Last week, I did a recap of 2024. Now that we're starting a new year, let's look ahead at the opportunities and challenges facing the software business world in 2025. I want to share my insights into the SaaS and software engineering landscape, exploring emerging trends and patterns—and most importantly, how to leverage them, whether … Continue reading The Biggest Opportunity of 2025
Author: Arvid Kahl
I write about bootstrapping, audience-building, and building in public at The Bootstrapped Founder.
Formerly FeedbackPanda (exit/2019)
Wrote Zero to Sold, The Embedded Entrepreneur, and made Find your Following.
Omar Zenhom — Crafting Success Without a Tech Background
Omar Zenhom (@TheOmarZenhom) is one of those few amazing founders who just can't stop giving back to their entrepreneurial peers, no matter how much success they might have. Recently having sold WebinarNinja, Omar still shows up every single day — on Twitter, on the $100 MBA podcast, or wherever builders and makers struggle to build … Continue reading Omar Zenhom — Crafting Success Without a Tech Background
Arvid’s Year in Review: 2024
Looking back at 2024, it's been a year of significant transitions, learning curves, and unexpected opportunities. The biggest professional shift was the launch of Podscan, a podcast alerting and data platform that has become my main focus and quite possibly the most ambitious project I've tackled so far. https://share.transistor.fm/s/7d4b557e The genesis of Podscan is actually … Continue reading Arvid’s Year in Review: 2024
Breaking my Own Rules
As Podscan inches closer to profitability, I've come to an interesting realization: what got me here won't get me there. Unlike my previous ventures—books, courses, and productized services—I can no longer rely solely on my personal brand and podcast appearances to generate sufficient leads. While this approach helped jumpstart the business over the past six … Continue reading Breaking my Own Rules
Ben Rometsch — From Side Projects to Industry Giants
Ben Rometsch (@dabeeeenster.bsky.social), the founder of Flagsmith, created a bootstrapped SaaS success story. Feature flags are transforming software deployment by decoupling releases and enhancing control. And Ben bootstrapped this deceptively simple-looking part of engineering into a significant software business. And then there's the open-source part of all that. The Open Feature project is setting new … Continue reading Ben Rometsch — From Side Projects to Industry Giants
Startup Opportunities in Podcasting
After spending a year deeply embedded in the podcasting ecosystem through building Podscan.fm, I've gained unique insights into this rapidly evolving medium. With an estimated 500 million listeners by 2025, podcasting isn't just growing—it's transforming how we consume and interact with content. These aren't just casual listeners either—they're highly engaged audiences who, once hooked on … Continue reading Startup Opportunities in Podcasting
Pierre de Wulf — Bootstrapping ScrapingBee to Millions
Pierre de Wulf (@PierreDeWulf), the founder of Scraping Bee, transformed himself from a frustrated developer into a SaaS success story. Here's what you'll learn from this episode: 1/ 🐝 Pierre's journey began with a subpar web scraping tool, sparking the idea for Scraping Bee. Discover how he bootstrapped his company in a crowded market, emphasizing … Continue reading Pierre de Wulf — Bootstrapping ScrapingBee to Millions
Product-Market Fit & Time-to-First-Value
The journey to product-market fit is always fascinating, and my experience with Podscan has been particularly enlightening — and challenging. While we're not yet profitable, we're getting closer every month, and I want to share some insights about how we're finding our way there. https://share.transistor.fm/s/35c4c5b3 From the start, I struggled with clarity about what Podscan … Continue reading Product-Market Fit & Time-to-First-Value
Connor Turland — Pioneering the Future of Bookkeeping with Ceedar.ai
https://share.transistor.fm/s/6dd94afa 00:00 - Arvid (Host)Hey, I'm Arvid and welcome to the Bootstrap Founder. Today I'm talking to Conor Turland. He is building Ceedar C-E-E-D-A-R dot I-O. It's a software business that tries to replace bookkeepers, tries to get rid of them completely. Conor is an expert in all things accounting and he's going to teach … Continue reading Connor Turland — Pioneering the Future of Bookkeeping with Ceedar.ai
Love Is For Those Who Love the Work
I recently came across a poem by Joseph Fasano titled "To a Student Who Used AI to Write a Paper." And I want to share this short poem with you right now. Here it goes: Now I let it fall back in the grasses. I hear you. I know this life is hard now. I … Continue reading Love Is For Those Who Love the Work