Will this be the week that Jordan finally gets to talk about crypto? In this episode of Bootstrapped Web, Brian and Jordan give us some updates on their businesses. Is Brian running late with ZipMessage? What has been going on behind the scenes of Jordan’s secret project? They also talk indepth about discipline and productivity. Do working sessions help? When is it better to work alone? What tools do you use to hold yourself (and others) accountable?

Here are today’s conversation points:

• Progress with ZipMessage
• Jordan’s three different profiles of potential partners he is looking to next
• The outreach plan for Jordan’s secret project
• Brian’s mental deadlines: Is ZipMessage falling behind?
• Know Thyself: a lack of discipline around productivity
  • Working sessions vs working alone
  • Tiny little dependencies that get overwhelming
  • Creative-Technical-Designer-Founder-Entrepreneur deep work sessions
• Personal and professional goals
• Why things are happening a certain way and why things feel inevitable
  • Building toward that inevitability (but not too early)

Resources

Todoist

ZipMessage

SunriseKPI

Productize

AudienceOps

ProcessKit

Carthook 

As always, thanks for tuning in. Head here to leave a review on iTunes.

This is two weeks in a row for Brian and Jordan. In today’s episode they’re talking about new toys and tools, Twitter drama, and business talk, specifically Jordan’s newest team member and Brian’s newest product. April 5th is going to be a big week for both Brian and Jordan when it comes to business news.  They also successfully avoid having Jordan talk about crypto for another episode. How long will they be able to go without talking about it?

Here are today’s conversation points:

• Regulation crowdfunding ceilings
• SaaS and tech people and temperaments on Twitter
• Updates on ZipMessage
  • Nine simple reasons why Brian loves and is launching ZipMessage
  • It’s sharable and boastable
  • Brainstorming ideas for a viral launch
• Arrows.to’s launch strategy
• Jordan’s new chief-of-staff started, which has led to a productive week
  • Easier to do things when you’re being held accountable
  • Writing content, then handing it over to a copyeditor to tighten the drafts
  • Rearranging the sequence of rollout

Resources

ZipMessage

SunriseKPI

Productize

AudienceOps

ProcessKit

Carthook 

As always, thanks for tuning in. Head here to leave a review on iTunes.

Officially a year after the pandemic started, Brian and Jordan do a bit of reminiscing and chatting about vaccine news before diving into updates about work. Not to mention, Jordan gets his first real haircut of the year.

On the business front, things are moving (slow and steady) for Brian. ProcessKit has accumulated a decent amount of data which means that he can start making data-driven decisions for the business. While ZipMessage is still new and in the early stages of the process. Jordan talks about the change in his mindset from Carthook to his new project. Meanwhile, Brian talks about delegating tasks, what it means to “hire to collaborate,” and the things he’s doing in order to build his rhythm with ProcessKit and see progress.

Here are today’s conversation points:

• The shift in temperance about the ongoing pandemic
  • Vaccines and vacations
• Changing your mindset: going from bootstrap to VC
  • How that affects your appetite for risk
• Delegating tasks to people now and hiring to collaborate
  • Hiring freelancers
  • Finding talented people who don’t want to be full time employees
  • Stories (success and otherwise) with freelancers
• New trends with sales since Jordan started Carthook
  • What do you do with marketing, prelaunch?
• ProcessKit updates
  • In-app onboarding flow is helping self-conversion
  • Is patience the key?
  • Home page content about customer on-boarding and niches
  • Testing headlines and swapping out pages to test data and changes in customer trends
  • The possibility of launching a new version versus launching new features

Resources

ZipMessage

ProcessKit

AudienceOps

Productize

SunriseKPI

Carthook 

As always, thanks for tuning in. Head here to leave a review on iTunes.

Today, Brian and Jordan are talking about what it’s like in no man’s land and their struggles with imposter’s syndrome. Brian shares more details about his newest venture. Jordan talks about his need for structure. They do a deep dive into the launch process and various launch strategies as well as updates on their various projects, their opinions on Clubhouse, and how they avoid feeling overwhelmed with new ideas.

Here are today’s conversation points:

• Launching a brand new product… with no product yet
• What to do when you’re in no man’s land:
  • Jordan’s three goals each week
• How Brian uses the Day One app
• Zipmessage updates
• Launch strategies
• Content and web copy versus product
  • Does nobody read anymore?
  • What format works?
• Clubhouse and Twitter
  • The “I’d rather do X” conundrum
  • Live broadcasts
• Jordan’s new chief-of-staff
• AudienceOps updates
  • Delegating duties

Resources

Day One

ZipMessage

ProcessKit

AudienceOps

Productize

SunriseKPI

Carthook 

As always, thanks for tuning in. Head here to leave a review on iTunes.

Brian and Jordan are back after a short break. Today’s topics involve new developments with Brian, Twitter conversations, and market research for new and current projects. Brian gives us a sneak peak into a new project. Jordan brings his opinions on Twitter and how companies are using their social media profiles for marketing. They briefly talk about the pros and cons of Clubhouse. Lastly they dive into networking and e-commerce.

Here are today’s conversation points:

• Zipmessage: sharable conversation pages
  • Intention, goals, and vision for this new product
  • Different landing pages for different niches
  • Risk and innovation
  • Figuring out pricing
    • Price based on usage
• Clubhouse
  • Waiting for value
  • Tuning in during the workday or after
  • Live versus podcasts and recorded media
• Ruben Gamez’ Twitter conversation about personal brands and bragging on Twitter
  • The dangers of Twitter
• Networking and ecommerce
  • Reaching out past your comfort zone
  • “Not knowing what you don’t know” when it comes to untapped opportunities outside your field of vision

Resources

ZipMessage

Ruben Gamez’ Twitter Convo

ProcessKit

AudienceOps

Productize

SunriseKPI

Carthook 

As always, thanks for tuning in. Head here to leave a review on iTunes.

Brian and Jordan are back after a bit of a hiatus. Today they’re trying a different format change as each takes center stage for half of the show so they can better update everyone on their progress since the new year started. And what a new year it’s been so far: finishing off some old chapters and starting new ones, and the journey in between.

Here are today’s conversation points:

• Jordan’s updates and topics:
  • The sixth year anniversary of the incorporation of Carthook
  • Stepping down as the CEO of Carthook
  • “The big exit” as the goal for an entrepreneur
  • The skills needed for a “new” CEO
  • The transition out of the CEO position
• Starting secret projects and “The Mystery SaaS”
• Brian’s updates and topics:
  • Thready launch
  • Tailwind CSS
  • Taking a break to reassess goals and to reflect

Resources

Tailwind CSS

Thready

ProcessKit

AudienceOps

Productize

SunriseKPI

Carthook 

As always, thanks for tuning in. Head here to leave a review on iTunes.

Brian and Jordan are rounding out 2020 by looking back and looking into the future. Brian talks about taking a break for the next couple weeks, ProcessKit updates, and looking back to see what he was wrong about when thinking about 2020. Jordan talks about a couple podcasts he was a part of, fun holiday parties, and minimizing risks of wasting hours. They also go over some final thoughts about the holidays, and what they plan on doing on their vacation.

Here are today’s conversation points:

• Taking a break and the importance of stepping away
  • What is burnout?
  • Macro versus micro expectations for ourselves
• Podcasts that Jordan has been a part of lately (Greylock, Better Done Than Perfect)
• Looking back on 2020
• What happens in ‘21?
• ProcessKit updates: onboarding flow, new home pages, etc.
• Holiday parties (and possibly monthly happy hours) using GatherTown
• The process for validating products

Resources:

Greylock (Greymatter): “Mike Duboe | The Rise of Headless Commerce”

Better Done Than Perfect: Radical Onboarding Experiments with Jordan Gal

Better Done Than Perfect: Launch Lessons & Product Surveys with Rand Fishkin

Gather.town

SunriseKPI

Productize

Audience Ops

ProcessKit  

Carthook 

As always, thanks for tuning in. Head here to leave a review on iTunes.

Vote for us on the SaaS Podcast Awards!

Jordan and Brian are back with new podcasting gear and set-ups. Today’s topics cover a little bit of everything: from making quality content, to morale boosting Zoom meeting activities. They are also talking about Jordan’s experience working with Shopify, Brian’s 2021 goals for consistency, as well as a surprise nomination, onboarding and conversion, marketing and tracking, and niche podcasting.

Here are today’s conversation points:

• Making quality content
• Friday snapshots, Spotify Wrapped Year in Review
• Black Friday and Cyber Monday wrap-up
• Shopify checkouts, quirks, and limitations
• Nomination for bootstrapper podcasts
• ProcessKit onboarding and the core of the product
• How to change from conversion to paid?
• Marketing
  • Marketing and tracking from two different sources
  • Paypal, what?!
  • Focusing your marketing efforts; niching down
• Goals for 2021: consistency
• Podcasting in a niche versus having a wide audience

Resources:

Microconf: SaaS Podcast Awards

SunriseKPI

Productize

Audience Ops

ProcessKit  

Carthook 

As always, thanks for tuning in. Head here to leave a review on iTunes.

On this episode of Bootstrapped Web (dubbed the “anything but election talk” episode), Jordan and Brian go over Carthook’s exciting launch in the Shopify App Store and ProcessKit’s visual upgrade. Brian also has a couple of aces up his sleeve when it comes to high level changes as well as day-to-day uses for ProcessKit. Today the focus is all about what it means to satisfy customers: new and existing customers. How do you convert trial customers? How fast should you handle feature requests? How do you deal with the pressures put onto you by customers? How to show your constant level of progress but how do you filter customer feedback/expectations?

Here are today’s conversation points:

• The Carthook logo is in the Shopify App Store!
  • Team morale
  • Departments that need Jordan’s focus
  • Updates, expectations, and reviews
• The limitations of being both the designer and founder of a product
• ProcessKit upgrades:
  • To dashboard or not to dashboard?
  • Email templates with liquid tags to increase the dynamic changes for these templates
• The pressure of “What’s next?” and prioritization
• The current competitive climate in SaaS
  • Pipe
  • MainStreet
  • Visualize Value

Resources:

Jason Lemkin’s post about Dashboards

Pipe

MainStreet

Visualize Value

SunriseKPI

Productize

Audience Ops

ProcessKit  

Carthook 

As always, thanks for tuning in. Head here to leave a review on iTunes.

Jordan and Brian are back after a few weeks. It is election week; that means a lot of stress and a lot of chaos. But before that stuff hits the fan, Jordan is launching a new Carthook product inside the Shopify app store and Brian has been redesigning the ProcessKit app to fix little frustrations. They’re also talking about structure, spreadsheets, and the importance of app store reviews

Here are today’s conversation points:

•  New Carthook products inside the Shopify App Store
  • Preparations and anticipating the launch
  • Spreadsheets and scenarios
  • The Prisoner’s Dilemma
  • Dynamic pricing and price points
• ProcessKit App redesign
  • Progress in SaaS products
  • Community-based promotions
  • Marketing and funneling
• Being able to separate yourself from your business
• The importance of customer experience and app store reviews
• Jordan’s new obsession: Cohere

Resources:

How to Price Your SaaS Product by Patrick Campbell

Cohere.so

Cohere.so/demo

SunriseKPI

Productize

Audience Ops

ProcessKit  

Carthook 

As always, thanks for tuning in. Head here to leave a review on iTunes.