Startups For the Rest of Us

In this episode, Rob Walling is joined by Einar Vollset as they answer listener questions ranging from when to sunset a product, filling out enterprise security assessments, acquiring a company where the previous owner had sold lifetime deals and not disclosed it, and more. The topics we cover [03:20] Deciding when to sunset a feature or product [08:27] Splitting a business to focus on two separate audiences [17:21] How to take advantage of being a consumer of your own product. [21:35] Acquiring a SaaS where the previous founder sold lifetime plans [28:20] Enterprise security assessments [35:22] Building a product to solve a problem as a full-time employee Links from the show TinySeed Tales S2E1 | Introducing Gather Episode 515 | Finding a Co-Founder, Getting Better at Sales, and More Listener Questions Episode 9: Raising Entrepreneurial Kids - ZenFounder SOC 2 Episode 463 | Troubleshooting Enterprise Sales (A Founder Hotseat with David Heller) The TinySeed Investmen

In this episode, Rob is joined by Rand Fishkin for an honest and transparent conversation about his time at Moz, raising funding, his book Lost and Founder, as well as his current effort, SparkToro. They discuss growth levers and the importance of owning the channel where you build your audience. The topics we cover [01:44] Impacts from writing a book [08:41] Transitioning from Moz but continuing to work there [15:53] Venture capital vs angel investing [19:59] Launching SparkToro [36:08] Raising capital for SparkToro [44:14] Growth levers that are working today Links from the show Lost & Founder Start Small, Stay Small Rand Fishkin's Bio Sarah Bird Startups.com Zirtual Clarity — On Demand Business Advice SparkToro Spark Toro Terms Conversion Rate Experts Rand Fishkin (@randfish) | Twitter If you enjoyed this episode, let us know by clicking the link and sharing what you learned. Click here to share your number one takeaway from the episode.

In episode 536 of Startups For the Rest of Us, Rob does another solo adventure. As we all faced perhaps one of the worst years on record, Rob talks through some things that 2020 taught him personally, professionally, and at a higher level, philosophically. He also looks beyond 2020 and discusses opportunities for 2021 for software entrepreneurs. The topics we cover [01:53] Keeping perspective during difficult startup times [04:03] We can make it through scary and dangerous moments [07:04] There is always opportunity [09:53] Doing things in public creates opportunity [12:02] Growing niches/industries in 2021 [18:31] In search of problems Links from the show Episode 490 | How Founders Should Be Thinking About the Current Crisis Dynamite Jobs If you enjoyed this episode, let us know by clicking the link and sharing what you learned. Click here to share your number one takeaway from the episode. If you have questions about starting or scaling a software business that you’d

In Episode 535, Rob is joined by co-host emeritus, Mike Taber to talk about what Mike has been up to over the past seven months with Bluetick, including an exciting reveal of a big project he's been working on. The topics we cover [05:41] BlueTick partnership or merger with a CRM for field sales reps [11:52] Delays in partnerships from pandemic and potential asymmetric upside [15:42] How far along the CRM software compared to BlueTick? [19:32] Considering freemium and an AppSumo deal [32:48] Another Google security audit Links from the show SonarCloud (mentioned at 17:43) Episode 484 | Marketing That’s Working Today, Moving from 5 to 10 Employees, SaaS Longevity, and More Listener Questions (mentioned at 22:28) AppSumo If you enjoyed this episode, let us know by clicking the link and sharing what you learned. Click here to share your number one takeaway from the episode. If you have questions about starting or scaling a software business that you’d like for us to cover

In this episode, Rob talks with Josh Pigford in a first appearance since the sale of Baremetrics for $4m. They discuss his seven-year journey to build Baremetrics, the details of the sale, and Josh's post-sale, non-software aspirations. The topics we cover [02:42] Intros [04:26] Avoiding capital gains via qualified small business stock. [09:08] Josh's post-sale purchases and other dramatic life shifts [13:46] Changes at Baremetrics after sale [18:32] Weeks of cash to profitable in 8 months [23:20] Breaking through plateaus and product vs marketing for growth out of plateaus [30:13] What motivated Josh to start thinking about selling [32:58] Launching a new feature called Intros in 2020 [39:11] Laser tweets and post-sale aspirations Links from the show Episode 244 | Competition, Transparency and Funding with Baremetrics Founder Josh Pigford Baremetrics: Subscription Analytics & Insights for Stripe, Braintree, Recurly & more! I sold Baremetrics - Baremetrics

In this episode, Rob speaks with Adii Pienaar, a multi-time founder with multiple exits under his belt. They discuss life probability and the importance of measuring your entrepreneurial success by the things that matter the most to you and your life. The topics we cover [4:36] What motivated Adii to write the book [10:17] Life probability defined [12:45] Work-life balance is not the solution [29:21] Choosing to go back into the SaaS trenches If you enjoyed this episode, let us know by clicking the link and sharing what you learned. Click here to share your number one takeaway from the episode. If you have questions about starting or scaling a software business that you’d like for us to cover, please submit your question for an upcoming episode. We’d love to hear from you! Subscribe & Review: iTunes | Spotify | Stitcher

In this episode, Rob sits down with John Warrillow, author of multiple bestselling books and someone who has years of experience in building and selling companies. They discuss when to sell, how to create leverage, the importance of hiring an expert, and more. The topics we cover [7:30] The right time to sell a company [15:06] Gaining leverage when negotiating [20:59] Sell-side processes for founders [29:14] The 5/20 rule [31:41] Things to look out for from potential acquirers Links from the show The Art of Selling Your Business Built to Sell: Creating a Business That Can Thrive Without You Built to Sell Radio The Automatic Customer: Creating a Subscription Business in Any Industry Finish Big: How Great Entrepreneurs Exit Their Companies on Top Before The Exit: Thought Experiments For Entrepreneurs If you enjoyed this episode, let us know by clicking the link and sharing what you learned. Click here to share your number one takeaway from the episode. If you ha

In Episode 531, Rob talks with Colin Gray, the founder of The Podcast Host and Alitu. Join us for this great conversation as we talk about Colin's early days of building a hobby project in podcast hosting, hiring a freelancer to start producing shows. and building a SaaS app on top of an audience. The topics we cover [7:05] Launching The Podcast Host [16:10] Growing and launching eight businesses at once [21:08] Making the switch to SaaS [30:49] Temptations of shutting down vs. accelerating growth Links from the show The Podcast Host Alitu Hostile Worlds Product/Founder Fit If you enjoyed this episode, let us know by clicking the link and sharing what you learned. Click here to share your number one takeaway from the episode. If you have questions about starting or scaling a software business that you’d like for us to cover, please submit your question for an upcoming episode. We’d love to hear from you! Subscribe & Review: iTunes | Spotify | Stitcher

In this week's episode, Rob sits down with Derrick Reimer to answer listener questions. They discuss whether they have any regrets about selling Drip, protecting against web scraping, making the leap from side project to full-time, and making decisions as a development team. The topics we cover [2:10] How development teams think about decisions together [13:42] Do you ever regret selling Drip to Leadpages? [21:00] Preventing against web scraping [27:16] Jumping ship from a full-time job [37:20] Advice on starting a mastermind group in 2021 Links from the show The Mom Test The Personal MBA The Ultimate Sales Letter Traction The Entrepreneur’s Guide to Keeping Your Sh*t Together Start Small Stay Small The Art of Product If you enjoyed this episode, let us know by clicking the link and sharing what you learned. Click here to share your number one takeaway from the episode. If you have questions about starting or scaling a software business that you’d like for