Build Your SaaS
Episodes
An update from Justin and Jon
13 Sep 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Justin and Jon reconnect after a two-year podcasting hiatus. What's happened since their last episode? Lots! They talk about big changes in their pers...
"Justin, I built a SaaS!"
24 Jun 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Harris Kenny was a long-time listener of the podcast, and dreamed about building his own software product. After multiple attempts, over 5 years, he f...
Giuuunta! Motivating yourself when you're not in startup mode
09 Dec 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Bootstrapping a business is like getting a plane to lift off the ground. But what do you do once the plane is in the air?Dave Giunta and Justin Jackso...
Adam Wathan: how small startups hire employees (Tailwind CSS)
04 Jun 2024
Contributed by Lukas
How do founders of small bootstrapped companies hire new employees? Adam Wathan got over 1600 people who applied for two new roles at Tailwind Labs (a...
Is ONCE enough?
10 Feb 2024
Contributed by Lukas
A panel discussion on 37signals' first ONCE product, the launch of Campfire ("pay for it once, install it, and run it on your own server"). Ian Landsm...
How Ben and David bootstrapped the Acquired podcast
25 Jan 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Fast Company called Acquired "the #1 tech podcast sensation." I've been a huge fan of the show for years. So, I was surprised when they contacted me a...
Nashville team retreat: scary birds, country music, and a photo shoot
26 Sep 2023
Contributed by Lukas
The whole team is on the show! Jon, Helen, Jason, Josh, and Justin are on the mics to discuss our recent team retreat to Nashville, Tennessee. If you'...
Paul Jarvis: gaining freedom by building an indie business
01 Aug 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Justin catches up with his old internet friend Paul Jarvis. Today, Paul co-founded Fathom Analytics with Jack Ellis: a simple alternative to Google An...
How Tim worked on side-projects for 10+ years, and finally went full-time (with kids)
20 Jun 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Tim reached out after the Aaron Francis episode: "I wanted to pitch you on the idea of coming on the podcast and sharing my journey of building side p...
Startup coaching: helping founders and team members realize their full potential
07 Jun 2023
Contributed by Lukas
This week Jon and Justin are joined by Marcella Chamorro. Previously, she worked in startup marketing but has recently transitioned to coaching founde...
Michele Hansen update: Section 174 and bootstrapping with kids
16 May 2023
Contributed by Lukas
In this podcast episode, Michele Hansen (Geocodio) gives us an update on Section 174 and provides her take on "bootstrapping with kids."Michele explai...
Should a parent with young kids try to bootstrap a new startup?
09 May 2023
Contributed by Lukas
In this episode, Justin speaks with Aaron Francis about being a new parent and trying to bootstrap a startup. Aaron argued the other side of Justin's ...
Why we hired someone new
20 Apr 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Jon and Justin welcome Joshua Anderton to the Transistor team! Josh is an amazingly talented full-stack web developer (Laravel, Rails, Tailwind CSS, A...
Act now before it's too late: Section 174
28 Mar 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Michele Hansen (co-founder of Geocodio) is raising the alarm about Section 174. This legislation could dramatically increase your tax bill this year i...
This would kill our company immediately
21 Mar 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Jon's back from his first real vacation in years. In this episode, we discuss how we've been removing inactive accounts on Transistor, SVB, Section 17...
One pepperoni pizza please
01 Mar 2023
Contributed by Lukas
"I don't get it: if that money is for the government, how come the pizza place put it in their cash register?!?"(Jon is on vacation - our next real ep...
Super Fun SaaS Sales Tax (Part Deux)
21 Feb 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Last week's episode hit a nerve! "The idea that every small software company in the world will be able to be in perfect compliance will every foreign ...
Nobody wants to talk about this (SaaS sales tax)
10 Feb 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Sales tax compliance: nobody in SaaS wants to talk about it. Jon and Justin tried to do something about it and it turned into a nightmare. According t...
The gang goes to Montréal
18 Oct 2022
Contributed by Lukas
The whole Transistor team got together for a retreat in Montréal. Jon, Justin, Helen, and Jason chat about the experience. What should we talk about...
Jon & Justin reveal everything (part 2)
16 Aug 2022
Contributed by Lukas
It's the fourth anniversary of Transistor's public launch! This is part 2 of "Jon and Justin answer your questions."(00:37) - When did you start payin...
Jon & Justin reveal everything (part 1)
10 Aug 2022
Contributed by Lukas
It's the fourth anniversary of Transistor's public launch! In this two-part series, Jon and Justin answer your questions.01:22 - Our history14:51 - Wh...
Bootstrapping in France (Baptiste Jamin from Crisp)
12 Jul 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Baptiste Jamin co-founded Crisp with a friend he met in high school. Highlights (go straight to 🔥 for the best stuff):1:42 – Crisp competes with ...
What's it like getting acquired by Spotify? (Dave Zohrob from Chartable)
14 Jun 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Dave Zohrob is the co-founder of Chartable (a podcast analytics startup), talks about selling his company to Spotify in February 2022. Highlights (go ...
Patrick Campbell: why ProfitWell sold to Paddle for $200M
31 May 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Patrick Campbell just sold his startup, ProfitWell, to Paddle for $200 million.Highlights (go straight to 🔥 for the best stuff):0:00 – "My proble...
Going from $0 to $2 million in ARR in 7 years (the Missive story)
26 Apr 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Philippe Lehoux and his two co-founders started working on Missive around 2015, and just passed $2 million in annual recurring revenue.0:00 – Gettin...
Taylor Otwell: the business of Laravel in 2022
05 Apr 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Taylor Otwell, is the founder of Laravel, a programming framework for PHP. But he's also one of the most successful indie SaaS operators I know. In th...
Why Customer Support = Startup Success
22 Mar 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Helen and Justin talk about the importance of customer support for indie SaaS companies.1:08 The hardest part about podcasting is doing it every week1...
What's it really like to work at Transistor?
15 Mar 2022
Contributed by Lukas
We got the whole band together: Helen and Jason join Jon and Justin to talk about what it's really like to work at TransistorHelen, Jason, Jon, Justin...
Founders' retreat
18 Jan 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Jon and Justin recorded this episode sitting on the same couch!Photo of the Coeur de BoeufThe last time we were together in person: April 30, 2019 [Ph...
Reflecting on 2021
24 Dec 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Jon and Justin reflect on 2021 and get excited about 2022:Rework podcast episode: the word "startup"Should we rename the show "Maintain your SaaS"? ;)...
Brian Casel, of Bootstrapped Web, chats about his new app
07 Dec 2021
Contributed by Lukas
In this guest episode, Justin chats with Brian Casel.Bootstrapped Web podcastZipMessageBrian's other projectsWhat should we talk about next?Twitter: @...
What does my daughter think of the podcast industry?
26 Nov 2021
Contributed by Lukas
In this bonus episode, Justin interviews his 18-year-old daughter, Sadie, about:A Gen Z perspective on podcastingWhy women are the future of podcastin...
A few questions
12 Oct 2021
Contributed by Lukas
This week Jon and Justin discussed:Tweet: what should we talk about?Justin's daughter wrote an article for the Transistor blog: https://transistor.fm/...
Why should we care about our customers' feelings?
07 Sep 2021
Contributed by Lukas
This week Justin chats with Michele Hansen, founder of Geocodio. I got fired up about interviewing customers! Get Michele's new book! Deploy EmpathyL...
This is a big step for us
17 Aug 2021
Contributed by Lukas
This week Jon and Justin discussed:Our values determine how we make decisionsHiring FT: we hired Jason Pearl!Summer SaaS slowdownTweet: worst month ev...
Is venture capital bad?
03 Aug 2021
Contributed by Lukas
This week Spencer Fry, founder of Podia.com, joins Justin Jackson to talk about venture capital and bootstrapping.Spencer's tweet: "The hostility that...
Basecamp | Hiring | How to have a calm company
04 May 2021
Contributed by Lukas
This week Jon and Justin discussed:BasecampNote: we recorded this before Casey Newton's second article on Basecamp came out.Also: this article is a re...
A good business will change your life (for real)
06 Apr 2021
Contributed by Lukas
This we, we chatted about:Evil Crypto TeletubbiesVoltswagonFathom has acquired GoogleJon is trying out a new private office, in a coworking space (Des...
We're doing this and it's weird
26 Jan 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Real humans making a business together:Taking the leapWhy is Justin jealous of Ben?Pros and cons of building a remote company in 2021Limited exposure ...
Podcast companies losing money?
19 Jan 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Jon's back! He and Justin share their feelings/thoughts about the new year:Closing the door on the pastExciting revenue milestonePodcast companies los...
Jason Fried – you can't control the market
29 Dec 2020
Contributed by Lukas
This week, Justin and Jason discuss the dynamics of market demand.Justin's original tweetJason's responseWhat should we talk about next?Twitter: @buil...
What happened after Simon went full time on his SaaS?
15 Dec 2020
Contributed by Lukas
This week, Justin catches up with Simon Bennett of Snapshooter:Every once in a while, we highlight one of our listeners who are building their own Saa...
Landsman on software
17 Nov 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Justin is joined by everybody's favorite Twitter Uncle: Ian Landsman (founder of HelpSpot).Ian's encounter with his internet hero Joel SpolskyDo you g...
How fragile is the prosumer SaaS market?
10 Nov 2020
Contributed by Lukas
We're back! Justin's voice sounds terrible (sorry!)When is the next wave of economic despair going to happen?The maker/creator market is on 🔥 righ...
What it takes to launch a SaaS
22 Sep 2020
Contributed by Lukas
We have a bonus episode for you this week!Justin was on the Framework podcast.Check out the other Spec.fm showsSubscribe to Framework in OvercastWant ...
THE FEAR
15 Sep 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Jon and Justin talk about "optionality" in bootstrapping. (Justin is concerned, Jon thinks we should just enjoy the moment).DHH: "Part of what gave us...
Do you really need to build an audience?
08 Sep 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Late-summer update! This week on the program, we bring you a super spicy interview that Justin did on the TechZing podcast.Do you really need to build...
Break out
04 Aug 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Mid-summer update! This week on the program, Justin and Jon talk about:If you're bootstrapping SaaS, how many monthly trials do you need?Tweet: "You p...
Talking about an acquisition
30 Jun 2020
Contributed by Lukas
This week on the program, Justin and Jon talk about:Updates on Transistor: new API is almost done, static site generator, growth slowed in June?Questi...
It's just too much
16 Jun 2020
Contributed by Lukas
This week on the program, Justin and Jon talk about:A friend, whose SaaS has grown 300% since the beginning of the quarantine. They just hit $6k in MR...
Waking up
09 Jun 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Structural racism affects every part of the economic system. It affects bootstrappers too! It defines:Who we hireWho we invest inWho we promoteWho we ...
Why there's no episode today
26 May 2020
Contributed by Lukas
👋 Justin here. This episode is to let you know why there's no episode today. (I've had a few DMs from folks that were worried!)We're good; we had s...
Building software for 2030
19 May 2020
Contributed by Lukas
This week on the program, Justin and Jon talk about:The new Transistor UI, and how folks are responding to it."Damn the torpedoes!" – seeing if our ...
Simon is going full-time
13 May 2020
Contributed by Lukas
This week on the program:As requested, we're going to start highlighting our listeners who are building their own SaaS.This week: Simon Bennett, a lon...
They stole our idea!
05 May 2020
Contributed by Lukas
What do you do when a competitor steals your idea? (plus: Justin and Jon have the giggles).People in tech get bent out of shape about who owns certain...
Starting over again on our SaaS
28 Apr 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Justin and Justin talk about where they're at.Podcasts like the Project Journey show, are at the beginning of their journey.Marie Poulin is a good exa...
What should we build next?
21 Apr 2020
Contributed by Lukas
This week on the show:Jon baked bread. Got some sunshine. Avoiding social media, the other diseaseJustin WAS ON SOCIAL MEDIA. Read this Andreesen pos...
How coronavirus is impacting revenue
14 Apr 2020
Contributed by Lukas
This week, Justin called up Josh Pigford, founder of Baremetrics:Baremetrics does analytics for SaaS companiesI called him up just to get a sense of h...
Giuuuuuuuunta
07 Apr 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Today, we are joined by a very special guest: Dave Giunta! What does Daft Punk look like without their helmets? HomeChef How has demand for meal ki...
Pants-driven development
31 Mar 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Jon and Justin, still making sense of life (and business) in a pandemic:Jon put on pants today.Justin is mad at Amazon.You can reply to this podcast h...
How are founders handling the pandemic?
24 Mar 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Jon and Justin are hunkered down, and reeling from COVID-19:This is moving fast, so this podcast might already be out-of-date.Difference between the r...
Marie Poulin: Maybe you shouldn't start a software company
17 Mar 2020
Contributed by Lukas
This week, Justin is joined by Marie Poulin, co-founder of Oki Doki. They discuss:Chatting with Marie Poulin, Oki Doki3:40 – "I used to be in the 'R...
All that he wants
10 Mar 2020
Contributed by Lukas
This week, Jon and Justin celebrate 100 episodes:Jon was on the Cody Story podcast awhile back.Justin, on the other hand, loves writing testimonials:J...
Should you start a startup with your spouse?
03 Mar 2020
Contributed by Lukas
This week, Justin is joined by Michele Hansen (co-founder of Geocodio). We explore a bunch of questions:What it's like to bootstrap with your spouse6:...
What's driving you now?
25 Feb 2020
Contributed by Lukas
This week, Justin is joined by Ward Sandler from MemberSpace (launched in 2015). We explore a bunch of questions:How do you find a cofounder?Ward expl...
Clearing the air
18 Feb 2020
Contributed by Lukas
This week, Jon and Justin discuss:Justin's office is under construction 🛠️.How to talk about things that are hard.A review exercise from the book...
Anxiety about what might happen with the business
11 Feb 2020
Contributed by Lukas
This week, Jon and Justin discuss:What makes a good podcast for product people?New American Dream: building, owning, selling a SaaS (Tyler Tringas)Wha...
A cloudy feeling of dread
04 Feb 2020
Contributed by Lukas
This week, Jon and Justin discuss:Repeating calendar item: "Jan 5th, GTFO."How are you doing with the winter blue?The Transistor Volkswagen bus, surfb...
Who gets paid, and who doesn't?
28 Jan 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Jon is back! This week, we discuss:This book, The Timeless Way of Building, that Justin is reading.When you work for yourself, there can be sense of n...
What's your sustainable competitive advantage?
21 Jan 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Justin is interviewed by Nathan Baschez to talk about business strategy:"Every strategy is really just a theory: “We bet if we do x, then y will hap...
The challenges of being in (the wrong) business
14 Jan 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Justin is joined by podcast producer Chris Enns to talk about:How do you get Alexis Ohanian (cofounder of Reddit, married to Serena Williams) as a cli...
What happens tomorrow?
31 Dec 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Justin does a solo New Year's Eve episode where he shares:Then (Jan 1, 2019) vs now (Jan 1, 2020)Justin's tweet: "Going all-in on Transistor in 2019!"...
A Christmas Eve SEO scare
24 Dec 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Justin and Jon talk about:What's happened this year."You shouldn't be worried about that, but you should be worried about THIS."The SaaS gold rush: “...
Should you build an audience first?
17 Dec 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Justin is interviewed by Noah and Ben from the Product Journey podcast:Should you build an audience first?Why finding the right market is the first fi...
How did we do on last year's predictions?
10 Dec 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Jon and Justin talk about:The new corporate condo in the french alps,Crazy to think about where we were last year when we recorded this episode.Spotif...
What should we do in 2020?
03 Dec 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Jon and Justin talk about:American ThanksgivingIs it better for a product to be simple?The benefits of having a "smaller menu."Why we started a privat...
Why we stopped sharing our revenue numbers
26 Nov 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Jon and Justin talk about:New albums from DJ Shadow and BeckWhy we aren't sharing our revenue metrics publicly anymore"Sometimes, you can worry more a...
Throwing computers off a tall building
19 Nov 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Jon and Justin talk about:A stressful Rails 6 upgrade (and how it broke the app).We often use data to make decisions, but we don't often examine the u...
Why did this take so long?
12 Nov 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Jon and Justin talk about:The launch of the new marketing site: transistor.fmBuilt using Statamic CMS and with Tailwind CSSGot tons of help from Jack ...
Desktop life
05 Nov 2019
Contributed by Lukas
What's new with the Transistor team?Justin has a Halloween candy hangover.Desktops vs laptops for dev work.Transitioning from your personal equipment ...
Limitless growth!
29 Oct 2019
Contributed by Lukas
This is a heavy one! Let us know at @buildyoursaas if you listen to the whole thing.On a micro-scale many folks believe "how much MRR is enough?" is a...
"Launched" with quotation marks
22 Oct 2019
Contributed by Lukas
We shipped our new feature!American Express called Justin twice at 5amThe new enhanced podcasts feed is live.Pete Marcano: “I’ll be honest, when I...
What's threatening our business?
15 Oct 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Jon and Justin talk turkey:"I'm not used to all this attention. it’s weird. not bad, just…not used to it.""If you're doing anything interesting ou...
$30k in MRR – how does this feel?
08 Oct 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Jon and Justin have a bunch of hot topics this week:Podcast advertising, user tracking, turning away customers?Basecamp switched their podcast (Rework...
How do you even sleep at night?
01 Oct 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Sleep. We never get enough:Justin consistently wakes up between 2am-4am and can’t get back to sleep.Jon woke up at 4am. Often reports bad sleeps.Jus...
Bootstrapping loneliness
24 Sep 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Jon and Justin discuss a variety of things. Warning: Justin says the f-word twice.80s trampolinesJon's new microphone: mic + pop filter = $65 USDTrans...
Is it a good idea to be a transparent startup?
17 Sep 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Jon and Justin discuss:Good mics for podcasters. Justin recommends the Samson Q2U and the ATR2100. Make sure you get a pop filter!Starting our 6-week ...
How much MRR is enough?
10 Sep 2019
Contributed by Lukas
This week Jon and Justin answer a few questions:From Jason Zook: "How much MRR is enough for Transistor?"From Yaz: "What do you think of this new Supe...
Change is in the air
03 Sep 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Hear what's new from Jon and Justin on their bootstrapping journey:Nothing like throwing yourself down a mountain when you're tiredWe're seeing a big ...
The constant feature release cycle
27 Aug 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Jon and Justin share their SaaS journey:"There's so many great feature ideas, but we can't do them all."Jon's wondering about the constant feature req...
WHO DELETED MY CODE?!?!
20 Aug 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Jon and Justin are tracking a bunch of stuff this week:We're moving from WordPress to Statamic CMS"I had no idea how to set up PHP on my laptop."We wa...
How we're Shaping Up
13 Aug 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Justin and Jon have started the process of implementing Shape Up.Lots of folks feel like it’d be hard to implement in their team"This would be hard ...
Jason Fried wants to delete our backlog
06 Aug 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Justin and Jon are joined by Jason Fried to talk about:The philosophy behind their new book Shape Up.Does Basecamp's approach to 6-week cycles differ ...
No sleep 'till Brooklyn (what we learned in New York)
30 Jul 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Big week. Justin was in New York and Jon found an office!Justin lost his voice.Jon doesn't work from home or coffee shops anymore.Jon found an office:...
Once you launch, you're immediately behind
23 Jul 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Justin and Jon are starting to feel that stress.We start with an unscripted bit.Our backlog and todo list are still stressing us out.We want to improv...
Your backlog is making me thirsty
16 Jul 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Justin and Jon dive into the growing backlog of features, bugs and tasks, and talk about how they might better manage it as a two-person team. A big n...
What if there's an accident?
09 Jul 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Now, Justin and Jon share are both focused full-time on Transistor. This week they discuss: Emotionally processing what it's like leaving a full-time...
Jon's big announcement
02 Jul 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Jon had some personal news for Justin this week. This week they discuss:What does this mean for the product?What does this mean for us as a team?★ T...
I want to work at Transistor.fm
25 Jun 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Jon is away, so Justin is tackling these questions:"When you were early on and desperate, were you tempted to take investor money?""How do you positio...
We took funding (from our customers)
18 Jun 2019
Contributed by Lukas
This week, Jon and Justin talk about new developments with Transistor:We've taken over $100,000 in funding (from our customers!)We harken back to July...