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...]
What I know about data
My new course "Reverse engineering through technical scraping" is out. I built my career, and 10s of software products on a simple idea: collecting third-party data for profit. In the course, I teach you exactly that: how to collect, transform and use third-party data to get a competitive advantage. Collecting data is more crucial than ever now, as every company needs data. … [Read more...]
Micro feedback
Micro feedback. I've been practicing this for years. How do you know that you are actually helping your customers? You ask them, without getting in the way. Example from one of my SaaS, Cart, below. Feedback comes directly to my inbox: Enjoyed this article? Join my newsletter to learn when new products are launched, as well as other stories from the trenches. People … [Read more...]
How I score tasks
Enjoyed this article? Join my newsletter to learn when new products are launched, as well as other stories from the trenches. People from great companies like Facebook and Hubspot read my newsletter. … [Read more...]
Which product should I work on?
One of the advantages of running multiple software products is that you can make them compete with each other for your attention. For example, right now I run several profitable products. These are just some of them: Treendly, making $1227/m Groouply, making $1100/m FastLien, making $936/m Cart, making $920/m Since all of the software products run under the same conditions … [Read more...]
Taking on complexity
Whenever I hear someone stressing about a problem that is complex, I'm actually happy because there is probably a business opportunity there. In fact, part of the value of any business is taking on complexity for clients. That involves systematizing, creating processes and automating those. The more you optimize, delegate and automate the processes, the higher your margins … [Read more...]
The problem with for loops
Everybody should know a simple programming concept called a "for loop". I think of it as a tool that enables me to do some things repeatedly. For instance, the above example prints the numbers from 0 to 99. One clear benefit of using a for loop is that you don't need to write the same code multiple times to reuse it. You can just repeat and cycle through it. I love this tool … [Read more...]
In the news
I was recently interviewed on a couple of indie media outlets discussing some of the things I like the most like bootstrapping, being a solo founder, balancing being a musician/working on products, and more. I thought to share these interviews with you. Here is a list: [90] Running Lean With Multiple SaaS w/ Mike Rubini - It was a pleasure to be on the Productize & Scale … [Read more...]
Obsess over founder
A lot of people obsess over customers. They put customers at the centre of their business. This is yet another thing that is "mainstream thinking". Bezos did this, so let's all do this. I question that. There's nothing wrong with obsessing over customers, customers are important. After all, no customers = no business. Let's just not forget that there is … [Read more...]
Front-loading the work
Doing a little bit of the work upfront can lead to massive upside. I first learned about this when I was in college, back in 2011. I was trying to get clients for my agency and I was doing a lot of email outreaches. Luckily, some of those secured me meetings with prospective clients. At that time I was following Ramit Sethi, a financial guru and best-selling author, and he … [Read more...]
I earned over 100,000€ as a solo-founder and bootstrapper
My name is Mike and I'm a software entrepreneur from Italy. Specifically, I like SaaS products which I build and bring to market by myself without investments of any kind, without a CS degree, and pretty much without a team. SaaS is a business model where you typically sell access to a software solution for a monthly fee. I've been doing this for years, bootstrapping, which … [Read more...]
More core, less features
Nothing compares to building the core of your product. Everything that comes after that seems a distraction and won't ever have the same impact. Build more core, less features. Thanks for reading,Mike Rubini Enjoyed this article? Join my newsletter to learn when new products are launched, as well as other stories from the trenches. People from great companies like … [Read more...]
What do you do when nobody sees you?
Today I went for a run. Usually, a bunch of people are around so you kind of keep pushing and keep running because of the "social pressure". In your mind you think: "what would this person think of me if I stop running now?" and thereby, you continue to run. For context, I also live in a relatively small town (~30k inhabitants) so it is likely that you will bump into the same … [Read more...]