A fresh perspective on the stages of building a SaaS business

About the Searching For SaaS Podcast

A fresh perspective on the stages of building a software as a service (SaaS) business.

In this podcast we hear from Josh Ho and Nate Bosscher, two founders in very different stages of their SaaS journey.

Josh is in the company building phase. While Nate struggles to start a profitable SaaS of his own.

Follow their journey as Josh helps Nate find his footing and they meander the world of SaaS.

Meet the hosts

Nate Bosscher

Nate is a software engineer and entrepreneur. When he isn’t consulting at Blue Giraffe, he’s working on his next startup idea.

He’s had a lot of failed attempts but each attempt is closer and closer to success.

Josh Ho

Josh is the founder of Referral Rock a SaaS business in the marketing technology space.

He’s an engineer by trade but now spends his time wherever the business needs him most.

He sometimes blogs at mojoho, but aspires to write more. You can also find him on LinkedIn but mostly Twitter.

Recent episodes with our SaaS founders

Lighting Bolts, Anti-sales Calls, and Removing Steps

Searching For SaaS
Searching For SaaS
Lighting Bolts, Anti-sales Calls, and Removing Steps
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Today on the show, we talk about finding killer features in customer interviews and avoiding sales triggers with customers. Finally, we dig into the age old adage that successful solutions remove steps for the customer.

Links: My First Million – AI App – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6NZ8-WQGb-g
James Clear Article – https://jamesclear.com/great-speeches/a-journey-on-the-information-highway-by-evan-williams

This is episode 123

Show Notes »

What is a growth team? and Nate’s Frustration with Cold Outreach

Searching For SaaS
Searching For SaaS
What is a growth team? and Nate’s Frustration with Cold Outreach
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Today on the show, we talk about the place of growth teams as Josh talks about his business. Nate’s frustrated with cold outreach and Josh gives some tips to improve the odds.

This is episode 122

Show Notes »

8 Concepts to Improve Odds of SaaS Success

Searching For SaaS
Searching For SaaS
8 Concepts to Improve Odds of SaaS Success
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Today on the show Nate & Josh pull together some credible ideas on how to improve our odds of success building a SaaS. In a world of conflicting advice, we’re looking for repeatable, credible advice from people who have actually been successful in the trenches.

Links:
– My First Million: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qkcFcwb6mk0&list=PLWloxQyF_2n4aCanY4Y45HLTY2zoeZF8U&index=9
– Jason Cohen: https://longform.asmartbear.com/startup-drake-equation/
– Lenny Podcast: https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/podcast

This is episode 121

Show Notes »

Studying competition isn’t the answer

Searching For SaaS
Searching For SaaS
Studying competition isn't the answer
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Today on the show Nate’s found a market, but feels like the competition is too good. Josh doesn’t think so and points out some ways to uncover opportunities.

Links:
https://userlist.com/podcast/bullseye-customer-research-with-michael-margolis/
https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/finding-your-bullseye-customer-michael-margolis
https://www.systm.co/post/how-to-write-the-perfect-headline-for-your-landing-page

Show Notes »

Narrowing the Search by Flipping the Focus

Searching For SaaS
Searching For SaaS
Narrowing the Search by Flipping the Focus
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Today on the show Josh and Nate talk about narrowing the search for a new SaaS. They recap Josh’s bootstrap business idea search framework and discuss a new focus to help narrow the search field.

Links:
– https://x.com/hnshah/status/1875997046219645270?t=6EfbrvsoqwuaBeIk41E9cQ&s=19

This is episode 119

Show Notes »

Nate’s Got Big News!

Searching For SaaS
Searching For SaaS
Nate's Got Big News!
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Today on the show, we discuss some big changes for Nate and Josh weighs with his method for validating early stage bootstrapped business ideas.

This is episode 118

Show Notes »

Why we started our SaaS podcast

Starting a SaaS business isn’t easy, but it’s definitely more fun with a friend to help you along the way. Since they launched this podcast in early 2021, the most downloaded episode is Episode 4 – Why, why why? Why start this podcast, Why SaaS, Why not other types of businesses?.

Josh and Nate are avid podcast listeners who listen and learn from the best SaaS podcasts and SaaS entrepreneurs such as:

  • The Official Saastr Podcast by Jason Lemkin
  • SaaS Breakthrough
  • Nathan Latka
  • Dan Martell
  • The Saas Revolution Show by Alex Theuma of SaaStock
  • Saas Startup podcast
  • The Saas Podcast by Omer Khan of SaaS Club
  • Startup Chat by Hiten Shah and Steli Efti
 

But they truly drew inspiration from the the Software Social Podcast where their friends Colleen and Michele have created a fantastic dynamic between two SaaS founders at different stages of their business. 

Legend has it that Josh say’s this exact quote to Nate: “What do you think about starting a podcast? I’ll be Michele, you can be Colleen”.

What types of SaaS business topics are covered?

So far they’ve learned a lot about how they each approach ideation, market validation, and the mentality of building assets. They plan on covering more SaaS topics in the future like MRR, ARR, churn, onboarding, customer success, bootstrapping, co-founders, SaaS product, B2B SaaS, growth hacking, entrepreneurship, SaaS marketing, case studies, content marketing, SEO, growth strategies, being a serial entrepreneur, and marketing strategies.  All with both actionable advice and actionable insights.

While both Nate and Josh are bootstrapped, this startup chat style podcast is not exclusively about bootstrapping.

Both Nate and Josh agree that the process of sharing our journey’s as in public as SaaS founders has been both rewarding and fun. Nate approaches this whole process with a beginner’s mindset, yet he’s far from a beginner. While Josh tries to stay open-minded and is careful not to give blanket advice.

Join the guys each week for new episodes wherever you listen to podcasts. (and yes there maybe some SaaS but mostly just josh-splaining)