Bootstrapped Web

Brian and Jordan are back with no excuses and plenty of updates for both Rally and ZipMessage. Today’s topics are all about roadmaps, leading tech teams, and ecommerce marketing. While ecommerce has been around for a while, SaaS is evolving in the way it is marketed and sold. What are your thoughts on SaaS marketing strategies? Do you prefer leading a large tech team or would you rather keep your team small and easily manageable? What are your thoughts on the importance of communication for teams who work remotely? If you have any questions, comments, or topic ideas for Brian or Jordan, leave a message here. “When you start to talk about a bunch of people, all in coordination, all in different time zones, all on different things, that stuff is just magic to me.” – Jordan Powered By the Tweet This PluginTweet This Here are today’s conversation points: The next step for RallyThe many uses for ZipMessageCombining live Zoom calls with asynchronous follow-upsDirect Slack integrationsThe ZipMessage roadmapLeading a tech teamRequirements for leadershipThe importance of communicationDifferent strategies for marketing “The way that I think about integrations generally is, it’s more about, ‘Does it solve a customer problem and customer conversion?’” – Brian Powered By the Tweet This PluginTweet This Mentioned on today’s episode: Patrick Campbell’s tweet about building a media brand, monetizing with software Unthinkable podcast by Jay Acunzo Our stuff: Rally On  ZipMessage SunriseKPI  Productize  Audience Ops ProcessKit   Carthook Leave us a message here

It’s a big day here at Bootstrapped Web now that Jordan can talk more openly about his newest endeavor: Rally. Brian and Jordan talk about what Rally is, breakdown Rally’s elevator pitch, as well as the steps Jordan has taken up to this point. They also get into a few updates with ZipMessage. Brian talks about the possibility of building a small team and the stigma around hiring a team full of contractors.  Are you a freelancer looking for a little work? Are you a marketing specialist? If you have any questions, comments, or topic ideas for Bootstrapped Web, leave us a message here “I’m in the middle of that thing that happens if you post a Twitter thread just at the right time. It’s fun. You have to remember to enjoy the fun days. This is one of those fun days.” – Jordan Powered By the Tweet This PluginTweet This Here are today’s conversation points: Rally and RallyOn.comWhat does Rally do for customers?What does it mean to go headless?Definition of “Modern brands”What makes Rally different?Enjoying and being in the momentThe importance of elevator pitches and headlinesMultiple fits and building relationshipsThe next step and roadmap for RallyZipMessage updatesDoing everything yourself vs. building a small teamContractors and freelancers vs. employeesThe stigma behind hiring overseas Creating your perfect company culture Brian’s marketing talent wishlist:Technical marketer (Google analytics, SEO, etc.) Media producer (podcasting, interviews, etc.) “I’m already all in in terms of hours. But to really go all in, I need a team with me.” – Brian Powered By the Tweet This PluginTweet This Resources: Leave us a message here Rally On  Josh Pigford’s Maybe company compensation model Sahil Lavingia on Gumroad’s team model ZipMessage SunriseKPI  Productize  Audience Ops ProcessKit   Carthook   As always, thanks for tuning in. Head here to leave a review on iTunes. 

Brian and Jordan are back behind the mic for the second week in a row. Today they’re focusing on bugs over customers, or should it be the other way around? After some project and business updates, they talk about the early stages of development and launch for a new product. How do you decide if this new project is worth it? How do you find people who are as excited about it as you are?  If you have any questions, comments, or topic ideas for Bootstrapped Web, leave a message for Brian and Jordan on their ZipMessage account at https://zipmessage.com/bootstrappedweb. “I’m slowed down by the product and the bug-fixes.” – Brian Powered By the Tweet This PluginTweet This Here are today’s conversation points: Project and business updates: marketing, development, and not moving fast enoughTalking with partners and agencies versus potential customersTaking a position and what that means for a businessHow to decide whether a project or a product is worth the time?The Catch-22 of starting and growing a new businessHow to evaluate a “head-of-growth” expertPivotal moments in ZipMessage and secret projectsGrowth hacks for ZipMessage “My favorite thing (the thing that I’m good at) is articulating that future vision clearly.” – Jordan Powered By the Tweet This PluginTweet This Resources: ZipMessage SunriseKPI  Productize  Audience Ops ProcessKit   Carthook   As always, thanks for tuning in. Head here to leave a review on iTunes. 

Brian and Jordan are back with big news about both of their newest projects. Today they’re doing a deep dive into some of the mental struggles when you start something new. Some touchy-feely topics, some logistics, and back to touchy-feely topics: a typical Bootstrapped Web episode. If you have any questions, comments, or topic ideas for Bootstrapped Web, leave a message for Brian and Jordan on their ZipMessage account at https://zipmessage.com/bootstrappedweb. “We need to complement each other more. Because everyone asks for feedback, nobody asks for compliments.” – Jordan Powered By the Tweet This PluginTweet This Here are today’s conversation points: Updates on Jordan’s secret productFeeling down and (surprising) external motivatorsWhat founders do and the meaning of being a founderThe importance of compliments and empathyUpdates, changes, and uses for ZipMessageFramework and patterns in successful niche SaaS productsThree-phase process: enter, lean-in, all-in “For founders, literally all we do is solve problems. What’s the next problem to solve? What’s the next thing that’s not working? Every single day.” – Brian Powered By the Tweet This PluginTweet This Resources ZipMessage New! zipmessage.com/bootstrappedweb Productize  Audience Ops ProcessKit   Carthook As always, thanks for tuning in. Head here to leave a review on iTunes.

Brian and Jordan are back before Brian leaves to scratch his travel itch. Today, they are talking about the things they can control (launching ZipMessage and Jordan’s new company), while also touching on a couple things they can’t control (vaccines and concerts). They also spend a little time talking about Josh Pigford’s amazing public journey, from exiting Baremetrics to starting his own company for modern financial planning & wealth management. How do you handle your professional persona? Are you an open book on your social media accounts? Are you strategic about what you post? Brian and Jordan discuss Josh’s strategic and surprisingly open discussions on Twitter and how they differ in their social media personas. “I did want to step in and reiterate some of my larger goals and priorities to the team on Audience Ops, about what makes Audience Ops great. Kat really did that well, but I want to make sure that the team really knows, ‘This is why things work so well here. Let’s keep this going.’” – Brian Powered By the Tweet This PluginTweet This Here are today’s conversation points: The roller coaster of ZipMessage onboardingFinalizing copy and launching landing pagesAudience Ops team changes and transitionsThe vision at Audience OpsExpectations, emotions, and performative reactions during Monday morning callsThe importance of understanding the “Why”Josh Pigford’s exit from Baremetrics and his professional trajectory…in publicAngel investing and asking for money “If you have an audience and you want to start a company, at this point, you can just ask for money. You can legally, publicly ask for money.” – Jordan Powered By the Tweet This PluginTweet This Resources Maybe.co Josh Pigford’s Twitter ZipMessage SunriseKPI Productize AudienceOps ProcessKit Carthook  As always, thanks for tuning in. Head here to leave a review on iTunes.

Brian and Jordan are rounding out 2020 by looking back and looking into the future. Brian talks about taking a break for the next couple weeks, ProcessKit updates, and looking back to see what he was wrong about when thinking about 2020. Jordan talks about a couple podcasts he was a part of, fun holiday parties, and minimizing risks of wasting hours. They also go over some final thoughts about the holidays, and what they plan on doing on their vacation. [tweetthis]“What were all the things that I was wrong about? In the last year?” - Brian [/tweetthis] Here are today’s conversation points: Taking a break and the importance of stepping awayWhat is burnout?Macro versus micro expectations for ourselvesPodcasts that Jordan has been a part of lately (Greylock, Better Done Than Perfect)Looking back on 2020What happens in ‘21?ProcessKit updates: onboarding flow, new home pages, etc.Holiday parties (and possibly monthly happy hours) using GatherTownThe process for validating products [tweetthis]“I don’t do that many hours of intense work and writing and that sort of thing, but it is the constant thinking and worrying.” - Jordan [/tweetthis] Resources: Greylock (Greymatter): “Mike Duboe | The Rise of Headless Commerce” Better Done Than Perfect: Radical Onboarding Experiments with Jordan Gal Better Done Than Perfect: Launch Lessons & Product Surveys with Rand Fishkin Gather.town SunriseKPI Productize Audience Ops ProcessKit   Carthook  As always, thanks for tuning in. Head here to leave a review on iTunes.

Vote for us on the SaaS Podcast Awards! Jordan and Brian are back with new podcasting gear and set-ups. Today’s topics cover a little bit of everything: from making quality content, to morale boosting Zoom meeting activities. They are also talking about Jordan’s experience working with Shopify, Brian’s 2021 goals for consistency, as well as a surprise nomination, onboarding and conversion, marketing and tracking, and niche podcasting. [tweetthis]“If you keep hammering on a topic that resonates with people, stuff still sits on the internet and attracts people.” - Brian [/tweetthis] Here are today’s conversation points: Making quality contentFriday snapshots, Spotify Wrapped Year in ReviewBlack Friday and Cyber Monday wrap-upShopify checkouts, quirks, and limitationsNomination for bootstrapper podcastsProcessKit onboarding and the core of the productHow to change from conversion to paid?MarketingMarketing and tracking from two different sourcesPaypal, what?!Focusing your marketing efforts; niching downGoals for 2021: consistencyPodcasting in a niche versus having a wide audience [tweetthis]“When you’re selling in an app store but you have your own website, there is a big disconnect on tracking.” - Jordan [/tweetthis] Resources: Microconf: SaaS Podcast Awards SunriseKPI Productize Audience Ops ProcessKit   Carthook  As always, thanks for tuning in. Head here to leave a review on iTunes.

On this episode of Bootstrapped Web (dubbed the “anything but election talk” episode), Jordan and Brian go over Carthook’s exciting launch in the Shopify App Store and ProcessKit’s visual upgrade. Brian also has a couple of aces up his sleeve when it comes to high level changes as well as day-to-day uses for ProcessKit. Today the focus is all about what it means to satisfy customers: new and existing customers. How do you convert trial customers? How fast should you handle feature requests? How do you deal with the pressures put onto you by customers? How to show your constant level of progress but how do you filter customer feedback/expectations? [tweetthis]“Anytime you’re talking about visual user updates, especially if it affects the entire app (which this did) you get nervous. People don’t like change, even if it’s better change.” - Brian [/tweetthis] Here are today’s conversation points: The Carthook logo is in the Shopify App Store!Team moraleDepartments that need Jordan’s focusUpdates, expectations, and reviewsThe limitations of being both the designer and founder of a productProcessKit upgrades:To dashboard or not to dashboard?Email templates with liquid tags to increase the dynamic changes for these templatesThe pressure of “What’s next?” and prioritizationThe current competitive climate in SaaSPipeMainStreetVisualize Value [tweetthis]“I think we’ve spoken before about how I look at the company as like, ‘Where is the fire burning...the hottest?’ At any point in time it’s not like everything’s on fire or everything requires attention. There’s usually one part of your company where there’s more going on.” - Jordan [/tweetthis] Resources: Jason Lemkin’s post about Dashboards Pipe MainStreet Visualize Value SunriseKPI Productize Audience Ops ProcessKit   Carthook  As always, thanks for tuning in. Head here to leave a review on iTunes.

Jordan and Brian are back after a few weeks. It is election week; that means a lot of stress and a lot of chaos. But before that stuff hits the fan, Jordan is launching a new Carthook product inside the Shopify app store and Brian has been redesigning the ProcessKit app to fix little frustrations. They’re also talking about structure, spreadsheets, and the importance of app store reviews [tweetthis]“As we started to add more and more features, the overall structure and experience (and I’m talking about very detailed things) hasn’t kept up and so I wanted to solve for all of these little frustrations in the app that have accumulated.” - Brian [/tweetthis] Here are today’s conversation points:  New Carthook products inside the Shopify App StorePreparations and anticipating the launchSpreadsheets and scenariosThe Prisoner’s DilemmaDynamic pricing and price pointsProcessKit App redesignProgress in SaaS productsCommunity-based promotionsMarketing and funnelingBeing able to separate yourself from your businessThe importance of customer experience and app store reviewsJordan’s new obsession: Cohere [tweetthis]“It is a prisoner’s dilemma. You’re stuck, you don’t have all the information. What you do has a big impact on them, what they do has a big impact on you. But you’re not colluding.” - Jordan [/tweetthis] Resources: How to Price Your SaaS Product by Patrick Campbell Cohere.so Cohere.so/demo SunriseKPI Productize Audience Ops ProcessKit   Carthook  As always, thanks for tuning in. Head here to leave a review on iTunes.

Today Brian and Jordan are talking about deadlines, Black Friday, and a little bit of introspection. They go over their love/hate relationship with mornings. They also take a deep dive into hopes, dreams, dedication, and hiring true believers. [tweetthis]“I still really believe in dedicating time to writing tests and for us that really means integration tests and feature tests.” - Brian [/tweetthis] Here are today’s conversation points: The Carthook deadlineHow the new ProcessKit developer stepped upTesting features, web integration expectationsDifferent ways of coping with stressThe importance of mornings:Brian’s morning routineJordan’s morning routineCan you change whether or not you can be a morning person?Hopes, dreams, and dedication“What is the worst case scenario here?”When it is okay to forgo delegating and doing things yourself?Freelancing versus Full-Time EmployeeMarketing projectsHiring a true believer [tweetthis]“When you make a decision, go harder at it.” - Jordan [/tweetthis] SunriseKPI Productize Audience Ops ProcessKit   Carthook  As always, thanks for tuning in. Head here to leave a review on iTunes.