Arvid Kahl talks about starting and bootstrapping businesses, how to build an audience, and how to build in public.
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165: Why You Shouldn’t Sell Your Business
I was talking to Damon Chen, who built Testimonial.to to $400.000 in ARR this week, and at one point, he mentioned that he isn’t looking into selling his business just yet. Maybe even never.That got me thinking.While we all want to build sellable businesses, is there such a thing as selling too early? How can we determine when that phase ends and when it’s time to get acquired? Should we even do that, ever?Let’s look into why we might want to hold on to our business even when acquirers come knocking.And by the way, if you’re just starting out on your founder journey and you think that this would be a nice champagne problem to have, don’t underestimate having these things figured out in advance.- Why You Shouldn’t Sell Your Business- Find your Following, my Twitter course — now with Find your Following Essentials, the 7-day Twitter crash course- Zero to Sold & The Embedded Entrepreneur, my books on entrepreneurshipThis episode is sponsored by MicroAcquire. You can also watch this episode as a video on YouTube.
164: A Conversation With Damon Chen
Today, I am talking to Damon Chen, the founder behind Testimonial.to, a social proof tool that has recently reached $400.000 in annual recurring revenue. Now that’s extremely impressive, particularly considering that Damon got it there all by himself.So, let’s just ask him how this family man accomplished such growth while living in one of the most expensive places you could build a business in. Here’s Damon Chen.LonelyDev is a community that I built to solve my own problem. 1:01Lonely Dev turned into IndieLog. 4:09How to get out of a full-time job to start a business. 12:55Why you need to be healthy and whole to be able to build a good business. 19:33Why you need to add video reviews to your landing page. 26:31Video and authenticity 31:30There is a point where you reach saturation and you need help. 36:20What is your exit plan for your business? 42:27The importance of having a good exit strategy. 47:18The importance of having a community to support bootstrappers. 51:16This episode is sponsored by MicroAcquire. Here's the blog post for this episode.You can also watch this episode as a video on YouTube.
163: When Should You Go from Side-Project to Full-Time?
Earlier this week, I talked to Michele Hansen of Geocodio on The Bootstrapped Founder Podcast. Michele co-founded the business with her husband and ran it as a side project for several years. Now, that's a long time to wait before you commit full-time to a project. We also learned during our conversation that there are many ways of determining when the right time is to make that leap: for me, it was reaching a specific revenue figure, and for Michele, it was something else entirely.So let's explore this critical step today. When should you go from side-project to full-time? What are the significant catalysts that speed up this process?- When Should You Go from Side-Project to Full-Time?- Find your Following, my Twitter course — now with Find your Following Essentials, the 7-day Twitter crash course- Zero to Sold & The Embedded Entrepreneur, my books on entrepreneurshipThis episode is sponsored by MicroAcquire. You can also watch this episode as a video on YouTube.
162: A Conversation with Michele Hansen
I am talking to Michele Hansen, the co-founder of Geocodio, an indie SaaS business in the world of mapping and geolocation. I've been a fan of her work, both as a founder and as an active member of the Indie Hacker community for years now. I followed her journey with the business just as much as her foray into writing her first book, Deploy Empathy. Michelle really gets the founder community, and she's a respected teacher of all things customer development.In this episode, we chat about finding the right time to commit to a business, learning when to say no, finding your niche, and learning languages. Enjoy!You can find Michele on Twitter at https://twitter.com/mjwhansen/. Also, check out her book Deploy Empathy.Here is a short summary of the topics discussed in this episode:How do you set boundaries with a podcast? 3:08How do you judge what you say against what someone else would perceive as useful for themselves? 9:23How do you make sure you serve the right customers? 13:06Focus on what you already have instead of where you can go. 19:47Work in progress vs. goals. 23:13The journey is the interesting part, not the destination. 28:54The challenge of self-actualization after a big transition. 31:58What was the sign that it was time to go full-time? 39:14The financial hurdle of being an entrepreneur in the US. 42:35Where the fear of losing everything comes from. 48:09The mean voice in your head speaking. 51:43Being able to recognize your own growth is a big part of entrepreneurship. 57:38Low expectations allow you to surprise yourself, which leads to a better result. 1:00:47This episode is sponsored by MicroAcquire. Here's the blog post for this episode.You can also watch this episode as a video on YouTube.
161: Calm Business Misconceptions
In a world where everyone talks about disruption and hustling, the concept of a calm business can seem out of place or even naive. How can you compete with people who spend 80 hours a week working in their businesses —publicly boasting about their so-called "grindset"— when you treat your fledgling business as a side project that you only work on in the evenings?For many entrepreneurs, calmness is a pipe dream—a nice fantasy but impossible to accomplish.As you can probably imagine, I beg to differ. Running a calm business is definitely possible, and the perception of it being a flawed concept often lies in a few myths and wrongful assumptions that I want to debunk today.- Calm Business Misconceptions- Find your Following, my Twitter course — now with Find your Following Essentials, the 7-day Twitter crash course- Zero to Sold & The Embedded Entrepreneur, my books on entrepreneurshipThis episode is sponsored by MicroAcquire. You can also watch this episode as a video on YouTube.
160: Operating a Calm SaaS Business
For most founders, running a business is juggling hot coals while riding on a unicycle. It's a stressful occupation, requiring constant vigilance, and offers barely any downtime to recover or relax.But it doesn't have to be that way.- Operating a Calm SaaS Business- Find your Following, my Twitter course — now with Find your Following Essentials, the 7-day Twitter crash courseThis episode is sponsored by MicroAcquire. You can also watch this episode as a video on YouTube.
159: Pricing for Calm SaaS Businesses
One of the biggest points of confusion for any software business is pricing. It often takes months, if not years, to find a working way to charge your customers, and even then, you'll need to adjust it over time. Pricing is never done, and often, it doesn't work.But fortunately, there are a few foundational choices you can make to keep your pricing efforts calm and manageable.Today, we'll look at what dimensions to price along, what kinds of subscriptions to offer, and which pricing models to avoid.- Pricing for Calm SaaS Businesses- Find your Following, my Twitter course — now with Find your Following Essentials, the 7-day Twitter crash courseThis episode is sponsored by RailsDevs.com and MicroAcquire. You can also watch this episode as a video on YouTube.
158: Product Development for Calm SaaS Businesses
Building a software product is both incredibly simple and excruciatingly complicated. You can build a new mind-blowingly helpful feature within hours, sometimes even minutes. But if you make the wrong technology choices, you might be rewarded with several months of additional work a few years later.Let's talk about building a product that can carry your SaaS business to success calmly and intentionally.- Product Development for Calm SaaS Businesses- Find your Following, my Twitter course — now with Find your Following Essentials, the 7-day Twitter crash courseThis episode is sponsored by MicroAcquire. You can also watch this episode as a video on YouTube.
157: Solution Exploration for Calm SaaS Businesses
When you're building an audience-centric and community-first business, you're delaying finding your business idea and building your product for as long as possible. First, you look into your market, validate the existence of a budget, and zero in on a critical problem to which people need a solution.And even now, we're not talking about the product yet.But we will talk about solving the problem. And there's a difference.- Solution Exploration for Calm SaaS Businesses- Find your Following, my Twitter course — now with Find your Following Essentials, the 7-day Twitter crash courseThis episode is sponsored by MicroAcquire. You can also watch this episode as a video on YouTube.
The Toxicity of Growth Hacks
- The Toxicity of Growth Hacks- Find your Following, my Twitter course — now with Find your Following Essentials, the 7-day Twitter crash courseThis episode is sponsored by MicroAcquire. You can also watch this episode as a video on YouTube.
155: Problem Discovery for Calm SaaS Businesses
- Problem Discovery for Calm SaaS Businesses- Find your Following, my Twitter course — now with Find your Following Essentials, the 7-day Twitter crash courseThis episode is sponsored by MicroAcquire. You can also watch this episode as a video on YouTube.
154: Market Analysis for Calm SaaS Businesses
- Market Analysis for Calm SaaS Businesses- Find your Following, my Twitter course — now with Find your Following Essentials, the 7-day Twitter crash courseThis episode is sponsored by MicroAcquire. You can also watch this episode as a video on YouTube.
153: On Art and Artifice — When AI creates Masterpieces We Can't Ignore
- On Art and Artifice- Find your Following, my Twitter course — now with Find your Following Essentials, the 7-day Twitter crash courseThis episode is sponsored by MicroAcquire. You can also watch this episode as a video on YouTube.
152: Infrastructure of a Calm SaaS Business
- Infrastructure of a Calm SaaS Business- Find your Following, my Twitter course — now with Find your Following Essentials, the 7-day Twitter crash courseThis episode is sponsored by The $100 MBA Show and MicroAcquire. You can also watch this episode as a video on YouTube.
151: Entrepreneurial Strategies & Anti-Patterns for a Calm SaaS Business
- Entrepreneurial Strategies & Anti-Patterns for a Calm SaaS Business- Find your Following, my Twitter course — now with Find your Following Essentials, the 7-day Twitter crash courseThis episode is sponsored by The $100 MBA Show and MicroAcquire. You can also watch this episode as a video on YouTube.