Bootstrapped Stories

Can you be a CEO with no meetings at all? How do you run a remote-first company successfully? What’s the mindset you need to have? Amir Salihefendic shares with us his journey growing Doist as a fully remote company to $20M in ARR, while having almost no meetings in his calendar at all. We learn his mindset on async communication and high-trust environments, and his challenges in growing his company. ⏱ What you’ll find and when: 00:00 Intro 01:14 Growing Doist 07:20 Amir’s mindset on setting business goals 12:30 Todoist’s growth timeframe 15:45 Levelling up early employees 21:01 How to create an async-first environment 26:29 The importance of trust in a remote environment 29:23 What it’s like to have no meetings at all 32:44 Challenges in growing Doist 38:46 Dealing with churn 42:22 How he would do things differently 43:34 Flash questions 🔗 Connect with Amir: Twitter: https://twitter.com/amix3k Doist: https://doist.com/

Thinking of launching a podcast for your business or for yourself, but don’t know where to start? How do you choose your topic? What’s the best podcast format? How do you grow your audience? Moreover, is launching a podcast even the right move for your business? Understand everything about podcasting in this episode with Justin Jackson, founder of Transistor.fm, a podcast hosting platform used by 20K+ podcasts worldwide. We talk about how to get started with podcasting, the equipment you need, the topic or niche to choose, how to do SEO research for podcasting, and how Justin benefited from podcasting for his business. ⏱ What you’ll find and when: 00:00 intro 07:36 getting started with podcasting 14:13 the equipment you need to start 18:24 how to choose a topic that will be successful 24:34 SEO tools for podcasts? 32:25 impact of podcasting on Justin’s business 38:52 a little bit about affiliate marketing & support 55:02 do you go on customers’ podcasts? 61:02 flash questions ⚡️ 🔗 Connect with Justin: Company: www.transistor.fm Twitter: https://twitter.com/mijustin LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/justinijackson/

How do you build a loyal audience before you launch your SaaS business? How do you engage with others in the right way? How do you get the highest impact on YouTube? Moreover, how do you stand out in a competitive social media landscape? In this episode, Simon Høiburg, founder of FeedHive and content creator (20K YouTube, 25K Instagram) talks to us about growing on social media. We understand how to authentically give out value and grow by engaging with others, and Simon reveals his strategy to get to 100K on YouTube 👀 If building an audience is something that you’re struggling with or need some extra inspiration on, this is definitely the episode to listen to. 📚 Resources Mentioned: • Podcast: Build to Sell Radio: https://builttosell.com/radio/ • Book: Storyworthy by Mathew Dicks: https://matthewdicks.com/storyworthy/ • Bootstrapped Entrepreneur: Arvid Kahl 🔗 Connect with Simon: Twitter: https://twitter.com/SimonHoiberg YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/SimonHoiberg LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/simonhoiberg/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/simonhoiberg/ FeedHive: https://feedhive.io/

Considering running webinars for your business but they’re a complete mystery to you? How often should you host them? How do you keep your audience engaged? Moreover, how do you make people actually convert using webinars? In this episode, Omar Zenhom, co-founder and CEO of WebinarNinja talks to us about everything webinars. We understand why we should conduct webinars, and how to do it in a successful way. We also gather some tips on making them engaging, and increase the chances of people converting to customers at the end. Omar also shares his story of starting WebinarNinja and his views on hiring extremely efficient people. 📚 Resources Mentioned: • Book: Shoe Dog by Phil Knight • Podcast: The $100 MBA Show: https://100mba.net/show/ 🔗 Connect with Omar: 🐦 Twitter: https://twitter.com/TheOmarZenhom 🖥 Website: https://omarzenhom.com/

Trying to get customer feedback but getting nowhere? Having trouble prioritising feature requests while building your app? Want to change your pricing but scared of what will happen? In this episode, Sarah Hum from Canny shares everything she knows about gathering product feedback and feature requests from 5 years of building a tool that does exactly this. She also talks about how they prioritize requests and decide what to work on, while keeping the team happy. Finally, she also talks about challenges in managing a team as a first time founder, and her being a Twitch streamer ✨ 📚 Resources Mentioned: • Podcast: The Hidden Brain https://www.npr.org/series/423302056/hidden-brain 🔗 Connect with Sarah: 📹 Twitch: https://www.twitch.tv/xhumming 🐦 Twitter: https://twitter.com/sarahhum 🖥 Website: https://canny.io/

Running ads but not really satisfied with how profitable they are? Are there secrets to running ads more profitably? In this episode, Chris from WebMechanix shares his unique method to run ads that are optimised for revenue, by gathering the right kinds of pre- and post-click signals. We also learn how he got his first clients while waiting tables. Finally, he shares his thoughts on TikTok B2B ads and gives Guillaume a $10M idea to grow lemlist. 📚 Resources Mentioned: • Book: Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill • Book: The Psychology of Money by Morgan Housel • Book: $100M Offers by Alex Hormozi • Newsletter: The Daily Rip https://stocktwits.com/c/newsletters/the-daily-rip/ 🔗 Connect with Chris: 🖥 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/chrismechanic/ 🖥 Website: https://www.webmechanix.com/

Is collaborating with influencers an effective strategy for your business? How you can find Influencers to collaborate with? What is sponsored content? In this episode, I talk to David Tintner about collaborating with influencers, creating sponsored content, and how it can help you grow your company. David is the CEO of ThoughtLeaders, an influencer marketplace for creators and brands, a company that he bootstrapped to $8M+ in 2021.

Is transparency the key to a successful business? How can you grow through content and SEO? How do you create value by offering a paid alternative to Google Analytics? In this episode, I talk to Marko Saric, co-founder of Plausible, a privacy-friendly alternative to Google Analytics. Started in 2018, the company crossed $850,000 ARR bootstrapped and is now used by almost 40k websites.

How can a simple side project help you to boost your main business? Why persistency is key to success as an entrepreneur? How did Flexible make its first $100,000 using Google Sheets? In this episode, I talk to Karthik Sridharan about his story as the co-founder and CEO of Flexiple. Started in 2016, Flexible is a marketplace where companies can find top freelancers to grow their business. Today, they’ve reached $3M in ARR, 100% bootstrapped.

Why are quizzes one the best way to best generate more leads? How can you start using quizzes to generate more revenue for your business?  What’s the best way to design them? In this episode, you discover everything you need to know about quizzes from Josh Haynam, CEO, and co-founder of Interact, a quiz building tool that he bootstrapped to $3M ARR.