Bootstrapping-related podcasts

Interesting Links
#21

It’s fairly new but I’m enjoying Rogue Startups w/ Dave Rodenbaugh & Craig Hewitt.

ZenFounder w/ Rob & Sherry Walling is great, but takes on an entirely different subject matter related to startup life.

#22

Developing Perspective #215: Insidious Features.
“How to build little features into your applications that re-wire your user’s brains to come to expect a certain behavior. These ‘insidious’ features are a delightful way to help build loyalty with your customers.”

A good reminder that while building your MVP, at least consider ideas for cool/useful features which will make your product stand out in the market.

#23

Zen Founder Episode 13: Reflections on Founder Suicide, Part 2
Tactical, actionable information and advice on not becoming a victim of the stresses of bootstrapping. For example, I’d not known that suicide is most often an impulsive act. Discusses risk factors and coping strategies. Part 1 is interesting as well, but it’s mostly orthogonal to Part 2.

#24

I have just discovered eCommerceFuel: http://www.ecommercefuel.com/

It’s much more oriented toward running an online store and selling physical products than many podcasts which focus on SAAS or selling information.

#25

My favorites are “ZenFounder”, “Startups for the Rest of Us” and “Stacking Bricks” – all already mentioned.

One that’s quite good but not listed anywhere here is the Three Month Vacation podcast. Enjoy it a lot! He has different and interesting ideas.

#26

Also worth listing is Entreprogrammers - the podcast for developerneurs featuring Josh Earl, John Sonmez, Derick Bailey and Charles Max Wood.

1 Like
#27

I’ve been listening to The Startup Chat with Steli Efti & Hiten Shah. As they are both high energy individuals, it can be exhausting listening when compared to something like Startups for the Rest of Us or Bootstrapped with Kids. Startup Chat has some actionable advice, but overall I would call it more motivational than tactical.

#28

http://hacktheentrepreneur.com/ Has good, actionable stuff.

The most inspirational episode of any of these podcasts I have heard is https://foundrmag.com/fp019-real-battle-scars-entrepreneur-brent-q-story/

Seth Godin’s Startup school was interesting. Google the title for various renditions and opinions.

Utterly off-topic but wonderful segues between your heavy listenings is http://mikerowe.com/podcast/ “The Way I Heard It with Mike Rowe is a series of short mysteries for the curious mind with a short attention span.”

I only just found http://leanstartup.co/podcasts/

There’s the Silicon Valley classic standard operating procedure at http://startupclass.samaltman.com/

#29

I’d have to disagree. He inserts too much of himself into the interview, interrupts the interviewee when they are trying to explain something, asks a question with the only goal to build a bridge to insert the 2-4 minutes(!) advertising pause, and the only sharp question left these days is “so, how much is your revenue?”.

He has interesting people on the show, but the guests being interesting shouldn’t be confused with the skills of the host.

When people are interviewed by say “My wife quit her job” host, the amount of first-hand information is much bigger - simply because the host listens more than talks. (MWQHJ is aimed at online/Amazon sellers, but it is often very interesting to listen how the Amazon platform works internally).

Having said that, Mixergy can be a hit or miss, and you never know until your listen to the end. I had to unsubscribe, because the Mixergy’s bootstrapped interviewees can be heard on other podcasts, and I have very little to learn from billion dollars investment-backed founders.

1 Like
#30

Very true, but the same is true in the bootstrapped scene. There are about 10-12 people who turn up in every podcast, repeating the same things.

These people (I wont name them, but you know how they are) are very good at promoting themselves, but that doesn’t mean they are good at teaching others, or even running their own business (I have talked to the customers of some of them, and they are less impressed than the podcast listeners).

Meanwhile, there are hundreds of introvert types, who run their business quietly, who do a better job at running their business (compared to promoting themselves all the time), but who never turn up on podcasts.

Sometime ago, Jane Portman invited the founder of Calendly on her podcast. I found that episode very refreshing because a) It was someone I had never heard from b) He was actually running a profitable business, and he knew more about talking to real customers than a hundred other “experts” I had listened to.

Since Im in rant mode: Another thing I hate about podcasts is that no one talks about how hard it is (same with most growth hacking type blogs). It’s always like, I put up a landing page, and six months later, I’m sitting on the beach with my new trophy wife and six million dollars in the bank. And I’m like, huh :open_mouth: I’m sure there were a few steps in between you forgot.

That’s why I like Ian/Andrei’s podcast, they talk about the problems as well (when they get a minute talking about who hasn’t played video games or watched Star wars :slight_smile: ).

Ultimately, listening to too many podcasts is another form of procrastination.

3 Likes
#31

One that is not mentioned, targeted at SAAS founders: SaaStr.

The latest episode is Jay Simons of Atlassian talks about their way from small bootstrapped company to a behemoth it is today (with some funding taken on the way, of course).

#32

Been listening to https://seekingwisdom.io/tagged/podcast recently.

#33

Just to add to the list here…

In Episode 240 of Startups for The Rest of Us, Rob and Mike share their favorite podcasts for startup founders.

They categorize them in classifications of tactical, motivational, entertainment and exposure, and then also categories of bootstrapping, mastermind, startup interview, and so on.

Their list includes many that have already been mentioned in this thread, like:

They mention a few bootstrapping-related podcasts that have not yet been named in this thread, including

Of course, their episode lists a few other podcasts not specifically related to bootstrapping, like:

#34

http://www.britstrapped.com/ for anyone else in the UK (or maybe you just like British accents)

3 Likes
#35

Who doesn’t love a British accent?;0)

2 Likes
#36

If you’ve already have the accent :slight_smile: I can take it or leave it. However it always works for me with arguing with most customer services.

Richard (A Brit in DC!)

#37

If you liked my show Product People, you’ll probably like my new podcast called MegaMaker. It’s basically been my journal since going independent as a bootstrapper in November.

Still publishing the occasional episode to Product People, the last three have been good:

#38

Liked “SaaS peak”. I disagree with the idea of SaaS peak in general, but it was an interesting material.

#39

Mmm? Tried 2 episodes. Each of 2 hours. Couldn’t finish either of them - in whole first hour I barely got any insight into what these folks are doing and how. It is mostly a general talk – travel, culture, whatnot.

Very time inefficient.

#40

Free Agents
So far the show has been fairly high level, but this episode about accounting has a lot of practical tips https://www.relay.fm/freeagents/14