Startup to Last

Topics in this episode:Tyler was interviewed to be on Mixergy, but didn't think he did a great job.Rick is adjusting his routine now that he has a kid to take care of.Rick enrolled in a new javascript course to hone his skills.Tyler's previous positive results converting website visitors to his newsletter have turned to failure. No one is signing up.Tyler attended Less Annoying CRM's first leadership team meeting.Tyler had his first person finish building a website based on his online course.Tyler (geez, enough with updates from Tyler, right?) is thinking through putting a limitation on LACRM.Tyler (seriously, stop) took a day to help his dad with a new project.Rick had a big coding win and finished two projects......just in time for one of his API vendors to close down his account, so the projects don't really work anymore. We discuss how Rick should respond.

Topics this week:Tyler has a new iPad and doesn't know what it's good for.Rick has added a client through word of mouth, and we discuss how churn and word of mouth are constantly battling with one another.Rick has resolved a major issue one of his clients had with their dental insurance. Crisis averted.Tyler has been working on the wrong things, and is trying to correct that.We discuss Less Annoying CRM's new leadership team.Rick is applying his new javascript skills to his Airtable data.Tyler is writing blog posts in a new way: First write the tweet storm, then write the blog post.We discuss Earnest Capital's rebranding to Calm Company Fund.

Tyler has a new mic.Tyler is in the middle of the final round of interviews for his new dev hire, and he's starting to plan onboarding.We discuss whether to put a new LACRM content project on the main lessannoyingcrm.com domain, or a separate mini-site.Rick finished taking his javascript course.Rick's dad is in town, and he's taking a bit of time off work.We discuss a trick for getting people to complete online courses.We reflect on what we've learned after recording 100 episodes of this podcast.

Topics covered this week:We selfishly discuss larger themes we've covered on the podcast which might make for good topics on the Indie Hackers podcast.Tyler's newsletter signups have increased since changing the call-to-action.Rick lost another LegUp Health client due to unavoidable churn.Tyler has a content idea centered around CRM pricing.Tyler wants to do engineering as marketing but doesn't have any good ideas.Rick is almost done learning javascript.Rick has his first coding projects lined up.We discuss the new Stripe payment links.We revisit last week's topic because a listener called in with a new thought on the topic.

Topics this week:Tyler asks Rick how he configured the call-to-action for his newsletter on his blog.Tyler is adding a curated list of links to his newsletter.Tyler overcame writers block and wrote his first support-focused blog post.Rick is curious what a highly-compensated support rep might look like at LegUp Health.Rick started paying for Notion.Tyler gives a shout-out to SavvyCal.We take a listener question about how to reach customers who don't have online communities.

Topics in this episode:Apparently online courses have a very low completion rate, but maybe that's ok?Rick is learning more about javascript and has a few questions.Rick is taking a vacation where he'll fully unplug.Tyler gives some learnings from the recent enterprise deal that LACRM closed.Tyler has the interview process figured out for LACRM's next hire.

This week, we answer a few listener questions about how to make your first hire.

Topics this week:Rick crossed 200 subscribers for his personal newsletter.Rick gives an update on some recent milestones related to this podcast.Rick has been doing Wes Bos's beginner javascript course and is learning a lot.Tyler is on vacation, and is mostly just taking it easy.We discuss Notion's new API.Rick seriously sprained his ankle.Rick is dealing with a customer who is disappointed.

Topics this week:We're using a tool called ZipMessage to collect listener questions. If there's something you'd like us to discuss on the podcast, leave us an audio recording of your question at zipmessage.com/tylerLess Annoying CRM had a good April.LACRM's average account size is going up slightly, but it's having a significant impact on revenue.We discuss the theory of constraints, and how Rick can apply it to his next project.We talk about interviewing software engineers, especially when people with different experience levels will be applying for the same position.Rick finished a book on taking notes, and he gets it now.Rick is enjoying the "two co-founders chatting" style podcasts (like this one)Rick set up Coinbase and Robinhood accounts for fun.We talk a bit more about the basecamp drama now that more news has come out.

Topics this week:An effective, but maybe sleazy tactic for cold emails.LegUp Benefits got its second paying customer.Rick is done with SEO for now, and wrote 35 new pieces of content in April (holy shit!)Rick is focusing on LegUp Benefits for the next six weeks.Less Annoying CRM has finally closed a big enterprise deal they've been working on.Tyler is about to start trying to hire a developer.Less Annoying CRM's office setup is changing, and we discuss the importance of communicating changes carefully.We discuss how to write content when you hit a wall.Rick is dealing with unavoidable churn.We talk for way too long about Basecamp's recent drama. We reach no conclusions. You can have a full refund for the amount you paid for this podcast if you're disappointed by that.