Bootstrapped

Ed chats with Pierre de Wulf, co-founder of ScrapingBee. Pierre tells us about the time his company almost got acquired - and how the deal fell apart at the final stage.Links:Pierre's company, Scraping Bee.Pierre on Twitter  

My co-host Ed Freyfogle chats with Brian Sierakowski, general manager of Baremetrics. Brian stepped in to manage Baremetrics after it was acquired a year or so ago from the founder.Ed and Brian discuss the challenges of taking over a complicated business,  Brian's trajectory from SaaS founder himself to running someone else's business, and how changing prices inadvertently gave him the chance to get valuable customer feedback.

Ed and Steve talk about a dilemma Steve is facing. An open source component heavily used by Feature Upvote has become abandoned by the maintainer, and Steve has to make a hard decision about how to deal with this.We also talk about why and how Steve recently moved Feature Upvote's website from Jekyll to Wordpress. Yes, really, Wordpress. 

Ed chats with John Ndege, a former bootstrapper, about how it feels no longer being one's own boss. John launched and grew a product, and he ultimately sold it. Afterwards, he went back to being an employee, working for a large corporation. Ed and John discuss the advantages and frustrations you might experience when you choose the path of going back to work for someone else.Links:John's website: https://www.johnndege.com/John on Twitter: https://twitter.com/johnndege 

Ed and I chat about Ed's recent trip to London, my upcoming trip to London, the return of in-person events, and getting exposed to ideas and concepts outside of our normal channels.We mentioned Geomob and Business of Software.In or near London? And interested in joining me for a Bootstrapped mini-meetup in central London on the evening of April 6th or 7th? Let me know at steve@bootstrapped.fm 

I talk with Brian Casel, founder of ZipMessage, an asynchronous video messaging tool.Brian has created several successful products in the past, and sometimes ran them in parallel. But he recently sold his entire portfolio of products to focus on ZipMessage. Brian explains why he made this decision.  He also talks about why sometimes you need to shut something down, even if it does seem to be kind of, sort of working.And we talk about the feeling when you realise that a new product is really getting traction.Links:zipmessage.comBrian's podcast, Bootstrapped WebBrian on Twitter  

Ed tells me why and how he obtained a trademark for his business. We discuss when it is worthwhile to do this. We then talk about the trouble with having competitors clone your product or website content.Ed mentioned how we got the EU to refund most of the costs of obtaining a trademark. Learn about the EU's "Ideas Powered for business SME Fund" here. 

I chat with Robert Brandl, founder of ToolTester.com. We talk about Robert's recent experience changing the domain name of his website. It was an expensive experience, and one that, for a while, did not go to plan.

Ed and I chat about my recent experience hiring a marketing manager for Feature Upvote. Amongst other topics, we discuss how I went about finding the right person.   

Ed  interviews Charles Perry, founder of RelaNet. Charles was the co-host of Release Notes, a long-running podcast that Charles and his co-host recently ended.It's a great conversation, addressing how, over the years, we change, our industries change, and how sometimes things do come to an end.Charles on TwitterThe Release Notes podcast's back catalog of 450 episodes 

We talk about Ed's launch of his new product line.That leads into a meandering conversation about ethics and personal beliefs and values. In particular, when a customer signs up for our product and then we discover that customer is in a business that clashes with our own beliefs and values, what should we do and what can we do?When is it right, ethically or legally, to refuse a customer? 

Frequent guest Peldi, founder of Balsamiq, makes another welcome appearance.We talk about some ways to strengthen company culture in a fully-remote team, we discuss advice that Peldi often gives to first-time entrepreneurs, and Peldi tells me why he might finally start with traditional product marketing - 14 years after he launched his product.Find out more about Balsamiq's Office Hours.  

Part 2 of Ed Freyfogle's 50 tips for running a stress-free SaaS.There was a lot of good content in this recording and we recorded for much longer than usual. So we have split this recording over two episodes. Part 1 is here.

Ed Freyfogle shares with us his 50 tips for running a stress-free SaaS. This is based on Ed's talk he prepared for MicroConf late last year, but was unable to deliver due to misfortune.There was a lot of good content in this recording and we recorded for much longer than usual. So we have split this recording over two episodes.

This week I go solo and rant about the dismal deeds of a desperate competitor. I also talk about the freedom that bootstrapping gives us to change our approach, our style, our audience while staying true to the nature of what we do. 

Ed and I discuss the goals we'd like to achieve in 2022.While we were recording this episode, we had some problems with our recording software. Now I was able to rescue the recording, but you will hear a few audio glitches.In this episode, I mentioned that I'm hiring a part-time digital marketing expert for Feature Upvote. If you know someone who suits the position, please let them know.

Back in episode 163, Ed and I set our goals for 2021. In this episode we look back at those goals and we ask ourselves, how well did we do in achieving them?Steve mentioned the Catalan Christmas tradition of Caga Tió. Here's what Wikipedia has to say about Caga Tió.

I give Ed an update on what I've achieved on Saber Feedback in recent months.A new app design, ripping out the SPA architecture, replacing our payment processor with Paddle, and hiring a marketing assistant. It's been busy!If you have a friend or colleague or acquaintance who you think would enjoy this episode, please let them know about it! 

Ed tells us about his accident he had, and the impact it had on his life and business. He also talks about how it got him reflecting about his business. 

I conclude the mini season of interviews with a brief summary of the five interviews I conducted. A few weeks ago, my cohost had a cycling that student that broke his jaw. As a result he had to take a break from the podcast while he was recovering. In the meantime, I invited a few people to come onto the podcast and talk about their businesses, their work and themselves.The episodes:#198: Simon Bennett of SnapShooter#199: Jane Portman of UI Breakfast#200: Positioning for bootstrappers with April Dunford#201: Peter Cooper of Cooperpress#202: Bridget Harris, co-founder of YouCanBook.Me