Rob Walling

It is so easy and tantalizing and it's like a big bowl of ice cream to work on certainty because it makes me feel good. It makes me feel like I'm getting stuff. It is entrepreneurial procrastination, unfortunately. If you have any type of money to hire someone, go for the areas of certainty.

It is so easy and tantalizing and it's like a big bowl of ice cream to work on certainty because it makes me feel good. It makes me feel like I'm getting stuff. It is entrepreneurial procrastination, unfortunately. If you have any type of money to hire someone, go for the areas of certainty.

Hiring senior developers can really move the needle in your business. But if you bring on the wrong person, you can quickly burn through your runway. If you need help finding a vetted, senior, results-oriented developer, you should reach out to today's sponsor, Lemon.io. For years, they've been helping our audience find high-quality global talent at competitive rates, and they can help you too.

Hiring senior developers can really move the needle in your business. But if you bring on the wrong person, you can quickly burn through your runway. If you need help finding a vetted, senior, results-oriented developer, you should reach out to today's sponsor, Lemon.io. For years, they've been helping our audience find high-quality global talent at competitive rates, and they can help you too.

Don't just take my word for it. Listener Dylan Pierce had this to say about working with Lemon.io. The machine learning engineer they helped me hire was very professional and even learned a new tech stack to set up an environment to train and deploy machine learning models. He documented his work clearly so I could train it in the future with additional data. I'm super happy with the results.

Don't just take my word for it. Listener Dylan Pierce had this to say about working with Lemon.io. The machine learning engineer they helped me hire was very professional and even learned a new tech stack to set up an environment to train and deploy machine learning models. He documented his work clearly so I could train it in the future with additional data. I'm super happy with the results.

And longtime listener Chaz Yoon hired a senior developer from Lemon.io and said his hire, quote, definitely knew his stuff, provided appropriate feedback and pushback, and had great communication, including very fluent English. He really exceeded my expectations. Chas said he'd definitely use Lemon.io again when he's looking for a senior-level engineer.

And longtime listener Chaz Yoon hired a senior developer from Lemon.io and said his hire, quote, definitely knew his stuff, provided appropriate feedback and pushback, and had great communication, including very fluent English. He really exceeded my expectations. Chas said he'd definitely use Lemon.io again when he's looking for a senior-level engineer.

To learn more and get a 15% discount on your first four weeks of working with a developer, head to Lemon.io slash startups. That's Lemon.io slash startups. And Ali's last question is, would you recommend several people across several marketing channels or finding a generalist? The answer is it depends. It depends on budget, really. I mean, it depends on the stage. But here's the biggest thing.

To learn more and get a 15% discount on your first four weeks of working with a developer, head to Lemon.io slash startups. That's Lemon.io slash startups. And Ali's last question is, would you recommend several people across several marketing channels or finding a generalist? The answer is it depends. It depends on budget, really. I mean, it depends on the stage. But here's the biggest thing.

There's kind of three ways to structure a marketing department in SaaS. It's the infinity budget plan, which is I have infinity dollars that I've raised from budget. They just keep depositing this in my bank account, Derek. It's great. I would hire a high-level marketing strategist slash project manager, and then I would hire five individual contributors.

There's kind of three ways to structure a marketing department in SaaS. It's the infinity budget plan, which is I have infinity dollars that I've raised from budget. They just keep depositing this in my bank account, Derek. It's great. I would hire a high-level marketing strategist slash project manager, and then I would hire five individual contributors.

They could be freelance or contracted, or they could be W2, it doesn't matter. But one is just an expert copywriter, and one is an expert AdWords, and one is an expert Facebook, and one is an expert, you know, you get the idea. It's like each marketing channel. That just costs a shit. load of money. And so almost none of us can do it.

They could be freelance or contracted, or they could be W2, it doesn't matter. But one is just an expert copywriter, and one is an expert AdWords, and one is an expert Facebook, and one is an expert, you know, you get the idea. It's like each marketing channel. That just costs a shit. load of money. And so almost none of us can do it.

So when I look at the tiny seed companies that are doing seven figures in ARR, I have this list that I keep this quite a few of them, every single one of them without exception, the founder has figured out enough about marketing or sales or lead gen, you know, driving new customers. They have not outsourced that from the start.

So when I look at the tiny seed companies that are doing seven figures in ARR, I have this list that I keep this quite a few of them, every single one of them without exception, the founder has figured out enough about marketing or sales or lead gen, you know, driving new customers. They have not outsourced that from the start.

Now some of them, at a certain point, get to 500, a million a year, two million. They do, they hire ahead of growth, but they already know the engines. The engines are already in place. I don't know anyone, maybe there's an exception here or there, so we can bring up, who has just hired that out of a, cool, go find out how to find more customers. It's much like doing sales demos.

Now some of them, at a certain point, get to 500, a million a year, two million. They do, they hire ahead of growth, but they already know the engines. The engines are already in place. I don't know anyone, maybe there's an exception here or there, so we can bring up, who has just hired that out of a, cool, go find out how to find more customers. It's much like doing sales demos.

The founder, you just have to do it if you're going to do it in the early days. So usually the model is, one of the founders says, I'm going to learn marketing or lead gen. Because the reason I differentiate is marketing I tend to think of as inbound and then outbound is not marketing, that's outbound. So I'm kind of lead gen, I'm combining those two into that term lead gen.

The founder, you just have to do it if you're going to do it in the early days. So usually the model is, one of the founders says, I'm going to learn marketing or lead gen. Because the reason I differentiate is marketing I tend to think of as inbound and then outbound is not marketing, that's outbound. So I'm kind of lead gen, I'm combining those two into that term lead gen.