Imagine waking up one morning only to find your Twitter account suspended. If you're trying to build an audience on Twitter, this is your worst nightmare. And it's an entirely possible scenario. It happened to Jack Butcher just a few weeks ago: Twitter suspended all of his brand accounts, including @visualizevalue and @value, the visual … Continue reading Platform Risk and the Three Kinds of Audiences
Category: Bootstrapping
Entrepreneurship, Job Security, and Wealth Creation
Being a founder is hard. It's a well-known trope in the business world that giving up a comfortable job with a reliable salary is a risky move. Whenever I talk about how entrepreneurship is a desirable way of creating wealth, I find someone responding that "some people just prefer security over risk." It's all about … Continue reading Entrepreneurship, Job Security, and Wealth Creation
Accountability Systems for Founders
Some days, I don't feel like doing anything entrepreneurial at all. It's not that I'm burned out or disinterested, not at all. But there are those days where all I want to do is curl up on the couch and read a good book. Often, I take the day off and indulge in whatever distraction … Continue reading Accountability Systems for Founders
All That Glitters Is Not Gold: Navigating Bootstrapping Advice
A few years ago, I was spending three hours a day sitting on a train, zooming through Germany, commuting from my home to work and back. During those days, I would consume a lot of podcasts, books, and blog posts. I was looking for advice. I wanted to learn everything there was about starting and … Continue reading All That Glitters Is Not Gold: Navigating Bootstrapping Advice
SaaS, Self-Talk, and Many Small Bets
I often find myself trapped in the stories I tell myself. This week, I switched out the payment system of my SaaS PermanentLink. This is a critical part of my business, so I expected the actual coding part to be a high-pressure activity. After all, if I mess up the account management logic, paying customers … Continue reading SaaS, Self-Talk, and Many Small Bets
What founders can learn from Twitch streamers about building in public
I'm an avid Twitch viewer. While writing, coding, or just researching, I quite often watch someone playing video games. I could play those games myself, but I wanted to spend time on my projects without dedicating my full attention to a game. Twitch allows me to participate in the gaming experience without losing my focus. … Continue reading What founders can learn from Twitch streamers about building in public
The Emotional Journey of a Bootstrapped Founder: Fear of Disappointing Your Customers
Over the last few weeks, you will have noticed that I have started talking more about the emotional impact of entrepreneurship. I talked about impostor syndrome, people cloning businesses, the loss and grief of selling a business, all topics that most people keep quiet about. I remember keeping quiet about this myself a few years … Continue reading The Emotional Journey of a Bootstrapped Founder: Fear of Disappointing Your Customers
When Your Business Gets Cloned
This week, I ran into a Tweet by Mike Rubini, who had found that not only his product Groouply had been cloned, but the person behind copying his Facebook group monitoring tool had put up a comparison page, trashing Mike's product. That made Mike wonder if he should stop building in public. It's an alluring … Continue reading When Your Business Gets Cloned
The Grief and Loss of Selling a Business
This week, my partner, co-founder, and love-of-my-life Danielle Simpson appeared on the Software Social Podcast hosted by Michele Hansen and Colleen Schnettler. In a remarkably open and honest conversation, Danielle touched upon many different topics regarding our journey with FeedbackPanda, but one thing stood out to me: her story of how she dealt with the … Continue reading The Grief and Loss of Selling a Business
How I Use Twitter
Today, I want to talk about how I leverage Twitter to build an audience, build relationships, and find opportunities. I'll talk about my overall strategy and the little day-to-day things I do, and which tools I use. I started using Twitter regularly to engage with other founders and talk about my work in October 2019, … Continue reading How I Use Twitter
