The more I work in the world of podcasting, watching the crazy amount of content that people produce, the more convinced I become that we're living in a time where the age of the gatekeeper — the editorial, the pre-selection, the pre-filtering — is over. Working with my customers at Podscan.fm has given me a … Continue reading The Age of the Gatekeeper Is Over
Year: 2024
The Art of Productive Procrastination
As I sit here writing this article, I should probably be doing something else. Something more impactful. Something that actually moves my business forward. But here's the thing about being a solopreneur: nobody's going to tell you what to do or in what order to do it. If I don’t keep myself accountable, nothing will … Continue reading The Art of Productive Procrastination
Podscan’s Dream Customer (Acquisition) Strategy
A few months ago, I started thinking about preparing data on Podscan for people who would be ideal customers for what the product currently is — a social listening tool. The easiest approach seemed straightforward: get the names of brands and influential people I'd want as customers and start tracking them. And over the last … Continue reading Podscan’s Dream Customer (Acquisition) Strategy
Running Lean at Scale
Yesterday, I shrunk the size of my production database from four terabytes to just under one terabyte. Still ginormous, but very impactful for Podscan, in several ways. Something interesting happened last weekend that made me realize I needed to change how I think about scale. While checking my monitoring dashboards, I noticed a pattern in … Continue reading Running Lean at Scale
From Overload to Opportunity
As founders, we often find ourselves in situations that test our foresight and adaptability. This week, I experienced one such moment that served as both a wake-up call and a valuable learning opportunity. It's a story that highlights the importance of anticipating potential issues in your software business, even when they seem unlikely. So, grab … Continue reading From Overload to Opportunity
Building Your Castle in Someone Else’s Kingdom
We SaaS founders find ourselves in a peculiar position. We're simultaneously tenants and landlords, renting the tools we need while offering our own services for a subscription. It's a world where true ownership seems increasingly elusive, yet understanding its nature is crucial for building lasting value. https://share.transistor.fm/s/166e4249 The Rental Economy of SaaS Nearly every component … Continue reading Building Your Castle in Someone Else’s Kingdom
Navigating Constraints as a Bootstrapper
In recent podcast episodes, I've been discussing constraints and how I deal with limited resources as a bootstrapper. Today, I want to dive deeper into this topic, sharing my experiences with Podscan.fm and how I navigate the challenges of limited adjustable income and fixed expenses. https://share.transistor.fm/s/cb25d715 The Balancing Act Running Podscan involves a delicate balance … Continue reading Navigating Constraints as a Bootstrapper
Observability in Software Businesses
“I didn’t see it coming.” I had to admit that to myself a few times recently. https://share.transistor.fm/s/ea76480b Over the last couple of weeks, I've been experiencing several issues with Podscan that only came to pass because I didn't really have any observability on my system. At least that’s what I know now. Because it always … Continue reading Observability in Software Businesses
The AI-Powered Solopreneur
As a software entrepreneur wearing many hats - from coding to marketing to customer service - I've found AI systems to be game-changing tools in my daily work. Today, I want to share how I use these systems, particularly large language models (LLMs) like ChatGPT and Claude, to —hopefully— inspire you to benefit from similar … Continue reading The AI-Powered Solopreneur
When Podcasts Attack: The Unexpected Challenges of External Data
As founders, we often focus on scaling our businesses in terms of customers, revenue, or team size. But what happens when the data your business relies on scales faster than anything else? That's the challenge I very recently faced with Podscan.fm, and it nearly brought the entire system to its knees. Nearly! 😉 If you're … Continue reading When Podcasts Attack: The Unexpected Challenges of External Data