Here's a story about how Laravel/Rails might fix the "pipeline problem," giving a new grad real-world SaaS experience and creating a useful tool I've always wanted. Here's what happened... The Pipeline Problem A while back, I tweeted about how Rails and Laravel have a "pipeline problem:" Young devs aren't learning Laravel/Rails in bootcamps or college They're learning JavaScript, React, and Next.js instead This creates a cycle: we want experienced devs but aren't cultivating new talent On the...
24 days ago • 2 min read
I'm back from my two-week trip to the US. I've been meaning to write you an update about my experiences in the podcast industry, hanging out with my co-founder in Chicago, and attending Laracon (the Laravel conference). I have lots of thoughts to share! Unfortunately, it will have to wait because I'm heading to San Francisco tomorrow to watch the Acquired podcast (Transistor customer!) do an arena show at Chase Center, where they'll be interviewing Mark Zuckerberg on stage. 😮 But... I've been...
about 1 month ago • 1 min read
Tomorrow, I'm headed to DC for Podcast Movement. Then, I'm flying to Chicago to spend time with my Transistor co-founder Jon Buda. Finally, I'll be attending Laracon in Dallas. If you will be at Podcast Movement or Laracon, please let me know, and let's try to meet up! Going beyond "B2B SaaS" Before I go, I wanted to share this blog post with you: https://justinjackson.ca/beyond-b2c-b2b The classic thinking in business is that you have to choose to serve either consumers (B2C) or businesses...
about 2 months ago • 1 min read
Here's a SaaS marketing strategy for converting and activating new customers. My friends Aaron and Steve just launched a new course (High Performance SQLite), and I like their strategy for converting and activating new customers. "Give them a taste!" When you land on their homepage, you can either click "Buy Now" or "Start Watching." If you click "start watching," you're immediately taken into the course; no signup or credit card is required. You can watch the first two modules (Introduction,...
4 months ago • 2 min read
In 1999 I met pro skater Chad Muska at Slam City Jam in Vancouver. At the time, he was at the top of the skateboarding world. His pro model was selling 10,000 units a month, and he was one of the first playable characters in Tony Hawk's Pro Skater game. But then, all the money and fame ran out. "Right around the beginning of the pandemic," Chad says, "everything ended in skateboarding for me as far as finances go. My last check came in, and it was done." What's interesting to me, as a...
4 months ago • 3 min read
A lot of people don't know this about me, but in the early 2000s, I owned a snowboard shop in Alberta called the Real Deal. It almost bankrupted me. I just published a video where I tell the whole story: It describes how I emerged from that failure and was (eventually) able to bootstrap a successful SaaS company. It took a few steps to get there! If you're on your own indie SaaS journey and want a sense of what my path looked like, I think you'll dig it this video. (It also has a bunch of my...
5 months ago • 1 min read
The problem with marketing metrics is that most of them are meaningless: How much traffic did we get last month? How many TikTok views? How many clicks did we get from our FB ads? How many YouTube views? What was our email's open rate? Founders spend thousands of dollars on marketing activities that produce clicks, traffic, views, and opens – 99% of which don't matter. In marketing, the only question that matters is, "Which of our efforts are bringing in revenue?" Matt Paulson, founder of...
6 months ago • 2 min read
First, thanks to everyone for the incredible response to my Calm Companies essay. It's my most shared essay of the year, and I saw it appear in multiple email newsletters and briefly on the Hacker News homepage! This week I want to try to distill some advice I've been giving to aspirational founders. View this newsletter online Iterating towards success My friend Nathan Barry is one of the youngest successful entrepreneurs I know: he founded ConvertKit, which now has $40 million in annual...
6 months ago • 3 min read
It's been hard to watch the recent layoffs in the tech industry. Seeing so many good people being let go has been heartbreaking. Getting laid off doesn’t just rattle your career; it shakes the very foundation of your life. I've seen friends lose their jobs and go into an existential tailspin. It's not uncommon for them to blame themselves and to feel immense guilt and shame. The experience is especially hard on parents whose families depend on them for income. You can read this newsletter on...
6 months ago • 4 min read