Startups For the Rest of Us
Episode 754 | Broken Freemium, SaaS Plateaus, and More Listener Questions (A Rob Solo Adventure)
Tue, 04 Feb 2025
In episode 754, join Rob Walling for a solo adventure as he tackles listener questions on a variety of topics. He discusses strategies for converting free users to paid customers, the implications of AI advancements on the SaaS landscape, and how to navigate platform risks when larger players enter your market. Rob also shares insights on breaking through growth plateaus. Topics we cover: (3:12) – When in doubt, don’t try freemium (6:44) – Different levers you can pull to make freemium work (8:53) – How will SaaS be affected by the exponential growth of AI? (14:09) – Big players launching features is a form of platform risk (17:24) – Should I spin out a portion of my product into a new product? (20:05) – Thinking through plateaus in your business growth Links from the Show: MicroConf Connect Applications are open through Feb 5th Ask a Question on Startups For the Rest of Us TinySeed Episode 663 | 5 Insights SaaS Founders Should Know About A.I. (Ignore at Your Peril) Episode 735 | The 8 Levels of SaaS Platform Risk (A Rob Solo Adventure) MicroConf YouTube Channel If you have questions about starting or scaling a software business that you’d like for us to cover, please submit your question for an upcoming episode. We’d love to hear from you! Subscribe & Review: iTunes | Spotify
Full Episode
Welcome to another episode of Startups for the Rest of Us. This week, I'm your host, I'm Rob Walling, and this is the podcast for folks who want to build real software businesses, real SaaS companies that sell a real product to real customers for real money. You can be bootstrapped. You can be mostly bootstrapped.
Frankly, you can raise a kajillion dollars in venture capital, and I still believe that the content and the thoughts and the ideas and the strategies and the inspiration and the tactics that I present here on this show are applicable to you no matter which of those buckets you fall in.
Unless you're planning to have Kid Rock at your launch party and you want to stay pre-revenue forever because your valuation is more important to you than actually making money, then this podcast is not for you. But if you want to build real SaaS companies, real software companies, then this podcast is laser-focused designed for you. Today, I'm going to be answering listener questions.
It's been a minute since I've taken some listener questions on. And if you have a question for the show, you can email it to questions at startupsfortherestofus.com or head to startupsfortherestofus.com. Go to ask a question in the top nav section. As always, video questions go to the top of the stack, although I have been taking text questions that are more intermediate or later stage.
Because I've found that the pipeline gets pretty clogged with, how do I choose an idea? And I'm pre-revenue, what should I do? And how do I launch? That's all interesting, but I think answering question after question after question for pre-revenue folks gives an indication that is not true, that this podcast is aimed at beginners, which it is not.
So send your intermediate to advanced to later stage questions as well as your beginner questions. We'll tackle those in upcoming episodes. But before I dive into listener questions, I want to let you know that MicroConf Connect applications are open today through February 5th.
To create the best possible experience, we welcome new members in monthly cohorts with applications open for just 72 hours each month. MicroConf Connect is our online community. It is the best online community of bootstrapped SaaS founders. Every month, we put on a special live call with a new guest.
And if you remember this month, you get access to a live call with Harry Lawson, where he's going to break down SaaS copywriting essentials. Harry has written for companies like Testimonial.to, Signwell, and Veed.io. And next month, I believe, I am the special guest on the live call where I will do live Q&A. It's always a blast.
If you're interested in becoming part of this worldwide, year-round online community of MicroConf Connect, head to microconfconnect.com to apply. Applications are only open until February 5th. If you miss this window, you will have to wait until March. That's microconfconnect.com. So with that, let's dive into my first question from Idan Masas.
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