SaaS Life (saaslife.fm)
by Chris McAleenan, Sam Schrup
SaaS Life Podcast: Follow the journey of two bootstrapped solo founders as they build their SaaS companies. Chris McAleenan & Sam Schrup will pull back the curtain and reveal their weekly ups & downs of running a software company. Chris is the founder of Pipetech Project. Sam is the founder of TextRetailer.
Episodes
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Ep. 24: Goodbye for Now
Summary: Today’s episode promises to be the last or at least the last for a while. Both Sam and Chris are making changes that make continuing to devote energy and effort to a podcast impractical, at least for now. What’s happening and what’s the reason for the change? In today’s episode, Sam and...
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Ep. 23: Back From Vacation
Chris is back from his vacation, and today’s podcast episode begins with Chris and Sam discussing some of his experiences and highlights. During this episode, Chris and Sam discuss their past week and the things that have been top of mind for them lately. They discuss a customer service issue…
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Ep. 22: Balancing Vacation and Productivity
On this episode of saaslife.fm, Sam Schrup and Chris McAleenan talk about vacations, productivity, and how those two things intersect with each other. It’s difficult to truly take time off, especially when you’re running your own business or working solo. Things sometimes just need to be done. On...
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Ep. 21: Shopify Saga Continues
On this episode of saaslife.fm, Sam Schrup and Chris McAleenan talk about customers breaking things and the continuing saga between TextRetailer and Shopify ecosystem. There’s nothing like customers interacting with your product because sometimes they’ll break it or give you insights on new...
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Ep. 20: The Shifting Talent Market
On this episode of saaslife.fm, Sam Schrup and Chris McAleenan talk about hiring additional resources via agencies and freelancers to contribute to plenty of work. It may cost more money and time, but it’s worth it if they are capable. If not, just move on to the next one to scale and survive....
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Ep. 19: Sam Is Back!
Summary: On this episode of saaslife.fm, Sam Schrup and Chris McAleenan talk about what it looks like for a bootstrapper to take paternity leave for a new baby or puppy sitting. Never a dull moment at home or work! Highlights from this Episode: Demo Downtime: People were patient and willing to…
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Ep. 18: Hiring & Expanding the Teams
On this episode of saaslife.fm, Sam Schrup and Chris McAleenan talk about navigating software, sites, and service providers to hire and expand teams. There’s a lot to do and build, but try your best and don’t sweat it to grow and scale! Highlights from this Episode: Dialpad: Paying off...
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Ep. 17: TextRetailer Joins TinySeed
On this episode of saaslife.fm, Sam Schrup is super excited to share some big news, TextRetailer joins TinySeed as part of the Spring 2022 accelerator batches. Co-host Chris McAleenan offers Sam congratulations for not only TextRetailer becoming a TinySeed company, but for another addition due in...
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Ep 16: MicroConf Recap
On this episode of saaslife.fm, Sam Schrup provides a recap of MicroConf’s talks/sessions, fun networking activities, and meeting like-minded founders. Chris McAleenan has never attended, but hopes to someday. Maybe the two will host their podcast live at the next one in Denver! Highlights from...
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Ep 15: Handling Difficult Conversations With Customers
Would you rather be sick with a stomach bug or handle difficult conversations and complex concepts with customers? On this episode of saaslife.fm, Sam Schrup and Chris McAleenan talk about how founders still need to get work done even when they want to take time off. Highlights from this Episode:...
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Ep 14: Everyone Loves a Budget
On this episode of saaslife.fm, Sam Schrup and Chris McAleenan talk about how everyone loves budgeting, especially to not lose focus on planning priorities and making progress when it comes to new integrations, hires, and products. Highlights from this Episode: Sam’s Strategy: Deeper integration...
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Ep 13: A Whole Lotta Updates
On this episode of saaslife.fm, Sam Schrup and Chris McAleenan give a lot of updates on their businesses, TextRetailer and PipeTech. It takes not being a bottleneck! They talk about everything from conferences and integrations to tools to use to track issues and music to improve focus…
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Ep 12: Tradeshows & TinySeed
On this episode of saaslife.fm, Sam Schrup and Chris McAleenan talk about tasks, TinySeed, tradeshows, trends, and technology. Sometimes, everything goes as planned. Other times, things fall apart. There may or may not be a lot of progress, and you may need to pivot to find funding as…
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Ep. 11: Hello, 2022!
On this episode of saaslife.fm, Sam Schrup and Chris McAleenan talk about how growing a family changes impacts growing a business. As founders of startups, paternity leave isn’t always possible when you are your own boss and a one-man-show. Looking ahead, 2022 will be a year of change due to...
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Ep 10: Looking Back on 2021
On this episode of saaslife.fm, Sam Schrup and Chris McAleenan take some time to reflect on 2021. Highlights from this Episode: New TextRetailer Merchant: Sam shares news about onboarding My Beauty Text. Inbound Issues: Chris gets to focus on other priorities while things get done. Sales: Chris…
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Ep 9: Chris Screwed Up
On this episode of saaslife.fm, Sam Schrup celebrates an informal milestone and troubleshoots a unique issue with Canadian phone carriers. Chris McAleenan made a mistake and set the team temporarily off-track. Highlights from this Episode: Cyber Monday: TextRetailer’s first and best day for…
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Ep 8: Chris' Turn for a Major Update
On this episode of saaslife.fm, Chris McAleenan shares specific updates and highlights progress made on the PipeTech Project. In the past week, he did not get in 40 hours of work, but did manage to find windows of time while being a family man. Sam Schrup understands the need to triage and focus…
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Ep 7: A Major Update for TextRetailer
On this episode of saaslife.fm, Sam Schrup shares a major update for TextRetailer. He announced the launch of quick carts and other features within TextRetailer. Although he is exhausted, Sam is relieved and excited for what this means for the future of TextRetailer. Chris McAleenan is in a…
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Ep 6: One Year Anniversary of TextRetailer (kinda)
On this episode of saaslife.fm, Sam Schrup and Chris McAleenan celebrate a couple milestones - Chris’s 40th birthday and the one-year anniversary of TextRetailer. It’s been a full year since Sam registered the TextRetailer.com domain name, he started coding last November, and the first paying...
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Ep 5: Can Tech Debt Be Good?
On this episode of saaslife.fm, Sam Schrup and Chris McAleenan talk about tech debt. It can be good, especially when you have the time and resources to build a product the right way for new and existing customers to drive revenue. Sam shares lessons learned from working with various types of...
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Ep 4: Fueling the Rocket Ship
Labor Day - is that a day startup founders should work on their business or not? What about other holidays? The weekends? You can get a lot done depending on your priorities, products, and projects. On this episode of saaslife.fm, Sam Schrup and Chris McAleenan discuss work cadence and taking…
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Ep 3: Drinking From a Firehouse
Even if you are not involved in the day-to-day operations of a business, you may have to make major strategic decisions. After all, family comes first and progress needs to be made on your To Do list! On this episode of saaslife.fm, Sam Schrup and Chris McAleenan are ready to get back to a…
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Ep 2: Thoughts on Team Structure
On this episode of saaslife.fm, Sam Schrup and Chris McAleenan share their thoughts on customers, merchants, and building a sustainable team structure and culture. In the world of TextRetailer, Sam has been heads down for the last few weeks doing a lot of product updates. Some have been...
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Ep 1: Sewers, SMS & Saas
Welcome to the first episode of saaslife.fm, a podcast hosted by Sam Schrup and Chris McAleenan. They go back to basics by talking about who they are, who should listen, and why. Spoiler Alert: You might learn something and have fun at the same time! saaslife.fm is a forum for Sam and Chris to...
About this show
SaaS Life Podcast: Follow the journey of two bootstrapped solo founders as they build their SaaS companies. Chris McAleenan & Sam Schrup will pull back the curtain and reveal their weekly ups & downs of running a software company. Chris is the founder of Pipetech Project. Sam is the founder of TextRetailer.
Hosted by
Chris McAleenan, Sam Schrup
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