Startups For the Rest of Us

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

Episode 833 | Success Patterns of Nobel Laureates, Developing Expertise, and From Zero to $10k (A Rob Solo Adventure)

What do Nobel Prize winners and successful bootstrappers have in common?  In this solo episode, Rob Walling shares the story of how a TinySeed company went from near-zer

Episode 832 | Going Full-time, When to Pivot, Building With Young Kids, and More Listener Questions (Rob Solo)

How do you leave a $400K salary to go all in on your business? In this solo episode, Rob Walling cranks through a backlog of listener questions on reducing risk with you

Episode 831 | Written vs. Verbal Ad Copy, Selling Into a Low-Awareness Market, and More Listener Questions (Rob Solo)

Should your first customer pay you, or get your product for free?  In this episode, Rob Walling answers listener questions on charging customer zero, what metrics to tra

Episode 830 | Breaking Through Plateaus, Zero-Click Marketing, and More from MicroConf 2026 (with Derrick Reimer)

What were the highlights and takeaways from MicroConf?  In this episode, Rob Walling and Derrick Reimer recap MicroConf US 2026 in Portland, Oregon. They break down the

Episode 829 | AI is Bad at Product, Top 5 Startup Success Factors, and the Beastie Boys (A Rob Solo Adventure)

Can AI really handle product decisions for your SaaS? In this solo adventure, Rob Walling revisits the core four SaaS skills and breaks down what AI can and cannot do ac