PODCAST · business
Product People
by Justin Jackson
A podcast about profitable products and the people who make them
Episodes
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Paul Jarvis and Justin Jackson catch up
Justin catches up with his old internet friend Paul Jarvis. Today, Paul co-founded Fathom Analytics with Jack Ellis: a simple alternative to Google Analytics. Paul is also the author of the book "Company of One," which has influenced a whole generation of indie entrepreneurs (and has been…
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EP101 – Scott Young: teach yourself how to program, finally!
I've been trying to learn how to program since 1985. This past year, at 38 years old, I finally figured out how. Questions we discuss in this episode: Is there only "one" way to learn how to code? Why is getting started SO HARD? How did Justin finally figure out a way to learn programming? Show...
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EP100 – James Clear: improving your life in 2019 with Atomic Habits
James Clear describes how you can improve your life, using small incremental steps that add up to big wins. Questions we discuss in this episode: How does "what you repeatedly do" affect your identity? How does someone’s context affect their ability to set and maintain good habits? Are good…
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EP99 – Ben Orenstein's new startup is focused on pair programming
Ben is the co-founder of Tuple.app and is running a new course called Habits for Hackers. ★ Looking for a community of bootstrappers? Join MegaMaker Club Show notes Ben Orenstein on Twitter Habits for Hackers Malcolm Gladwell and Rick Rubin talking about Johnny Cash Ben's working on a new…
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EP98 – The hard truth about bootstrapping startups (Part 2 with Jason Cohen)
Jason Cohen asks Justin Jackson hard questions about his startup, Transistor.fm, and what it's going to take to go full-time. This is the second half of our chat. Part 1 was really just setting the stage. Part 2 digs into the real-life challenges of bootstrapping a business. ★ Looking for a...
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EP97 – Can you bootstrap a company on the side? (Part 1 with Jason Cohen)
When you're building a startup you have these questions: Should I work on my startup on the side, and grow it slowly? Should I take investment and go full-time sooner? These are the questions that have been circulating in my head over the past few months. Which is why when Jason Cohen, founder of...
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EP96 – My secret phone call with Hamish
Hamish Macpherson is an engineer at Buffer, and was one of the first people to join MegaMaker. ★ Looking for community of bootstrappers? Join MegaMaker Club Show notes Follow Hamish Macherson on Twitter Buffer Hamish's Stand to Make side-project The latest from Justin: My new startup…
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EP95 – "Programming's gateway drug" with Samantha Geitz
This is a great chat with Samantha Geitz, a Senior Developer at Tighten, and the founder of BetaFish. Topics in this episode: Should "business/marketing" people learn programming? What's the difference between messing around and being a serious programmer? Do regular programmers Google for…
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EP94 – Does the old SaaS playbook still work in 2018?
So many great topics in this episode: Should developers learn design? Derrick's "viral signup" trick How important is a personal brand? How to promote your project (while you're still building it) Do software companies need to become more service oriented? Announcement: I'm having a birthday…
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EP93 – SaaS pricing with Patrick Campbell
I'm building a new SaaS in 2018 with my buddy Jon Buda called Transistor.fm. Now, we're trying to figure out our pricing. We're trying not to pretend we know everything there is to know about running a SaaS. So, we wanted to reach out to some experts and get outside opinions about how to create…
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EP92 – 2018 MicroConf guide with Mike Taber
Mike Taber (Bluetick) and Rob Walling (Drip) started MicroConf in 2011 as a conference for self-funded startups. It's gone from just over 100 attendees to nearly 500. It's become the place for bootstrappers to hang out. Get $100 off MicroConf Starter Edition Go to megamaker.co/microconf or text...
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EP91 – Josh Nielsen from Zencastr: software for podcasters
Josh started out trying to build a "GitHub for music." When that idea didn't pan out, he still wanted to do something with Web Audio and WebRTC. So he started building Zencastr, which gives podcasters the ability to record "double-ender" interviews in the browser. Get all the Mega Profitable case...
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EP90 – "Give yourself time." Building a profitable business on the Shopify apps platform
6 years ago, Bjorn Forsberg built an app called OrderlyPrint for Shopify. His goal was to increase his freedom, and to spend more time with his family. Was able to achieve it? (This is the 5th case study in the Mega Profitable series) We should measure profitability in other ways. It's not just...
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EP89 – "We never wanted to fire anyone," Natalie Nagele on Wildbit's journey
Back in the early 2000s, Wildbit was an agency building Flash websites for Philly nightclubs. Then, in 2007, they launched their first product, Beanstalk. Two years later, they quit doing consulting. Natalie Nagele takes us through their story! Get all the Mega Profitable case studies Don't miss...
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EP88 – Pippin Williamson from beer money to over $1 million in revenue with WordPress plugins
Pippin Williamson started out like a lot of us do: building websites for whoever would pay him. He decided to try selling one of his WordPress plugins. Now, Pippin's Plugins earns over $1 million in revenue a year. This Mega Profitable series aims to help founders, like you, get profitable! Get…
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EP87 – How Nick Disabato built a profitable productized service
It's time for another Mega Profitable interview! This series aims to help founders, like you, get profitable. Learn how Draft went from having $21 in the bank (in his first year) to creating a solid, profitable solo-founder business. Get all the Mega Profitable case studies Don't miss any of the...
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EP86 – Mega profitable with Brennan Dunn
Introducing a new series: Mega Profitable. What's the difference between a founder who is mega profitable, and a product person who's just making a living? Brennan Dunn joins me to talk about his journey. This episode sponsored by... I've just updated my most popular product: the Marketing for...
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EP85 – Facing your launch fears with Mike Taber of Bluetick.io
You'll recognize Mike from Startups for the Rest of Us and the MicroConf conference. He's launching a new product called Bluetick. This episode sponsored by... ★ I'm updating my most popular product: the Marketing for Developers book. Relaunches end of August 2017. Grab a sample chapter here.…
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EP84 – Contrarian bootstrapper Ian Landsman
"Charge more!" "Use content marketing!" "Start with an ebook!" There's a lot of folklore in the startup and bootstrapping community. Do they all stand up to scrutiny? This is my interview with long-time SaaS entrepreneur, Ian Landsman. Show notes Leave a review on iTunes! ianlandsman.com Ian's...
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EP83: Laura Elizabeth – unmistakable product validation
How do you find product ideas that resonate? Hear how Laura knew there was demand for her project, Client Portal. Everyone was like: "I want that." (This is my special MicroConf 2017 episode!) Show notes Leave a review on iTunes! lauraelizabeth.co Laura's product: Client Portal Laura's other...
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EP82: Adam Wathan is back with a new launch story
When we last chatted with Adam Wathan he'd just launched his first book. His next project is a course called Test Driven Laravel. You won't believe his launch results! You'll hear how he built the course, all his launch numbers, and why he thinks it was such an incredible success. Happy holidays...
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EP81: Behind Adam Wathan's $100k book launch
Adam Wathan has always been passionate about learning new things, and sharing what he's learned with the world. Then he discovered that he could earn an independent living doing it. His book and video course, Refactoring to Collections, teaches PHP programmers how to apply functional programming...
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EP80: Are we at peak SaaS?
Should you start a SaaS company in 2016? Does it still make sense to run a SaaS as a solopreneur? (Originally posted on the MegaMaker podcast) SaaS isn’t a destination. It’s just a licensing and delivery model. Don’t treat it like a religion! Show notes Had two separate friends from the internet...
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EP79: Josh Pigford - "We're all winging it"
Josh is the founder of Baremetrics. But he's also just a normal guy. When a relatively well known investor chastised him, it stung. How does he deal with scrutiny? Most companies aren’t doing nearly as well as you think they are. 90% of the time that startup that you look up to, envy and try to...
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EP78: Nathan Barry - cash flow therapy (Part 2)
This is part 2 of my conversation with Nathan Barry. In the past four months, he’s taken his burgeoning SaaS company (ConvertKit) from $1 million in annual recurring revenue to $2 million. That sounds exciting, but it wasn’t easy getting there. In this episode Nathan talks about the stress of…
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EP77 - Nathan Barry – Three years in the desert (Part 1)
The last time I talked to Nathan, his web app (ConvertKit) had just hit $5,000 in MRR. In this two part series, Nathan describes how they grew that to $182,000 in monthly recurring revenue. I’m going to start more conference talks with: “Look, this worked for me. If you can get something from it...
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EP76: Tom & Dan get physical with Studio Neat
Tom and Dan had one of the most successful Kickstarters of 2010 when they released the Glif. But was that enough to launch full-time careers as product makers? In this episode, they delve into how they started Studio Neat (their company) and give tons of practical tips for building physical...
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EP75: Jason Zook on why he’s selling his future
Jason Zook has a different perspective on life and business. He’s not afraid to try weird and crazy business ideas. In 2008 he started a business called I Wear Your Shirt. Over 5 years he earned over $1 million in revenue from wearing over 1,600 sponsored t-shirts. Following that business, he…
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EP74: Tracy Osborn – launching a Kickstarter, a book, a SaaS!
If you want to launch your own Kickstarter, write your own book, or build your own web application you’re going to love this episode. Tracy Osborn is a serious bad-ass who’s done all three! She’s my guest this week. In this episode Tracy goes through the process of running a Kickstarter, and the...
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EP73: Justin Jackson – “How I got into products”
I was recently on the Chasing Product podcast with Chris Hawkins. Chris is a good interviewer: he asked a lot of great questions about my back-story, and how I got into products. There’s this independence and self-reliance that comes from making your own products. Show notes Mentioned on Startups...
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EP72: Nathan Barry – “The hardest thing I’ve ever done is SaaS”
After having great success with books and courses, Nathan Barry has shifted his attention to his SaaS: a web application called ConvertKit. Two weeks ago I announced we finally hit $5,000 in MRR ( http://t.co/p7CY6OATEf). We've added $1,200 in MRR since then.— Nathan Barry (@nathanbarry) March…
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EP71: Des Traynor on the forgotten job of every SaaS product
Des Traynor is one of my favorite writers and speakers on the topic of SaaS businesses, and jobs-to-be-done. Notable quotes “I think not talking to your customers was always a pretty pathological thing to do” – Des Traynor “Customer service is the new competitive edge. Everyone has SaaS…
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EP70: Samuel Hulick talks about building Useronboard
Samuel has become the internet’s authority on user onboarding. In this personal and open interview, Samuel talks about how he was able to discover his niche, build an audience, and launch his first product. He also talks about what to do after a dissapointing launch. Near the end of this…
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EP69: Nir Eyal on how to build habit forming products
In June of 2013, I was introduced to Nir Eyal through Ryan Hoover. Nir had been blogging a lot about psychology and analyzing what makes a highly engaging product. Nir eventually published a book on that topic: Hooked – How to Build Habit-Forming Products. Hooked is a guide to building...
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EP68: Brian Casel on productized services
Brian Casel is a bootstrapper with a lot of projects: he has a podcast, a hosting platform called Restaurant Engine, and a new course called Productize.We talked about Brian’s story (from developing WordPress themes, to building an audience online) as well as what a productized service is. Show...
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EP67: Mike Rohde is building a sketchnote army
Mike Rohde is a designer and an author, but he’s probably best known for illustrating the 37signals books: Rework and Remote. Mike is now building his own products: The Sketchnote Handbook, and the Sketchnote Workbook. Both are unique books, which also include video. Mike has a secret agenda: to...
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EP66: Marc-André Cournoyer on making the leap
Marc-André Cournoyer is a passionate coder and product person from Montreal, Quebec. If you’re a developer, engineer, or technical person looking to make the jump to building products, you’re going to love this one. Show notes Marc’s homepage Marc on Twitter Owning Rails Great Code Club Note from...
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EP65: Andreea and building Startup Kit
Andreea Mihalcea is a dynamic young founder from Romania. Her and her team are building a new product called Startup Kit. I loved her insights into how and why people buy software products. Startup Kit is targeting an interesting problem: managers and CTOs who need to get a handle on what…
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EP64: Jarrod Drysdale on bootstrapping design
First, you need to know that Jarrod Drysdale is a good dude. He’s also the author of Bootstrapping Design, and the creator of Cascade.io. He’s smart, and humble, and talented and he has tons of great things to say about building products, succeeding and failing, and the importance of really…
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EP63: Sacha Greif – how things get popular
Sacha Greif joined me again for a chat on how he marketed Discover Meteor, and why certain blog posts get popular. Notable quotes “I’ve always believed that people really respond to quality content.” – Sacha Greif “You can tell when someone has written something with no research; getting quality...
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EP62: Paul Jarvis is always hungry
I freakin’ love Paul Jarvis. He’s creative, he’s unique, and he’s Canadian. Notable quotes “When you work for yourself, your boss is an asshole” – Paul Jarvis “I’m vegan so I’m always hungry” – Paul Jarvis “I want to help people build their business online.” – Paul Jarvis “It’s funny: people…
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EP61: Nate Kontny says “Solve your own problems!”
Today’s interview is with one of my favourite people on the internet: Nate Kontny. He’s the solo-founder of Draft, a web application that helps you improve your writing through collaboration. He also blogs at Ninjas and Robots. Notable quotes “Solve your own problems!” – Nate Kontny “Take two or...
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EP60: Hear how Ryan Hoover built Product Hunt in 4 days
This week’s guest is Ryan Hoover. We’ve been online friends for a few years now. Back in 2013, Ryan invited me to join a new site he’d created called ProductHunt.com. In the last 3 weeks, it’s exploded. He was interviewed on Fox News, he was interviewed on This Week in Startups, AND he just...
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EP59: Dan Norris and the 7 day startup
Dan Norris is the co-founder of WP Curve, and the author of The 7 Day Startup. He gave himself 1 year to build a profitable product. After spending a year on a product called Inform.ly, with no profits to show for it, he came up with the idea for WP Curve, and made it got his first paying…
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EP58: Garrett Dimon – SaaS isn’t all rainbows and unicorns
Garrett Dimon is the founder of Sifter and author of Starting + Sustaining. We talked about finding an idea, validating an idea, and building your product. Our conversation started with this question: “What are the biggest misconceptions about running a SaaS product?” Notable quotes: “If you just...
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EP57: Brennan Dunn talks about the marketing machine
Brennan Dunn is the go-to guy to talk about marketing automation. He’s build a SaaS, called Planscope, but these days he recommends first-time entrepreneurs build something smaller (like an eBook, or a webinar). He’s also the author of Double Your Freelancing Rate, and has lots of good insight on...
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EP56: Sean Fioritto on succeeding after failing
Ok, so ages ago I interviewed Sean Fioritto, the author of Sketching with CSS. I like Sean a lot. He’s from Chicago, and he struggled for years trying to build products. Then he wrote this book, and it took off. You’ll hear his story, and how he succeeded after lots of failures. I haven’t put out...
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EP55: Patio11 on promoting your product
This week you’ll hear from Patrick Mackenzie (Patio11 on the internet), an influential member of the self-funded, bootstrapping community, as well as a high profile member of Hacker News. Patrick is a great guest: he’s a great storyteller, and is always completely himself. (He does some great…
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EP54: DHH on why 37signals is becoming Basecamp
David Heinemeier Hansson started working with Jason Fried at 37signals about 14-15 years ago. 10 years ago, they created Basecamp, their first SaaS product. This past week they decided to stop using the 37signals brand, and sell off (or stop developing) their other products (notably Highrise and...
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EP53: Alex Hillman is the king of JFDI
Alex Hillman is many things: first, he’s the king of JFDI (he even has the tattoo to prove it). Second: he’s the founder of IndyHall, a co-working space in Philadelphia. Third: he’s Amy Hoy’s partner in 30×500. And fourth: he’s just recently launched his own product called GroupBuzz.io. Our topic...
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Frequently Asked Questions
How many episodes does Product People have?
Product People currently has 99 episodes available on PodParley. New episodes are automatically indexed when they're published to the podcast feed.
What is Product People about?
A podcast about profitable products and the people who make them
How often does Product People release new episodes?
Product People has 99 episodes. Check the episode list to see recent publication dates and frequency.
Where can I listen to Product People?
You can listen to Product People on PodParley by clicking any episode. We provide an embedded audio player for direct listening, and you can also subscribe via your preferred podcast app using the RSS feed.
Who hosts Product People?
Product People is created and hosted by Justin Jackson.
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