Rob Walling

Facebook, do you remember, I think it was Zynga, right, that was doing tens of millions of dollars on the Facebook app marketplace, and Facebook just pulled the rug out from under them because they don't give a shit. about their developers. I mean, they've been pretty obvious about that. They care about Facebook and no one else. And so there are other aggressive platforms.

Facebook, do you remember, I think it was Zynga, right, that was doing tens of millions of dollars on the Facebook app marketplace, and Facebook just pulled the rug out from under them because they don't give a shit. about their developers. I mean, they've been pretty obvious about that. They care about Facebook and no one else. And so there are other aggressive platforms.

Again, I do not have an exhaustive list because I just don't have experience with all of the 80 platforms that we've listed at that microconf link I said earlier. And so this is where there's just an existential risk.

Again, I do not have an exhaustive list because I just don't have experience with all of the 80 platforms that we've listed at that microconf link I said earlier. And so this is where there's just an existential risk.

If you have a Shopify app that's doing millions of dollars a year and they come a-knocking, you're getting all your leads from them, your customers are concentrated on their platform, and there just literally is no replacement. There's nowhere to switch. Again, we can say, oh, you can go to BigCommerce, WooCommerce, and these other things, but it's not the same.

If you have a Shopify app that's doing millions of dollars a year and they come a-knocking, you're getting all your leads from them, your customers are concentrated on their platform, and there just literally is no replacement. There's nowhere to switch. Again, we can say, oh, you can go to BigCommerce, WooCommerce, and these other things, but it's not the same.

That's starting a brand new business. And that risk that we've seen play out many times, and that's why these... app marketplaces are number eight in my list of eight levels of platform risk. Hope you enjoyed this episode. I think the list is directionally correct and I could see either there being another one added.

That's starting a brand new business. And that risk that we've seen play out many times, and that's why these... app marketplaces are number eight in my list of eight levels of platform risk. Hope you enjoyed this episode. I think the list is directionally correct and I could see either there being another one added.

You know, if someone were to email in questions at startupsfortherestofus.com or you hit me up on ex-Twitter at Rob Walling, I think there might be another one that I've maybe not thinking about or I could see them gently reordering, because there is a little bit of an it depends, right?

You know, if someone were to email in questions at startupsfortherestofus.com or you hit me up on ex-Twitter at Rob Walling, I think there might be another one that I've maybe not thinking about or I could see them gently reordering, because there is a little bit of an it depends, right?

I said it's like if you're built completely under WordPress and completely in it, it depends on is your switching cost low, medium, or high to rebuild it somewhere else. Like that could move that one up or down by one, but it's not going to move it to three slots, right? It's not going to suddenly become as bad as having a Shopify app where they are just known to be really aggressive with it.

I said it's like if you're built completely under WordPress and completely in it, it depends on is your switching cost low, medium, or high to rebuild it somewhere else. Like that could move that one up or down by one, but it's not going to move it to three slots, right? It's not going to suddenly become as bad as having a Shopify app where they are just known to be really aggressive with it.

So that's what I mean when I say, I think the factors are in line and I think the list is pretty tight. And again, directional correctness, such that next time someone on ex-Twitter says, everyone has platform risk, you can chime in with, well, there's different levels of it. And here are eight of them in this podcast episode. They'll obviously be listed out in the show notes.

So that's what I mean when I say, I think the factors are in line and I think the list is pretty tight. And again, directional correctness, such that next time someone on ex-Twitter says, everyone has platform risk, you can chime in with, well, there's different levels of it. And here are eight of them in this podcast episode. They'll obviously be listed out in the show notes.

And I'm certainly going to be referring back to this in the future, probably included in a book or course at some point, because I do think it's helpful for us all to have a paradigm and a framework around it. So thanks so much for listening this week and every week. It's great to have you here. This is Rob Walling signing off from episode 735.

And I'm certainly going to be referring back to this in the future, probably included in a book or course at some point, because I do think it's helpful for us all to have a paradigm and a framework around it. So thanks so much for listening this week and every week. It's great to have you here. This is Rob Walling signing off from episode 735.

Welcome to this episode of Startups for the Rest of Us. I'm Rob Walling, and this week I talk with Ian Landsman, the founder of HelpSpot. Ian has been bootstrapping for almost 20 years, and he started with on-prem software, and then after about 10 years, launched a SaaS version.

Welcome to this episode of Startups for the Rest of Us. I'm Rob Walling, and this week I talk with Ian Landsman, the founder of HelpSpot. Ian has been bootstrapping for almost 20 years, and he started with on-prem software, and then after about 10 years, launched a SaaS version.

Ian and I have known each other almost that same 20 years from back in the days of Joel on Software's Business of Software forums. And over the years, Ian has started a few of his own podcasts as well as spoken at MicroConf. I believe, I would guess it was probably around 2014 or 15. So it's a great conversation because Ian and I have history.

Ian and I have known each other almost that same 20 years from back in the days of Joel on Software's Business of Software forums. And over the years, Ian has started a few of his own podcasts as well as spoken at MicroConf. I believe, I would guess it was probably around 2014 or 15. So it's a great conversation because Ian and I have history.