Chasing Product » development Moving out of consulting & into products Mon, 14 Jul 2014 21:40:02 +0000 en-US hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.6 The Chasing Product podcast helps consultants and freelancers transition from client work to releasing bootstrapped software products. If you want to get out of client work and in to product work, then you are Chasing Product. Christopher Hawkins no Christopher Hawkins [email protected] [email protected] (Christopher Hawkins) Helping developers transition from client work to launching products Chasing Product » development /wp/wp-content/uploads/powerpress/Chasing-Product-Cover-1400.png Weekly Episode 16: Building a Software Business On The Road w/Mike Taber /episodes/episode-16-building-software-business-road-wmike-taber /episodes/episode-16-building-software-business-road-wmike-taber#comments Mon, 31 Mar 2014 22:29:41 +0000 christopher.hawkins /?p=259 Mike Taber of AuditShark shares his tale of building a software business while on the road as a consultant.  We talk about life as a consultant and a founder, the random nature of hits, and some common behaviors of successful bootstrappers. Bootstrapped Product Talking Points Why getting help is important to a solo founder The

Read More

The post Episode 16: Building a Software Business On The Road w/Mike Taber appeared first on Chasing Product.

]]> /episodes/episode-16-building-software-business-road-wmike-taber/feed 0 adwords,bootstrapped,consulting,development,Marketing,Saas,startup Mike Taber of AuditShark shares his tale of building a software business while on the road as a consultant.  We talk about life as a consultant and a founder, the random nature of hits, and some common behaviors of successful bootstrappers. Mike Taber of AuditShark shares his tale of building a software business while on the road as a consultant.  We talk about life as a consultant and a founder, the random nature of hits, and some common behaviors of successful bootstrappers. Bootstrapped Product Talking Points Why getting help is important to a solo founder The exigencies of the game market vs the market for business apps The depression of watching business start to crumble Recognizing market opportunities in what other companies leave behind Mike-related links: singlefounder.com auditshark.com moonriversoftware.com moonriverconsulting.com startupsfortherestofus micropreneuracademy.com microconf 2014   Show-related links: Pedestal Software Rovio - maker of Angry Birds Einstein Rob Walling - founder of HitTail and Drip Symantec GoogleAdWords Oprah Lifestyle Business Marie Forleo Cogeian Systems - my consulting firm SmallSpec - my startup - Painless Functional Specs (join the launch list!) Mike is an interesting dude.  He was successful at building a software business while still being a consultant, and he's done it alone.  Because of my strong aversion to partnering up, seeing a success story like the one Mike has is very important to me.  Through it all, he has been able to distill what he has learned in such a way that it makes sense when he explains it. We touch on Mike's history as a consultant and founder, discuss some examples of success that doesn't look like you expect it to, and even share a brutally honest moment with Mike as he recounts watching his business crater when the economy got rough.  This last moment is particularly interesting; it's rare for a founder to be so honest about the ugly side of running a business. Comments & feedback are welcome via Twitter or e-mail. Christopher Hawkins no 78:38 Episode 13: Organic Product Development w/Josh Pigford /episodes/episode-13-organic-product-development-wjosh-pigford /episodes/episode-13-organic-product-development-wjosh-pigford#comments Tue, 04 Feb 2014 15:52:59 +0000 christopher.hawkins /?p=149 Josh Pigford, serial maker of things, joins me for this episode.  Josh has a wonderfully diverse portfolio of projects.  Starting as a designer and gradually transitioning into launching web products, Josh has had both successes and failures as a founder.  We talk about some freelancing issues, how to do organic product development, and the exigencies of

Read More

The post Episode 13: Organic Product Development w/Josh Pigford appeared first on Chasing Product.

]]> /episodes/episode-13-organic-product-development-wjosh-pigford/feed 0 design,development,Marketing,organic,recurring revenue,Saas,saas app,web app Josh Pigford, serial maker of things, joins me for this episode.  Josh has a wonderfully diverse portfolio of projects.  Starting as a designer and gradually transitioning into launching web products, Josh has had both successes and failures as a found... Josh Pigford, serial maker of things, joins me for this episode.  Josh has a wonderfully diverse portfolio of projects.  Starting as a designer and gradually transitioning into launching web products, Josh has had both successes and failures as a founder.  We talk about some freelancing issues, how to do organic product development, and the exigencies of freelancing for equity. Bootstrapped Product Talking Points What prompted Josh to make the leap to products The importance of filling your skill gaps when you can't outsource The most accessible go-to marketing techniques Josh has used Organic product development vs plucking a product idea from thin air Temper.io - Better Customer Service Over Time; measures how your customers feel about your business so you know what to improve PopSurvey - Create Surveys People Want to Take; PopSurveys are beautiful, easy to create and more importantly, fun to take Baremetrics - SaaS Analytics for Stripe PugSpot - The spot for pugs! Tiny Farmstead - Learning how to farm in the 'burbs! Fugitive Toys - an Urban Vinyl Toy Store Ruby on Rails Flippa The Apple Blog - Started by Josh, later acquired by GigaOm Track the Pack - Universal package-tracking app that Josh had to shutter Track the Pack Post-Mortem - fantastic account of the story behind Josh shutting down his app Package Fox - Stop losing money on late shipments Rovio - creator of Angry Birds Entrepornography - the overhyped productivity BS foisted on the startup community by the media SmallSpec - Christopher's product-in-development. Join the launch list! The organic product development idea is interesting to me, as someone who has struggled to come up with product ideas out of the blue.  There are probably more examples of organic product development out there, where a founder distills a product from an existing app or starts out with a pain point to solve.  But there are also a lot of "if you build it they will come" scenarios playing out, and those often end in ters for the founder in question. Josh also shares some of his biggest regrets about product development, and three action items for aspiring bootstrappers. Enjoy!       Christopher Hawkins no 59:08