Jon Buda

The whole team is on the show! Jon, Helen, Jason, Josh, and Justin are on the mics to discuss our recent team retreat to Nashville, Tennessee. If you're wondering what a retreat looks like for a remote team, you'll get a lot out of this episode. We also reveal some of our exploits in Music City:"Going to a Tiki Bar is usually a mistake."Highlights"For 51 weeks, our small team works efficiently. Our team retreat week is a culmination of celebrations, milestones, birthdays, and holidays we might have missed. It's special to condense these moments into one week and see everyone in person to celebrate our achievements from the previous year." – HelenLinks:Photos from our trip to Nashville. PhotoWalk Nashville service.SurfOffice Location Finder: "Discover the optimal location to meet with your remote team. Results are sorted by average travel time per person, number of stopovers, and overall price."How to plan a team retreat: Planning a retreat can be a daunting task, so we wanted to share our learnings in the hopes that it’ll be helpful for other remote teams out there.Takeaways:The city you choose for your retreat will significantly influence the team's productivity and leisure activities.Be intentional and set aside time for planning and product discussions.A retreat is a great time for a remote team to celebrate milestones and achievements.Have a balance between work activities and fun activities.Simple activities like games or cards can be as fulfilling as fancy events.

This week Jon and Justin are joined by Marcella Chamorro. Previously, she worked in startup marketing but has recently transitioned to coaching founders and teams. We discussed how startup founders and their team members can realize their full potential.Here are some highlights:Quote:"I think people who choose to do coaching want to be really good at what they do and they want to have a really good life. They are looking to optimize their time on planet Earth."  – MarcellaLinks:Subscribe to Marcella's newsletterMarcella’s coaching websiteCheck out Marcella's articlesMarcella on LinkedInMarcella on Twitter

Jon and Justin welcome Joshua Anderton to the Transistor team! Josh is an amazingly talented full-stack web developer (Laravel, Rails, Tailwind CSS, Alpine, and more!) He's been helping us as a part-time contractor since Oct 2022, and we're excited to have him on board full-time! In this episode, we discuss why we hired another person and how we think about hiring at Transistor.Links:Joshua's personal siteJoshua's podcast: Getting to RamenJason Cohen's articleAcquired.fm is now on Transistor!

Jon's back from his first real vacation in years. In this episode, we discuss how we've been removing inactive accounts on Transistor, SVB, Section 174, Revin is shutting down their Merchant of Record service, SaaS sales tax compliance:Links:Matt Levin's excellent summary of the Silicon Valley Bank runIan Landsman: "This is why I don't use startup-friendly banks (Mercury, etc)"Section 174: join ssballiance.orgRevin has shut down its Merchant of Record serviceFlurly (another Merchant of Record) was shut down by StripeFrom the Revin email:“The most relevant reason [we are closing] is that the Merchant of Record model is too risky for both sellers and the MOR operator. Sellers bear the risk of platform shutdown (as seen in the example of Flurly & Stripe), and the MOR operator could potentially become involved in illicit or illegal activities quickly, which could lead to all sorts of problems.Furthermore, it became increasingly clear that the Merchant of Record model primarily appeals to small-scale sellers or businesses with questionable and high-risk business models. This presents a significant challenge as we strive to move up the market.The recent change in Stripe's risk behavior has caused us to experience issues with keeping Stripe accounts live.”

Last week's episode hit a nerve! "The idea that every small software company in the world will be able to be in perfect compliance will every foreign federal, provincial, state, and municipal government that imposes a sales tax is ridiculous. It's an impossible task.Broadly, there were a few different camps with the responses we received: North American SaaS companies who have been using Stripe:  "Yes! Sales tax compliance for SaaS is brutal."European SaaS companies that have had to deal with VAT for a long time (many of whom use a Merchant of Record).Smaller North American solopreneurs and companies who had no idea they needed to collect and remit sales tax internationally.North American companies who have one-time sales and use Merchant of Record services.Responses from indie hackers:European: “Once again, I notice that the indie hacking community has a somewhat naïve approach to what running a business actually entails. As a European, not having a plan for sales tax is... mindboggling.”Cooper: “I think it might be a European perspective; we are dealing with VAT from day 1, so it's just one of the parts of running a business from the start, it can't really be neglected.”Edwin Saraccini: “To clarify, [for Canadians] this is absolutely new territory (Debated in parliament for years) and recently put to legislation in 2021.”Daniel Vassallo: “It's impossible to be compliant everywhere. The Kingdom of Tonga could tomorrow come up with an internet tax and require you to remit 25% of your sales to the tax office in person in their local currency. And they won't tell you about it. It's just a cost/benefit analysis.”Derrick Grigg: “How can they enforce tax collection on a business they have no jurisdiction over? Governments are shaking businesses down. I’m all for collecting and paying properly where you physically operate but collecting and remitting outside your province never mind nation is a stretch.”Derrick Reimer: “Dear Stripe: We SaaS founders are desperate for a full-stack global tax compliance solution without having to leave you for a merchant-of-record. Are you planning to solve this?”Did you know..."There are actually several different types of sales tax systems in use throughout the United States. The biggest difference is whether the seller or the purchaser is the main taxpayer. In some states, the tax is imposed on sellers, who then have the option of passing the tax along to their purchasers. In other states, the tax is imposed on the purchaser, with the seller being responsible for collecting the tax and remitting it to the state. And then there are other states where the liability for the tax is shared by sellers and purchasers." (Source)New thoughts on Sales tax complianceI still haven’t heard from anyone who has successfully migrated a “mature” SaaS from Stripe to Paddle or LemonSqueezy. These are no-gos:Can’t cause more churn.Can’t require customers to re-enter information.Can’t change our checkout experience.We might consider Paddle / LemonSqueezy if:Their fees were more affordable (compared to our existing fees it would be ~$63K year more, $5,250 per month more)Their dev experience had a better rating from the folks we know.I had heard from anybody who was at our stage and had actually migrated successfully.A few folks suggested Revin, which promises “simple global sales tax compliance for Stripe for only $499/month,”  but:They have to “create a new Stripe account for your brand.”Do they own your Stripe account?You’ll lose your historical stats and revenue analyticsThe current solution we’re considering is Stripe Tax + TaxJar (and start with US and Canadian tax remittance)

Sales tax compliance: nobody in SaaS wants to talk about it. Jon and Justin tried to do something about it and it turned into a nightmare. According to Stripe Tax, there are about 90 different regions that software companies may have to register in, and then calculate, collect, and remit sales tax on their behalf. But in North America, many SaaS companies don't seem to care: many that we looked at weren't collecting sales tax at all, while a few had just started collecting in the US states.If you've been wondering about how sales tax applies to SaaS, listen to this episode.

The whole Transistor team got together for a retreat in Montréal. Jon, Justin, Helen, and Jason chat about the experience. What should we talk about next? Twitter: @buildyoursaas, @mijustin, @jonbuda, @jsonpearl, and @helenrylesLeave a review/comment on Podchaser; it's like Reddit, but for podcasts.Email us: support@transistor.fmThanks to our monthly supporters:Jason CharnesMitchell Davis from RecruitKit.com.auMarcel Fahle, ​​wearebold.afAlex PayneBill CondoAnton Zorin from ProdCamp.comHarris Kenny, Intro CRM podcastOleg KulykEthan GundersonWard Sandler, MemberspaceRussell Brown, Photivo.comNoah PrailColin GrayAustin LovelessMichael SitverPaul Jarvis and Jack Ellis, FathomDan BudaDarby FreyAdam DuVanderDave Giunta (JOOnta)Kyle Fox GetRewardful.comCheck out Simon and Volkan’s new bootstrappers podcast: https://shipsaasfaster.com/ 

As a part of Transistor's 4-year anniversary, Jon and Justin answer your questions

Transistor celebrates 4 years since the launch

We got the whole band together: Helen and Jason join Jon and Justin to talk about what it's really like to work at TransistorHelen, Jason, Jon, Justin, all squeezed into the podcasting closet to make an episode0:55 Jason's first podcast ever1:12 Helen's been on other podcasts: Startups for the Rest of Us, Indie Bites, Indie Worldwide3:06 Should we invest in the "auto publish to YouTube" feature?Tom Webster: why would people listen to podcasts on YouTube?13:32 The best features the ones that feel like "magic" when a customer uses them18:46 The "wait and see" product development philosophy20:15 A new podcast website builder CMS and website designs23:34 Writing a new templating language in Liquid (Shopify)26:23 Our new CLI tool: receiver (built with Go)31:30 Making a few new podcast website themes31:57 Adding language localization for podcast websites (English, French, Spanish)34:30 How we run our weekly team meetings35:44 New podcast website themes are out! (YouTube demo)40:39 For next week: what questions do you have for @jsonpearl and @helenryles?42:16 Patreon shout outsWhat should we talk about next?Twitter: @buildyoursaas, @mijustin, @jonbuda, @jsonpearl, and @helenrylesLeave a review/comment on Podchaser; it's like Reddit, but for podcasts.Email us: support@transistor.fm

Jon and Justin are reunited in the COVID capital of British Columbia

Jon and Justin record one last episode for 2021

We answer listener questions about bootstrapping, SaaS, and partnerships

Plus, what's with this summer SaaS slowdown?

What happened at Basecamp? We announce our first full-time team member. And: cost/benefit analysis.

And, evil crypto Teletubbies

Just the weirdness of it

2021 and still no flying cars

Justin lost his voice and sounds like Steve-O.

Justin is worried. Jon says "chill."

What do you do when you can't solve a problem on your own?

One of our competitors was acquired; what does that mean for us?

What happens when your SaaS grows 300% over the quarantine?

Resisting oppression and resisting being an oppressor

A quick update from Justin

Will we still be supporting Internet Explorer in a decade?

Simon is quitting his job and going full-time on SnapShooter

What do you do when a competitor steals your idea? (plus: Justin and Jon have the giggles).People in tech get bent out of shape about who owns certain ideas, UI patterns, and business models.“They ripped off my idea”"They copied us!"This blog post by Justin Mitchell:https://medium.com/@itsthisjustin/no-idea-is-unique-but-this-is-insane-a247ec80f6a7Good Stackexchange thread:“In the history of science, this is known as "Railroad time". I.e, when the economy has reached a certain state of infrastructure (coal, steel, and land available, plus steam engines and demand for transportation), it's "Railroad time", and the idea of building railroads occurs to many people naturally at the same time.”Documentary: https://www.generalmagicthemovie.com/Multiple discovery (simultaneous invention): “the hypothesis that most scientific discoveries and inventions are made independently and more or less simultaneously by multiple scientists and inventors”Synchronicity: “the simultaneous occurrence of events which appear significantly related but have no discernible causal connection.”Collective consciousness.How to respond if a competitor rips of your idea: Paul Jarvis tweet: "fathom copycats pop up so often that i've lost count. we honestly don't mind them... they STOKE THE FIRE 🔥 to make our product even better."Hedge against the competition:Build your brand: the way people perceive your company; how “top of mind” are you?Build your audience: competitors can't easily replicate who you know, and who knows you.Customer service: how well you take care of people; how responsive you areContinued product improvement: you don’t have to be the most novel; you just have to show continuous improvement in vectors that customers care about.Last longer than your competition: don’t hire too many people, keep your costs low; if you can outlast your competition, you don’t have to worry about them stealing your stuff.You can reply to this podcast here:Twitter: @buildyoursaas, @mijustin, @jonbudaLeave a comment on PodHunt; it's like Reddit, but for podcasts.Email us: mail@transistor.fm★ Need a podcast?Transistor allows you to host all of your podcasts in one place.We also offer private podcasts: use them with your team, or on your membership site.Get a 14-day trial here.Thanks to our monthly supporters:Bill CondoSofia QuinteroDiogoChris WillowMason HensleyBorja Soler teami.ioWard from MemberSpace.comEric LimaJames Sowers (like Flowers) with UserInput.ioTravis FischerMatt Buckley, from NiceThings.io Russell BrownEvandro SassePradyumna Shembekar (PD), pradyumna.devNoah Prail, eventOneHQ.comRobert Simplicio, Simplicio.comColin Gray alitu.comJosh Smith, hellosift.comIvan CurkovicBrian Rhea (Pronounced “Ray”)Shane Smith, dev.transistor.fmAustin LovelessMichael Sitver, letterjoy.coPaul Jarvis and Jack Ellis, usefathom.com Dan Buda danbuda.comDarby FreySamori Augusto, thebicrowd.comBrad from CanadaSammy SchuckertMike WalkerAdam DuVanderDave Giunta (JOOnta)Kyle Fox GetRewardful.com

Catching up with the real-life stuff that's going on

Bake that bread!