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​Podcast, YouTube, Blog​

Dear founder,

Founders often listen to the wrong signals when validating their businesses. Let's dive into common validation traps today.
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I see three major traps indie hackers have to face:

1) confusing users with customers,

2) getting a bit too much support from our founder peers, and

3) listening to the wrong segments of our user base.​
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Why do we listen to the wrong people?

Founder optimism! We have a built-in confirmation bias — otherwise, we'd never do something as stupid as building our own business...

Here's why we fall prey to it, how it works, and how we can escape the trap.​
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I share a few updates about my SaaS on the pod, and I'd love to know if you think I should stick with freemium or go paid-only! Please leave a voice message at https://podline.fm/arvid 🥰

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This episode is sponsored by Chargeflow Alerts:

Over the past year, I have seen hundreds of indie hackers dealing with payout holds, chargeback fees, and the worst — payment processor suspensions, all due to fraudulent activity in their Stripe accounts. I remember Pieter Levels yelling about it loudly on Twitter because it can so easily destroy a business.

What’s the best way to prevent this?

Two words: Chargeflow Alerts.

The way it works is simple - Chargeflow gets notified before chargebacks occur (disputed transaction), and takes corrective actions before the dispute evolves into a full-blown chargeback.

It doesn’t matter if you’re just getting started with your project - it takes only a 0.65% dispute rate for Stripe to move your account to a Visa Monitoring Program. If you receive 1 chargeback out of 100, you are already at 1%, so it's better to be safe than have your account suspended.

Don’t sleep on this. Install Chargeflow Alerts and pay only when they actively prevent a chargeback on your behalf.

​Install Chargeflow Alerts in your business today for 50% off (offer valid until Dec 31)​

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Curiosities

Apple is at it again: DHH, founder of 37signals, reports another App Store release of the Hey app halted and refused. This time, the team around the wonderful Hey app —which I use every day— has released a Calendar feature, which prompted Apple to, for some unknown reason, reject the new App version that contains it.

Talk about platform risk. They had issues with Apple when Hey was first launched, because Apple wanted their App store cut a bit too greedily.​

Now, with no new paid features in sight, it's happening again. Remember that even the bigger businesses run into this issue when building on someone's platform.

Here are a few more thoughts on this issue from a podcast episode I recorded with Tyler Tringas of Calm Company Fund.​

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Classifieds

​Uncover Your Entrepreneur DNA Profile. See how you stack up against 175,000+ entrepreneurs worldwide, and get insights on your unique innovation strengths and weaknesses, AND get tips on how to maximize your strengths.

Take the assessment for free (and get 50% off on the action plan) using my special link.

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Thank you for reading this week’s essay edition of The Bootstrapped Founder. Did you enjoy it? If so, please spread the word and ​share this issue on Twitter.​

If you want to reach tens of thousands of creators, makers, and dreamers, you can ​apply to sponsor ​an episode of this newsletter.

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