Episode 7: Commit to Launching Product w/Ian Landsman

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What are you prepared to do?  That’s the question Ian Landsman poses in Episode 7 as we talk about launching product.  Ian takes us from his start in retail all the way through learning to code and eventually launching product of his own.

Bootstrapped Product Talking Points

  • trial and error in the service of selecting a product,
  • pros, cons and opportunities of launching Saas apps vs on-premise apps,
  • why podcasting in 2013 is like blogging in 2004,
  • the role of youth & confidence vs age & wisdom when launching product,
  • the importance of community

We also talk a bit about the red ocean/blue ocean strategy, which was also addressed in Episode 6.  Ian is a big proponent of the “red ocean” strategy, and he tell us why.  He also addresses how the world of launching product has changed in the past 10 years; more tools, communities, and information are available to aspiring bootstrappers now than ever before.  We also take a detour into Curmudgeon-ville and talk about what it’s like to launch as an older-than-college-age entrepreneur.

We finish the show with three actionable bullet points for launching product.  As a 10-year veteran of running a successful bootstrapped business, Ian has been there and done that.  Stick around for the entire episode to see what three things are so important to launching product, Ian thinks you should do them right now.

 

UserScape – Ian’s company
HelpSpot – Ian’s 1st product; Help Desk Software for Email/Web Customer Service
Snappy – Ian’s latest product; Customer Service, Simplified
Bootstrapped.fm – Andrey’s bootstrapped product podcast

Joel on Software Forums – where an entire generation of bootstrappers got their start
Office Depot
EngineHosting
ZenDesk
Laravel – the elegant PHP framework for web artisans
Red Ocean strategy vs Blue Ocean strategy
SmallSpec – painless functional specifications; join the launch list