In episode 710, join Rob Walling for another solo adventure where he answers listener questions. He answers whether you need a burning passion to be successful in entrepreneurship, and how that relates to developing a product alongside a day job. Rob also discusses competing against VC-backed companies, learning to code in the age of AI, and how much risk lies in IP theft when building your SaaS.

Is your outsourced development team dropping the ball?

Maybe you’ve worked with a team that just couldn't grasp your vision and needed constant oversight because they weren’t thinking strategically. Or maybe you ended up wasting hours micromanaging, often needing to jump on late-night calls across massive time zone differences to get alignment. And in the end, they delivered a sluggish app with a frustrating UI that didn’t come close to the solution you had envisioned. If any of that sounds familiar, you need to reach out to our sponsor - DevSquad.

DevSquad provides an entire development team packed with top talent from Latin America.

Your elite squad will include between 2 to 6 Full Stack Developers, a technical product manager, plus experts in product strategy, UI/UX design, DevOps, and QA - all working together to make your SaaS Product a success.

You can ramp up an entire product team fast, in your timezone, and at rates 75% cheaper than a comparable US-based team. And with DevSquad, you pay month to month with no long-term contracts.

Get the committed, responsive development team that your business deserves.

Visit DevSquad.com/startups and get 10% off the first three months of your engagement.

• 3:00 – Reacting to needing a burning desire for entrepreneurship
• 5:20 – Maintaining a day job to enable space for entrepreneurial pursuits
• 8:52 – Balancing build speed vs. scalability with your tech stack
• 10:30 – The April Fools Episode
• 12:55 – Competing against VC-backed companies in a “hot” space
• 18:34 – Is learning to code dead?
• 27:33 – Risk in SaaS of IP theft

• MicroConf Connect
• Episode 704 | Landing Pages, Buying a SaaS, the Right Tech Stack, and More Listener Questions
• Episode 706.5 | Rethinking My Most Common Advice
• The SaaS Playbook by Rob Walling
• Start Small Stay Small by Rob Walling
• TinySeed
• Episode 688 | Growing Boot.dev From $6k to $110k in Monthly Revenue in 15 Months
• Ask a Question on SFTROU

In episode 709, join Rob Walling for a solo adventure as he shares his story of growing his personal wealth over the past few decades. Selling companies was the major driver of wealth, but he also explores the role of cryptocurrency, running profitable companies, and angel investing. Rob emphasizes the power of entrepreneurship in achieving financial freedom, while acknowledging there are ways to do so while keeping risk relatively low.

We have been partnering with Lemon.io for several years, and they’ve proven to be a great choice when it comes to hiring for a highly skilled developer to work on your project.

Here are five reasons why you should consider working with Lemon.io.

1. The time from your request to getting a candidate is just 48 hours.
2. Developers have previously worked with tech giants such as Apple, Google, Netflix, Airbnb, Intel, and LEGO.
3. They only provide senior devs, with an average of 7 years' experience.
4. Their talent pool covers more than 300 dev languages & frameworks.
5. Your hire comes with a zero-risk, replacement guarantee.

Customers of Lemon.io typically stick around for at least a year, proving they know how to gain your trust by delivering consistent results.

Quit wasting time searching for a solid developer at a great price. Get in touch with Lemon.io.

As a bonus for our podcast listeners, you’ll get a 15% discount on your first four weeks of working with a developer at lemon.io/startups. That’s lemon.io/startups

• 2:50 – A lesson on how to build wealth
• 4:31 – Entrepreneurship was our biggest tool
• 6:37 – Building, acquiring, then selling companies
• 10:45 – Building slowly while staying risk-averse
• 13:27 – Investing in riskier assets like cryptocurrency
• 19:39 – Running profitable companies
• 20:56 – Angel investing, and WP Engine
• 23:44 – Traditional, salaried employment
• 24:53 – Typical investments: stocks, bonds, REITs
• 27:36 – Real estate investing

• MicroConf Connect
• Christopher Gimmer (@cgimmer) | X
• Christopher’s tweet
• Sherry Walling (@sherrywalling) | X
• The Stair Step Method of Bootstrapping
• Start Small Stay Small by Rob Walling
• This Took 11 Years to Be An "Overnight Success" - SaaS Exit Strategy
• Zen Founder
• The SaaS Playbook by Rob Walling
• WP Engine
• TinySeed
• Barbell Strategy Explained for Stock and Bond Investors

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.

In episode 708, Rob Walling and Derrick Reimer tackle listener questions about building development skills vs. business skills and strategies for entering competitive markets. They also chat about building on top of AI services, addressing the risks of platform dependency and the importance of managing infrastructure costs.

Is your outsourced development team dropping the ball?

Maybe you’ve worked with a team that just couldn't grasp your vision and needed constant oversight because they weren’t thinking strategically. Or maybe you ended up wasting hours micromanaging, often needing to jump on late-night calls across massive time zone differences to get alignment. And in the end, they delivered a sluggish app with a frustrating UI that didn’t come close to the solution you had envisioned. If any of that sounds familiar, you need to reach out to our sponsor - DevSquad.

DevSquad provides an entire development team packed with top talent from Latin America.

Your elite squad will include between 2 to 6 Full Stack Developers, a technical product manager, plus experts in product strategy, UI/UX design, DevOps, and QA - all working together to make your SaaS Product a success.

You can ramp up an entire product team fast, in your timezone, and at rates 75% cheaper than a comparable US-based team. And with DevSquad, you pay month to month with no long-term contracts.

Get the committed, responsive development team that your business deserves.

Visit DevSquad.com/startups and get 10% off the first three months of your engagement.

• 02:38 - Should you build technical skills or business skills?
• 11:41- Entering a competitive market
• 21:14 - Building a valuable analytics dashboard tool
• 29:29 - When should a solo founder hire for marketing roles?
• 36:29 - The rare skillset of a full-stack marketer
• 38:18 - Implications of building on openAI and scaling infrastructure costs

• Register for MicroConf US in Atlanta, April 2024
• Rob Walling | X
• Derrick Reimer | X
• Derrick Reimer
• SavvyCal
• Start Small Stay Small by Rob Walling
• The SaaS Playbook by Rob Walling
• Devin AI

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