Bootstrapped

We talk about dollar stores, dogs and babies, the new Helpspot release, support contracts, requiring a credit card at signup, pricing and recurring billing, info-products, SaaS being unsatisfying, digging new holes, the point of growing, all software going to zero.Helpspot – Ian’s helpdesk product.Snappy – Ian’s newest product.Uberdeck – Andrey’s mobile-app marketing product.Stripe – payment processing service.Star Trek GenerationsIan’s “all software is going to $0.00” theoryEdge of My Seat – Perch, Rachel Andrew, Drew McLellanRachel Andrew on Bootstrapped.fmSupportOps.co – Chase ClemonsChase Clemons on Bootstrapped.fmSo You Want To Be A Wall Street Programmer? – Andrey’s BookIan’s newsletterSuccessfulSoftware.net – Andy BriceAndy Brice on Bootstrapped.fmDiscuss this episode with other bootstrappers in the forums.

We talk about Andrey finally leaving the house, street cred, Quintu, the work that goes into a typical SaaS app, implementing push in Uberdeck, OS X 10.8 update woes, git and distributed source code control, supporting developers vs. supporting end users, downloadable vs. SaaS, playing with SaaS marketing at an early stage of the product, being organized with marketing, tracking the marketing flow, onboarding, pricing based on volume, seasonal stores, celebrities in NYC, the new Panic office, and a day of doing nothing at work.Arq, Crashplan – backup software.VirtualBox, VMWare Fusion – VM software.HipChat – private group chat.Rachel Andrew – Founder of Perch.Chargify, Stripe – Recurding billing and payments services.HubSpot – inbound marketing software.KISSmetrics, Mixpanel – analytics and metrics tools.Trak.io – Ian’s preferred metric app (for now).Optimizely – A/B testing tool.Seasonal storesThe Living Room NYCPanic office – founder’s room. Discuss this episode with other bootstrappers in the forums.

Ian and Andrey sit down with special guest, Andy Brice, to discuss Perfect Table Plan, software marketing, creating desktop software vs. SaaS web apps, software pricing, cross-platform development with QT, analytics, measuring how many people are ‘word-of-mouth’ customers, Andy’s 2-day intensive training course on starting your own software business, practical software products, the legacy of shareware, the effect of SaaS apps on lifestyle, A/B testing, Adwords, email vs. helpdesk system for one-person companies, and martial arts.Andy Brice at http://www.successfulsoftware.net, and on twitter at http://twitter.com/successfulswPerfect Table Plan – Andy’s flagship product.Andy’s two-day intensive training course on starting your own software business.QTAndy’s article on software award scams.Andy will be a speaker at MicroConf Europe (Prague) on Oct 5-6Association of Software ProfessionalsThomas Warfield – Pretty Good SolitaireAndy’s Article – “Shareware is Dead – Long Live Shareware”Perry Marshall book on AdwordsCapoeira

Ian and Andrey discuss Laracon EU, Snappy, web app activity tracking and analytics, Uberdeck, marketing as your primary daily activity, Andrey’s next app, native clients vs. mobile web apps vs. responsive design for a SaaS product, front-end web dev frameworks, annual SaaS billing, getting dumber, Vincent van Gogh, San Francisco, Napa Valley, and Texas.Laracon EUSnappy 3-tier pricingUberdeckiDeveloper.co – podcast for iOS developers.ChasingProduct.com – podcast for consultants looking to move into products.PhoneGapResponsive DesignjQuery MobileBackbone.jsForecast.io – blog post on building their web/mobile appDark Sky app – from the folks who brought you Forecast.ioEmber.jsAngularJSZepto.jsForbes – how much do average apps make?The Other F WordUnfinished Business Podcast – episode 33(Sorry for the crappy audio quality on Andrey’s side in this episode; he’ll get it right one of these days).

Ian and Andrey sit down with special guest Rachel Andrew from EdgeOfMySeat.com, to discuss Perch, the really little CMS, the new Bootstrapped.fm forums, marketing, customer support, product dependencies, how important personal visibility is to your business, content management systems, writing and speaking, and self-publishing.Rachel AndrewPerch: the really little CMS – Rachel’s product.EdgeOfMySeat.com – Rachel’s company.Drew McLellan – Rachel’s husband and business partner. Drew on 24 Ways.The Perch PodcastBootstrapped.fm ForumsThe Perch website was designed by Paddy Donnelly of Lefft. The birds were drawn by Kev Adamson.Rachel will have a workshop on Shipping Your Product at the Future of Web Apps. She also has a version of the workshop available as a Smashing Workshop.Big thanks to Mike Jones, for making http://discuss.bootstrapped.fm come alive.Discourse – forum software.Discussion on serving different sections of the market for one product.Discussion regarding MachForm, and their free installation offer.Rachel’s presentation (video) on Things Learned While Supporting Perch.

Ian and Andrey are joined by special guest, Patrick McKenzie (patio11), to discuss the “early” days of the Business of Software forums, Patrick’s journey and daily routine, Helpdesk systems and support, Appointment Reminder, systemizing and automating daily tasks, SaaS, B2C vs. B2B, pricing of software, consulting, learning from Blackhats, Hacker News, marketing, Uberdeck, making money from open source, dual-licensing, running a conference, hacker meetups, Patrick’s biggest mistake in business, Patrick’s next product, and Facebook games.Special guest Patrick McKenzie (patio11) of Kalzumeus.Business of Software Forums – Joel on Software.Bingo Card Creator – Patrick’s first product.Appointment Reminder – Patrick’s second product.Helpspot – Ian’s first product.Snappy – Ian’s latest product.Antair Spam Filter – One of Andrey’s first products.Uberdeck – Andrey’s latest productAndy Brice, and his Perfect Table Plan product.Jon B and his ViEmu, vi emulator for Visual Studio.Gavin BowmanMichael PryorKalzumeus PodcastTeach for AmericaHacker NewsRuben Gamez, founder of Bidsketch30×500, by Amy HoyMicropreneur AcademyMarco ArmentLaravelLaravel: From Apprentice to Artisan, by Taylor OtwellPaint.netBinpressRails Long Term SupportGail Goodman talk from Business of Software 2012Patrick’s Email ListPeldi, Balsamiq MockupsVisual Website Optimizer

Ian and Andrey discuss getting ready to deploy Uberdeck, Snappy progress, what’s next for Snappy marketing, stories of first job interviews, the benefits, if any, of a college education, selling into the consumer space, the experience of buying software in a box, selling software before making software and vetting product ideas.Uberdeck – Andrey’s new product. ( preview screenshot)Fabric – a Python SSH tool.Snappy – Ian’s newest product.SupportOps.co – a site dedicated to customer support best practices.Helpspot – Ian’s first product; a helpdesk application.SmallSpec.com – Chris Hawkins‘ new product for building functional specs.Boiler Room – movie.Songwriter gets paid $16 for 1 million plays.xkcd – the pace of modern life.

Andrey and Ian sit down with Carl Diesing from DNL OmniMedia, and Chris Hawkins from Cogeian Systems, to talk about bootstrapping a successful software consulting company.Chris Hawkins on Twitter, and his website with lots of good articles and advice.Cogeian Systems – The software consultancy where Chris is the founder.Carl Diesing on TwitterDNL OmniMedia – The software consultancy where Carl is a co-founder.Expensd– DNL’s SaaS productSmallSpec – Chris’ new SaaS productParscale Media – A consulting software company mentioned by Ian during the show.Chasing Product – Chris’ new podcast