Episode 830 | Breaking Through Plateaus, Zero-Click Marketing, and More from MicroConf 2026 (with Derrick Reimer)

Startups For the Rest of Us

Rob Walling

Entrepreneurship, Management, Business, Marketing

4.9 • 819 Ratings

🗓️ 28 April 2026

⏱️ 36 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

What were the highlights and takeaways from MicroConf? In this episode, Rob Walling and Derrick Reimer recap MicroConf US 2026 in Portland, Oregon. They break down the best talks from the event, including Jason Cohen on breaking through growth plateaus, Amanda Natividad on Zero-Click Marketing and broken attribution, Rob's framework for six ways to implement AI in SaaS, and Craig Hewitt's all-in take on AI adoption. Plus, they cover excursions, the hallway track, and why the MicroConf community keeps pulling founders up. Episode Sponsor: You're about to close a massive deal, and then your customer's legal team asks what happens if you get hacked. That's the nightmare YSecurity solves. They're 40 security engineers who've worked at Apple, Uber, Microsoft, Robinhood, Brex, and more. You don't hire them, you rent them by the hour, no massive salary, no expensive consultants. Just real experts helping you get SOC 2, ISO, and more. Set a monthly cap, know exactly what you're spending, and close the deal. Head to ysecurity.io/startups to book your free strategy call. Your first 8 hours are completely free. Topics we cover: (2:14) – MicroConf 2026 attendee caliber and mix (5:07) – Rebuilding MicroConf post-COVID (8:51) – Jason Cohen on breaking growth ceilings (12:48) – Amanda Natividad on Zero-Click Marketing (19:30) – Excursions, arcades, and the hallway track (22:01) – Rob's six ways to implement AI in SaaS (27:27) – Gia Laudi on Jobs To Be Done as your GTM moat (29:00) – Craig Hewitt's "AI Doomer" talk (33:41) – MicroConf Europe in Iceland Links from the show: MicroConf Europe┃Reykjavik, Iceland · Sept 21–23, 2026 MicroConf Connect TinySeed SaaS Institute Jason Cohen's "Designing the Ideal Bootstrapped Business with Jason Cohen" Amanda Natividad | LinkedIn SparkToro Gia (Georgiana) Laudi | LinkedIn Formspree Rob Walling on YouTube Craig Hewitt | LinkedIn SavvyCal (Derrick Reimer) Derrick Reimer | LinkedIn 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	Imagine this. You're about to close this massive deal. You've been grinding for it. You're pumped.
0:05.0	And then your customer's legal team decides to make things interesting.
0:09.0	What happens if you get hacked? How do you protect our data?
0:12.0	And your brain just goes blank.
0:15.0	That's the nightmare founders deal with all the time.
0:18.0	That's exactly what why security solves. There are 40 security
0:22.4	engineers who've actually done security at Apple, Uber, Microsoft, Robin Hood, Brex, and more. And get this,
0:30.4	you don't hire them, you rent them by the hour. No massive salary, no expensive consultants,
0:35.6	just real experts embedded in your company helping you get SOC2, ISO, whatever you need.
0:41.5	Set a monthly cap, know exactly what you're spending, and close the deal.
0:45.1	Head to Ysecurity.io slash startups and book your free strategy call.
0:50.8	Your first eight hours are free.
0:52.9	40 engineers, one full working day, totally free.
0:56.6	Go take it. Ysecurity.io slash startups. That's the letter Ysecurity.com slash startups.
1:05.6	Welcome back to another episode of Startups for the rest of us. I'm your host, Rob Walling, and in this episode,
1:11.7	Derek Reimer and I talk about breaking through plateaus, zero-click marketing, attribution,
1:19.5	being an AI doomer, and more takeaways from MicroConf 2026 that happened just a week and a half
1:26.8	ago in Portland, Oregon. If you listen to this
1:30.6	episode and you're feeling FOMO because you missed it, you're going to want to join us here in just a few
1:35.6	months in September of 26 at MicroConf Europe in Iceland. Going to have, I don't know, 175 of your
1:42.8	favorite bootstrapped and mostly bootstrapped founder friends, along with Derek and I, MicroConfEurope.com. Check out the dates September 21st through the 23rd and to buy your ticket. And with that, let's dive into our conversation.
2:07.4	Thank you. Let's dive into our conversation. Derek Grimer back for another microconf recap episode.
	...

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