Startups For the Rest of Us

Where do the best SaaS ideas actually come from?

In this episode, Rob reads a chapter from his new book, Idea to Traction: Stop Building SaaS Nobody Wants in the Age of AI. He walks through the five places problems tend to show up, eight strategic approaches for finding and shaping a product idea (with real examples), and when it makes sense to replicate an existing ide...

How do you get LLMs to actually recommend your SaaS? 

In this episode, Rob Walling talks with Ross Hudgens, founder of Siege Media and author of the new book Generative Engine Optimization, about how SaaS companies get recommended by ChatGPT, Gemini, and the AI tools customers now use to shop. They cover why "best X" roundups and versus articles outperform, how muc...

Should you be worried that another founder will steal your idea if you ask them for advice?

In this episode, Rob is joined by Ruben Gamez to answer four listener questions: whether reaching out to more advanced founders puts your idea at risk, how to convince big name customers to agree to a case study, what to do when a platform ecosystem (like Shopify's app store) tur...

How do you pivot your SaaS when things aren’t working?

This week Rob talks with Nathan Tyler, founder of BlinkMetrics, about the messy, uncertain process of finding product market fit in real time. Nathan walks through why his original EOS scorecard idea didn't work, how hundreds of coffee chats led to a done for you reporting business, and why he just launched a ...

How do you onboard a hire onto a codebase you built alone?

In this episode, Derrick Reimer joins Rob to tackle four listener questions. They cover hiring and onboarding your first developer as a bootstrapped founder, then move into the temptation to build features just because AI makes them cheap to ship, getting past social anxiety as a founder, and whether it's worth ...

Ever gotten a vague cease and desist from a competitor and wondered if you actually did something wrong?

This week I tackle four listener questions: how seriously to take competitor terms of service threats, whether AI is really a platform risk (or just a feature risk), how to build confidence and get past the fear of reaching out to prospects, and when a non-founder employee should walk away from a company that's missing founder a...

Does validation still matter when AI has made building software almost free?

In this solo episode, Rob breaks down the origin story of Liquid Death, the canned water company now valued at over a billion dollars, and pulls out the mental models that apply directly to B2B SaaS. He covers why ideas come from being in the arena, how founder Mike Cessario validated the conce...

Would you spend a year on distribution for a product that doesn't exist yet?

In this solo episode, Rob answers listener questions about how second and third-time founders think differently, from filtering a dozen good ideas down to one, to why distribution and validation matter more the second time around. He also digs into how to sell and price AI agents, and whether a...

Is your nervous system sabotaging your best decisions?

In this episode, Rob mixes a solo adventure with listener questions. He answers a reader who asks why he still shows up to write, record, and build, then digs into regulating your nervous system when you have to do something that scares you. He wraps with two listener questions on direct snail mail outreach and on c...

What does it take to make a lifetime deal work?

In this listener questions episode, Rob Walling revisits the lifetime pricing debate with new context from Davis Baer of Youform. He also tackles why building is rarely the hard part, how bootstrappers get shut out of startup discount programs, what to watch for when signing customer agreements ahead of an acquisition, and...

What does it take to build a seven figure SaaS in a market almost no one thinks about?

In this episode, Rob Walling sits down with Brian Henderson, co-founder of Wash-Dry-Fold POS, to walk through the 10-year arc of building it in one of the most overlooked markets there is: laundromats. From selling other people's hardware as a scrappy reseller, to teaching himself to ...

Are you building systems for your team, or are you still the system? 

In this episode, Rob Walling talks with Julien Marzouk, a former SaaS founder and coach who has worked with hundreds of seven and eight figure founders over the past decade. Julien breaks down six recurring patterns he sees in founders who scale past a million, from the identity shift of moving f...

Is SaaS dead now that AI can build an app in a weekend?

In this solo episode, Rob Walling gives his most definitive answer yet to the question flooding the internet: what's the future of SaaS now that AI makes it easier than ever to build and copy a product? He breaks down the four most common claims that AI will kill Saas, and explains why the real SaaS apocalypse is c...

Should you keep pouring time into a business that will probably never be huge?

In this episode, Rob Walling answers listener questions about whether to keep growing a "step two" B2C business despite platform risk, when one-time payments make sense versus subscriptions, and how to price and position a Shopify app that needs custom implementation work.

What's really stopping you from shipping your product and how do you finally push through?

In this listener questions episode, Rob Walling covers a lot of ground: revisiting the 5PM framework with more opinionated guidance on pricing and market size, the right time to use vibe coding in your SaaS, why B2C apps are brutal, how to rebuild after startup failure, and the mi...

What happens when a bootstrapper at heart raises $28 million and spends the next decade living with that decision?

In this episode, Rob Walling sits down with Nick Francis, the co-founder of Help Scout, to walk through the full 15-year arc of building one of the most beloved support tools in SaaS. From the cramped Techstars apartment he shared with a co-founder, to the ...

What do 15 brand-new TinySeed founders have in common? 

In this solo episode, Rob Walling shares six key takeaways from the most recent TinySeed batch kickoff in New York City. He covers why asking "why" is the most underrated founder habit, why pricing is still the biggest lever in SaaS and positioning might be the second biggest, why AI SEO is already a real channel and more. He also makes the case for why being around o...

How does a founder actually learn the skill of product?

In this episode, Rob Walling talks with Ruben Gamez of SignWell and Bidsketch to answer listener questions that turned into a much deeper conversation than expected. They cover why friction works well for one of Ruben's products and kills conversions on the other, how to think about trial length and onboarding when users need more time, and what it actually takes to develop...

Is your SaaS actually protected from AI disruption, or are acquirers walking away without even looking?

In this episode, Rob Walling talks with Einar Vollset of Discretion Capital for a front-lines SaaS M&A market report, covering how the acquisition climate has shifted since 2021, why some PE firms now require at least one AI moat before they'll even look at a deal, and a breakdown of all five moats: hardware-software coupl...