Bootstrapped

Peldi Guilizzoni continues this mini-season as he chats with Trine Falbe, UX strategist & designer, on responsible product design.Gamification, dark patterns,  artificial "roadblocks", notifications  frameworks that exist only to hook you into the product - why bootstrappers shouldn't mindlessly copy these techniques.Show notes:Trine's websiteTrine's ethical design scorecard is available for download on https://ethicaldesignhandbook.com/ Typeform’s terms of serviceYou can also watch this episode on YouTube. 

Peldi Guilizzoni continues this mini-season as he chats with Asia Orangio of DemandMaven on how founders can - and should - conduct customer interviews, and how to deal with the discomfort us bootstrappers often feel with this type of work.Topics includesthe discomfort for some of us of talking to customers - but why you should do it anywayhow to find the right customers to talk towhy delegating customer interviews might actually be a good idea.how to actually conduct a customer interviewwhat not to say,  and how not to ask questionsAsia's company, DemandMaven.Asia on Twitter.You can watch this episode on YouTube.  

Peldi Guilizzoni continues this mini-season as he chats with married couple Geraldine DeRuiter (author) and Rand Fishkin (software founder) on how their fields differ - and how they are more similar than you'd think. Peldi, Geraldine, and Rand discuss:How the software industry is less special that we thinkDealing with the loneliness and isolation of being a founder or authorManaging your own psychologyHow a supportive partner shares your mental ups and downs The value of having a peer group (aka friends) for mutual supportThe challenge to ignore the VC hype machineGeraldine's blog: The Everywhereist. Rand's company SparkToro. 

Peldi Guilizzoni steps in as host this week, and chats with GDPR expert Aleth Gueguen about how the GDPR is shaping and affecting our SaaS businesses.Topics include:Is the GDPR being enforced?How has it changed our businesses?How can we shape new businesses  to ensure we meet data protection requirements?Does the GDPR give larger businesses an unfair advantage? GDPR4SaaSPeldi on TwitterYou can also watch this episode on YouTube. 

Both Ed and Steve are feeling a little bit stressed, perhaps at the beginning of burnout. We discuss why this might be, and what we are doing about it.We also reveal our who guest host will be, stepping in for the next few weeks while I take a break.This episode is also on YouTube.

Nick Swan was about to launch paid plans for his SaaS when a sudden terrible life event changed everything for Nick and his family."The doctor said, 'You have to go the main hospital now. Drive straight up there. Don't even pack a bag.' He didn't say what it was, but he said it was serious."We discuss how this affected his life, his family and his mentality as a bootstrapper.Nick's SaaS, SEOTesting 

Aidan Doyle is a science fiction writer. Amongst his work are two self-published books, including The Writer's Book of Doubt. I'm planning to produce a book later this year as a marketing endeavour for Feature Upvote. So I chatted with Aidan to get tips on how to do this well.Aidan's websiteAidan on TwitterThe Writer's Book of DoubtDiscuss this episode with the Bootstrapper community. 

Ed and Steve discuss the return of Microconf Europe as an in-person eventworking out if a new feature is worth the effortweighing the risk of becoming a customer of someone’s side projectDiscuss this episode and more with our community.This episode is also on YouTube. 

My guest in this episode is Corey Haines, founder of Swipe Files. Swipe Files is a membership site that provides content, community, and courses to help you master marketing.Learn more about Swipe Files.Corey's podcast: Everything is Marketing.Discuss this episode on our community.This episode is also on YouTube. 

Ed Freyfogle is back! We talk about Ed's systematic attempt to reduce his support workload.Discuss this episode on our community.This episode is also on YouTube.

Alex Yumashev, founder of JitBit, returns to the show. We discuss: why Alex ditched Google Analytics from his websitehow he keeps his work interesting after so many years running the same businesswhy differentiation is often not possiblefinding freelancersthe good and bad of being a bootstrapping entrepreneur Alex's company: https://www.jitbit.com/ Also mentioned: Plausible Analytics (https://plausible.io/)https://f5bot.com/ This episode is also on YouTube.Discuss this episode on our community.

Nick Franklin and I talked about what it is like to go down the venture capital route instead of bootstrapping. For me this was a glimpse into another way of doing things.Nick and I discussed:why he used outside investment to create ChartMogulChartMogul's focus on creating good contentfinding a steady stream of interesting things to write aboutthe difficulty of knowing how customers are acquiredgetting pricing rightNick on Twitter: https://twitter.com/Nick_Franklin ChartMogul: https://chartmogul.com/This episode is also on YouTube.Discuss this episode on our community.

Peldi Guilizzoni is the founder of low-fidelity wireframing tool Balsamiq. Peldi and Steve discuss: why Peldi tracks almost nothing except revenue and profitstalking to customers instead of using analyticson being "so good they can't ignore you"how to apply a coder's approach to marketinghow Balsamiq is run like a "cozy restaurant on the web"not getting to code much when running a software companythe painful experience of rewriting Balsamiq Wireframes from scratch that took five years(!)choosing technology carefully for your companyThis episode is also on YouTube.Discuss this episode on our community.

We argue for and against having a monthly email newsletter for your product. Ed is firmly in the "No way" corner. Steve represents the "You gotta have a newsletter" side. Let the debate begin!Also mentioned:Do Open - How a simple email newsletter can transform your business (and it can), by David Hieatt 

Ed and I cover a lot of ground this week:podcasting nervesgeotrivia as marketing a brief foray into geopoliticsusing Twitter for marketingthe frustrating unpredictability of what marketing efforts will bear fruitthe pleasure of working from homedealing with zombie customersThe Bootstrapped podcast now has its own Twitter account - follow to receive daily tips for bootstrappers. 

Ed and Steve talk about the mental stress of having real-time business metrics, how to find a business mentor, and Steve's attempt to get started with enterprise sales.And we talk about the blog that posts very infrequently.Discuss this topic and more with the Bootstrapped community. 

Allan Jardine is the creator of DataTables, a popular jQuery plugin. We discuss his challenges and successes as he learned how to make a viable business from creating Open Source software.We also discuss Allan's new SaaS product, CloudTables.Discuss this topic and more with the Bootstrapped community. 

In this episode I answer some listener questions about freelancers. I discuss how to find, hire, and communicate with freelancers.Discuss this topic and more with the Bootstrapped community. 

Ed grills me on my progress with Saber Feedback, my B2B SaaS, nine months after I acquired it. We talk about SEO, competitors, getting backlinks, finding a niche, and resisting the temptation to write code instead of doing marketing.Discuss this topic and more on the Bootstrapped discussion forum.

Ed and I discuss what we want to achieve in 2021. Last year, unexpected world events turned our "goals for 2020" upside-down. Having learnt no lesson whatsoever from this, we fearlessly enter 2021 with plans!We mentioned Ed's personal blog in this episode.Discuss this episode and more on our discussion forum for Bootstrappers.