Explore every episode of the podcast The Bootstrapped Founder
| Title | Pub. Date | Duration | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 439: The Increasing Risk of Building in Public | 03 Apr 2026 | 00:15:43 | |
Building in public helped me sell FeedbackPanda. That same radical transparency could now destroy a business overnight. With agentic coding tools, anyone can turn your publicly shared architecture, revenue numbers, and feature details into a working competitor in days—no coding skills required. The old safety threshold of $20-30K MRR has collapsed to zero. But that doesn't mean you stop sharing entirely. In this episode, I break down what I still talk about openly, what I'll never reveal again, and the one filter every founder should run before posting anything about their business: is it interesting to follow, or easy to clone? The blog post: https://thebootstrappedfounder.com/the-increasing-risk-of-building-in-public/ Check out Podscan, the Podcast database that transcribes every podcast episode out there minutes after it gets released: https://podscan.fm You'll find my weekly article on my blog: https://thebootstrappedfounder.com Podcast: https://thebootstrappedfounder.com/podcast Newsletter: https://thebootstrappedfounder.com/newsletter
My book The Embedded Entrepreneur: https://embeddedentrepreneur.com/ My course Find Your Following: https://findyourfollowing.com Here are a few tools I use. Using my affiliate links will support my work at no additional cost to you. | |||
| 438: AI Liability: The Landmines Under Your SaaS | 20 Mar 2026 | 00:25:23 | |
Google is banning accounts. Anthropic is locking down their plans. Two major AI providers are drawing hard lines around agentic systems — and most founders aren't ready for what that means. In this episode, I break down the real liability risks of shipping AI features: rogue chatbots, confused agents wiping production data, customers pointing autonomous tools at your API, and the insurance gap nobody's talking about. I share my own close calls with Claude Code, a practical minimum safety posture for any AI-powered product, and why the founders building moats out of data instead of models will sleep much better at night. This episode of The Bootstraped Founder is sponsored by Podscan.fm The blog post: https://thebootstrappedfounder.com/ai-liability-the-landmines-under-your-saas/ Check out Podscan, the Podcast database that transcribes every podcast episode out there minutes after it gets released: https://podscan.fm You'll find my weekly article on my blog: https://thebootstrappedfounder.com Podcast: https://thebootstrappedfounder.com/podcast Newsletter: https://thebootstrappedfounder.com/newsletter
My book The Embedded Entrepreneur: https://embeddedentrepreneur.com/ My course Find Your Following: https://findyourfollowing.com Here are a few tools I use. Using my affiliate links will support my work at no additional cost to you. | |||
| 437: Data Is the Only Moat | 13 Mar 2026 | 00:15:39 | |
Building software is getting dramatically easier — so what exactly are we building our businesses on? In this episode, I dig into why real-world data is the only reliable moat left for software founders. I share what I'm seeing at Podscan, where fifty million transcribed podcast episodes matter far more than any algorithm, why purely transformative software is dangerously vulnerable to agents, and how making your business API-first with full platform parity is the move that turns a data advantage into a defensible one. Having data is half the moat. Availing data is the other half. This episode of The Bootstraped Founder is sponsored by Podscan.fm The blog post: https://thebootstrappedfounder.com/data-is-the-only-moat/ Check out Podscan, the Podcast database that transcribes every podcast episode out there minutes after it gets released: https://podscan.fm You'll find my weekly article on my blog: https://thebootstrappedfounder.com Podcast: https://thebootstrappedfounder.com/podcast Newsletter: https://thebootstrappedfounder.com/newsletter
My book The Embedded Entrepreneur: https://embeddedentrepreneur.com/ My course Find Your Following: https://findyourfollowing.com Here are a few tools I use. Using my affiliate links will support my work at no additional cost to you. | |||
| 436: When Long-Term Investments Finally Pay Off | 13 Feb 2026 | 00:16:52 | |
What happens when the seeds you planted eighteen months ago finally start breaking through? In this episode, Arvid shares how Podscan's long-term investments are compounding—from programmatic SEO earning backlinks from major publications to an OP3 integration improving data fidelity across millions of podcasts. He also talks about how agentic coding tools helped him migrate to OpenSearch, a system he never would have touched on his own, and the semi-automated 10-80-10 workflows that are freeing him up for higher-leverage work. This episode of The Bootstraped Founder is sponsored by Podscan.fm The blog post: https://thebootstrappedfounder.com/when-long-term-investments-finally-pay-off/ Check out Podscan, the Podcast database that transcribes every podcast episode out there minutes after it gets released: https://podscan.fm You'll find my weekly article on my blog: https://thebootstrappedfounder.com Podcast: https://thebootstrappedfounder.com/podcast Newsletter: https://thebootstrappedfounder.com/newsletter
My book The Embedded Entrepreneur: https://embeddedentrepreneur.com/ My course Find Your Following: https://findyourfollowing.com Here are a few tools I use. Using my affiliate links will support my work at no additional cost to you. | |||
| 435: How to Actually Use Claude Code to Build Serious Software | 06 Feb 2026 | 00:17:09 | |
After six months of building Podscan almost exclusively with Claude Code, Arvid shares the configuration and prompting strategies that make agentic coding actually work. From connecting Claude to your browser with the --chrome flag so it can visually inspect your app, to the "Ralph Wiggum loop" that keeps the agent iterating until a task is truly done, to the permission settings that prevent it from nuking your database—these are the practical lessons that separate productive Claude Code users from those constantly cleaning up messes. Plus: why testing is Claude Code's superpower, and how to build a system prompt that turns raw code generation into genuine collaboration. This episode of The Bootstraped Founder is sponsored by Podscan.fm The blog post: https://thebootstrappedfounder.com/how-to-actually-use-claude-code-to-build-serious-software/ Check out Podscan, the Podcast database that transcribes every podcast episode out there minutes after it gets released: https://podscan.fm You'll find my weekly article on my blog: https://thebootstrappedfounder.com Podcast: https://thebootstrappedfounder.com/podcast Newsletter: https://thebootstrappedfounder.com/newsletter
My book The Embedded Entrepreneur: https://embeddedentrepreneur.com/ My course Find Your Following: https://findyourfollowing.com Here are a few tools I use. Using my affiliate links will support my work at no additional cost to you. | |||
| 434: Follow Your Passion (But Not Like That) | 30 Jan 2026 | 00:13:25 | |
"Follow your passion" consistently ranks as the most frustrating advice entrepreneurs receive. Today I'm breaking down why this well-meaning guidance becomes dangerous when followed blindly, and more importantly, what it actually decodes into when you think about it properly. Using my own experience with miniature painting and 3D printing, I'll show you how the real opportunity isn't doing what you love for money—it's finding others who share your passion and solving the problems they can't solve themselves. This episode of The Bootstraped Founder is sponsored by Paddle.com The blog post: https://thebootstrappedfounder.com/follow-your-passion-but-not-like-that/ Check out Podscan, the Podcast database that transcribes every podcast episode out there minutes after it gets released: https://podscan.fm You'll find my weekly article on my blog: https://thebootstrappedfounder.com Podcast: https://thebootstrappedfounder.com/podcast Newsletter: https://thebootstrappedfounder.com/newsletter
My book The Embedded Entrepreneur: https://embeddedentrepreneur.com/ My course Find Your Following: https://findyourfollowing.com Here are a few tools I use. Using my affiliate links will support my work at no additional cost to you. | |||
| 433: The 1% Improvement Myth | 23 Jan 2026 | 00:07:53 | |
The "improve 1% every day" mantra sounds inspiring until you realize it mostly gets people tweaking button colors and reorganizing task managers. Real improvements in early-stage businesses come from unexpected moments—like a single customer conversation that reveals you've been doing something wrong for six months. Instead of chasing unmeasurable micro-improvements, talk to one customer every day. \ That's where assumptions clash with reality, where you learn their language, and where you discover the insights that actually move the needle. This episode of The Bootstraped Founder is sponsored by Paddle.com The blog post: https://thebootstrappedfounder.com/the-1-improvement-myth-why-customer-conversations-beat-micro-improvements-every-time/ Check out Podscan, the Podcast database that transcribes every podcast episode out there minutes after it gets released: https://podscan.fm You'll find my weekly article on my blog: https://thebootstrappedfounder.com Podcast: https://thebootstrappedfounder.com/podcast Newsletter: https://thebootstrappedfounder.com/newsletter
My book The Embedded Entrepreneur: https://embeddedentrepreneur.com/ My course Find Your Following: https://findyourfollowing.com Here are a few tools I use. Using my affiliate links will support my work at no additional cost to you. | |||
| 432: Don't Give Up... Your Assumptions | 16 Jan 2026 | 00:10:32 | |
The entrepreneurial world loves telling founders to "never give up"—but what if that advice is slowly killing your business? In this episode, I unpack why persistence without direction is just expensive stubbornness. The real skill isn't grinding through everything; it's knowing which assumptions to abandon while keeping the business alive. I share why running parallel experiments beats blind faith, and what a Twitter thread about Pieter Levels' "ugly" landing pages taught me about the beliefs we cling to without questioning. This episode of The Bootstraped Founder is sponsored by Paddle.com The blog post: https://thebootstrappedfounder.com/dont-give-up-your-assumptions/ Check out Podscan, the Podcast database that transcribes every podcast episode out there minutes after it gets released: https://podscan.fm You'll find my weekly article on my blog: https://thebootstrappedfounder.com Podcast: https://thebootstrappedfounder.com/podcast Newsletter: https://thebootstrappedfounder.com/newsletter
My book The Embedded Entrepreneur: https://embeddedentrepreneur.com/ My course Find Your Following: https://findyourfollowing.com Here are a few tools I use. Using my affiliate links will support my work at no additional cost to you. | |||
| 431: Many Heads, Not Many Hats: The Founder's Identity Crisis | 09 Jan 2026 | 00:15:18 | |
We joke about founders wearing many hats, but that metaphor misses the point. It's not about swapping accessories—it's about growing entirely new heads, each with its own brain that thinks, speaks, and prioritizes differently. In this episode, I explore why the transition from consulting or agency work to software entrepreneurship is so disorienting, and why the instincts that made you successful before might be the exact things preventing success now. From the uncomfortable truth about acquisition in low-touch SaaS to the cognitive dissonance of believing in yourself while questioning everything you know, this is about what it really takes to become someone new while staying grounded in who you've always been. This episode of The Bootstraped Founder is sponsored by Paddle.com The blog post: https://thebootstrappedfounder.com/many-heads-not-many-hats-the-founders-identity-crisis/ Check out Podscan, the Podcast database that transcribes every podcast episode out there minutes after it gets released: https://podscan.fm You'll find my weekly article on my blog: https://thebootstrappedfounder.com Podcast: https://thebootstrappedfounder.com/podcast Newsletter: https://thebootstrappedfounder.com/newsletter
My book The Embedded Entrepreneur: https://embeddedentrepreneur.com/ My course Find Your Following: https://findyourfollowing.com Here are a few tools I use. Using my affiliate links will support my work at no additional cost to you. | |||
| 430: The Case Against Vendor Lock-In: Why Easy Exit Means Better Retention | 02 Jan 2026 | 00:14:22 | |
There's something strange about founders who built their entire business on open source software and open standards, then turn around and say you should lock customers in as hard as possible. I think that's a horrible practice—and counterintuitively, making it easy to leave actually makes people stay longer. Today I'm making the case for frictionless import and export, with real examples from PermanentLink and lessons from Fathom Analytics, and why informed choice beats artificial lock-in every time. This episode of The Bootstraped Founder is sponsored by Paddle.com The blog post: https://thebootstrappedfounder.com/the-case-against-vendor-lock-in-why-easy-exit-means-better-retention/ Check out Podscan, the Podcast database that transcribes every podcast episode out there minutes after it gets released: https://podscan.fm You'll find my weekly article on my blog: https://thebootstrappedfounder.com Podcast: https://thebootstrappedfounder.com/podcast Newsletter: https://thebootstrappedfounder.com/newsletter
My book The Embedded Entrepreneur: https://embeddedentrepreneur.com/ My course Find Your Following: https://findyourfollowing.com Here are a few tools I use. Using my affiliate links will support my work at no additional cost to you. | |||
| 429: The Dead Internet Theory: Are We Building Machines That Only Talk to Other Machines? | 26 Dec 2025 | 00:12:37 | |
I spotted a LinkedIn post the other day—obviously AI-generated—with dozens of enthusiastic comments underneath. Every single one also written by AI. Bots responding to bots, a whole conversation with zero humans involved. It was both hilarious and deeply sad. This got me thinking about the dead internet theory and our role as founders in either contributing to it or pushing back against it. Today I'm exploring how we can build AI tools that augment human connection rather than replace it entirely—using AI as the means, not the end. This episode of The Bootstraped Founder is sponsored by Paddle.com The blog post: https://thebootstrappedfounder.com/the-dead-internet-theory-are-we-building-machines-that-only-talk-to-other-machines/ Check out Podscan, the Podcast database that transcribes every podcast episode out there minutes after it gets released: https://podscan.fm You'll find my weekly article on my blog: https://thebootstrappedfounder.com Podcast: https://thebootstrappedfounder.com/podcast Newsletter: https://thebootstrappedfounder.com/newsletter
My book The Embedded Entrepreneur: https://embeddedentrepreneur.com/ My course Find Your Following: https://findyourfollowing.com Here are a few tools I use. Using my affiliate links will support my work at no additional cost to you. | |||
| 428: Marketing for Founders Who Hate Marketing | 19 Dec 2025 | 00:18:03 | |
Most technical founders I know understand marketing matters—they just hate doing it. They'd rather spend their time building features than fumbling through outreach and content strategies. I get it. I've been there for years. So today I'm sharing what's actually worked for me: letting machines do the heavy lifting. From programmatic SEO that turned Podscan's internal data into a signup engine, to AI-assisted customer scoring that tells me who's worth a personal conversation, to treating documentation as a discovery channel—these are systems that market your product while you focus on building it. And here's the counterintuitive part: most of the people who find you through these systems won't be your ideal customers. That's fine. They become your word-of-mouth channel instead. This episode of The Bootstraped Founder is sponsored by Paddle.com The blog post: https://thebootstrappedfounder.com/marketing-for-founders-who-hate-marketing/ Check out Podscan, the Podcast database that transcribes every podcast episode out there minutes after it gets released: https://podscan.fm You'll find my weekly article on my blog: https://thebootstrappedfounder.com Podcast: https://thebootstrappedfounder.com/podcast Newsletter: https://thebootstrappedfounder.com/newsletter
My book The Embedded Entrepreneur: https://embeddedentrepreneur.com/ My course Find Your Following: https://findyourfollowing.com Here are a few tools I use. Using my affiliate links will support my work at no additional cost to you. | |||
| 427: Vibe Coding Won't Kill SaaS | 12 Dec 2025 | 00:18:55 | |
The "vibe coding will kill SaaS" narrative is everywhere right now, and I think it's completely wrong. Yes, anyone can spin up a Lovable or Bolt.new project in an afternoon. But there's a fundamental confusion happening: people are mistaking software products for software businesses. SaaS was never really about the software — it was always about the service, the operations, the years of edge cases and integrations and customer conversations that make a product actually work. In this episode, I break down why vibe-coded solutions fall apart the moment real customers show up, why "comprehension debt" is the hidden killer of AI-built projects, and how we might need to shift our messaging to make the invisible 20% of our work visible to buyers who now think they could build everything themselves. This episode of The Bootstraped Founder is sponsored by Paddle.com The blog post: https://thebootstrappedfounder.com/vibe-coding-wont-kill-saas/ Check out Podscan, the Podcast database that transcribes every podcast episode out there minutes after it gets released: https://podscan.fm You'll find my weekly article on my blog: https://thebootstrappedfounder.com Podcast: https://thebootstrappedfounder.com/podcast Newsletter: https://thebootstrappedfounder.com/newsletter
My book The Embedded Entrepreneur: https://embeddedentrepreneur.com/ My course Find Your Following: https://findyourfollowing.com Here are a few tools I use. Using my affiliate links will support my work at no additional cost to you. | |||
| 426: How Your Data Model Shapes Your Product | 05 Dec 2025 | 00:22:44 | |
Jack Ellis recently shared that storing page views and custom events in separate database tables was his biggest mistake at Fathom Analytics. That got me thinking about my own data modeling decisions at Podscan—choices I made on day one that now, two years and 45 million episodes later, either enable or constrain everything I build. Today, I'm exploring how your data model doesn't just store information, it fundamentally shapes how you think about your product. From the simple decision of whether to include teams in your authentication system to the complex realities of running full-text search across terabytes of transcript data, I'll share the migrations, the blue-green deployments, and the hard lessons about building flexibility into both your infrastructure and your founder mindset. This episode of The Bootstraped Founder is sponsored by Paddle.com The blog post: https://thebootstrappedfounder.com/how-your-data-model-shapes-your-product/ Check out Podscan, the Podcast database that transcribes every podcast episode out there minutes after it gets released: https://podscan.fm You'll find my weekly article on my blog: https://thebootstrappedfounder.com Podcast: https://thebootstrappedfounder.com/podcast Newsletter: https://thebootstrappedfounder.com/newsletter
My book The Embedded Entrepreneur: https://embeddedentrepreneur.com/ My course Find Your Following: https://findyourfollowing.com Here are a few tools I use. Using my affiliate links will support my work at no additional cost to you. | |||
| 425: AI Best Practices for Bootstrappers (That Actually Save You Money) | 28 Nov 2025 | 00:22:35 | |
AI systems change constantly. Models get deprecated, APIs shift, and what works today might fail tomorrow. Instead of trying to keep up with everything, I've built my systems for permanent adaptability. That means migration patterns that let me run old and new prompts side by side, using OpenAI's hidden Flex tier to cut costs by 50%, front-loading repeated data in prompts to maximize cache savings, and implementing circuit breakers so runaway AI costs can't blow up my bill. These aren't optimizations — they're how you run AI in production without losing your mind or your money. This episode of The Bootstraped Founder is sponsored by Paddle.com The blog post: https://thebootstrappedfounder.com/ai-best-practices-for-bootstrappers-that-actually-save-you-money/ Check out Podscan, the Podcast database that transcribes every podcast episode out there minutes after it gets released: https://podscan.fm You'll find my weekly article on my blog: https://thebootstrappedfounder.com Podcast: https://thebootstrappedfounder.com/podcast Newsletter: https://thebootstrappedfounder.com/newsletter
My book The Embedded Entrepreneur: https://embeddedentrepreneur.com/ My course Find Your Following: https://findyourfollowing.com Here are a few tools I use. Using my affiliate links will support my work at no additional cost to you. | |||
| 424: I Never Really Loved Coding (And Only AI Made Me Realize It) | 21 Nov 2025 | 00:18:38 | |
After 20+ years as a software developer, AI coding assistants revealed a shocking truth: I never actually loved coding—I loved what code could accomplish. In this episode, I explore how transitioning from hand-crafting every line at Podscan to orchestrating AI-generated code exposed the fundamental difference between developers who cherish solving technical puzzles and entrepreneurs who prioritize shipping features that drive business value. This shift from programmer to orchestrator isn't just about tools; it's about letting go of a carefully constructed identity and embracing that for software entrepreneurs, pristine code was never the goal—rapid deployment, customer value, and business growth always were. If you're struggling with AI coding tools or clinging to perfectionist coding standards, this perspective might fundamentally change how you view your role as a technical founder. This episode of The Bootstraped Founder is sponsored by Paddle.com The blog post: https://thebootstrappedfounder.com/i-never-really-loved-coding-and-only-ai-made-me-realize-it/ Check out Podscan, the Podcast database that transcribes every podcast episode out there minutes after it gets released: https://podscan.fm You'll find my weekly article on my blog: https://thebootstrappedfounder.com Podcast: https://thebootstrappedfounder.com/podcast Newsletter: https://thebootstrappedfounder.com/newsletter
My book The Embedded Entrepreneur: https://embeddedentrepreneur.com/ My course Find Your Following: https://findyourfollowing.com Here are a few tools I use. Using my affiliate links will support my work at no additional cost to you. | |||
| 423: The Marketer's Hierarchy of Needs: A Framework for Understanding Customer Intelligence | 14 Nov 2025 | 00:17:09 | |
What if your customers can't care about your advanced features because you haven't satisfied their basic needs first? Just like humans need food before philosophy, marketers need specific data in a rigid order – and understanding this hierarchy transformed how Podscan onboards customers.
The blog post: https://thebootstrappedfounder.com/the-marketers-hierarchy-of-needs-a-framework-for-understanding-customer-intelligence/ Check out Podscan, the Podcast database that transcribes every podcast episode out there minutes after it gets released: https://podscan.fm You'll find my weekly article on my blog: https://thebootstrappedfounder.com Podcast: https://thebootstrappedfounder.com/podcast Newsletter: https://thebootstrappedfounder.com/newsletter
My book The Embedded Entrepreneur: https://embeddedentrepreneur.com/ My course Find Your Following: https://findyourfollowing.com Here are a few tools I use. Using my affiliate links will support my work at no additional cost to you. | |||
| 422: The Things Your Customers Don't Care About | 07 Nov 2025 | 00:19:36 | |
When you build a software business as a founder, you have a dream. Building. Features. APIs. UIs. But how much of that is JUST a dream, and what REALLY leads to paying customers?
The blog post: https://thebootstrappedfounder.com/the-things-your-customers-dont-care-about/ Check out Podscan, the Podcast database that transcribes every podcast episode out there minutes after it gets released: https://podscan.fm You'll find my weekly article on my blog: https://thebootstrappedfounder.com Podcast: https://thebootstrappedfounder.com/podcast Newsletter: https://thebootstrappedfounder.com/newsletter
My book The Embedded Entrepreneur: https://embeddedentrepreneur.com/ My course Find Your Following: https://findyourfollowing.com Here are a few tools I use. Using my affiliate links will support my work at no additional cost to you. | |||
| 421: Why You Should Never Start a Software Business | 31 Oct 2025 | 00:21:59 | |
The brutal truth about SaaS nobody tells you. Here’s the thing: I’m about to share all the reasons why you should never, ever start a software business. And yes, I’m fully aware that I’m talking to an audience of software founders. This is somewhat sarcastic, somewhat ironic twist on the great things about entrepreneurship. And the problems you'll face.
The blog post: https://thebootstrappedfounder.com/why-you-should-never-start-a-software-business/ Check out Podscan, the Podcast database that transcribes every podcast episode out there minutes after it gets released: https://podscan.fm You'll find my weekly article on my blog: https://thebootstrappedfounder.com Podcast: https://thebootstrappedfounder.com/podcast Newsletter: https://thebootstrappedfounder.com/newsletter
My book The Embedded Entrepreneur: https://embeddedentrepreneur.com/ My course Find Your Following: https://findyourfollowing.com Here are a few tools I use. Using my affiliate links will support my work at no additional cost to you. | |||
| 420: AI for the Code-Writing Purist: How to Use AI Without Surrendering Your Keyboard | 24 Oct 2025 | 00:23:25 | |
I know you're out there. The developer who watches their colleagues enthusiastically embrace Claude Code and Cursor, having AI write entire feature sets while you proudly type every semicolon by hand. The founder who sees AI-generated code as a ticking time bomb of bugs and security vulnerabilities. The software entrepreneur who believes that real code comes from human minds, not language models. This one's for you.
The blog post: https://thebootstrappedfounder.com/ai-for-the-code-writing-purist-how-to-use-ai-without-surrendering-your-keyboard/ Check out Podscan, the Podcast database that transcribes every podcast episode out there minutes after it gets released: https://podscan.fm You'll find my weekly article on my blog: https://thebootstrappedfounder.com Podcast: https://thebootstrappedfounder.com/podcast Newsletter: https://thebootstrappedfounder.com/newsletter
My book The Embedded Entrepreneur: https://embeddedentrepreneur.com/ My course Find Your Following: https://findyourfollowing.com Here are a few tools I use. Using my affiliate links will support my work at no additional cost to you. | |||
| 419: The Missing Piece in Your Validation Strategy | 17 Oct 2025 | 00:20:09 | |
A lot of early-stage founders have understood—mostly because more and more people are talking about their early-stage strategies—that you need to validate your ideas. You need to make an effort to figure out if the thing you're planning to do is actually reasonable to attempt. Validation is important and absolutely worth doing prior to building. That much, many people have understood.
Then they bring it to market and realize something frustrating: even if they directly engage people in their market, even if they directly show this and onboard people into the product, they still don't get a sale. People stick with what they're currently doing, even though it is something that, from your perspective as a founder, is much worse, much more expensive, much more complicated, much less scalable. Why is that?
The blog post: https://thebootstrappedfounder.com/the-missing-piece-in-your-validation-strategy/ Check out Podscan, the Podcast database that transcribes every podcast episode out there minutes after it gets released: https://podscan.fm You'll find my weekly article on my blog: https://thebootstrappedfounder.com Podcast: https://thebootstrappedfounder.com/podcast Newsletter: https://thebootstrappedfounder.com/newsletter
My book The Embedded Entrepreneur: https://embeddedentrepreneur.com/ My course Find Your Following: https://findyourfollowing.com Here are a few tools I use. Using my affiliate links will support my work at no additional cost to you. | |||
| 418: Why AI-Generated Code Hurts Your Exit | 10 Oct 2025 | 00:16:20 | |
We're living through a fascinating moment in software development. AI coding tools can build features faster than ever before. They can scan entire codebases, spot things we might miss, and implement changes across dozens of files in seconds. It's incredible.
This is called comprehension debt.
The blog post: https://thebootstrappedfounder.com/why-ai-generated-code-hurts-your-exit/ Check out Podscan, the Podcast database that transcribes every podcast episode out there minutes after it gets released: https://podscan.fm You'll find my weekly article on my blog: https://thebootstrappedfounder.com Podcast: https://thebootstrappedfounder.com/podcast Newsletter: https://thebootstrappedfounder.com/newsletter
My book The Embedded Entrepreneur: https://embeddedentrepreneur.com/ My course Find Your Following: https://findyourfollowing.com Here are a few tools I use. Using my affiliate links will support my work at no additional cost to you. | |||
| 417: The Best Tech Stack in the Age of AI | 03 Oct 2025 | 00:15:56 | |
A couple of years ago, I tweeted that “the best tech stack is the one you already know.” To this day, this is one of my most resonating tweets. People keep bringing it back, and founders who've been around for a while seem to particularly agree with it. But AI changes things. Or does it? This episode of The Bootstraped Founder is sponsored by Paddle.com The blog post: https://thebootstrappedfounder.com/the-best-tech-stack-in-the-age-of-ai/ Check out Podscan, the Podcast database that transcribes every podcast episode out there minutes after it gets released: https://podscan.fm You'll find my weekly article on my blog: https://thebootstrappedfounder.com Podcast: https://thebootstrappedfounder.com/podcast Newsletter: https://thebootstrappedfounder.com/newsletter
My book The Embedded Entrepreneur: https://embeddedentrepreneur.com/ My course Find Your Following: https://findyourfollowing.com Here are a few tools I use. Using my affiliate links will support my work at no additional cost to you. | |||
| 416: The Ownership Paradox: What Do You Really Control in Your Software Business? | 26 Sep 2025 | 00:19:12 | |
As I'm building yet another software service business after having built and sold one back in 2019, I keep wrestling with a fundamental question that might sound simple but has profound implications: What do I actually own in this business? This episode of The Bootstraped Founder is sponsored by Paddle.com The blog post: https://thebootstrappedfounder.com/the-ownership-paradox-what-do-you-really-control-in-your-software-business/ Check out Podscan, the Podcast database that transcribes every podcast episode out there minutes after it gets released: https://podscan.fm You'll find my weekly article on my blog: https://thebootstrappedfounder.com Podcast: https://thebootstrappedfounder.com/podcast Newsletter: https://thebootstrappedfounder.com/newsletter
My book The Embedded Entrepreneur: https://embeddedentrepreneur.com/ My course Find Your Following: https://findyourfollowing.com Here are a few tools I use. Using my affiliate links will support my work at no additional cost to you. | |||
| 415: Handling Multiple ICPs as a Solo Founder | 19 Sep 2025 | 00:20:14 | |
This is something I've been wrestling with at Podscan, and I know many of you face the same challenge: you're building a product that could serve two, three, maybe even five different ideal customer profiles. And you're trying to figure out how to keep them all balanced—or whether you should even try. This episode of The Bootstraped Founder is sponsored by Paddle.com The blog post: https://thebootstrappedfounder.com/handling-multiple-icps-as-a-solo-founder/ Check out Podscan, the Podcast database that transcribes every podcast episode out there minutes after it gets released: https://podscan.fm You'll find my weekly article on my blog: https://thebootstrappedfounder.com Podcast: https://thebootstrappedfounder.com/podcast Newsletter: https://thebootstrappedfounder.com/newsletter
My book The Embedded Entrepreneur: https://embeddedentrepreneur.com/ My course Find Your Following: https://findyourfollowing.com Here are a few tools I use. Using my affiliate links will support my work at no additional cost to you. | |||
| 414: The Pure Amateur is Vanishing: Why Everyone's a Performer Now | 12 Sep 2025 | 00:23:08 | |
I was recently reading an article about The Great British Baking Show - or Bake Off, as we fans of this fun TV competition call it. It was written by someone who had been on the show, one of the competitors, and they were talking about how looking at the show from the inside made them realize something profound: there are no real amateurs anymore. Not only is that changing the media landscape, it also affects what businesses are needed to serve what has replaced them. This episode of The Bootstraped Founder is sponsored by Paddle.com The blog post: https://thebootstrappedfounder.com/the-pure-amateur-is-vanishing-why-everyones-a-performer-now/ Check out Podscan, the Podcast database that transcribes every podcast episode out there minutes after it gets released: https://podscan.fm You'll find my weekly article on my blog: https://thebootstrappedfounder.com Podcast: https://thebootstrappedfounder.com/podcast Newsletter: https://thebootstrappedfounder.com/newsletter
My book The Embedded Entrepreneur: https://embeddedentrepreneur.com/ My course Find Your Following: https://findyourfollowing.com Here are a few tools I use. Using my affiliate links will support my work at no additional cost to you. | |||
| 413: We’re Gonna Need a Bigger Moat | 05 Sep 2025 | 00:25:15 | |
You know that moment when you realize the ground has shifted beneath your feet? I had one of those moments recently. I was watching an AI agent build out a complex feature for Podscan in about twenty minutes – something that would have taken me days to code properly just a year ago. And it hit me: the rules of the game have fundamentally changed.
The blog post: https://thebootstrappedfounder.com/were-gonna-need-a-bigger-moat/ Check out Podscan, the Podcast database that transcribes every podcast episode out there minutes after it gets released: https://podscan.fm You'll find my weekly article on my blog: https://thebootstrappedfounder.com Podcast: https://thebootstrappedfounder.com/podcast Newsletter: https://thebootstrappedfounder.com/newsletter
My book The Embedded Entrepreneur: https://embeddedentrepreneur.com/ My course Find Your Following: https://findyourfollowing.com Here are a few tools I use. Using my affiliate links will support my work at no additional cost to you. | |||
| 412: The $0.20/Day AI System That Converts Trial Users Into Paying Customers | 29 Aug 2025 | 00:25:11 | |
It took me a long while to realize this: AI isn't just something like a chatbot for my customers. AI can work behind the scenes to facilitate getting the right stuff in front of the right people for me, even just to figure out who people are and how I should talk to them. And today, I want to share exactly what I'm doing, how expensive this is to run, and how I believe this can be part of every single software as a service business out there—even if you don't have any touchpoint with artificial intelligence in that business at all. Even if you don't think you should be offering AI features to your customers.
The blog post: https://thebootstrappedfounder.com/the-0-20-day-ai-system-that-converts-trial-users-into-paying-customers/ Check out Podscan, the Podcast database that transcribes every podcast episode out there minutes after it gets released: https://podscan.fm You'll find my weekly article on my blog: https://thebootstrappedfounder.com Podcast: https://thebootstrappedfounder.com/podcast Newsletter: https://thebootstrappedfounder.com/newsletter
My book The Embedded Entrepreneur: https://embeddedentrepreneur.com/ My course Find Your Following: https://findyourfollowing.com Here are a few tools I use. Using my affiliate links will support my work at no additional cost to you. | |||
| 411: The Currents of a Founder | 22 Aug 2025 | 00:19:05 | |
I was reading Brandon Sanderson's latest novel, Wind and Truth, when I came across a sentence that stopped me cold: "A stronger current makes for stronger fish." That's it. That's what entrepreneurship is. We're constantly encountering currents that either facilitate what we want to accomplish—the businesses we want to build, the lives we want to create—or they oppose us, trying to sweep us into dangerous waters. These currents change all the time. They vary in strength depending on where you are in your journey. And here's the thing: they're mostly invisible until you learn to feel them. Someone on Twitter asked me what my top three currents were after I shared this thought. It turned out to be a revealing exercise—assessing what I'm exposed to, what I'm dealing with, and how I'm navigating these forces. So let me share what I've discovered about the currents pulling at me as I build Podscan. This episode of The Bootstraped Founder is sponsored by Paddle.com — The Web Revenue Lab Series The blog post: https://thebootstrappedfounder.com/the-currents-of-a-founder/ Check out Podscan, the Podcast database that transcribes every podcast episode out there minutes after it gets released: https://podscan.fm You'll find my weekly article on my blog: https://thebootstrappedfounder.com Podcast: https://thebootstrappedfounder.com/podcast Newsletter: https://thebootstrappedfounder.com/newsletter
My book The Embedded Entrepreneur: https://embeddedentrepreneur.com/ My course Find Your Following: https://findyourfollowing.com Here are a few tools I use. Using my affiliate links will support my work at no additional cost to you. | |||
| 410: Building for the Age of AI Consumers | 15 Aug 2025 | 00:23:34 | |
I think we're at the precipice of a pretty significant change in how we build software products. Obviously, the recent ascent of vibe coding and all the agentic coding tools that we find very useful and highly effective shows a difference in how we approach building products. But there's another change - not just in how we build, but in who these products are for. This episode of The Bootstraped Founder is sponsored by Paddle.com The blog post: https://thebootstrappedfounder.com/building-for-the-age-of-ai-consumers/ Check out Podscan, the Podcast database that transcribes every podcast episode out there minutes after it gets released: https://podscan.fm You'll find my weekly article on my blog: https://thebootstrappedfounder.com Podcast: https://thebootstrappedfounder.com/podcast Newsletter: https://thebootstrappedfounder.com/newsletter
My book The Embedded Entrepreneur: https://embeddedentrepreneur.com/ My course Find Your Following: https://findyourfollowing.com Here are a few tools I use. Using my affiliate links will support my work at no additional cost to you. | |||
| 409: James Phoenix — Claude Code Masterclass | 13 Aug 2025 | 00:59:26 | |
James Phoenix is an expert in agentic coding, particularly Claude code, a tool that I have been using to great effect over the last couple months. I chatted with James just a couple days ago and have implemented several of the tips that he gave me during a conversation, and I'm already almost twice as effective at using this already magically effective tool. So I don't think I can overpromise how much insight into well-structured and highly optimized agentic coding you will get from this conversation. This episode of The Bootstraped Founder is sponsored by Paddle.com The blog post: https://thebootstrappedfounder.com/james-phoenix-claude-code-masterclass/ Check out Podscan, the Podcast database that transcribes every podcast episode out there minutes after it gets released: https://podscan.fm You'll find my weekly article on my blog: https://thebootstrappedfounder.com Podcast: https://thebootstrappedfounder.com/podcast Newsletter: https://thebootstrappedfounder.com/newsletter
My book The Embedded Entrepreneur: https://embeddedentrepreneur.com/ My course Find Your Following: https://findyourfollowing.com Here are a few tools I use. Using my affiliate links will support my work at no additional cost to you. | |||
| 408: The Podscan Ideas Vault: Engineering as Marketing | 08 Aug 2025 | 00:21:29 | |
Today I'll be talking about a successful marketing project within my software business that turned out to be so successful that it spawned a business built on top of that business. This episode of The Bootstraped Founder is sponsored by Paddle.com The blog post: https://thebootstrappedfounder.com/the-podscan-ideas-vault-engineering-as-marketing/ Check out Podscan, the Podcast database that transcribes every podcast episode out there minutes after it gets released: https://podscan.fm You'll find my weekly article on my blog: https://thebootstrappedfounder.com Podcast: https://thebootstrappedfounder.com/podcast Newsletter: https://thebootstrappedfounder.com/newsletter
My book The Embedded Entrepreneur: https://embeddedentrepreneur.com/ My course Find Your Following: https://findyourfollowing.com Here are a few tools I use. Using my affiliate links will support my work at no additional cost to you. | |||
| 407: Nick Groeneveld — Exploring AI's Impact on Modern Design | 06 Aug 2025 | 00:49:39 | |
Nick Groeneveld is a designer and User Experience expert who has been a valued collaborator on Podscan, my own software product. Nick works as a freelancer for a lot of companies that have no in-house design knowledge, and he's been navigating the rapid changes that AI tools like Lovable and vZero are bringing to the design world. With 10 years of professional design experience and a deep understanding of design theory, Nick brings a unique perspective on what happens when machines start creating interfaces that look surprisingly good. We also tackle deeper questions about whether AI is making us dumber, why human judgment remains irreplaceable, and how to use AI as a learning tool rather than just a productivity hack.
The blog post: https://thebootstrappedfounder.com/nick-groeneveld-exploring-ais-impact-on-modern-design/ Check out Podscan, the Podcast database that transcribes every podcast episode out there minutes after it gets released: https://podscan.fm You'll find my weekly article on my blog: https://thebootstrappedfounder.com Podcast: https://thebootstrappedfounder.com/podcast Newsletter: https://thebootstrappedfounder.com/newsletter
My book The Embedded Entrepreneur: https://embeddedentrepreneur.com/ My course Find Your Following: https://findyourfollowing.com Here are a few tools I use. Using my affiliate links will support my work at no additional cost to you. | |||
| 406: Making Your Business Sellable (Even If You Never Plan to Sell) | 01 Aug 2025 | 00:22:22 | |
Today, I’ll share how I’ve been preparing Podscan (and long before that, another SaaS business) to be ready to be acquired at a moment’s notice. This episode of The Bootstraped Founder is sponsored by Paddle.com The blog post: https://thebootstrappedfounder.com/making-your-business-sellable-even-if-you-never-plan-to-sell/ Check out Podscan, the Podcast database that transcribes every podcast episode out there minutes after it gets released: https://podscan.fm You'll find my weekly article on my blog: https://thebootstrappedfounder.com Podcast: https://thebootstrappedfounder.com/podcast Newsletter: https://thebootstrappedfounder.com/newsletter
My book The Embedded Entrepreneur: https://embeddedentrepreneur.com/ My course Find Your Following: https://findyourfollowing.com Here are a few tools I use. Using my affiliate links will support my work at no additional cost to you. | |||
| 405: The Friction Paradox: Why AI Might Be Making Us Worse at What We Do | 25 Jul 2025 | 00:13:44 | |
Today we’ll talk about how AI systems, particularly the ones that do all the work for us, can both massively amplify and hinder our effectiveness. The good get better, and the bad get worse. It's a problem. The blog post: https://thebootstrappedfounder.com/the-friction-paradox-why-ai-might-be-making-us-worse-at-what-we-do/ Check out Podscan, the Podcast database that transcribes every podcast episode out there minutes after it gets released: https://podscan.fm You'll find my weekly article on my blog: https://thebootstrappedfounder.com Podcast: https://thebootstrappedfounder.com/podcast Newsletter: https://thebootstrappedfounder.com/newsletter
My book The Embedded Entrepreneur: https://embeddedentrepreneur.com/ My course Find Your Following: https://findyourfollowing.com Here are a few tools I use. Using my affiliate links will support my work at no additional cost to you. | |||
| 404: The Transcription Challenge: Building Infrastructure That Scales With The World | 18 Jul 2025 | 00:27:47 | |
Today we’ll talk about keeping up with an avalanche of audio data and how I built Podscan’s transcription infrastructure. This episode of The Bootstraped Founder is sponsored by Paddle.com The blog post: https://thebootstrappedfounder.com/the-transcription-challenge-building-infrastructure-that-scales-with-the-world/ Check out Podscan, the Podcast database that transcribes every podcast episode out there minutes after it gets released: https://podscan.fm You'll find my weekly article on my blog: https://thebootstrappedfounder.com Podcast: https://thebootstrappedfounder.com/podcast Newsletter: https://thebootstrappedfounder.com/newsletter
My book The Embedded Entrepreneur: https://embeddedentrepreneur.com/ My course Find Your Following: https://findyourfollowing.com Here are a few tools I use. Using my affiliate links will support my work at no additional cost to you. | |||
| 403: Amar Ghose — From Non-Technical Founder to SaaS Innovator | 16 Jul 2025 | 00:44:29 | |
Amar Ghose has been growing Zenmaid from idea to market leader as a non-technical founder. Zenmaid is a SaaS platform that's been helping maid service owners grow their businesses since 2013. Amar is one of those amazing founders who truly embodies the bootstrapping spirit—when his co-founder left early on at just $15k in monthly revenue, he could have easily given up. Instead, he stuck with it, and through relentless customer focus and persistence, he's built ZenMaid into a $150k per month business over the past 12 years. What makes Amar's story particularly inspiring is that he's a non-technical founder who used a customer development approach from day one, really listening to his market and building exactly what maid service owners needed. He's also created an incredible content marketing ecosystem around ZenMaid—from YouTube channels to the Maid Summit conference to podcasts—always focused on helping maid service owners succeed rather than just selling software. We're talking about the power of persistence in bootstrapping, how to build as a non-technical founder, the importance of customer development, and how to create content that truly serves your community. We'll also dive into building a remote-first, location-independent company and staying focused on your customers' success over quick growth.
Check out Podscan, the Podcast database that transcribes every podcast episode out there minutes after it gets released: https://podscan.fm You'll find my weekly article on my blog: https://thebootstrappedfounder.com Podcast: https://thebootstrappedfounder.com/podcast Newsletter: https://thebootstrappedfounder.com/newsletter
My book The Embedded Entrepreneur: https://embeddedentrepreneur.com/ My course Find Your Following: https://findyourfollowing.com Here are a few tools I use. Using my affiliate links will support my work at no additional cost to you. | |||
| 402: A $2 Billion Industry Built on Digital Duct Tape | 11 Jul 2025 | 00:22:58 | |
Today I’ll share my insights into the podcasting universe, from a software founder perspective. There are so many untapped opportunities in a space where budgets and expectations are growing massively, so why not talk about the most challenging issues and what could be gained if they were solved. This episode of The Bootstraped Founder is sponsored by Paddle.com The blog post: https://thebootstrappedfounder.com/the-podcasting-infrastructure-crisis-a-2-billion-industry-built-on-digital-duct-tape/ Check out Podscan, the Podcast database that transcribes every podcast episode out there minutes after it gets released: https://podscan.fm You'll find my weekly article on my blog: https://thebootstrappedfounder.com Podcast: https://thebootstrappedfounder.com/podcast Newsletter: https://thebootstrappedfounder.com/newsletter
My book The Embedded Entrepreneur: https://embeddedentrepreneur.com/ My course Find Your Following: https://findyourfollowing.com Here are a few tools I use. Using my affiliate links will support my work at no additional cost to you. | |||
| 401: Vova Feldman — Mastering Entrepreneurship in the Payments Sector | 09 Jul 2025 | 00:41:13 | |
Vova Feldman is the founder of Freemius, a Merchant of Record payment provider. He's been at it for a while, and it wasn't always easy. Vova shares his approach to weathering the highs and lows of entrepreneurship, how to build a team (and mis-hires), and what operating in the payment industry means for a crafty founder. The blog post: https://thebootstrappedfounder.com/vova-feldman-mastering-entrepreneurship-in-the-payments-sector/ Check out Podscan, the Podcast database that transcribes every podcast episode out there minutes after it gets released: https://podscan.fm You'll find my weekly article on my blog: https://thebootstrappedfounder.com Podcast: https://thebootstrappedfounder.com/podcast Newsletter: https://thebootstrappedfounder.com/newsletter
My book The Embedded Entrepreneur: https://embeddedentrepreneur.com/ My course Find Your Following: https://findyourfollowing.com Here are a few tools I use. Using my affiliate links will support my work at no additional cost to you. | |||
| 400: The Hidden Revolution: AI Is Democratizing Coding Mentorship | 04 Jul 2025 | 00:14:31 | |
One aspect of the AI hype we’re all dealing with right now is severely underreported. And it’s that part that I personally think has a much more substantial long-term impact than all the magical video generators and coding agents. This episode of The Bootstraped Founder is sponsored by Paddle.com The blog post: https://thebootstrappedfounder.com/the-hidden-revolutionai-is-democratizing-coding-mentorship/ Check out Podscan, the Podcast database that transcribes every podcast episode out there minutes after it gets released: https://podscan.fm You'll find my weekly article on my blog: https://thebootstrappedfounder.com Podcast: https://thebootstrappedfounder.com/podcast Newsletter: https://thebootstrappedfounder.com/newsletter
My book The Embedded Entrepreneur: https://embeddedentrepreneur.com/ My course Find Your Following: https://findyourfollowing.com Here are a few tools I use. Using my affiliate links will support my work at no additional cost to you. | |||
| 399: NativePHP: How Simon Hamp & Shane Rosenthal are Building & Monetizing PHP on Mobile | 02 Jul 2025 | 00:50:35 | |
Shane Rosenthal and Simon Hamp from the NativePHP Project have brought PHP, and with it my favorite web framework Laravel, onto Mobile devices. I love this: taking established tech and porting it into places where you wouldn’t expect. I’ll be talking to Share and Simon about how they accomplished this, and, maybe even more impressively, how they turned this into a profitable business at a very early stage. This episode of The Bootstraped Founder is sponsored by Paddle.com The blog post: https://thebootstrappedfounder.com/simon-hamp-shane-rosenthal-building-monetizing-nativephp/ Check out Podscan, the Podcast database that transcribes every podcast episode out there minutes after it gets released: https://podscan.fm You'll find my weekly article on my blog: https://thebootstrappedfounder.com Podcast: https://thebootstrappedfounder.com/podcast Newsletter: https://thebootstrappedfounder.com/newsletter
My book The Embedded Entrepreneur: https://embeddedentrepreneur.com/ My course Find Your Following: https://findyourfollowing.com Here are a few tools I use. Using my affiliate links will support my work at no additional cost to you. | |||
| 398: The Hidden Cost of Being First | 27 Jun 2025 | 00:11:54 | |
When Python's dominant package manager pip was challenged by newcomer uv—which is so fast users think it's broken—it revealed a fundamental truth about first-mover advantage that every founder needs to understand. Discover why being first means building "unavoidable complexity," how smart competitors exploit this weakness, and the strategic framework for deciding whether to pioneer a market or build a better mousetrap. The blog post: https://thebootstrappedfounder.com/the-hidden-cost-of-being-first/ Check out Podscan, the Podcast database that transcribes every podcast episode out there minutes after it gets released: https://podscan.fm You'll find my weekly article on my blog: https://thebootstrappedfounder.com Podcast: https://thebootstrappedfounder.com/podcast Newsletter: https://thebootstrappedfounder.com/newsletter
My book The Embedded Entrepreneur: https://embeddedentrepreneur.com/ My course Find Your Following: https://findyourfollowing.com Here are a few tools I use. Using my affiliate links will support my work at no additional cost to you. | |||
| 397: When Profitability Disappears — A Podscan Reality Check | 20 Jun 2025 | 00:17:48 | |
Today’s episode represents the reality of entrepreneurship—not just the wins, but the difficult decisions and uncertainty that come with building something new. Sometimes the most valuable conversations happen when we're honest about the challenges we're facing. The blog post: https://thebootstrappedfounder.com/when-profitability-disappears-a-podscan-reality-check/ Check out Podscan, the Podcast database that transcribes every podcast episode out there minutes after it gets released: https://podscan.fm You'll find my weekly article on my blog: https://thebootstrappedfounder.com Podcast: https://thebootstrappedfounder.com/podcast Newsletter: https://thebootstrappedfounder.com/newsletter
My book The Embedded Entrepreneur: https://embeddedentrepreneur.com/ My course Find Your Following: https://findyourfollowing.com Here are a few tools I use. Using my affiliate links will support my work at no additional cost to you. | |||
| 396: Jack Friks — Building Tools That Empower Without Overwhelming | 18 Jun 2025 | 00:39:17 | |
Jack Friks (@jackfriks) is the founder of PostBridge, a social media scheduling tool that grew from his own frustration with spending hours posting across platforms to a $18k/month business. We explore the evolution of social media toward authenticity, the challenges of building lean products as a solopreneur, and how to navigate the noise while maintaining a genuine human connection in an AI-driven world. The blog post: https://thebootstrappedfounder.com/jack-friks-building-tools-that-empower-without-overwhelming/ Check out Podscan, the Podcast database that transcribes every podcast episode out there minutes after it gets released: https://podscan.fm You'll find my weekly article on my blog: https://thebootstrappedfounder.com Podcast: https://thebootstrappedfounder.com/podcast Newsletter: https://thebootstrappedfounder.com/newsletter
My book The Embedded Entrepreneur: https://embeddedentrepreneur.com/ My course Find Your Following: https://findyourfollowing.com Here are a few tools I use. Using my affiliate links will support my work at no additional cost to you. | |||
| 395: From Code Writer to Code Editor: My AI-Assisted Development Workflow | 13 Jun 2025 | 00:26:40 | |
My day-to-day coding looks very different from what it was a few years ago. Today, you'll learn about my voice-to-code workflow and how I leverage smart tools to have so much free time that I feel guilty for "not working enough." Seriously. The blog post: https://thebootstrappedfounder.com/from-code-writer-to-code-editor-my-ai-assisted-development-workflow/ Check out Podscan, the Podcast database that transcribes every podcast episode out there minutes after it gets released: https://podscan.fm You'll find my weekly article on my blog: https://thebootstrappedfounder.com Podcast: https://thebootstrappedfounder.com/podcast Newsletter: https://thebootstrappedfounder.com/newsletter
My book The Embedded Entrepreneur: https://embeddedentrepreneur.com/ My course Find Your Following: https://findyourfollowing.com Here are a few tools I use. Using my affiliate links will support my work at no additional cost to you. | |||
| 394: Taylor Otwell — The (Quite Entrepreneurial) Creator of Laravel | 11 Jun 2025 | 00:41:55 | |
Taylor Otwell (@taylorotwell) didn't just create the popular open-source framework Laravel. He turned it into a highly profitable business that helps developers build profitable businesses themselves. Few other open-source devs have such a clear understanding of market needs AND developer requirements. Taylor shares his approach to monetizing freely available code, how he intentionally built an ecosystem of free and paid-for tooling, and where the Laravel journey will go. The blog post: https://thebootstrappedfounder.com/taylor-otwell-the-quite-entrepreneurial-creator-of-laravel/ Check out Podscan, the Podcast database that transcribes every podcast episode out there minutes after it gets released: https://podscan.fm You'll find my weekly article on my blog: https://thebootstrappedfounder.com Podcast: https://thebootstrappedfounder.com/podcast Newsletter: https://thebootstrappedfounder.com/newsletter
My book The Embedded Entrepreneur: https://embeddedentrepreneur.com/ My course Find Your Following: https://findyourfollowing.com Here are a few tools I use. Using my affiliate links will support my work at no additional cost to you. | |||
| 393: AI is a Threat to SaaS Multiples | 06 Jun 2025 | 00:23:57 | |
Software-as-a-service business acquisitions are in trouble. What is responsible for a downward trend in multiples and acquisition dollar amounts? It has a lot to do with AI, but it may not be what you think. I recently recorded an in-depth session for Rob Walling's SaaS Launchpad. This module is called AI in SaaS, and I share over a dozen pitfalls, unobvious risks, and hard-earned insights from my own AI SaaS building journey. The course was already great, but... you know... ;) Use the code ARVID150 to get $150 off until June 8th. The blog post: https://thebootstrappedfounder.com/ai-is-a-threat-to-saas-multiples/ Check out Podscan, the Podcast database that transcribes every podcast episode out there minutes after it gets released: https://podscan.fm You'll find my weekly article on my blog: https://thebootstrappedfounder.com Podcast: https://thebootstrappedfounder.com/podcast Newsletter: https://thebootstrappedfounder.com/newsletter
My book The Embedded Entrepreneur: https://embeddedentrepreneur.com/ My course Find Your Following: https://findyourfollowing.com Here are a few tools I use. Using my affiliate links will support my work at no additional cost to you. | |||
| 392: Building AI Businesses Without Breaking the Internet | 30 May 2025 | 00:22:48 | |
Ever heard of model collapse? It occurs when AI models are trained on the outputs of previous AI models. And it's not pretty. I recently recorded an in-depth session for Rob Walling's SaaS Launchpad. This module is called AI in SaaS, and I share over a dozen pitfalls, unobvious risks, and hard-earned insights from my own AI SaaS building journey. The course was already great, but... you know... ;) Use the code ARVID150 to get $150 off until June 8th. The blog post: https://thebootstrappedfounder.com/building-ai-businesses-without-breaking-the-internet/ Check out Podscan, the Podcast database that transcribes every podcast episode out there minutes after it gets released: https://podscan.fm You'll find my weekly article on my blog: https://thebootstrappedfounder.com Podcast: https://thebootstrappedfounder.com/podcast Newsletter: https://thebootstrappedfounder.com/newsletter
My book The Embedded Entrepreneur: https://embeddedentrepreneur.com/ My course Find Your Following: https://findyourfollowing.com Here are a few tools I use. Using my affiliate links will support my work at no additional cost to you. | |||
| 391: AI is Flipping Our Relationship with Technology | 23 May 2025 | 00:25:32 | |
Second brains were all the rage a year ago. Now, it feels like we're not just externalizing our thoughts; we're training a much bigger, much less personal brain. A first brain. THE brain. Is this a good thing? Are we truly the beneficiaries here? The blog post: https://thebootstrappedfounder.com/ai-is-flipping-our-relationship-with-technology/ Check out Podscan, the Podcast database that transcribes every podcast episode out there minutes after it gets released: https://podscan.fm You'll find my weekly article on my blog: https://thebootstrappedfounder.com Podcast: https://thebootstrappedfounder.com/podcast Newsletter: https://thebootstrappedfounder.com/newsletter
My book The Embedded Entrepreneur: https://embeddedentrepreneur.com/ My course Find Your Following: https://findyourfollowing.com Here are a few tools I use. Using my affiliate links will support my work at no additional cost to you. | |||
| 390: When to Choose Local LLMs vs APIs | 16 May 2025 | 00:16:39 | |
When I started Podscan, I wanted to go full local AI. Self-hosted, self-managed, self-serving. But that tune has changed. Here's what to think about when contemplating a local AI strategy. The blog post: https://thebootstrappedfounder.com/when-to-choose-local-llms-vs-apis-a-founders-real-world-guide/ Check out Podscan, the Podcast database that transcribes every podcast episode out there minutes after it gets released: https://podscan.fm You'll find my weekly article on my blog: https://thebootstrappedfounder.com Podcast: https://thebootstrappedfounder.com/podcast Newsletter: https://thebootstrappedfounder.com/newsletter
My book The Embedded Entrepreneur: https://embeddedentrepreneur.com/ My course Find Your Following: https://findyourfollowing.com Here are a few tools I use. Using my affiliate links will support my work at no additional cost to you. | |||