Arvid Kahl talks about starting and bootstrapping businesses, how to build an audience, and how to build in public.
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174: Ana Bibikova — The Introvert Superpower
Today, I’m talking to Ana Bibikova, a defender and cheerleader for introverts in entrepreneurship. Ana knows what it means to be skeptical of loud and salesy marketing tactics. They might work great for extroverts, but not so much for the quiet types. Today, we’ll talk about how you can build a public-facing brand without resorting to all the obnoxious and much-too in-your-face tactics. We’ll talk about being introverted, working with introverts, and serving introverts. Here’s Ana.00:00:00 Entrepreneurship and Introversion00:10:13 Growing up being introverted without knowing what it is00:16:57 A History of Introversion00:22:49 The loud and shouty approach to social media00:27:33 How do you stay quiet when you’re selling?00:34:07 You’re the magnet for signals from the people around you00:42:45 How to do self-promotion as an introvert vs. an extrovert00:49:03 You attract what you put out, not what you sayThis episode is sponsored by MicroAcquire. Here's the blog post for this episode.You can also watch this episode as a video on YouTube.
[Bonus] Sahil Lavingia — Gumroad’s Pricing Disaster
Yesterday, the creator economy learned that Gumroad, a platform where creators have been building their businesses by selling their services and products, increased their prices significantly. That caused a lot of backlash in the community, with people threatening to switch to other platforms and criticizing how the price hike was communicated. It’s been an intense topic of community discussion.Today, I am talking to Sahil, the CEO of Gumroad, about what prompted this change, what happened to cause such a stir, and where Gumroad is heading in the future. Here’s Sahil.You can find this conversation on YouTube.
173: Build a Defensible Indie Business
When it comes to selling a small indie business, defensibility is a key factor that potential buyers will consider. A unique moat, or competitive advantage, lets your business stands out from the competition and is seen as a valuable acquisition. Many small founders sell their businesses because they want to get rid of them, and that attracts bargain hunters. It’s easy to negotiate a founder down when they feel pressure to sell a business that’s not very stable or profitable in the first place.Being able to show that potential competitors have to climb a rather sizeable barrier to entry into your market will net you a significant premium when it’s valuation time. The absence of such a moat around your entrepreneurial castle will push down the price you can ask for. While buyers will still acquire profitable businesses without an oversized advantage, it’s a good idea to consider how you can set up a moat around your business. It will make things much easier.- Build a Defensible Indie 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.
172: Andrew Gazdecki — Building a Sellable Business
Today, I am talking to Andrew Gazdecki, a pillar of the founder community and himself founder of the acquisition platform formerly known as MicroAcquire — but we’ll learn more about that on the show. Besides organizing millions of dollars worth of acquisitions every month, Andrew is a true teacher. His content on building software businesses is spectacularly useful. And fortunately, he will share a lot of it with us today.00:00:00 Introduction00:00:54 Founder and personality00:04:19 MicroAcquire: the first venture00:09:51 On being relatable00:13:42 From B2B to Human2Humman00:20:10 What was missing in the market?00:27:07 What makes a business more sellable?00:32:14 Tips for selling your business00:39:07 Working in the business vs. working on the business00:46:47 You can’t succeed without failure00:52:59 Any exit, no matter how small, is a good stepThis episode is sponsored by MicroAcquire. Here's the blog post for this episode.You can also watch this episode as a video on YouTube.
171: Avoid Vanity Metrics
We've been taught to believe that creators are only truly successful when they reach the top echelon of their platform, with millions of followers and likes. But this is a false notion that doesn't accurately reflect what success looks like for creators — or what “success” is about in the first place.The truth is that success for creators comes in many different forms, and it usually doesn’t depend on reaching the top of the platform. There are many creators who have found success by building a loyal and engaged audience in a very specific niche, even if they “only” have a few thousand followers. These creators have found ways to meaningfully connect with their audience and provide value to them, which is what ultimately leads to success.- Avoid Vanity Metrics- 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.
170: Building Profitable Communities with Rosie Sherry
I am talking to Rosie Sherry, proprietor of Rosieland and community empowerment expert. She runs her own communities, monetizing a few of them, and has been managing the IndieHackers community in the past. Rosie is an expert all things community and education. And that's precisely what we'll talk about today.This episode is sponsored by MicroAcquire. Here's the blog post for this episode.You can also watch this episode as a video on YouTube.
169: Paying the Bills While Building Your First Indie Business
There is a huge difference between building a product, a business, and a company. It's a progression from one to the other, usually involving making significant changes in your life. Requirements change, and so does our lifestyle to make our dreams possible.Ideally, we have a master plan on how to get there.But in reality, we have to pay bills, take care of our family, and deal with the often unexpected hardships of life.And while everyone's situation is unique, many entrepreneurs have found ways to finance their business-building journeys and make ends meet. That's what we'll be talking about today.- Paying the Bills With Your First Indie 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.
168: Jakob Greenfeld — Writing Your Way to Clarity
Today, I am talking to Jakob Greenfeld. I’ve been reading Jakobs blog posts for years now, and they’re as spicy as they’re thoughtful. There’s not a single post on there that feels unfinished. That’s quite impressive. Well, I think we’ll figure out why that is during our conversation. We’ll also chat about how to unlock critical thinking by writing and what it means to give yourself permission to do things your way.Here’s Jakob Greenfeld.This episode is sponsored by MicroAcquire. Here's the blog post for this episode.You can also watch this episode as a video on YouTube.
167: Find Business Ideas on Social Media
In my conversation with Daniel Vassallo this week, I learned that Daniel uses social media —Twitter in particular— to find inspiration for his own work as a teacher and content creator. Intentionally doomscrolling Twitter to come up with writing prompts and business ideas? Why not!If we consider this a strategic effort, not just wasting our time on social media, let's develop a few frameworks that lead to more tangible results.Today, I want to talk about finding ideas, problems, and points of tension that hint at practical business opportunities on social media.- Find Business Ideas on Social Media- 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.
166: A Conversation With Daniel Vassallo
Today, I am talking to Daniel Vassallo, writer, founder, and person with very strong opinions. He is building a portfolio of small bets in public, on Twitter. I will talk to him about the importance of making money in diversified ways, how to structure your life around being a founder, and how to figure out which business ideas might actually work. Here is Daniel Vassallo.What is the lifetime value of a subscription business? 1:12Different kinds of software fit different pricing models. 5:04What is a portfolio of small bets? 9:30Business is unpredictable. You need to radically reduce the input. 13:48What common things do you share with other entrepreneurs? 17:46Don’t try to be too novel. 21:31What’s a good approach to spreading out your experiments? 26:14What is the best price for your business? 40:08How Pieter Levels’ portfolio has changed over time. 45:58How you can use social media to get new ideas. 51:26Sometimes it’s something seemingly unrelated that opens your eyes to a new way of doing things. 55:01Links:- Daniel's Revenue/Days on Market graph. This episode is sponsored by MicroAcquire. Here's the blog post for this episode.You can also watch this episode as a video on YouTube.
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.