MicroConf On Air

Andy Ayim talks about how mental models can help us to make different types of decisions. And how, by using specific frameworks, we can focus on solutions that aren’t immediately obvious. https://microconf.com #microconf #microconfeurope 2019 MicroConf Europe 2019 Join our exclusive community for SaaS founderss → http://microconfconnect.com Twitter → https://twitter.com/MicroConf E-mail → support@microconf.com MicroConf 2021 Headline Partners ► Stripe https://stripe.com Twitter → https://twitter.com/Stripe ► Hey https://hey.com Twitter → https://twitter.com/heyhey

Bootstrapping V. Venture Capital. This is an ongoing discussion in the SaaS startup community for the last decade . The question is less about the how, and more often about the why and when. MicroConf has always advocated for self-funding and customer centered entrepreneurship, while venture capital can be a chase for profit. We're chatting this week with Hana Mohan, founder of MagicBell.io (https://magicbell.io) about her experience bootstrapping her last company (SupportBee) to $45K MRR and deciding to accept YC funding in 2021 after her exit. Hana is the co-founder & CEO of MagicBell. She is a proud transgender woman who is passionate about empowering women & other minorities. She lives in Barcelona with her two cats. MicroConf Connect ➡️ http://microconfconnect.comTwitter ➡️ https://twitter.com/MicroConfE-mail ➡️ support@microconf.com MicroConf 2021 Headline Partners Stripehttps://stripe.comTwitter ➡️ https://twitter.com/Stripe Heyhttps://hey.comTwitter ➡️ https://twitter.com/heyhey

Entrepreneurship is moving at a breakneck speed to keep ahead of the curve and create without getting overtaken by your nearest competitor.  If you aren't learning the market your business serves and the intricacies of it's consumers quickly, then you'll never keep up with their needs.   Anders Thue Pedersen experienced that outpacing while he was building his last business, TimeBlock.  Learn how changed his mindset to a constant state of curiosity and how he is applying that framework to his new product, Mælt.co. Inspiration ➡️ https://twitter.com/andersthue/status...​ MicroConf Connect ➡️ http://microconfconnect.com​ Twitter ➡️  https://twitter.com/MicroConf​ E-mail ➡️ support@microconf.com This episode is sponsored by Rewardful, turning your biggest fans into your best marketers. Get 30% off your first 3 months by heading to https://getrewardful.com/startups​ Offer expires May 31st. MicroConf 2021 Headline Partners Stripe https://stripe.com​ Twitter ➡️ https://twitter.com/Stripe​   Hey https://hey.com​ Twitter ➡️ https://twitter.com/heyhey​      

We’re fortunate to be continuously amazed by the quality and number of applicants for TinySeed’s annual accelerator program: https://tinyseed.com #tinyseed In total, we’ve received nearly 2,000 applications across our three accelerator batches. And with each successive batch, the quality of applications has grown alongside the percentage of companies with higher revenue. This round’s batch is also our most international to date, with seven founders based outside the U.S. We’re proud to welcome these 18 startups to our 2021 accelerator program:  → Aurelius (https://www.aureliuslab.com) is an all-in-one space for researchers to organize notes, capture insights, analyze data and share outcomes with their team.  → Breachsense (https://breachsense.io/) enables security teams to reset stolen usernames and passwords before criminals exploit them. → CloudForecast (https://www.cloudforecast.io/) eliminates wasted costs in AWS without significant engineering resources. Through easy-to-understand daily email and Slack reports, engineering teams can quickly react to cost anomalies and mistakes that can often sit for weeks. → CraftyBase (https://craftybase.com) is an inventory and bookkeeping package for handmade sellers. → Harbor Plan (https://www.harborplan.com/) is an out-of-the-box sales tool that enables non-tech savvy users to follow up automatically via email and text message. The software extracts a lead’s contact info as soon as it lands in the user’s inbox, sending a campaign of built-in content until the lead responds or books a consult. → Lasso Analytics (https://getlasso.co/) Analytics is the all-in-one affiliate marketing plugin for WordPress. Lasso helps you create beautiful product displays, find new affiliate opportunities, and easily manage all of your important links in one place. → Lexgo (https://www.lexgo.cl/) is the first automated legal service for startups in Latin America, enabling founders to complete their legal processes faster and at a fraction of the cost of a lawyer.  → Localyser (https://www.localyser.com/) is an online reputation management solution that helps businesses manage all of their reviews from across multiple platforms all from one place. Whether you manage one brand or several, one listing or a chain, our easy-to-use dashboard allows you to monitor, respond, analyze, and generate more reviews quickly. → Monolith Forensics (https://monolithforensics.com/) is case, evidence, and lab management software for digital forensics labs and teams. → MSPCFO (https://www.mspcfo.com/) leverages data in a managed services provider’s systems to identify actionable items that can drive growth and stability to the bottom line.  → NewsCatcher (https://newscatcherapi.com/) allows users to search through an indexed database of online-published news articles in near real-time. → Planifi (http://www.planifi.net) provides project and resource planning for architects and engineers. Planifi makes it easy for design professionals to plan and schedule projects, forecast project performance, and staffing utilization across offices and disciplines. → Postaga (https://postaga.com) is an all-in-one link building and outreach platform that helps marketers more quickly and easily drive traffic, increase search rankings, get press coverage, and connect with potential customers. Postaga’s workflow analyzes websites, blog posts, and podcasts to find the best outreach opportunities, retrieve their contact details, and sends them personalized outreach and follow-up emails. → Rails Autoscale (https://railsautoscale.com) is a Heroku add-on for avoiding app slowdowns and lowering your Heroku bill. → SecurityStudio (https://securitystudio.com/) provides software solutions to secure information for your organization, your employees, your vendors and yourself. → Senior Place (https://seniorplace.io) offers a customer relationship management system specifically designed for the rapidly growing Senior Placement and Referral industry. → Testable (https://testable.org) helps behavioral researchers create experiments and surveys in minutes instead of hours or days, using natural language instead of coding. We also help scientists collect better data through our reliable and diverse pool of verified participants. → Zentake (https://www.zentake.com/) is a patient intake management tool that improves medical practices’ patient interactions with HIPAA compliant electronic forms. Zentake removes the busywork from collecting patient information, saving time, and improving the patient experience. Thank you to everyone who applied. TinySeed’s next application period will be in the summer of 2021.

Finding product market fit is not an overnight process.  It's almost impossible to strike that sweet spot at the onset of your product idea - even if you have some degree of validation.   https://microconfonair.com This episode is sponsored by Rewardful, turning your biggest fans into your best marketers. Get 30% off your first 3 months by heading to getRewardful.com/startups. Offer expires May 31st. According to the State of Independent Saas (https://stateofindiesaas.com) the majority of founders originally validated their idea by building out an MVP or prototype, but the likelihood that they found PMF with just that prototype seems unlikely.   Maren Kate has spent the last 3 years bootstrapping AvraTalent, and has some thoughts on the various markers to watch out for on the journey to Product Market Fit.   MicroConf Connect ➡️ http://microconfconnect.com Twitter ➡️  https://twitter.com/MicroConf E-mail ➡️ support@microconf.com   MicroConf 2021 Headline Partners Stripe https://stripe.com Twitter ➡️ https://twitter.com/Stripe   Hey https://hey.com Twitter ➡️ https://twitter.com/heyhey

There is power in numbers and developing communities around your brand, your product, and your users can be a great strategy to ensure customer and client satisfaction. https://microconfonair.com Rosie Sherry has just started a new role with Orbit.love and has been serving as the Community Manager for Indie Hackers before launching her Community Building hub, community and course, Roiseland. I want to build a community but I feel there are already so many communities existing out there targeting the same audience ... feels saturated - your view ? What went into the decision of using Discord? Pros? Cons? Are you worried about what's going on with Facebook and Section 230? Could it kill the small online communities? Did you miss MicroConf Remote? You can still purchase the recorded videos at https://microconfremote.com MicroConf Connect ➡️ http://microconfconnect.comTwitter ➡️ https://twitter.com/MicroConfE-mail ➡️ support@microconf.com MicroConf 2021 Headline Partners Stripehttps://stripe.comTwitter ➡️ https://twitter.com/Stripe Heyhttps://hey.com@heyhey

You should be scripting your sales calls the same way you script a webinar or presentation.  Reinventing the wheel every time you get on a call with your customers is less efficient than creating a standardized set of responses and direction for the call.  John Ndege has launched a number of profitable businesses, but has taken a turn to teaching solid sales strategies. 

Mentorship for SaaS Founders can mean the difference between the slow SaaS ramp of death and making the critical changes to your process that helps get you to consistent growth. https://microconfonair.com John Knox is a repeat Angel Investor in some of the most successful mobile and SaaS brands, including Summit, Branch, and 1 Second Everyday. He is a current Mentor for TinySeed, and his insights and network are huge assets to the companies he provides mentorship for. - Do you follow up on the people you help with a specific problem to see how it went and find further opportunities to help? How do organize this? - Any recommendations on how to become more coachable? - Can you talk about what’s in it for the mentor if they're not an investor? ​- How formal are the mentorships you're talking about? Is there an equity split, consistent scheduled meetings, or is it more informal? - I am at the MVP stage and in the process of promoting my SaaS. It’s going slowly due to lack of budget. Any thoughts on how to speed up growth on a budget? MicroConf Remote (https://microconfremote.com) is on sale! The event is scheduled for March 23 - 25 from 11:00 AM - 12:30 PM EST Daily. MicroConf Connect ➡️ http://microconfconnect.comTwitter ➡️ https://twitter.com/MicroConfE-mail ➡️ support@microconf.com MicroConf 2021 Headline Partners Stripehttps://stripe.comTwitter ➡️ https://twitter.com/Stripe Heyhttps://hey.comTwitter ➡️ https://twitter.com/heyhey

The hosts of the SaaS Podcast Award nominated Software Social Podcast join Rob to chat about all things SaaS, early stage marketing strategies, and more.  https://microconfonair.com Michele Hansen @mjwhansen  Co-founder of Geocodio @geocodio, A geocoding SaaS, which she and her husband started in 2014. It started as a side project and she went full time in 2017. She is co-host of Software Social Podcast, which was nominated in several categories for MicroConf's 2020 SaaS Podcast Awards. She also recently launched a free newsletter about customer research for bootstrappers.    Colleen Schnettler @leenyburger Colleen  is a Ruby on Rails consultant. She has spoken at both RailsConf and RubyConf, and loves being part of the developer community.She recently launched her first product - https://www.simplefileupload.com/. You can hear all about her journey launching and monetizing a software product on her podcast - Software Social. She's a mother and a military spouse and loves chatting about all things software and business. When did you start your show, and why? Have you received any benefit from having a podcast, or is it just for fun? How long do you plan to share revenue on the show? How much time (and money) do you dedicate to the podcast outside of the time "on air"?  How do (did) you foster a growth mindset? How did you develop the mindset to ship things without the need for immediate payoff? MicroConf Connect ➡️  http://microconfconnect.com Twitter ➡️  https://twitter.com/MicroConf E-mail ➡️  support@microconf.com   MicroConf 2021 Headline Partners   Stripe https://stripe.com Twitter ➡️ https://twitter.com/Stripe   Hey https://hey.com @heyhey

Just as designers benefit from learning a little bit about programming, programmers, marketers, product managers, and salesfolk, can benefit from learning a little bit about design. https://microconfonair.com Tracy Osborn is the Program Manager of TinySeed, Founder of WeddingLovely, and an all around genius when it comes to operational efficiency and web design.  Her book, Hello Web Design, will be published nationally, and is available for pre-order at https://nostarch.com/hello-web-design.  What elements should you consider when making a choice about fonts for your website? "Too many cooks spoil the broth": does too many designers spoil the design too?  What factors should founders consider when getting a logo designed? Should they always go bespoke? What's the cost for a custom logo design generally? I find that most dev-tools screenshots of their features can be a bit busy or boring (sometimes it’s code, numbers, analytics etc.). Any design advice for dev-tool SaaS companies to help visualize these features where screenshots of their product might not work well?  When you're looking at a website, what are 2-3 things you always look at to evaluate how "well" it is designed? MicroConf Connect ➡️ http://microconfconnect.com Twitter ➡️  https://twitter.com/MicroConf E-mail ➡️ support@microconf.com   MicroConf 2021 Headline Partners Stripe https://stripe.com Twitter ➡️ https://twitter.com/Stripe   Hey https://hey.com @heyhey