In episode 711, join Rob Walling and Ruben Gamez as they answer listener questions. They chat about finding early customers without an audience, how to approach horizontal vs. vertical product spinoffs, and some considerations for No Code development. They also discuss the challenges of serving prosumer SaaS, the importance of understanding customer segments for pricing strategies, and the dual funnel approach for catering to different customer tiers.

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

• 2:00 – Strategies for finding your first users when you don’t have an audience
• 10:42 – Positioning yourself to compete well against others
• 12:25 – Jumping into SEO before having a product
• 18:42 – Exporting No Code projects
• 24:15 – Choosing between a vertical or horizontal product spinoff
• 33:55 – Building a B2P, “business to prosumer” product
• 42:53 – How to make lower pricing tiers work outside of B2B

• MicroConf Connect
• Ruben Gamez (@@earthlingworks) | X
• SignWell
• TinySeed
• Bubble
• MicroConf YouTube channel
• State of Independent SaaS
• Episode 216 | How a Single Founder Launched a 7-Figure SaaS App (with Nate Grahek)
• Sticky

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

In episode 707, Rob Walling, alongside guests Tracy Osborn and Einar Vollset, give their hot takes on some recent news in the world of SaaS. They discuss Once.com’s launch, liquidation preference nuances in startup buyouts, with moving from open source to full time income and more.

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 subscribers of Startups For the Rest of Us, you can get 15% off your first 4 week contract with a developer by visiting lemon.io/startups

• 2:18 - Once.com and the Implications of One-Time Software Sales
• 10:39 - Liquidation Preferences in Startup Acquisitions
• 21:59 - Turning an open source project into a business
• 24:32 - Book recommendations
• 30:30 - Is building a startup actually hard?
• 32:46 - Startups vs. lifestyle businesses

• Register for MicroConf US in Atlanta, April 2024
• Once.com
• Campfire
• Venture Deals: Be Smarter Than Your Lawyer and Venture Capitalist by Brad Feld
• Never Split the Difference by Chris Voss
• The Anomaly by Herv Le Tellier
• The Art of Learning by Josh Waitzkin
• The Beginning of Infinity by David Deutsch
• TinySeed
• Einar Vollset (@EinarVollset) | X
• Tracy Osborn (@itsTracyMakes) | TikTok

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 | Google

In episode 706.5, join Rob Walling as he reconsiders some of his most common advice. He explores why lowering prices might make sense and discusses the benefits of a B2C business model. Rob also walks back his prior advice on bootstrapping two-sided marketplaces and launching multiple products to see what sticks.

• 1:04 – What would happen if you lowered prices?
• 3:56 – Benefits of a B2C approach
• 7:05 – Two-sided marketplaces allow to reach two audiences
• 8:47 – Launch a bunch of products to see what sticks
• 10:52 – This episode was released April 1, 2024

• The SaaS Playbook
• Rob Walling (@robwalling) | X

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 | Google

MicroConf US in Atlanta is here in just a couple weeks, and this is your last call to buy tickets. We've sold more than 90% of the tickets, and we will sell this event out as we have for many years. The event is April 21st through the 23rd in Atlanta, Georgia at the amazing Starling Atlanta.

There are going to be 200-ish of your closest bootstrapped and mostly bootstrapped founder friends who are showing up to hear talks from folks like Rand Fishkin of SparkToro, Asia Orangio of DemandMaven. I'm giving a talk as well, and Dr. Sherry Walling will be talking about staying motivated as an entrepreneur. We have a special guest MC, Lianna Patch, and we'll have a very special guest who has never appeared on the MicroConf stage before- Ben Chestnut, the co-founder of MailChimp.

Get all the details and secure your ticket before they run out at microconf.com/americas.

In episode 706, join Rob Walling for a solo adventure where he discusses a variety of topics. He starts with why it’s important to both consider and credit “prior art” in business. Rob outlines his 2/20/200 idea validation framework used to repeatedly evaluate ideas. He also covers why, though there are some advantages, designing by committee has some significant downsides.

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.

• 2:37 – Learning from, and crediting, prior art
• 10:27 – The 2/20/200 Idea Validation Framework
• 16:03 – Be wary when designing by committee
• 21:09 – When to crowdsource feedback

• Register for MicroConf US in Atlanta, April 2024
• Do Things That Don’t Scale by Paul Graham
• David Sacks (@DavidSacks) | X
• Hackers and Painters by Paul Graham
• Episode 705 | From Bootstrapped to Mostly Bootstrapped
• Episode 628 | The 5 P.M. Idea Validation Framework
• Use This PROVEN Formula to Validate Your Next Startup Idea
• Validate Your SaaS Idea FAST (Step-by-Step SaaS Validation Process)✅
• Start Small Stay Small by Rob Walling
• Metallica: Some Kind of Monster

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 | Google