Messages
1/11/2025
9 : 24
My 2024 year in review
Howdy! Happy New Year! Today, I'm finally sending you my annual review. (A little later than I'd hoped!) For over a decade now (eleven years!), I've been writing these annual reviews.
12/19/2024
7 : 14
What's happening with founders over 40?
Hey, I recently listened to three podcast episodes, all with bootstrapped founders over the age of 40: Paul Jarvis has retired from Fathom Analytics Matt Wensing steps down from Summit, takes job
12/19/2024
6 : 14
Follow-up: is 40+ too old?
Hey, I didn't expect the last newsletter to generate so much debate! It ended up getting posted to Hacker News. Aaron and Ian talked about it on Mostly Technical, and many other folks responded
11/28/2024
0 : 54
Where are these signups coming from?
Howdy, Every day in Transistor's #marketing channel in Slack, we track our new trial signups: Like most SaaS companies, our growth relies on new people finding us every day. Whenever I see
11/23/2024
8 : 14
I'm blue
Hey, tl;dr – I've decided to delete all my Twitter posts, lock down my account, and leave the platform. And I'm going all-in on Bluesky, which (in the last month) has become 1000x more fun
10/30/2024
7 : 24
Today's the day
Hey friends, Remember that summer project that Ferdinand and I have been working on? Today's the day we officially launch it on Product Hunt. Please help us out! Your votes and comments are
10/20/2024
5 : 20
Your brain is tired too?
Hey friends, I'm back from Guatemala. It was a great trip: beautiful country and lovely people. (I posted some photos here) ------------- So many tired brains 🧠 I was surprised by the number of
9/30/2024
20 : 4
Thinking about my brain
Hey friends, I'm headed out on (another!) trip, this time for a wedding. Before I leave, I wanted to send you three things. ------------- Draft: I'm 44, and my brain is getting worse 🧠🔥 I
9/21/2024
13 : 14
The "pipeline" problem
Hey friends, 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.
9/7/2024
22 : 4
Broken engine?
Hey friends, 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
8/20/2024
2 : 24
Headed to the USA
Hey friends, 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
6/29/2024
8 : 14
Investment loops in SaaS
Hey, it's Justin. 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
6/5/2024
19 : 54
This pro skater dated Paris Hilton, went broke... Now he's a bootstrapper
Hey, it's Justin. 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 10000 units a month, and
5/4/2024
8 : 14
Almost went bankrupt
Well... 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
4/27/2024
6 : 14
Where is the money coming from?
The truth is... 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
4/13/2024
8 : 24
Nathan had to jump through these hoops
Man... 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
4/6/2024
8 : 44
We need more calm companies
Man... 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
3/2/2024
8 : 14
Product Hunt – worth it?
Remember when... Launching your product on Product Hunt (in the old days) could get you hundreds (or thousands) of new users. In his recent post, Tibo reflected: "When we launched Tweet Hunter
2/19/2024
1 : 44
Do this first, 100x
Howdy! It's time for another SaaS marketing tip. When you're about to launch something new, your first step shouldn't be buying ads, optimizing for SEO, or posting on social media. One of
2/10/2024
21 : 44
Is once enough?
Howdy! Eight years ago, I wrote a piece asking: are we at peak SaaS? My thesis was that people were tired of paying subscriptions for software and that the SaaS market was ripe for disruption.* Late