In episode 725, join Rob Walling and Ruben Gamez as they answer several more advanced listener questions. They discuss the challenges of pursuing freemium as a bootstrapper and make a suggestion that might surprise you. Rob and Ruben also talk about why building your business as a SaaS founder is usually the best way to build your brand indirectly.

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Topics we cover: 

• 2:31 – Considering a freemium plan as a bootstrapper
• 9:52 – Freemium, but without the intent to convert free users
• 12:24 – Raising prices as an alternative to starting a freemium plan
• 18:32 – When to start caring about your “brand”
• 25:10 – Investing directly in branding
• 31:00 – Revisiting your marketing funnels
• 34:08 – AI’s impact on SEO
• 38:20 – Google’s search results are already changing

Links from the Show: 

• Get notified about The SaaS LaunchPad
• Ask a Question on SFTROU
• Email a Question on SFTROU
• MicroConf
• TinySeed
• The SaaS Playbook
• Ruben Gamez (@earthlingworks) | X
• SignWell
• Episode 724 | Managing Managers, Breaking Through Plateaus, Thoughts on EOS, and More Later-Stage Listener Questions
• Episode 717 | Bootstrapping to $1.3M ARR and 300,000 Free Users
• Val Sopi (@valsopi) | X
• BlogMaker
• State of Independent SaaS 2024 Report
• Josh Ho (@jlogic) | X
• Lane || Boot.dev (@wagslane) | X

If you have questions about starting or scaling a software business that you’d like for us to cover, please submit your question for an upcoming episode. We’d love to hear from you!

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