Startups For the Rest of Us

Episode 853 | How to Become the SaaS That AI Recommends

How do you get LLMs to actually recommend your SaaS?  In this episode, Rob Walling talks with Ross Hudgens, founder of Siege Media and author of the new book Generative

Episode 852 | Getting Big Name Customer Case Studies and More Listener Questions (with Ruben Gamez)

Should you be worried that another founder will steal your idea if you ask them for advice? In this episode, Rob is joined by Ruben Gamez to answer four listener questio

Episode 851 | The Messy Middle of a SaaS Pivot

How do you pivot your SaaS when things aren’t working? This week Rob talks with Nathan Tyler, founder of BlinkMetrics, about the messy, uncertain process of finding prod

Episode 850 | How Not to Screw Up When Hiring Your first Developer and More Listener Questions (with Derrick Reimer)

How do you onboard a hire onto a codebase you built alone? In this episode, Derrick Reimer joins Rob to tackle four listener questions. They cover hiring and onboarding

Episode 849 | Legal Threats, AI as Platform Risk, Building Confidence, and More Listener Questions (Rob Solo)

Ever gotten a vague cease and desist from a competitor and wondered if you actually did something wrong? This week I tackle four listener questions: how seriously to tak

Episode 848 | What Liquid Death Can Teach Us About B2B SaaS (Rob Solo)

Does validation still matter when AI has made building software almost free? In this solo episode, Rob breaks down the origin story of Liquid Death, the canned water com

Episode 847 | What Second Time Founders Do Differently, Pricing AI Agents, and More Listener Questions (Rob Solo)

Would you spend a year on distribution for a product that doesn't exist yet? In this solo episode, Rob answers listener questions about how second and third-time founder

Episode 846 | Snail Mail, Cold Calling, Regulating Your Nervous System, and More Listener Questions (Rob Solo)

Is your nervous system sabotaging your best decisions? In this episode, Rob mixes a solo adventure with listener questions. He answers a reader who asks why he still sho

Episode 845 | Lifetime Deals Revisited, Building is Not the Hard Part, and Confirming an Idea is Worth Paying For (Rob Solo)

What does it take to make a lifetime deal work? In this listener questions episode, Rob Walling revisits the lifetime pricing debate with new context from Davis Baer of

Episode 844 | Building a $1M+ ARR SaaS for Laundromats

What does it take to build a seven figure SaaS in a market almost no one thinks about? In this episode, Rob Walling sits down with Brian Henderson, co-founder of Wash-Dr

Episode 843 | Success Patterns of $1M+ SaaS Founders

Are you building systems for your team, or are you still the system?  In this episode, Rob Walling talks with Julien Marzouk, a former SaaS founder and coach who has wor

Episode 842 | What is the Future of SaaS in an AI World? (Rob Solo)

Is SaaS dead now that AI can build an app in a weekend? In this solo episode, Rob Walling gives his most definitive answer yet to the question flooding the internet: wha

Episode 841 | One-time Payments, Growing a Step 2 Business, Positioning, and More Listener Questions (Rob Solo)

Should you keep pouring time into a business that will probably never be huge? In this episode, Rob Walling answers listener questions about whether to keep growing a "s

Episode 840 | 5 PM Revisited, Starting Over After Failure, Never Shipping, and More Listener Questions (Rob Solo)

What's really stopping you from shipping your product and how do you finally push through? In this listener questions episode, Rob Walling covers a lot of ground: revisi

Episode 839 | The Journey Growing Help Scout to $35M ARR

What happens when a bootstrapper at heart raises $28 million and spends the next decade living with that decision? In this episode, Rob Walling sits down with Nick Franc

Episode 838 | 6 Key Takeaways From a TinySeed Batch Kick-Off

What do 15 brand-new TinySeed founders have in common?  In this solo episode, Rob Walling shares six key takeaways from the most recent TinySeed batch kickoff in New Yor

Episode 837 | How Do You Learn Product? and Optimizing Your Trial Funnel (with Ruben Gamez)

How does a founder actually learn the skill of product? In this episode, Rob Walling talks with Ruben Gamez of SignWell and Bidsketch to answer listener questions that t

Episode 836 | The 5 A.I. Moats Acquirers Value Most

Is your SaaS actually protected from AI disruption, or are acquirers walking away without even looking? In this episode, Rob Walling talks with Einar Vollset of Discreti

Episode 835 | The Right Way to Use AI in Your Startup Marketing

Are you using AI in your marketing because it's actually good, or just because it's fast? In this episode, Rob Walling sits down with Taylor Hendricksen, a performance m

Episode 834 | Eric Ries Revisits The Lean Startup and Discusses How to Become Incorruptible

Is AI actually making your build-measure-learn cycle faster, or just making your work more average?  In this episode, Rob Walling talks with Eric Ries, author of The Lea