bdunn

17 ms·

121.
by bdunn 13y ago
Yes, LessFilms recorded all the talks. No idea what the turnaround time will be. IIRC, last year it took 6+ months to get online. MicroConf was AMAZING. If you haven't seen Patrick speak, you really need to. And you still have a chance to t
122.
by bdunn 13y ago
"Make something that solves a pain that people will pay to fix." There you go. The secret to success.
123.
by bdunn 13y ago
patio11 and I had a great conversation about this a few months back: http://www.kalzumeus.com/2012/10/10/kalzumeus-podcast-3-grow... But basically, here's the trick to close more deals and make more money: Become an investment, not an exp
124.
by bdunn 14y ago
If you have daily stand-ups, why would you have 30 minutes worth of update per person? What he means is that a 30 minute standup that six people participate in results in 3 hours of lost productivity for the team. It's comparable to the e
125.
by bdunn 14y ago
This is the first book in a very, very long time that I've really looked forward to. Garrett's successfully bootstrapped a SaaS that now sustains him and his family, and he's taken everything he's learned over the last few years and condens
126.
by bdunn 14y ago
Here's what I think is being missed in this discussion: Product != Software People buy software because they desire some intended outcome. For instance, I recently switched to Xero because emailing spreadsheets of categorizations back and f
127.
by bdunn 14y ago
Ditto. I gave up lucrative, decently sized consultancy to go solo. Before: Long commute to my office from the suburbs, 10+ hour workdays, lots of stress, kids would be asleep when I get home. After: 30 second commute upstairs, work out dail
128.
by bdunn 14y ago
This. It might sound strange, but most service providers are "selfish" in their pricing. Meaning, a rate is determined by looking inward — how much do I need to charge to make more than my monthly fixed expenses? What's the equivalent hou
129.
by bdunn 14y ago
Just point a A record to ConvertKit's IP address (or CNAME to like "landingpage.convertkit.com"), and then ConvertKit will look up the requested hostname against an accounts table to determine the current account / landing page.
130.
by bdunn 14y ago
Not that I disagree, but this is pretty much the paleo/primal/slow carb diet packaged as "the top 11 lies from mainstream nutrition." Instead of leading in with "There's a lot of misinformation out there...", say it like it is "As a fan of
131.
by bdunn 14y ago
This would have made for a great Lovecraft story.
132.
by bdunn 14y ago
I don't describe the projects, just point a link to them, they should describe themselves... Can't disagree more. If I'm hiring a freelance developer, I want to be assured of their "here's my problem, help me come up with a solution" abil
133.
by bdunn 14y ago
I can't recommend this strategy enough. I run a weekly (free) newsletter, and spend a lot of time putting together the content, getting it proofread (something I suck at), etc. But when I need help with something, I have a legion of people
134.
by bdunn 14y ago
The success of bottled water is the result of a, eh, educational campaign. Namely, that tap water is full of yucky stuff. Without this market conditioning, I don't think many people would have been interested. So they are selling something
135.
by bdunn 14y ago
Basecamp Breeze is targeting people like my mom, who would want to setup an email "club" for her church prayer group. Pretty positive she'd have no idea what to do after reading "simple team management for coaches" — even if you offer the e
136.
by bdunn 14y ago
Congrats on shipping! Only nitpick - it looks like you charge transactionally (pay as you go.) Wouldn't that make this NOT a SaaS app? Best of luck! Might give it a shot with my product.
137.
by bdunn 14y ago
I think he's implying having an email list for people who want to follow along, not necessarily actual customers for the ultimate product. I agree. I love the idea of a mailing list where progress updates are routinely sent (even if just li
138.
by bdunn 14y ago
$0 - unless AppSumo counts.
139.
by bdunn 14y ago
This year I'm going to heavily invest in experimenting with paid advertising. Surprisingly, about a quarter of my growth comes in organically. People find me through a blog post, research the product, and then buy. Can't beat that :-)
140.
by bdunn 14y ago
It was closer to 2 million, but it could have been much higher. It helps to also be in a lower cost of living area, and included in that count were support people.
141.
by bdunn 14y ago
I think in my case it's more of a "I tried the consulting thing for 6+ years, I learned a lot, I'm ready to move on — but there's a lot of valuable info I've captured over the years that could be very valuable to others."
142.
by bdunn 14y ago
Great questions! RE: Less success on actual apps Planscope's revenue is fairly small right now, but trust me when I say Freckle could give Amy and Thomas a very comfortable life if that's all they were working on. Subscription products
143.
by bdunn 14y ago
Duh! * Blue line - Planscope * Yellow line - Books * Green line - Workshop Thanks Nathan!
144.
by bdunn 14y ago
Correct. We're no longer as large as we once were, but I've taken myself out of operations and get a phone call once a week with a status update.
145.
by bdunn 14y ago
Author here. Trust me — I completely understand where you're coming from. With Planscope (my SaaS product) I'm getting to engineer a really rewarding product with Backbone.js and Ruby. However, because I'm bootstrapped, things like SEO and
146.
Why I Gave Up A Million Dollar Consultancy(planscope.io)
137 points by bdunn 14y ago|99 comments
147.
by bdunn 14y ago
I don't think Patrick or myself ignore the starting point - albeit my book is targeting freelancers WITH clients. I can't begin to praise the effectiveness of in-person networking. Chamber of Commerce, technology councils, and other busines
148.
by bdunn 14y ago
I think Adwords and other paid traffic would be more effective driving traffic to an email capture squeeze page that delivered a series of free reports over a few weeks. The final few emails would then try to sell the book. IMO it's too har
149.
by bdunn 14y ago
Disclaimer: I run a web-based project management tool (Planscope) I think a successful PM tool needs to be able to do two things well: track things that need to get done and organize communication. I love desktop software for the former, I
150.
by bdunn 14y ago
Many startup founders are overworked — I usually put in maybe 3-4 hours a week into Planscope (when I'm not actively working on any major new features.) I'm not opposed to delegation at all , I don't want to be glued to a screen — I just h

More ›