meta_pixel
Tapesearch Logo
Log in
Startups For the Rest of Us

Episode 754 | Broken Freemium, SaaS Plateaus, and More Listener Questions (A Rob Solo Adventure)

Startups For the Rest of Us

Rob Walling

Management, Entrepreneurship, Business, Marketing

4.8792 Ratings

🗓️ 4 February 2025

⏱️ 25 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

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

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0

Welcome to another episode of Startups of the Rest of Us.

0:02.7

This week, I'm your host. I'm Rob Walling.

0:05.2

And this is the podcast for folks who want to build real software businesses, real SaaS companies

0:10.7

that sell a real product to real customers for real money.

0:15.2

You can be bootstrapped.

0:16.3

You can be mostly bootstrapped.

0:17.6

Frankly, you can raise a cajillion dollars in venture capital,

0:20.4

and I still believe

0:21.9

that the content and the thoughts and the ideas and the strategies and the inspiration and the

0:27.0

tactics that I present here on this show are applicable to you no matter which of those buckets you

0:33.4

fall in. Unless you're planning to have Kid Rock at your launch party and you want to stay

0:38.5

pre-revenue forever because your valuation is more important to you than actually making money,

0:45.1

then this podcast is not for you. But if you want to build real SaaS companies, real software

0:49.4

companies, then this podcast is laser-focused designed for you. Today I'm going to be answering listener

0:55.9

questions. It's been a minute since I've taken some listener questions on. And if you have a

1:02.0

question for the show, you can email it to questions at Startups for the Rest of Us.com or head to

1:07.3

Startups for the Rest of Us.com. Go to ask a question in the top nav. As always, video questions go to the top of the stack, although I have been taking text questions

1:16.3

that are more intermediate or later stage, because I've found that the pipeline gets pretty

1:21.0

clogged with, how do I choose an idea, and I'm pre-revenue, what should I do, and how do I launch?

1:26.4

That's all interesting, but I think answering question after question after question for 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

1:31.8

gives an indication that is not true that this podcast is aimed at beginners, which it is not.

1:38.1

So send your intermediate to advance to later stage questions as well as your beginner questions.

...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Rob Walling, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of Rob Walling and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.

Copyright © Tapesearch 2025.