Startups For the Rest of Us

In episode 635, Rob Walling catches up with Tony Chan, the co-founder of CloudForecast, an AWS cost monitoring tool. Tony shared his victories, challenges, and failures in TinySeed Tales Season 3. It has been over eight months since we recorded the final episode. In this episode, we reflect and catch up on what’s been happening with Tony and CloudForecast. Episode Sponsor: Find your perfect developer or a team at Lemon.io/startups The competition for incredible engineers and developers has never been more fierce.  Lemon.io helps you cut through the noise and find great talent through its network of engineers in Europe and Latin America. They take care of the vetting, interviewing, and testing of candidates to make sure that you are working with someone who can hit the ground running. When it comes to hiring, the time it takes to write your job description, list the position, review resumes, schedule interviews, and make an offer can take weeks, if not months.  With Lemo

In episode 634, join Rob Walling for another solo adventure where he answers listener questions on topics ranging from naming your startup to initial aha moments and how to know if you have tapped out a specific niche. Episode Sponsor: Find your perfect developer or a team at Lemon.io/startups The competition for incredible engineers and developers has never been more fierce.  Lemon.io helps you cut through the noise and find great talent through its network of engineers in Europe and Latin America. They take care of the vetting, interviewing, and testing of candidates to make sure that you are working with someone who can hit the ground running. When it comes to hiring, the time it takes to write your job description, list the position, review resumes, schedule interviews, and make an offer can take weeks, if not months.  With Lemon.io, you can cut down on a lot of that time by tapping into their wide network of developers who can get started in as early as a week. And for s

In episode 633, Rob Walling chats with Matt Wensing, the founder of Summit. Matt is no stranger on the podcast. And we talk about Matt's decision to change Summit's brand positioning and the far-reaching impact on his business. Episode Sponsor: Find your perfect developer or a team at Lemon.io/startups The competition for incredible engineers and developers has never been more fierce.  Lemon.io helps you cut through the noise and find great talent through its network of engineers in Europe and Latin America. They take care of the vetting, interviewing, and testing of candidates to make sure that you are working with someone who can hit the ground running. When it comes to hiring, the time it takes to write your job description, list the position, review resumes, schedule interviews, and make an offer can take weeks, if not months.  With Lemon.io, you can cut down on a lot of that time by tapping into their wide network of developers who can get started in as early as a week. And

In episode 632, join Rob Walling and Einar Vollset for Hot Take Tuesday, where they analyze and discuss some of the latest news. Some topics covered include the Figma exit, side project distractions, no-code apps, and more. Episode Sponsor: Find your perfect developer or a team at Lemon.io/startups The competition for incredible engineers and developers has never been more fierce.  Lemon.io/ helps you cut through the noise and find great talent through its network of engineers in Europe and Latin America. They take care of the vetting, interviewing, and testing of candidates to make sure that you are working with someone who can hit the ground running. When it comes to hiring, the time it takes to write your job description, list the position, review resumes, schedule interviews, and make an offer can take weeks, if not months.  With Lemon.io/, you can cut down on a lot of that time by tapping into their wide network of developers who can get started in as early as a week. And fo

In episode 631, join Rob Walling for a solo adventure as he answers listener questions on topics ranging from when to rewrite your codebase to founder salaries and balancing your founder vs. developer mindset. Episode Sponsor Find your perfect developer or a team at Lemon.io The competition for incredible engineers and developers has never been more fierce.  Lemon.io helps you cut through the noise and find great talent through its network of engineers in Europe and Latin America. They take care of the vetting, interviewing, and testing of candidates to make sure that you are working with someone who can hit the ground running. When it comes to hiring, the time it takes to write your job description, list the position, review resumes, schedule interviews, and make an offer can take weeks, if not months.  With Lemon.io, you can cut down on a lot of that time by tapping into their wide network of developers who can get started in as early as a week. And for subscribers of Startups

In episode 630, Rob Walling chats with Jonathan Weinberg, who is the founder of Builder Prime, a CRM software for home improvement contractors. We chat about how he came up with the idea for Builder Prime, getting early traction, and finding product-market fit. Topics we cover:  2:46 - Getting Builder Prime to almost $1M ARR 3:32 - Deciding who to hire next 4:40 - How did Jonathan come up with the idea for Builder Prime? 8:29 - Jonathan's decision to quit his day job and work on Builder Prime before it made any money 10:55 - The unique steps that Jonathan took to get early traction 17:05 - When did Jonathan realize he had product-market fit? 24:04 - Jonathan’s hockey stick growth moment 28:31 - What’s next for Jonathan? Links from the Show: Jonathan Weinberg @Jonathan_codes) I Twitter Builder Prime  TinySeed  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 u

In the final episode of TinySeed Tales Season 3, Rob Walling checks in with Tony Chan of CloudForecast. They reflect on some of the most prominent challenges and milestones that the business has faced over the last year. Topics we cover:  1:31 - Tony reflects on attending his first MicroConf Growth in Minneapolis 3:30 - An update on how CloudForecast’s content marketing efforts are going 7:59 - Getting an article featured at the top of Reddit 11:16 - An update on how their new senior engineer is doing 16:18 - Why Tony prefers to hire full-time employees 18:26 - An update on CloudForecast’s sales pipeline 20:50 - Tony reflects on the challenges of figuring out where to invest time and capital 24:30 - The importance of getting low-level tasks off your plate 28:36 - What is Tony least looking forward to in the next year? 30:38 - What is Tony most looking forward to in the next year? Links from the Show: Tony Chan (@toeknee123) I Twitter CloudForecast Cost of l

In episode 628, join Rob Walling on a solo adventure where he dives into his newest framework. The 5 P.M. Idea Validation Framework is a helpful way to evaluate different startup ideas through a set of criteria to gauge the size of the opportunity. Want to download the PDF version the the 5 p.M. Idea Evaluation Framework? Join the Startups For The Rest Us Mailing List, and we'll send you the link in the first email. Look for the orange email opt-in widget on the page. Topics we cover:  3:37 - Why is it called The 5 P.M. Idea Validation Framework? 4:06 - Problem 6:23 - Purchaser 8:17 - Pricing Model 9:00 -  Market 12:48 - Product-Founder Fit 13:21 - Pain to validate the product 13:59 - Evaluating two business ideas through Rob’s 5pm framework Links from the Show: SaaS Ideas to Build Right Now, Before Someone Else Does  Jon Yongfook's Tweet MicroConf Connect If you have questions about starting or scaling a software business that you’d like fo

In the penultimate episode of TinySeed Tales Season 3, Rob Walling checks in with Tony Chan of CloudForecast. Tony shares some recent big wins, including hiring a senior engineer. We also meet Tony’s cofounder, Francois Lagier, for the first time. Topics we cover:  1:49 - The story of how Tony and Francois first met 2:14 - Hiring a senior engineer at CloudForecast 8:51 - Tony shares two recent big wins at CloudForecast 14:31 - The paradox of choice that all startup founders face 16:30 - CloudForecast dives into some new content marketing and SEO initiatives 18:35 - What are Tony and Francois looking forward to in the next month? Links from the Show: Tony Chan (@toeknee123) I Twitter Francois Lagier (@francoislagier) I Twitter CloudForecast 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

In episode 626, Rob Walling chats with Nick Swan, the founder of SEOTesting.com. SEOTesting helps SEO professionals and agencies automate the reporting of page updates and changes. Nick originally launched it as a free tool under a different name. In this episode, we cover when Nick decided to charge for it, renaming the tool, rewriting the codebase, and the journey to growing to $18,000 MRR. Topics we cover:  3:17 - Growing SEOTesting.com to $18,000 MRR 4:53 - What kinds of businesses use SEOTesting.com? 8:11 - The decision to build SEOTesting 12:33 - Launching SEOTesting as a free tool 15:39 - When Nick started to charge for SEOTesting? 18:16 - Nick’s initial pricing strategy and rollout 27:06 - Reflecting on the initial launch 29:49 - Nick’s thought process for pivoting and changing the company name 34:45 - Reaching product-market fit 36:01 - Nick’s decision to bring on a co-founder a few years in 39:32 - Prioritizing marketing vs. development Links from the

In the fourth episode of TinySeed Tales Season 3, Rob Walling checks back in with Tony Chan of CloudForecast. Tony shares that they’ve doubled their MRR in the last couple of months, and it feels like he has unlocked a cheat code. Topics we cover:  2:02 - What’s changed since the last episode? 3:14 - Winning a huge enterprise deal that nearly doubled their MRR 5:21 - Deploying capital 12:31 - A key mindset shift that Tony had to make 13:33 - Tony’s experience at a recent TinySeed retreat 18:10 - Tony reflects on some low points 19:35 - What is he looking forward to? Links from the Show: Tony Chan (@toeknee123) I Twitter CloudForecast TinySeed Applications are now open 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 episode 624, join Rob Walling for a solo adventure as he answers some listener questions on topics ranging from customer interviews to transitioning from a free to a paid product and prioritizing marketing vs. development. Topics we cover:  2:11 - What episodes should I start with to get up to speed? 3:27 - When to transition from a free to a paid product 11:37 - Customer interviews as a service 15:03 - Making the jump from software to manufacturing 19:32 - Prioritizing marketing vs. development Links from the Show: Greatest Hits Spending Benchmarks for Private B2B SaaS Companies  How Much Do SaaS Companies Spend on Marketing? MicroConf Locals MicroConf Youtube Channel  MicroConf Connect 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 the third episode of season 3 of TinySeed Tales, Rob Walling checks in with Tony Chan of CloudForecast to see how he is faring since his co-founder is now on paternity leave. During this time, Tony shares a big win along with dealing with some hiring and growth setbacks. Topics we cover:  1:24 - How the business is doing while Francois is on paternity leave  2:36 - Tony’s perspective on being a solo founder for the past 6 weeks  5:04 - Managing your own founder psychology   7:49 - How Tony is dealing with an unexpected sales slump  16:16 - Did Tony end up hiring a full-time SDR?   21:04 - Dealing with setbacks  22:41 - What Tony is looking forward to in the next couple of months   Links from the Show: Tony Chan (@toeknee123) I Twitter CloudForecast TinySeed Applications are now open  Episode 613 | Hacking Your Founder Psychology Summit If you have questions about starting or scaling a software bu

In episode 622, join Rob Walling and fan favorite Derrick Reimer, the founder of SavvyCal, as they discuss topics like balancing profitability versus growth and deciding which features to build and not. They chat about some specific features that Derek has decided to build, those he has not decided to build, and the thought process behind them. Topics we cover:  4:02 - Making product decisions  9:22 - Deciding on what features you are not going to build  19:12 - When to reply to debates on Twitter   27:42 - Twitter’s newsletter feature  31:40 - Derrick’s perspective on balancing profitability vs reinvesting in the business  43:10 - Is Rob scratching his maker itch by being an investor in companies through TinySeed, or is he missing building SaaS businesses?   46:29 - Should Rob join TikTok?  Links from the Show: Derrick Reimer @derrickreimer I Twitter SavvyCal Applications for TinySeed’s Fall 2022 SaaS Accelerators Are No

In this episode of TinySeed Tales, Rob chats with Tony Chan from CloudForecast about the progress his rapidly growing team has made over the previous few weeks. Tony is riding the roller coaster that is entrepreneurship and in this episode you get to follow along. Topics we cover: 1:47 - New full time engineering hire onboarding results 4:50 - Part time SDR hire onboarding results 7:31 - How hiring affects company culture 10:19 - Tony’s biggest wins in the last few weeks 14:30 - Growing the product to grow Expansion Revenue 15:45 - CloudForecast’s summer sales lull 19:40 - Keeping sane as a founder 22:00 - What Tony is worried about coming out of summer 24:00 - The next MRR target Links from the Show: Tony Chan (@toeknee123) I Twitter CloudForecast TinySeed Applications open September 12, 2022 TinySeed Tales S2E1 I Introducing Gather  TinySeed Tales 1 I A Non-Technical Saas Founder  If you have questions about starting or scaling a software b

In episode 620, join Rob Walling for a solo adventure as he answers some listener questions. These questions range from which SaaS business metrics to pay attention to and how to find good SaaS ideas to helping an employee transition from a task-level to a project-level thinker. Topics we cover:  1:44- What SaaS business metrics matter the most?  11:21- Do you have any general observations about building a SaaS for non-technical customers?  16:00- How do you find a good SaaS idea?  24:41- How can I assist an employee in transitioning from a task-level to a project-level thinker?  Links from the Show: Episode 480 I Stairstepping Your Way To SaaS with Christopher Gimmer 2022 State of Independent SaaS Report  The Stairstep Approach to Bootstrapping  TMBA 100 - Rip, Pivot, and Jam MicroConf Connect  MicroConf Europe  Applications for TinySeed’s Fall 2022 SaaS Accelerators Will Open September 12th MicroConf Youtube Channel&nb

Welcome to Season 3 of TinySeed Tales, where we follow the founders of one SaaS startup throughout a year as they share their struggles, victories, and failures. On the first episode of Season 3, Rob introduces us to Tony Chan, the cofounder of CloudForecast. CloudForecast is a daily AWS cost monitoring service for busy engineering teams. Tony is one of 33 startup founders from TinySeed’s Spring 2021 accelerator batch. Topics we cover:  2:41- What’s CloudForecast?  4:09- How large is the CloudForecast team?  6:54- Why did Tony apply to TinySeed? 8:30- Why Tony turned down venture capital offers?  13:48- Tony reflects on the added complexity of taking funding  19:47- Tony’s biggest fear  22:34- What is Tony looking forward to? Links from the Show: Tony Chan (@toeknee123) I Twitter CloudForecast  TinySeed  Castos  Gather  TinySeed Tales S2E1 I Introducing Gather  TinySeed Tales S1E1 I A Non-Technical Saa

In episode 618, join Rob Walling as he chats with Sam Dogen, the founder of Financial Samurai, which is one of the longest-running and most popular personal finance blogs. Over the last 13 years, Sam has personally written over 2,500 essays along with a Wall Street Journal Bestselling book. We talk about achieving financial freedom, money mindsets, and relentless execution. Topics we cover:  3:12- The 4% Rule  4:40- Sam’s alternative approach to the 4% Rule  7:25- The FIRE Movement  10:16- How to navigate the US health insurance system as an early retiree  12:10- Sam’s relentless execution when it comes to running Financial Samurai  17:40- How Sam learned about personal finance  18:47- How Sam negotiated a severance package despite quitting his investment banking job  22:47- Why he runs Financial Samurai as a true lifestyle business  26:07- Would Sam sell Financial Samurai for $20 million?  27:35- The premise of Sam’s new book

In episode 617, Einar Vollset and Tracy Osborn join Rob Walling for a bootstrapper news roundup episode. They cover a wide range of topics from ProfitWell’s big 200 million exit, spreadsheet mentality, watching an acquirer ruin your company, and much more. Topics we cover:  [3:06] What’s your take on ProfitWell’s acquisition?   [5:52] Watching an acquirer ruin your company  [14:03] The spreadsheet mentality  [23:09] If you can’t buy it twice, don’t buy it [36:00] Balancing realism with optimism as a founder  Links from the Show: Tracy Osborn @tracymakes I Twitter Einar Vollset @einarvollset I Twitter Episode 611 | Bootstrapping ProfitWell to a $200M Exit (with Patrick Campbell) Watching an acquirer ruin your company Episode 605 | Building a SaaS with Little Dev Experience, Using No Code for Your MVP, Bootstrapping a Two-Sided Marketplace, and More Listener Questions The “Spreadsheet Mentality” sucks, and kills the efficacy of jobs If You

In episode 616, Rob Walling chats with Liam Martin, the co-founder of Time Doctor and author of the new book, “Running Remote: Master the Lessons from the World’s Most Successful Remote Work Pioneers.” We dig into the fundamentals of asynchronous communication, how to do remote work better, and some surprises they saw during the pandemic. Episode Sponsor Hiring developers has been tough for years, but it is even tougher these days. Lemon.io is on a mission to make the process of hiring an experienced developer or even an entire team easier. They only have experienced developers on their marketplace, and each one is hand-vetted. It is virtually risk-free as they’ll guarantee a replacement in 48 hours if something goes wrong. Find your perfect developer or a team with Lemon.io. You can also claim a special discount for our podcast fans. Visit lemon.io/startups to receive a 15% discount for the first 4 weeks of work with a developer. Topics we cover:  [2:46] What Liam has learned running Ti