Startups For the Rest of Us
About this creator
Startups For the Rest of Us is a practical podcast for bootstrapped founders building software businesses without venture backing.
Why they're in the library
Included for clear, credible perspective as practical podcast for bootstrapped founders building software businesses without venture backing.
Showing 306 digests for Startups For the Rest of Us.
Founder interviews
Podcast
A $4M Exit with Josh Pigford of Baremetrics
Startups For the Rest of Us
February 2, 2021
Founder interviews
9
Exit strategy
8
Bootstrapping
5
- Founder leverages QSBS to exit with $3.7M and zero federal capital gains tax.
- How technical debt rewrites and product improvements broke a 17-month growth plateau.
- Post-exit life shift: fired laser cutter, not another SaaS company.
Work-life balance
Podcast
Life profitability: building a business that serves your life
Startups For the Rest of Us
January 26, 2021
Work-life balance
9
Founder interviews
7
Identity & self-belief
6
- Every business decision has a life cost most founders never account for
- Burnout hits when meaning drains from structures you've heavily invested in
- No universal blueprint exists — your values define your success metrics
The Art of Selling Your Business: Negotiation Strategies for Founders
Startups For the Rest of Us
January 19, 2021
Exit strategy
9
Closing techniques
7
Fundraising & VC
5
- Hire an M&A broker to run a competitive bidding process—multiple offers create massive leverage.
- Retrading happens post-LOI when buyers manufacture reasons to lower offers; understand structural pitfalls.
- Most acquirers are 5–20x your company size; they're more likely than Google.
How a non-technical founder grew Alitu to $45k MRR
Startups For the Rest of Us
January 12, 2021
Case studies
9
Pivoting
7
Product-market fit
6
- Non-technical founder took 27 months to bootstrap Alitu without going unprofitable.
- Initial audience was too technical—had to pivot content to reach non-technical creators.
- Built through stair-steps: hosting, content, productized services, then SaaS product.
Making dev team decisions, selling Drip, and founder milestones
Startups For the Rest of Us
January 5, 2021
Processes & SOPs
7
Productivity & habits
6
Exit strategy
5
- Designate a tech lead — decision gridlock ends when one person owns outcomes
- Neither founder regrets selling Drip; burnout and rare acquisition windows made it right
- Share milestones with founder peers, not family — SaaS metrics need context to land
Building a marketing-driven swag platform: Slingshot's pricing strategy
Startups For the Rest of Us
December 29, 2020
Business models
8
Pricing strategy
8
Growth hacking
6
- Swag becomes a measurable marketing channel when you eliminate fulfillment burden and track post-gift conversions
- Full-service model ($5,800 avg campaign) beats print-on-demand by handling design, logistics, and call-to-action tracking
- Enterprise clients generate viral loops within organizations once one department discovers the platform
Building SaaS from an Agency, Co-founder Equity, and Bootstrapper Cities
Startups For the Rest of Us
December 15, 2020
Business models
8
Equity & cap tables
7
Bootstrapping
6
- Separate your SaaS brand from an existing agency while preserving customer relationships and reputation.
- Base co-founder equity on contribution and commitment, not equality—frame it as a collaborative framework.
- Start with absurdly small steps in a tiny niche, not full SaaS; build credibility before building products.
Building Nugget: How Justin Vincent turned failed apps into a founder education platform
Startups For the Rest of Us
December 8, 2020
Case studies
9
Pivoting
6
Identity & self-belief
6
- Why loving your market matters more than execution ability
- Test 100 startup ideas fast before committing to any one
- Most founders attempt SaaS before mastering traffic or sales
How a bootstrapped invoicing app taught me to build without a model
Startups For the Rest of Us
December 1, 2020
Case studies
9
Bootstrapping
7
SEO
5
- How one $11,000 bet on a broken invoicing app became a masterclass in bootstrapping
- Why pricing power and niches matter more than capital when revenue already exists
- The founder era with no playbook: when funding seemed inevitable even for modest goals
Bootstrapping a commodity SaaS: GeoCodeo's path to $1M+
Startups For the Rest of Us
November 24, 2020
Case studies
9
Bootstrapping
7
Business models
6
- How a simple geocoding service landed Amazon, Deloitte, and Fortune 100 customers
- Why free trials and freemium tiers unlock enterprise growth even in commodity markets
- Building integrations and data appends to charge 10-100x in enterprise tiers
Competitive analysis
Podcast
Building SaaS Through Focus, Competition, and Key Metrics
Startups For the Rest of Us
November 17, 2020
Competitive analysis
9
Funnels
8
Niche selection
7
- Focus on one idea at a time; validate in weeks, not months, then ship fast.
- Identify unserved customer segments competitors ignore; dominate those instead of fighting directly.
- Fix retention and churn before optimizing traffic; measure and plug the biggest funnel leak first.
Revisiting Castos one year later
Startups For the Rest of Us
November 10, 2020
Case studies
8
Business models
7
Hiring & recruitment
6
- Merged Podcast Motor editing service into Castos hosting to create dual-funnel premium offering.
- Tripled revenue in one year by hiring owner-minded marketing lead instead of task-based contractors.
- Launched private podcasting for membership sites, courses, and enterprises at enterprise price points.
Gather's upmarket pivot: how going enterprise survived COVID and cut churn
Startups For the Rest of Us
November 5, 2020
Pivoting
9
Cash flow management
7
Customer discovery
5
- Moving upmarket may have saved Gather from COVID-driven collapse
- Churn fell to ~1% once small, price-sensitive clients churned out naturally
- Patience over urgency: SaaS is a long game, not a sprint
Long-term planning
Podcast
Recession Signals, Tech Monopolies, and Work-From-Home Futures
Startups For the Rest of Us
November 3, 2020
Long-term planning
8
Cash flow management
7
Remote teams
6
- Growth is flatlining for the middle 60% of SaaS companies—not recession yet, but warning signs to watch.
- Google strips data to force reliance on paid ads, while antitrust suits reshape how founders compete.
- Mid-market founders need access to public markets, but US regulations lock them out until unicorn scale.
Gather closes first enterprise deal and relaunches services arm
Startups For the Rest of Us
October 29, 2020
Pricing strategy
9
B2B sales
8
Niche selection
7
- A year-long sales cycle closes — customer-funded features, no margin lost.
- Going upmarket means fewer deals but 3–5x the price per customer.
- Relaunch a services arm with project pricing to survive the cash crunch.