Product People

How to master a new skill (even if you think you're too old to try)

"Every action you take is a vote for the type of person you wish to become."

Ben is the co-founder of Tuple.app and is running a new course called Habits for Hackers.

Jason Cohen asks Justin Jackson hard questions about his startup, and what it's going to take to go full-time.

Justin Jackson interviews Jason Cohen from WPengine about bootstrapping, and what it really takes to grow a company.

After a live event, Hamish and I talked offline about the realities of being a maker in tech.

Should you double down on your strengths, or learn something new?

Ben Orenstein, Derrick Reimer, and Justin Jackson are all building a new product. What still works?

You need to price your software on two pillars: who you're selling to, and your value metric.

Are you coming to MicroConf in Las Vegas this year?

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.

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)

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!

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!

It's time for another Mega Profitable interview! This series aims to help founders, like you, get profitable. Learn how Nick went from having $21 in the bank (in his first year) to creating a solid, profitable solo-founder business.

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.

You'll recognize Mike from Startups for the Rest of Us and the MicroConf conference. He's launching a new product called Bluetick. We talked about the pressure we put on ourselves to succeed, setting the ego aside, and growing a SaaS.

"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.

How do you find product ideas that resonate? Hear how Laura knew there was demand for her project, Client Portal. (This is my special MicroConf 2017 episode!)

When we last chatted with Adam he'd just written his first book, which did really well. His next project is a course called Test Driven Laravel. You won't believe his launch results! Happy holidays everyone!

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.

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)

Josh is the founder of Baremetrics. He talks about the pros and cons of running a transparent startup, dealing with scrutiny, and his life as an entrepreneur.

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 being a new CEO, running out of money, not being able to get a loan, and finally figuring out a way to succeed.

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.

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?

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.

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!

Chris Hawkins (from Chasing Product) takes over interviewing and asks Justin the questions.

After having great success with books and courses, Nathan Barry has shifted his attention to his SaaS: a web application called ConvertKit.

Des Traynor is one of my favorite writers and speakers on the topic of SaaS businesses, and jobs-to-be-done.

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.

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.

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.

Mike Rohde is a designer and an author, but he's probably best known for illustrating the 37signals books. Mike is now building his own products: The Sketchnote Handbook, and the Sketchnote Workbook.

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.

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.

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 caring for the people you're serving.

Sacha Greif joined me again for a chat on how he marketed Discover Meteor, and why certain blog posts get popular.

I freakin' love Paul Jarvis. He's creative, he's unique, and he's Canadian.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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).