MicroConf On Air

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

Comprehensive data about the state for bootstrapped (or mostly) founders and how to use the report to make meaningful change in 2021.   To access the full report, head over to https://stateofindiesaas.com.   For nearly a decade MicroConf has helped startup founders grow faster through access to world-class experts, and the world’s most trusted community of ambitious, bootstrapped and mostly bootstrapped founders. MicroConf has become the mothership for founders like yourself looking to learn and share strategies, tactics, advice, and inspiration.   The beauty of creating this 2nd report is our ability to draw comparisons from one year to the next. While the overall structure is very similar to last year, you’ll notice we’ve drawn comparisons wherever the data deviated to a point that it became interesting.   In addition, we’ve mixed up the visuals in many areas from simple bar and pie charts to now include word clouds and micro-infographics. The idea is to optimize the presentation of this information to help you understand it at a deeper level.   This all lines up with our mission to help you be successful, faster.   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

The inimitable Steli Efti has been a leader in the startup and SaaS sales landscape for years. Check out this live Q+A focused on sales processes. - Any tips on how I can use to my advantage the fact that I am a client as well as a co-founder in marketing, sales or during onboarding calls? 2- I have had extensive success in Marketing & Sales in the Sports & leisure industry selling an in-person Service in the B2C world. Any tips on how to translate those skills into the SaaS and B2B world? - If you were to start a CRM system today from scratch, how would you try to launch and build it up in todays world? From Max Sinclair a big fan and user of Close - How do you know when to put a fork in a cold outreach campaign? - Any advice for selling to non-technical industries when your domain expertise is in tech & not their field? - What are the best sales books?   http://microconfonair.com https://microconf.com 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/hey  

http://microconfremote.com We asked our MicroConf Remote speakers to answer the question: "What is one thing I can do today that will make a meaningful impact on by business in the future?" Bjork uses a simple expense audit and asks 3 questions for each transaction: Should I cancel this? Should I change this to a yearly discount plan? Can I ask for a discount? Check out the video and get registered for MicroConf Remote! MicroConf Connect ➡️ http://microconfconnect.com Twitter ➡️ https://twitter.com/MicroConf E-mail ➡️ support@microconf.com MicroConf 2020 Headline Partners Stripe https://stripe.com Twitter ➡️ https://twitter.com/Stripe Basecamp https://basecamp.com Twitter ➡️ https://twitter.com/Basecamp

http://microconfremote.com Chapter 4: Onto something new… There is something to be said about bootstrapping your business to millions in revenue, to stick by it and still hold the keys, over 2 decades after launch. It is rare to see the founders of any company stick it out for that long… but there isn’t much that isn’t rare about the founder journey that our next storyteller can share. It begs you to wonder, when the only pre-ordained next step in your roadmap to building your business is “The End”, but you’ve not reached that ending… what is there left to do to fill the next few chapters. That is how we’re going to end our story. And ending that keeps moving forward but jis yet untold. With our guest, Jason Fried, Co-Founder of Basecamp and Hey!, we hosted an open ask me anything about what it took to grow Basecamp to the degree of success it reached, how the small bootstrapped team was able to develop a competitor to the likes of Gmail or Yahoo Mail, and their very public spat with the Apple App Store in mid-2020. Check out the full-length conference video at https://youtu.be/q1WNvRoSays If you want to join in on the conversation with over 1400 other founders, join MicroConf Connect, a slack community space where you can meet founders from around the globe working on cool products in a sustainable way. Head over to http://microconfconnect.com for more details. This video was recorded on September 1, 2020 in Minneapolis MN. All proper social distancing, PPE, and health and safety measures were taken in the production of this show Note, this is not a live session, so calls for questions, survey, etc… are all pre-recorded.

http://microconfremote.com Let’s face it – there comes a time in a founder’s lifecycle within their company where having them on support emails is a terrible idea. Eventually, you’re going to have the assets to be able to afford a marketing person, and THAT person is now responsible for all of the copyrighting. You cannot be the only person doing demos. In time, if your company has found product market fit and your growing in ways that allow you to bring on more help – its time to create a structure so that you can let them know how to move through a project…. without you. Nate Grahek, Founder of Sticky Albums, is going to share a few pointers for how he optimizes his internal operations so that his team of much smarter people doing their own thing can get their jobs done without him being the bottleneck. If you want to join in on the conversation with over 1400 other founders, join MicroConf Connect, a slack community space where you can meet founders from around the globe working on cool products in a sustainable way. Head over to http://microconfconnect.com for more details. This video was recorded on September 1, 2020 in Minneapolis MN. All proper social distancing, PPE, and health and safety measures were taken in the production of this show. Note, this is not a live session, so calls for questions, survey, etc… are all pre-recorded.

Curious about TinySeed, MicroConf's accelerator and fund? The TinySeed accelerator team (Tracy Osborn, Rob Walling, and Einar Vollset) recorded this live webinar to answer questions about their third application round.   Jump to a question: 2:43 - Why is it called TinySeed? 8:52 - What are TinySeed's basic investment terms? 13:55 - Do we invest in non-US countries? 16:03 - Do we invest in B2B companies? 18:34 - Is there a requirement for the application process? 21:43 - What is your policy against repeat investment in the same space? 22:48 - How many months would you estimate the churn rate over for small business? 24:24 - I feel our evaluation now may be above the standard investment terms for TinySeed. Will there be any flexibility in terms?. 25:08 - What industries or companies did you see thriving this year due to COVID? 25:55 - We just started providing annual payments were people can pay in advance for a year — should we advertise those when calculating MRR in our application ? 26:55 - My SaaS isn't launched yet but it's making a $1000 or more in the MRR — am I right for the program? 27:36 - I believe you looking to fund to 20 to 25 companies, which is 2 times more than previous batches. How will you maintain the camaraderie and intimacy the with a bigger batch? 31:46 - We have a B2B SaaS system, we have 15000 active free users and 25 paying customers — 15000 looks better than 25, which one should I use for customers? 32:30 - Is Edu/Research Tech under your domain? 33:05 - Do you have a preferred formula for LTV? 35:04 - Can salary cap be adjusted with inflation overtime, or market changes? 36:16 - Is the investor dividend based on equity? 36:30 - If there are multiple founders, do you require all founders to be full time? 38:00 - What factors do you look at before onboarding a company? 40:25 - Is there an option to buy your shares out? 42:43 - Do you invest in S-Corps? 44:32 - What is the process and timeline after the application has been submitted? 46:19 - How do you approach the application if you had previously had a SaaS? 47:00 - What happens after the accelerator year? 50:18 - When is the next application process and when is the next batch? 51:16 - If you're recently launched, should I apply now (to be on the radar) or later? 52:12 - In your application, you ask the number of team size — is this the number of founders? 55:04 - How do you compute monthly churns, if only yearly churns are counted? 56:07 - Is growth more important than profitability? 57:25 - Apart from investing, what else can we get from TinySeed?  58:28 - How should you represent monthly payments when it consists of one-time payments?   More about TinySeed → https://tinyseed.com   The program and how to apply: → https://tinyseed.com/latest/2021-apply   Questions? → hello@tinyseed.com → https://twitter.com/tinyseedfund   #tinyseed #microconf