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.
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.
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
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
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
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
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
Today on the show Josh and Nate talk about conferences and reasons why a startup founder may or may not choose to attend. They dive into customer discovery, early marketing approaches, and language market fit.
Links:
Marketing Against the Grain: https://open.spotify.com/episode/5AVbuUGM7MftTFVAf86RTT
Market / Language Fit: https://review.firstround.com/finding-language-market-fit-how-to-make-customers-feel-like-youve-read-their-minds/
ChatGPT Customer Interviews: https://www.systm.co/post/can-chatgpt-replace-customer-interviews
AI Customer Exploration: https://www.app.supercopy.ai/
This is episode 117
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:
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”.
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)
