Startups For the Rest of Us

By: Rob Walling
  • Summary

  • The original podcast for bootstrapped and mostly bootstrapped startups, this show follow the stories of founders as they start, acquire, and grow SaaS companies. Hear when they fail, struggle, succeed, and take you with them through the tumultuous life of a SaaS founder. If you like Mixergy, This Week in Startups, or SaaStr, you’ll enjoy Startup for the Rest of Us.
    © 2023 Startups For the Rest of Us
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Episodes
  • Episode 740 | My New Book! The Entrepreneur's Guide to Selling Your Business Without Regret
    Nov 19 2024

    In episode 740, Rob Walling speaks with Dr. Sherry Walling about their new book, "Exit Strategy: The Entrepreneur's Guide to Selling Your Business Without Regret." They explore the emotional, psychological, and practical aspects of selling a business, emphasizing the universal challenges entrepreneurs face. The book draws on both Rob and Sherry’s unique experiences that they’ve shared with countless founders throughout their careers.

    Exit Strategy is now live on Kickstarter!

    Topics we cover:
    • 2:01 – Not just a book for those selling SaaS
    • 8:13 – The Kickstarter for the book is live today
    • 12:16 – Before, during, and after the exit
    • 14:55 – Why exiting is so hard
    • 20:39 – Life after the exit
    • 25:10 – A few traps await founders shortly after exit
    • 26:24 – What do you do with a big pile of money?
    Links from the Show:
    • MicroConf Remote Goes Live November 20th!
    • Exit Strategy: The Entrepreneur's Guide to Selling Your Business Without Regret
    • Rob Walling (@robwalling) | X
    • Dr. Sherry Walling (@sherrywalling) | X
    • Zen Founder
    • Zen Founder Podcast
    • The SaaS Playbook
    • The Art of Selling Your Business by John Warrillow
    • Before the Exit by Dan Andrews
    • Finish Big by Bo Burlingham
    • MicroConf
    • TinySeed
    • Testing Two Worlds by Dr. Sherry Walling

    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

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    30 mins
  • Episode 739 | Selling SaaS to Customers Who Don't Know They Have a Problem
    Nov 12 2024

    In episode 739, Rob Walling interviews Andy Kim, co-founder of Trotto, about his unique journey into SaaS. Andy shares how “go links” work, and why they are so valuable for internal, enterprise use despite their relative obscurity. They also explore the marketing hurdles and customer adoption challenges in a business like Trotto.

    Episode Sponsor:

    Hiring senior developers can really move the needle in your business, but if you bring on the wrong person, you can quickly burn through your runway. If you need help finding a vetted, senior, results-oriented developer, you should reach out to today’s sponsor, Lemon.io.

    For years, they’ve been helping our audience find high quality, global talent at competitive rates, and they can help you too.

    Longtime listener Chaz Yoon, hired a senior developer from Lemon.io and said his hire ”definitely knew his stuff, provided appropriate feedback and pushback, and had great communication, including very fluent English. He really exceeded my expectations.”

    Chaz said he’d definitely use Lemon.io again when he’s looking for a senior level engineer.

    To learn more and get a 15% discount on your first four weeks of working with a developer at lemon.io/startups.

    Topics we cover:
    • 3:13 – Go links, URL shorteners for enterprise
    • 6:14 – History of the problem and core users
    • 9:44 – Customer education and growth opportunities
    • 15:37 – Finding the repeatable marketing funnel
    • 21:07 – Buying into a co-founder role at Trotto
    • 24:42 – What’s the hardest part of running Trotto?
    Links from the Show:
    • Exit Strategy: The Entrepreneur's Guide to Selling Your Business Without Regret
    • MicroConf Masterminds - Applications close on December 4th, 2024
    • Trot.to
    • Trotto go links (@TrottoHQ) | X
    • TinySeed
    • How did go links start and evolve at Google?
    • Quiet Light

    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

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    30 mins
  • Episode 738 | Encouraging Word of Mouth, Educating a Market, and More Listener Questions (A Rob Solo Adventure)
    Nov 5 2024

    In episode 738, join Rob Walling for a solo adventure as he answers listener questions. He explores how to target larger, enterprise deals after achieving product-market fit, and why word of mouth marketing can be great, yet is tricky to control. Rob also answers a later-stage question and cautions against trying to educate the market as a bootstrapper.

    Topics we cover:
    • 1:58 – Expanding to enterprise deals after product-market fit
    • 6:39 – Word of mouth marketing is tricky for B2B SaaS
    • 14:36 – Educating the market as a bootstrapper
    • 20:07 – Selling integrations through incubators and accelerators
    • 24:38 – Developing a profit sharing model
    Links from the Show:
    • Register for MicroConf Remote before Nov. 7th for Early Bird pricing & extras
    • Ask a Question at Startups For the Rest of Us
    • The SaaS Playbook
    • TinySeed
    • Adjacency Matrix: How to expand after PMF by Jason Cohen
    • F5Bot
    • Syften
    • Podscan
    • Veed
    • Devising a profit sharing program for micro-multinationals by Peldi Guilizzoni

    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

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    29 mins

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