Four different git branches in various unfinished states
I'm a little sad because we've come to the end of our cycle of sponsorships from our friends at Balsamic. They they really believe in the show. They've sponsored 2 months. And for this last episode, I've asked Peldi, their founder, what he wanted me to talk about. And his answer surprised me.
Speaker 1:Instead of wanting me to sell Balsamiq to you, he wanted me to give a big shout out to Balsamiq's admin team members. They're really the unsung heroes of any well run software business, and they rarely get any spotlight. Without their tireless work, none of this would be possible. So Anna, Joy, Amanda and Natalie, thanks for everything you do. You're the oil that keeps our engine running smoothly.
Speaker 1:This is Pelty talking. But you're also the oil that completes our balsamic dressing. Isn't that nice? Really thankful to Balsamiq. I hope they sponsor us again in the future.
Speaker 2:Hey, everyone. Welcome to build your SaaS. This is the behind the scenes story of building a web app in 2019. I'm John Buda, a software engineer.
Speaker 1:And I'm Justin Jackson. I do product and marketing. Follow along as we build Mister dot FM.
Speaker 2:How's it going? It's a holiday Monday in the US?
Speaker 1:Yeah. Yeah. So this is the thing. We had Victoria Day here in Canada, last Monday. So we we just had our holiday be 1 week ahead of you.
Speaker 2:Right.
Speaker 1:And here you are coming in to the office on a mon holiday Monday.
Speaker 2:Yep. Doing some recording. Just for this.
Speaker 1:Well, we've got a lot to talk about, and so I I think we should get into it.
Speaker 2:Let's do it.
Speaker 1:Yeah. Why don't you get into your first you've got you've got quite a bit written here. Why don't you get into your first what you're kind of thinking about wrestling with?
Speaker 2:Yeah. It's mostly wrestling with, I guess. I kind of been thinking about this the last week or so. Is kind of along the lines of, like, how do you prioritize and I guess prioritize, features, what you're working on with a very small team and small limited resources and amount of time. So, you know, obviously, we have a very small team.
Speaker 2:It's just the 2 of us. Yeah. I have a job, so I have limited time to work on this. Mhmm. And I don't really wanna be pulling all nighters or work 7 days a week.
Speaker 2:Mhmm. So, like, being able to actually Accomplish what I would like to in a week or 2 weeks, is sometimes difficult. So
Speaker 1:Mhmm.
Speaker 2:We have a number of, like, Small bugs and small requests, just things that need tweaking within our system.
Speaker 1:Mhmm.
Speaker 2:But also we have Much bigger features that we haven't released yet that we've been talking about, planning out
Speaker 1:Mhmm.
Speaker 2:That really also need to be focused on. So I don't know. I guess I've been kind of struggling with how to do all of that. Mhmm. Especially when, like, You know, it's it's just some things are pretty quick and easy.
Speaker 2:Like, a small bug might might be, you know, 10 minutes, and you can fix it and and push it out. But then there's, like, The other small bugs are, like, small features that sort of seem easy, but aren't and they're not quick, and they just end up Being like this just you get on this rabbit hole of, like, struggling with something else. It's like, if one thing turns to another thing, and then you're all of a sudden doing something else. So Mhmm. I don't know.
Speaker 2:I have, like, 4 different branches right now in Git. They're just sort of, like, for different different features or different fixes or Different things that are, like, in its various states have finished. Mhmm. And for whatever reason, I just, like, ran out of time before I could finish it. And then to get back into that is sort of another ramp up.
Speaker 2:Like, you pick it back up, and it takes, like, 20 minutes to get back into it. And then, like, if I only have an hour, Then you really can't work on it that long, and it's, like, they're always in the back of my mind, and I'm always trying to think about it. Like, for instance, like, the last couple days, I've been trying to fix something that actually required me to look into upgrading our version of semantic UI that we use.
Speaker 1:Okay?
Speaker 2:For our, like, design and JavaScript framework? Yep. But the way we use it with our current rail setup, The gem is not actually up to date with the newest version of Symantec UI, and the thing that I need is in the newer version. Right?
Speaker 1:So Gotcha. So the kind of the magic preconfigured Rails jam that for Symantec UI hasn't caught up with the newest version of semantic UI.
Speaker 2:Yeah. Yeah. For those familiar with Rails, like, you can have these gems that are sort of, like, Packaged up versions of JavaScript and CSS that sort of integrate into the the asset pipeline, which then once you deploy it, will kinda compile everything down into one JavaScript file and one CSS file. So Mhmm. I think Symantec is really, like, not being worked on very much anymore.
Speaker 1:Mhmm.
Speaker 2:Which either means, you know, it could be could mean that they just gave up on it or that it's just, like, feature complete for now and they're fine with it. Yeah. But there is a newer version, but they just never updated the gem for it. Yeah. And it's kind of a pain to pull it in.
Speaker 2:So Mhmm. Considering that semantic UI is just a bunch of, like, CSS files or less they actually use less CSS
Speaker 1:Mhmm.
Speaker 2:And JavaScript. It's possible to just pull that in directly Yep. Without a gem, but that requires, A little bit of a different configuration. And so I went down this rabbit hole of, like, looking into using Webpack and Webpacker to sort of package all this stuff up, Which does integrate with Rails, but it actually integrates with Rails better with the upcoming version of Rails, which is version 6. Yeah.
Speaker 2:And there's a release candidate out Out for that, which means it's, you know, like, stable. I mean, I know Basecamp and and Shopify run it already. So Yeah. I kinda went down that rabbit hole, but that's the thing where it, like, Should have been a 10 minute fix and ended up being several hours of me just going Yeah. What?
Speaker 2:Computers are the worst.
Speaker 1:And I'm sure that a lot of folks listening can identify with this is that old meme. I think it's from an old, an old episode of, what is that show? Where the dad goes to, you know, fix a drawer and then so So he goes to get a screwdriver, but then he notices something else is broken. So he gets that. And then he he just keeps going round and round and round until, of course, you get back to the drawer.
Speaker 1:And,
Speaker 2:Pretty much. So so as I'm doing this, I, you know, I I finish it up. I don't I don't finish it up. I just finish working on it.
Speaker 1:Mhmm.
Speaker 2:But it's not done, which is frustrating because you're like you're like, I'm gonna close my laptop, but I'm not actually done with it. So it's still in your mind. You're like, That one thing that got away that I can't seem to fix.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:And then I just sort of think I sort of start thinking of, like, well, I coulda used those hours to work on something else That probably didn't need an upgrade of the entire framework.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:And it's, It's a little it's a little frustrating. It's like so I'm trying to sort of fight with, like, how to how to prioritize that, and some of that stuff is kind of Unavoidable. But Mhmm. Mhmm.
Speaker 1:This would be a good question for, for, I mean, definitely our listeners. I'm sure they I'm sure this is something everybody struggles with, especially when you're not yet full time on it.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:And you're you're working on the side. In another sense, I'm sure these problems never really go away. Right. Like the the folks at Honeybadger. This would be a great question for them because they're you know, they were 3 people for a long time.
Speaker 1:And, they had to, you know, Certainly prioritize what they're gonna work on. And, and, Yeah. Like like, I'm sure everybody can identify with this feeling of, like, like, this exploration phase can take so much time.
Speaker 2:Yeah. It can. And I think, yeah, I think it would probably be solved Definitely be solved, by working on this full time. So you can you could end the day and then sorta, like, sleep on it and then pick it back the next day, but I don't I can't really do that necessarily all the time.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:So it's tough. And then, like, it's sitting for a couple days, and you're like, ah, where was I?
Speaker 1:Yeah. Well, I mean and this is, and honestly, actually, some of the feedback we've get been getting from the show lately is People are saying, man, John sounds, frazzled. Like like, they they can they can sense that you're You're Yeah. You know, this is this is weighing on you.
Speaker 2:I would agree with that. I mean, get if I was 20, I would have stayed up till 4 in the morning and done it and done fine, But that's not gonna work. Mhmm.
Speaker 1:Well, it is funny how how things change depending I I'm following there's these wonder kids on Twitter that are kind of a part of this new indie maker movement. And they're in their teens. You know? They're 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, making incredible stuff and, you know, stuff that I feel like I've been using computers since 1984, but these kids are so far ahead of me. And just their energy is unbelievable.
Speaker 2:Oh, yeah. Yeah. I mean, it's yeah. It's I don't wanna compare myself to that because
Speaker 1:Well, you can't, obviously. Yeah. And they're already thinking about starting companies and
Speaker 2:Yeah. Yeah. You know,
Speaker 1:the it's crazy. You know, I yeah. I think part of this is is just a lot of this will go away once you're full time.
Speaker 2:Right. I think it yeah. I think it's sort of the place I'm at and the place we're at as a company right now because we're not only Building stuff. We're supporting. Mhmm.
Speaker 2:You know, a a growing customer base.
Speaker 1:Oh, yeah. I mean, that that is the I think when people ask me how it's going now, I am glad we launched because until you launch, you really don't know anything.
Speaker 2:Yep.
Speaker 1:But on the other hand, it is it's just we had so much more time for kind of greenfield development beforehand. And, you know, now a lot of our time is spent fixing little things, making little tweaks, adjusting things slightly. You know? And on one hand, you don't wanna be beholden to every request that comes from your users.
Speaker 2:Right.
Speaker 1:And, again, this is a topic a lot of people talk about. But on the other hand, you know, when Mike Vardy, who's one of our our bigger customers and has a big show, when he wants to integrate with pod sites, There's part of me that goes, yeah. I'm good. I'm just gonna do it for Vardi because Mhmm. He's an important customer, and he, You know?
Speaker 1:He was one of our 1st customers, and I just I wanna take care of him.
Speaker 2:Yeah. Yeah. And it's, you know, partly Partly kinda weighing weighing the, I don't know, the the gravity of the request. And and if it If it's something that we can keep sort of manually doing for people
Speaker 1:Mhmm.
Speaker 2:Versus, like, actually building out a thing that They can do it themselves. Like, you know? The thing I'm the thing I'm trying to fix is something we can fix for people Manually behind the scenes, but, like, I don't want them to have to be confused and ask us to have to do it.
Speaker 1:Yeah. What what are you trying to fix?
Speaker 2:Oh, it's the it it's this is the whole, like, when you where you can set a recommended episode on your website. So, like, the The drop down menu that's built into semantic UI, for whatever reason, doesn't have a great way to clear it out if it's been selected. There's no, like, Easy way to which is kinda dumb because it's just a select box in HTML that they've sort of overwritten. But if there's a select box with an empty value, they just, like, remove it once it's chosen once something's been chosen, and there's no way to clear it out. But the newer version actually kind of adds in something that be able to clear it out.
Speaker 2:So
Speaker 1:Gotcha. Gotcha. It
Speaker 2:It should be a a 2 minute fix, but it's not.
Speaker 1:Yeah. And and I I I totally understand now because now now the thing is What could have been a 2 minute fix is you you now have a crossroads, which is okay. Do I just completely reorganize how we use Symantec u UI. Meaning, do we no longer use the gem, but just kinda build it in ourselves manually, which is a bigger project.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Or the other option, I guess, is do we just wait and see if, you know, maybe check. Is there a gem update coming? Yeah. We think it's gonna be another 2 weeks. Okay.
Speaker 1:Well, we'll just wait. You know, maybe that's maybe that's what we have to do. Although, you know
Speaker 2:case, it's not because I don't think they're gonna Did it. Yeah. It's been it's been a while.
Speaker 1:So now we know. So now, yeah, it's almost like you have to reorganize. Like, okay. Knowing what we know And knowing that this shakes kind of some big foundations because, of course, as soon as you shake that tree, I'm thinking, oh, maybe this now is the time for me to really convince John, to go a 100% on Tailwind.
Speaker 2:Well, that's not gonna happen because Tailwind does not include all the JavaScript stuff.
Speaker 1:Yeah. That's true.
Speaker 2:But At some point maybe.
Speaker 1:Yeah. So you're you're saying Symantec has a bunch of a bunch of JavaScript. It has
Speaker 2:a bunch of JavaScript that adds in a lot of nice interaction of automatically.
Speaker 1:Gotcha. Gotcha.
Speaker 2:Along with it's kinda like Bootstrap where they have, like, a JavaScript library along with it.
Speaker 1:Yeah. Yeah.
Speaker 2:Whereas tailwinds is just straight up CSS.
Speaker 1:Yeah. Although, I've there is a bunch of, I'm surprised by as the HTML spec continues to develop. I'm surprised by what you can do just with just plain old HTML and, CSS. Now there's a
Speaker 2:It's true.
Speaker 1:Adam was showing me this select box thing, I think, that it's, like, built in like, checkboxes are built into HTML in a way now that you really don't need JavaScript as much. Of course, Edge doesn't support it.
Speaker 2:But Right. Yeah.
Speaker 1:Yeah. You know, I think this is a hard thing. I really do. The the when you're in the almost, but not yet.
Speaker 2:Yep. Yeah. It's, it's one of those things where it's I mean, this is, I think, A bigger issue with, I don't know, software engineering and
Speaker 1:Mhmm.
Speaker 2:These types of jobs in general is that It's not like an other another type of job where, like, you end the day and you're done. Mhmm.
Speaker 1:So it just
Speaker 2:sort of, like, sticks with you, and it hangs around at the back of your mind. And you're, like, taking up cycles of your brain even if you're not working on it.
Speaker 1:Yeah. Yeah. And some of that problem will go away once, you know, the portion of your brain that is currently occupied by job. Once that goes away, you know, and you have just one thing that you're you're focused on. Right?
Speaker 1:To be honest, this is what I felt when I you know, because I've been running my own business for a while, but I had multiple products and kinda multiple revenue streams. And that was I had a similar feeling of, like, there's just all these things kinda running. And even You know, I would lie to myself and say, it's not a big deal. You know? I've got this one thing going, and it's just running, and I don't even think about it.
Speaker 1:It's not a big deal. But The truth is it was running some background cycle somewhere in my brain. And as soon as you get a customer support request for it or whatever, it just
Speaker 2:Yeah. How can it not?
Speaker 1:Yeah. So So I've I'm actually way more at peace now because transistor is you know, I think we paid ourselves 35100 last month or something,
Speaker 2:which
Speaker 1:and, which is a question we've been getting. And, You know, that $35100 plus the the money I'm getting from this online community I run called Mega Maker. Between those 2, it's just enough to pay my mortgage and my food bill and everything else, and it is so much more calming for me. So I'm, like, calm because I see transistors revenue increasing every month, and I know Every month, the revenue goes up. I, you know, we're gonna pay ourselves more.
Speaker 2:Mhmm.
Speaker 1:We've run into a little snag with how we're gonna pay you, but, yeah, we're we can do we'll figure that out.
Speaker 2:I just tried I tried to finish that up today, and I submitted the form. And it was like, You have to fix all the errors, and there were no errors. I don't know what
Speaker 1:Oh, is this inside of wave or the with the government?
Speaker 2:It's with the Illinois government.
Speaker 1:Yeah. That that part is
Speaker 2:It's the I mean, government websites, not great.
Speaker 1:Yeah. I think once you once you get that, then I can just take care of the administration of
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:All that stuff. But yeah. So for me, it is it has become more calming. And so
Speaker 2:Yeah. I can see that. I'll I'll get there.
Speaker 1:So I think there is there is part of this where I think you will feel like this as you get there. But on the other hand, I think this is just something that every team, no matter what your size, has to wrestle with. So It would be interesting to know how other people deal with it. I'm sure part of it is just saying no.
Speaker 2:Mhmm.
Speaker 1:I'm sure the other part of it is the nice thing about when you have time, more time to focus on a project. Is you don't have this pressure of, I need to do this in this hour. You can give yourself the freedom to say, you know what? I'm gonna spend a whole day on exploration. I'm just gonna go down the rabbit hole, and I'm going to really feel this out, really investigate all of the corners of this problem.
Speaker 2:Yeah. And that's yeah.
Speaker 1:And not solve it too fast because that's the kind of the the lie is like, oh, if I could just make a decision and just solve this quick, then, you know, everything will be fine. But sometimes those decisions you make really fast end up costing you so much more in the long run.
Speaker 2:Yeah. And that's I I'm definitely missing the exploration time, I think, to sort of do it well and do it right as opposed to, like, Just getting frustrated because I'm running out of time.
Speaker 1:Mhmm. Mhmm. Yeah.
Speaker 2:That's a good good point.
Speaker 1:Yeah. Yeah. So, yeah, it'd be interesting to know how other people are dealing with this. I'm like I said, I'm sure, collectively, You know, we have, what, 25 100 regular listeners. I think, you know, of those 25100, 2,000 collectively went, Yes.
Speaker 1:Like, at the same time, like, so many people struggle with
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:How do you how do you do this when you've got so Your time is so limited. And on one hand, constraints are really good for us. Yep. But you get squeezed too tight in the garbage compactor and, you know, you can't get out. And that's in that that sense, it's not so good.
Speaker 1:Right?
Speaker 2:Exactly.
Speaker 1:Yeah. Well, I can I can totally identify with what you're saying? Yeah. I I'm glad you brought that up. I think that's a a a big, big a big thing.
Speaker 1:Let me take a break right now and talk about Clubhouse, this is the the the last sponsorship for Clubhouse as well. By the way, I haven't reached out to folks and said, Both Clubhouse and Balsamiq and actually all of our past advertisers want to renew, but I'd kinda like to give them a break both for their sake and for our listeners' sake. And so If you have a business and you wanna sponsor the show for a couple months, get in touch with me, and we will hook that up. I'm gonna reach out to a few people, but Clubhouse.io/build. Folks, you've gotta go and check this out because this is the last time I'm gonna remind you.
Speaker 1:And project management software is one of those things. It's very divisive. Do you say divisive or divisive?
Speaker 2:Divisive.
Speaker 1:Divisive. Okay. So we're aligned there. That's good. You know, especially on software development teams, marketing wants one thing.
Speaker 1:You know, they wanna use Trello because it's quick and easy and really flexible. Developers wanna use something that's integrated into the way that they, you know, version control and the way they deploy. Well, Clubhouse is honestly the 1st place I found that really pleases everybody. It you know, we have a project called marketing. That's where I do most of my work.
Speaker 1:But John contributes to that as well. We have a project called app development where John does most of the work, but I contribute to that as well. And, it works for everybody. The other day, I, you know, I did one of my my small programming projects. And all I have to do is mention the project number in my GitHub poll request.
Speaker 1:Bang. Clubhouse automatically grabs that, puts it into the ticket, right, and has its own special spot that says, hey. This is it's on GitHub here. And as soon as John proved the poll request. It automatically goes into the ready for deploy, column.
Speaker 1:Is that right?
Speaker 2:Yeah. Or ready for Testing or yeah. We might have an another column in between.
Speaker 1:Yeah. Yeah. So, anyway, it's there's some really great integration stuff. Trust me. If you try it, your team will love it.
Speaker 1:And you've got with our code, club host dot I o slash build, you get two months. That's 2 extra months than you would get normally. So go try it out. Thank them for supporting the show. Okay.
Speaker 1:So I think what I'll do, I was gonna talk about this blog post I wrote called the myth of the niche market. But I think folks can go check it out. It It does it addresses something that I've been thinking about a lot since we started transistor. And that is that there's this myth of the of the niche market. I think it's exemplified in this this, quote by Merlin Mann, where at south by southwest, he said.
Speaker 3:You've got something that you care a lot about and you're obsessed about. It's almost like an intellectual fetish, and then you've got something with your angle on that. And to me, the more you zero in on both of those things, get crazy specific about the thing. If you're just don't have a blog about Star Wars, have a blog about Jawas Or, like this 1 Jawa that's just in the scene for a minute. Like, it's gonna be so much easier for you to dominate.
Speaker 3:First of all, you're gonna become the go to guy for that 1 Jawa.
Speaker 1:Kevin Kelly has this idea of a 1000 true fans. One thing I've learned since we started transistor. Is that I think because this has felt different than any other product I've been in. We're growing a lot. And I think the part of the secret is just the market we're in.
Speaker 1:In the fact that the market, the total addressable market is what they call this, is big enough and it's growing. Whereas in the past, with projects like you know, I had a a course called marketing for developers. Yeah. There's a lot of developers worldwide, but the number of developers that wanted to learn marketing was much smaller and was just not big enough, because there's, of course, that niche of that, you know, wants to learn about marketing. But then there's an even smaller sliver that wants to learn marketing from me, which is I think the the the the piece that people miss out on.
Speaker 1:You know? They'll say, Well, I think there's 10,000 people worldwide that want this thing. And Kind of the point of the blog post is that's not a a big enough addressable market because The percentage of those folks that you're going to be able to find, and find efficiently, and then convince and then convince efficiently and then actually convert and convert in an efficient way. You're you're just even if you captured 80%, you know, it it wouldn't be enough. And, and actually, 80% is you're never gonna really capture 80% of the market or very it's gonna be I'm sure there's I'm sure there's examples, but there's it's gonna be harder than you think.
Speaker 1:And Just from my experience and looking at other folks, I'm I'm I'm looking at folks that are doing well in bootstrapping, and there's been this kind of idea, this myth that you have to focus on this really narrow niche. And I don't think it's true for most people. I think for most people, you actually wanna focus on a fairly large addressable market. You can certainly focus on a niche within that market, but There has to be enough total people that would be interested in buying your thing. And you have to figure, you know, in most cases, If you don't have a sales team, you might be able to get 5% of that market.
Speaker 1:Right?
Speaker 2:Right.
Speaker 1:And Even that's going to be difficult. So and maybe this segues into what I actually wanna talk about, which is, You know? The there's 700,000 shows on Apple Apple Podcasts right now.
Speaker 2:Mhmm.
Speaker 1:And I think we have 1700 podcasts on transistor.
Speaker 2:So very small slice.
Speaker 1:Very small slice. So let's see here. So that would be Oh, I'm just doing some math on as we talk here. But that's we have already oh, we have 0.2%
Speaker 2:Mhmm.
Speaker 1:Of all of that. And our biggest competitor is Libsyn, they have nearly 9%. So, you know, I'm I'm just giving folks a picture of what it's like at the beginning. Meaning, if you want a business that hits 10 k MRR, that hits 15 k MRR, well, you it It it's a lot nicer to be in a business or a market, I should say, where you can get 0.2% of the market and still be at 10 k MRR. Does that make sense?
Speaker 1:Yeah. And I I just know a lot of folks are listening to the show, and they're going after their thing. And I I I want you to think hard about what a reasonable percentage of your total area market is like, what's what could you reasonably, convert from the total market, and it's lower. It's just lower than you think. Right now, we're at 0.24%.
Speaker 1:And, You know? Ideally, I'd like to be higher than that. You know? We'd like to get into the 1 percents, 2 percents, 3 percents. But It it's a lot easier.
Speaker 1:Have you seen that video where the, the it's like a a redneck and his kids are are riding through this bog, and all these fish are jumping into the boat.
Speaker 2:Yeah. Yeah.
Speaker 1:I I I posted on Twitter. I said, it should kind of feel like that because honestly, that's How it feels for me right now with Transistor. It feels like you and I are in this boat, and fish are just jumping in the boat.
Speaker 2:Except I think those are the I think those are the catfish that we don't want. Right? Those are the, or the the carp the Asian carp that are invading.
Speaker 1:Well, I want I want you to imagine that in our metaphor, these are the fish you do want. Okay. And there's something about that that I think that's one one way you know you're in a good market get is there's are there's enough momentum that you just start, you know, driving your boat down the river, and fish are jumping in your boat before you've even put out your nets So your fishing rod.
Speaker 2:Mhmm.
Speaker 1:And, certainly, once we put out our nets and our fishing rod, I hope we catch more fish. But seeing that momentum already has been really encouraging and also scary, which is what I wanna get into next.
Speaker 2:Yeah. I would agree.
Speaker 1:So all that being said, read the article, and let me know what you think. But to kinda bring this to the next stage, we're at $15,461 in MRR. So congrats, John. We made it to another another benchmark, $15.
Speaker 2:That's kind of amazing.
Speaker 1:And we're growing. Last month, we grew 27%. And I know there's a lot of folks saying, wow. Like, that's incredible. And we you know, people notice when we hit benchmarks before we even notice.
Speaker 1:Like, someone told me that we had hit 15, and then the replies are all kind of like, wow. 27%. That's amazing. And I think it's amazing too, but there's another part of me that's like, this is so scary.
Speaker 2:Yeah. There's no way this is gonna last. Mhmm.
Speaker 1:In In the same way that if you're if you're if you're piloting your fishing boat down the river, and all of a sudden, fish were just jumping in your boat, and you're like, When is this gonna end?
Speaker 2:Wait. The boat's gonna sink, or we're heading into a waterfall. The boat is so full of fish that you don't see the waterfall coming up.
Speaker 1:Yeah. Yeah. Exactly. And so I I I think, You know, on one hand, it shows that we're in a great market. The market's growing.
Speaker 1:And in some ways, by just being in the water at the right time with a good boat. Like, I think our app is great. I think there's some unique things we're doing. I think we're really good at customer service. I think we've been really good at getting out there.
Speaker 1:Mhmm. You know, like I said, I've been getting calls from in pretty big multinational companies. And when we get on the call, they're like, listen. I I've just been hearing from my friends and other people in the industry that You gotta check out what Transistor's doing. So clearly, we've done some things right.
Speaker 1:We've made a splash. We are I think one of the things that we've done well is, we just are out there. You know? Like, people know about us. And that's definitely helped.
Speaker 1:But, man, the the the fear I have is I'm just every morning, I wake up and just wait for this all to go away.
Speaker 2:Like yeah. I mean, who knows? Like, I think we took a gamble coming into the market as late as we did.
Speaker 1:Mhmm.
Speaker 2:We I we had no idea it would work out. It seems to be so far, but, like, any I mean, anything could happen. Apple could change something. Spotify could change something. Apple Apple or Google come out could come out and say, hey.
Speaker 2:We're now hosting your podcast.
Speaker 1:Well and and that is happening in to a certain extent. Spotify bought this app that allows you to edit podcasts on in a web browser, and you can now publish directly to Spotify with
Speaker 2:it. Okay.
Speaker 1:So, certainly, there's all these threats. And, this is why going every going through strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats is is helpful sometimes. But I just wanna stay in this emotion for a second of how scary it is. And, my friend, Jordan Gal, who is from cart hook, he messaged me once We hit 15 and said, hey. Congrats, man.
Speaker 1:That's so great. And he said, going from 0 to 10 k is the worst. Like, really hard. He said going from 10 to 20 is much easier. And that was encouraging actually to hear that, just to hear from someone who's ahead of us and him saying, you know what?
Speaker 1:Like, going from 0 to 10, that was really hard. But going from 10 to 20, that was a lot easier for us. And, I mean, you can see it with us too. If we continue to grow 25 I mean, 20 to 30% a month, The the rate of acceleration is going to be as long as that growth rate stays.
Speaker 2:Right.
Speaker 1:You know, you're we're just Getting from 10 to 20 is going to take a lot less time.
Speaker 2:Yeah. I think we're I think we're seeing that for sure.
Speaker 1:And and also just so you folks at home know how we think about this currently. We could change our our percentages, but right now, we're thinking we wanna pay, we want salaries to be about 50% of revenue. And we think that's a a ratio we can scale up. You know? Once we get more revenue, we can hire more people.
Speaker 2:Mhmm.
Speaker 1:So for us, really, 40 k is kind of you know, 20 k is what we're going for, but Forty k is really where this is going to be paying, just a baseline salary for John and I, which we figure is around 100 k a year. Because we both are giving up, salaries that are higher than that, and Our stage of life kinda requires it. Again, I if you're listening in a different country, what you need might be a lot lower. But for us in Canada and the United States, that's kinda where we're at. I replied to Jordan.
Speaker 1:I said, I keep waiting for this to just all crash and burn. And then I have kind of this screaming you know, that screaming face. And this was really helpful. Jordan replied and said, I have the same fear. I hear you.
Speaker 1:It's like a healthy dragon that chases you. You just gotta keep making your product better, add more value, don't leave. Like, don't kind of relax is what he's saying. And that was just really nice to hear that I think part of this business is to kinda always have that dragon going, okay. Like, You know?
Speaker 1:This is good, but don't rest. You know? It this, You don't have to be I I I there's this balance between being overanxious and just having, this dominate my thoughts all the time. Oh, no. What if it goes away?
Speaker 1:Oh, no. What if we lose it all? Oh my god. What if, you know, like, there's a balance between that and just being like, okay. I am going to be aware and concerned about that.
Speaker 1:And, like, I'm gonna allow it to be a thought.
Speaker 2:Yeah. I know what you mean. I'm yeah. Yeah. I mean, I'd certainly think about it.
Speaker 2:I think I'm in slightly different spot because I still have a job. But Mhmm. Yeah. I I think it's probably beneficial to maybe take that Anxious energy and, like, turn it into good energy?
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:You know what I mean? Like
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Think about it and then turn it around into something else.
Speaker 1:Yeah. And so this is where maybe this SWOT analysis strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats is helpful. Because it allows you first of all, you get to talk about your strengths. What are what are we really good at? And, you know, I've mentioned some of that already.
Speaker 1:I think we're really good at being known. People know about us. I think we're we're really good at we're actually really good at building things. That's another thing that folks have They they can't believe, that, you know, you especially have been able to build what you have on the side as a solo developer. We are great at customer support.
Speaker 1:We get We regularly get folks going. This is so great. Like, we reply to people as fast as we can.
Speaker 2:Yeah. It was yeah. It's definitely been good.
Speaker 1:Yes. Just, just today. I I can read this because I asked him if I could. Kent, I I I was replying to, just showing them how to he had a question, which was, you know, if I if I change my if I wanna change my artwork for my show in Itunes. Do I simply change it in Transistor?
Speaker 1:Like, will that will a change in show settings in Transistor propagate to all of the listening apps?
Speaker 2:Mhmm.
Speaker 1:And, you know, I just replied right away. Yep. You can change your cover art and show settings, and it will change everywhere else. It takes a little while to propagate, but It is automatic in the sense that when you update the feed, it updates everything else. And he said, fantastic.
Speaker 1:That's great news. I'm loving your service, and I appreciate how straightforward everything is. It's it's he says it's just been great. And He's he's appreciating what we've put into this.
Speaker 2:Yeah. You
Speaker 1:know? He's appreciating the whole package of I love how the app works. I love the customer support. I love, you know, the peace of mind he gets from when we're able to answer a question for him. So that's a strength.
Speaker 1:Weaknesses right now, we're not at full revenue.
Speaker 2:Mhmm.
Speaker 1:John's not working full time on it. We have very little, like, we don't have somebody that can if you and I both get Ebola, we can't We can't, you know, we don't there's no one to step in and do customer support or whatever. So that's a weakness. Opportunities. Well, we've got we know we know there's tons of opportunities.
Speaker 2:Uh-huh.
Speaker 1:And then threats. And those are the things that you mentioned before. Like, You know, what if Spotify just allows you to host your show there?
Speaker 2:Yeah. Right. And some of them are just completely unknowns too. Mhmm.
Speaker 1:But it is helpful, I think, every once in a while to articulate those. Because a lot of these gremlins that live in our head, they get their power when they they stay in our head. But as soon as you articulate them out Mhmm. And okay. Okay.
Speaker 1:Well, what are those threats? Like, let's just put them out into the room, and look at them. And, I've found that, you know, those gremlins are a lot less scary when I'm looking at them. Because I can go, okay. Well, Yes.
Speaker 1:Spotify could, you know, add hosting to their thing.
Speaker 2:Right.
Speaker 1:Apple Podcasts It's still a huge
Speaker 2:Right. But is would Spotify let people distribute elsewhere? Would they have an RSS feed, or is it only in Spotify? Right?
Speaker 1:Like What what yeah. Exactly. And I think, and if they if they did that, if they let people distribute elsewhere, then they would just be on the same ground as us. Right?
Speaker 2:Mhmm.
Speaker 1:We we can compete with them on that ground.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:And so I you know, this executive that called me from this big media conglomerate, he asked me the same question. He said, well, what if, you know, isn't it a big risk that Spotify could just add that? I said, well, sure. It's a risk. But I it would be so hard for them to do that and push out all of these independent players, like Apple Podcasts Yeah.
Speaker 1:Comcast, and everybody else. Like, eventually, somebody's gonna say, why isn't the show I want to listen to on Spotify? Right. And Spotify is gonna say, woah. Sorry.
Speaker 1:We only we have and people won't put up with it. We're making a bet for sure that the open The open Internet is going to win in this case.
Speaker 2:Yeah. Or or the other opportunities that we talk about that we haven't really, You know, completely planned out or started working on yet will, you know, kind of offset the threats
Speaker 1:to where
Speaker 2:something that maybe, like, other people wouldn't offer. I don't know. You know?
Speaker 1:Mhmm. Yes. Yeah. Yeah. Exactly.
Speaker 1:But I think sometimes just talking about it is helpful. And clearly, the other the other thing that's been helpful here I mean, part of me is is sharing this anxiety I have about our growth going away because I just want people listening to know that that's what I'm feeling. And that that's an it seems to be a normal part of growing a company. And so if you feel that way, It's normal. Like, this is part of what we sign up for is this kinda this baseline simmering thought of, Oh, man.
Speaker 1:I hope this you know, Paldy felt that for years. And his company was growing like crazy. And so We're not the only ones that feel this. And, you know, having people like Jordan say, you know, it's it's actually kinda healthy to think this way too. Yeah.
Speaker 1:I think it's just helpful for the community. And it is nice having some friends and some people. One of the things I like about bootstrapping in particular Is it feels like we're part of this tribe of of folks that are doing the same thing at the same time, and we're able to commiserate with each other. I mean, you and I are able to do this as partners, which is really helpful. And then we can even go outside of our walls and and, you know, go, hey.
Speaker 1:Like, have have you ever felt this way? And Jordan going, Yeah. I have.
Speaker 2:All the time.
Speaker 1:All the time. It's It's just reassuring to know you're not alone. So I think, yeah, I think that's good. I think that's the show. Why don't you go through our Patreon supporters?
Speaker 1:I'm gonna double check and make sure there's nobody new. But Yeah. Go ahead.
Speaker 2:Yeah. Thanks to, thanks again to all of our our Supporters on Patreon for, making this show possible. To to Ivan Kerkovic, Brian Ray, Mikhail Pedraffita, Shane Smith, Austin Loveless, Simon Bennett, Corey Hanes, Michael Sitber, Paul Jarvis and Jack Ellis, my brother Dan Buddha. Danbuddha.com. Darby Frey, Samori Augusto, Dave Young, Brad from Canada, Kevin Markham, Sammy Schuichert, Dan Erickson, Mike Walker, Adam Devander, Dave Junta.
Speaker 2:Junta. Kylefox@getrewardful.com and our sponsors this week, Clubhouse and Balsamiq.
Speaker 1:Yeah. Thanks, everyone. And, actually, you know what's interesting as you read that out, a lot of those people who support us on Patreon, They're supporting us because they're in this too, you know, at different stages. But I think There is something about, community gets overused as a word. But there's something about having this group of people who are aligned on this vision of, I want a better life for myself and my family.
Speaker 1:I wanna make something that matters that actually helps a group of customers make progress in their lives. And, you know, clearly that dream, that vision that that resonates with a lot of people. And I think it's cool that there's just so many people kind of along for the ride.
Speaker 2:Yeah. Yeah. It's amazing.
Speaker 1:Maybe I just as, I don't know, in encouragement to all those folks. Like, these names on this list, you know, like, I know Simon Bennett is building stuff. Right? He's I I think he's working on a new app right now. I gotta I can't remember what the name I'll find it from next week.
Speaker 1:But, you know, I look at these names and I see, wow. These are folks building stuff. You know? Darby Frey, we spent some time with him.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:All these folks. Mike Walker. I'm gonna meet up with him in New York. Keys building stuff. Adam DeVander.
Speaker 1:You know? It's it's, Yeah. We're we're The the idea that we're in this together is kinda cool to me.
Speaker 2:Definitely.
Speaker 1:Folks, we will see you next week.
