Episode 801 | Competing Against Incumbents, Technical Co-Founders, Trademarks, and More Listener Questions with Derrick Reimer

Startups For the Rest of Us

Rob Walling

Entrepreneurship, Management, Business, Marketing

4.9 • 819 Ratings

🗓️ 7 October 2025

⏱️ 55 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Can churn ever be good in SaaS? In this episode, Rob Walling is joined by fan favorite Derrick Reimer for a listener Q&A. They break down what it takes to compete with well-funded incumbents, how to decide whether to pivot or push forward, when a technical co-founder is truly necessary, the right time to think about trademarks, and the difference between “good churn” and “bad churn” especially when customers fall outside your ICP. Episode Sponsor: AI is completely changing how people discover brands and content online, and Ahrefs has built a full-blown SaaS marketing platform to help you stay ahead. With over 15 years of real-world web data, and AI that actually understands marketing, Ahrefs helps you measure your brand presence, build authority, and monitor reputation across search, social, and AI platforms like ChatGPT, Google AIOs, Perplexity, and more. You can also dig into what’s driving your competitors’ visibility and spot market gaps before they do, helping you create content that ranks and drive new traffic to your business. There's no need to juggle a bunch of disconnected tools- get Ahref’s all-in-one platform to make your brand unmissable in a fast-moving world. Try it free at ahrefs.com/awt. Topics we cover: (3:35) – Competing with well-funded incumbents (12:47) – Should you focus on competitors or customers? (20:20) – Pivot, press on, or move on: how to decide (29:09) – Finding and vetting a technical co-founder or partner (39:04) – When should you pursue trademarks? (44:24) – Is churn ever good for a startup? Links from the Show: MicroConf US 2026 - Portland, Oregon - Use Promo Code ROB50 for $50 off. MicroConf Connect BIMI (Brand Indicators for Message Identification) SavvyCal Derrick Reimer | LinkedIn Derrick Reimer (@derrickreimer) | X 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

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0:00.0	Today's sponsor is H-Refs.
0:02.1	They've built a full-blown SaaS marketing platform to help make your business discoverable.
0:07.1	They recently launched a tool called Brand Radar, which helps you analyze your visibility in AI
0:11.9	chatbots like chat GPT or perplexity and compare against competitors.
0:16.3	There's no need to juggle a bunch of disconnected tools.
0:19.0	Get H.RF's all-in-one platform to make your brand unmissable
0:22.4	in a fast-moving world. Get started today at H-R-Fs.com slash AWT. That's A-R-E-F-S-R-E-F-S-com slash
0:31.9	AWT. This is Start-Ups for the Rest of Us, and I'm your host, Rob Walling. In this episode,
0:55.8	I'm joined by fan favorite Derek Rimer, and we answer your listener questions. Before we dive into the episode, early bird tickets for MicroConf US 2026 are now on sale. The event is April 12th through the 14th in Portland, Oregon. And right now, ticket prices are as low as they will ever be.
0:58.8	And we have sold out our last four events.
1:03.8	Ticket prices will go up on October 22nd or after the first 100 tickets have sold.
1:06.0	If you're planning to come, you get your ticket now.
1:13.7	That's at microcomf.com slash US, and you can use promo code Rob 50 for $50 off. And with that, let's dive into listener questions.
1:32.0	Derek Grimer, welcome back to your 21st appearance on Startups for the Rest of Us.
1:33.8	Wow, did you go back and count?
1:36.0	I did just like a minute ago.
1:37.2	I didn't even ask Chat, JBT, JBT.
1:43.7	I went to Startups for the Restless.com, I went to the search, search for your name, and then I walked through, and there were 20 appearances.
1:44.8	I think you hold the world's record. Really? Oh, that's awesome. I can't imagine anyone else that's been on that much.
1:49.7	Yeah. I think Ruben's been on like five or six times. Hot Take Tuesday. Like Anar's probably been
1:55.9	on, I don't know, eight or nine if I were to guess. A couple more. Tracy's probably been on around there. But yeah, that's, aside from Mike and I, I think, you know, my original co-host, I think you hold the record. Wow. How does that feel? Is this one of the, is this such a culminating moment in your life? It is, yeah. I'm honored to hold this world championship of starts for the rest of us appearances.
2:19.4	Yeah. Oh, you get to just lord it over all the other past guests. So, well.
	...

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