As you probably know, I’ve been spinning up profitable SaaS for years with no team, no money, no investments of any kind. Almost all of my SaaS are making money - not huge $$$, but definitely some $. Today, I'm announcing my alternative, bootstrapped fund. Investment thesis we only invest in products that are not yet executed (little or no revenue is totally fine) we only … [Read more...]
Reversing SaaS demos, and going extreme
Recently, I've highlighted some SaaS playbooks that are currently working for me. In that article, I've discussed how one type of SaaS products I run is b2b-like, high-ticket, high-touch; almost, software with a service. It's nearly impossible to sell these kinds of products without demos. Currently, what we do is: I meet with the client over a Google meet callI do my … [Read more...]
About playbooks
As you probably know, one of my core values is multiplicity, which allows me to mitigate my entrepreneurial risk by having many, loosely-connected products. Nowadays, I run three types of SaaS products: b2c-like, low-ticket, self-serve, low-touch SaaS productsb2b-like, high-ticket, high-touch SaaS products (almost software with a service)combinations of #1 and #2 When … [Read more...]
How I would grow gumroad.com
This is the second blog post in the "How I would grow" series. The first one is about how I would grow getrewardful. This blog post is about reinventing the discover page over at Gumroad, a site that allows creators to get paid. The goal is to bring in more money for creators by driving more eye balls to their products in the discover page. The page is pretty static at the … [Read more...]
We launched LeadHall.com (2021)
At my company, we (which really means I), launch 5 or more products per year. I write these “launch” posts as a way to encapsulate my thinking at the time of launch. Here are some other launches that we made in the past: * I launched Angage (now Cart, 2017) * I launched Dealflow (2019) * I launched Treendly (2019) * I launched Podda (2021) Yesterday we soft-launched … [Read more...]
My first hire
In 2021, I’m hiring people to help me out. Hiring has many problems, and I already wrote about how relationships are not linear here. I also outlined my very opinionated candidate persona here. As I reach my goal of $100k ARR with just SaaS products, I’ll be bringing on one person, and then possibly another one (for redundancy). My first hire My first hire is Clarice, she is … [Read more...]
Paperback over digital?
Paperback over digital? A simple question someone asked me on Facebook, commenting on a photo of some books I just purchased. What do I prefer? I replied: yes, and yes. In life, people often think they have to choose between two things. Or, put one before the other. Here is the thing: you can just have both. In this case, the cost of a book is so trivial compared to the upside … [Read more...]
We launched Podda.io (2021)
At my company, we (which really means I), launch 5 or more products per year.I write these “launch” posts as a way to encapsulate my thinking at the time of launch.Here are some other launches that we made in the past:* I launched Angage (now Cart, 2017)* I launched Dealflow (2019)* I launched Treendly (2019) A couple of days ago we soft-launched Podda.ioI coded this in ~5 … [Read more...]
1:1
In 2021, I’m thinking about hiring people to help me out. Just thinking, not actively doing it yet. Hiring has many problems, and I already wrote about how relationships are not linear here. Delegate to machines it’s far easier for me: * they almost never fail; * if they fail, it’s most likely your fault. Sometimes, though, you can’t not hire humans. So, I’ve been thinking … [Read more...]
Does it make sense?
This a blog post about finding the thing that makes the other things you do meaningless. For me, that thing is music. And, I’ve always known. First of all, when I hear music (whenever I play or not), I have no other thoughts. It’s like meditation in a way, its purest form.The other thing is: everything else that I do during the day becomes meaningless: software, marketing, … [Read more...]
Speed by subtraction
An obvious point that took me way too long to appreciate: in software engineering, you should probably optimize for speed even when you don't have to, because it's one of the easiest/best ways to prioritize subtraction and parsimony in the solution space. https://t.co/kYulYoV3uN. — Patrick Collison (@patrickc) April 9, 2021 … [Read more...]
The era of gods
In a previous blog post, I’ve discussed how I think code is becoming a commodity. Still, I think the difference in the (somewhat near) future will be made by technology. A reader asked me to clarify my position on that. First of all, technology is not only code. There was a point in time where your bicycle was, in fact, technology. Now everyone has a bike. It’s a … [Read more...]
Multiple products, same product
I previously wrote about how multiple products can end up looking like the same product. In a similar fashion, even if you take two different products, with different designs, with different team sizes, etc - your target market will think that they generally do the same thing. And, that has nothing to do with design. Aligned with the JTBD framework, and maybe stressing the … [Read more...]
Make it less ready
This is an addition to one of my other blog posts, called "make it boring". On that blog post, I wrote about how there’s always something (usually a shiny object) that can make your project look or feel cooler. Instead, you should aim to make it boring. Similarly, there’s always something you can do to make your project be more ready. There’s always something unexpected you can … [Read more...]
Events, compressing and expanding time
Our life is made of days, and our days are made of events. Events are major highlights which obfuscate everything else that you do in a given day. Events are not only major social events, like a wedding could be. An event could be you going for a run, it could be you discovering something for the first time, it could be anything that moves you far more than what you usually … [Read more...]
Permission to forget
Today I want to talk about autopoiesis. For context, the term refers to a system which can reproduce and sustain itself. The term was introduced in 1972 by Chilean biologists Humberto Maturana and Francisco Varela to define the self-maintaining chemistry of living cells. Since then the concept has also been applied to systems theory and sociology. To me, autopoiesis goes … [Read more...]
Don’t build for too long
Eventually, all the solutions in a market end up looking the same and having the same features. For example, take UpWork and Fiverr: two marketplaces who had a kind of distinct offer until now. Here is Fiverr: And here is Upwork, who recently launched services: What do you see? The same thing. This is true for other software out there as well. For example, Todoist now has … [Read more...]
1 + 1 != 2
Lately, I’ve been thinking a lot about hiring. This will probably be the first of a series of blog posts about it, as I have more than one problem with the concept of building a team. I’ve been working alone for a long time, and the few times I worked together with other individuals I was disappointed, to say the least. Today, I want to share one concept that is kind of … [Read more...]
Cutting my revenue on purpose
I run multiple profitable software products in parallel, and I just passed $6k MRR last month. But, I'm starting 2021 by unsubscribing some of my users. These "users” were currently paying but they were not regularly using my products. All and all, I cut around $3-400 worth of subscriptions. When I shared this on Twitter, I got controversial replies. Some people said they sign … [Read more...]
The insecure entrepreneur
If you are insecure, you can't be an entrepreneur. Being resolute is the name of the game. Entrepreneurship is about making decisions quickly with incomplete information. It's a roller coaster, far from the concept of something stable. Here are some things that make it so: how much you work on your thing is not directly correlated to how much you get out of it things brake all … [Read more...]