried every trick in the book to try to sell this vacuum to my parents.

Contrast that with how people desire, seek out, and buy Dyson vacuums.

Helen Ryles: @HelenRyles

I'm so fortunate to get to work with Helen every day at @TransistorFM! Helen is a creative powerhouse, and really understands how to help customers with their "job to be done."

Her list of nocode projects is impressive!

New products should consider charging *less* than their competitors.

As a new product, you're asking folks to switch away from the incumbent. Your app is unproven, and has fewer features.

Getting a good deal can be a reason to try something new.

https://justinjackson.ca/charge-more

Oh dang. I don't think this will be well received in the indie music scene. 😰

https://twitter.com/Bandcamp/status/1499068917947510788

In Canada, you can also donate to @CUFCanada:
https://www.cufoundation.ca/cuf-ucc-ukraine-humanitarian-relief/