Podcast, YouTube, Blog Dear founder, I’ve been running into an interesting challenge in the last few days with Podscan. I have to make a choice that is both technically feasible, scalable, and balanced—a balance between giving my trial customers precisely what they want and being able to keep my business profitable. Let me walk you through this situation because I think it perfectly illustrates the kinds of decisions we, as founders, have to make all the time. This issue is sponsored by my...
13 days ago • 8 min read
Podcast, YouTube, Blog Dear founder, It is the beginning of April 2025—it’s been almost a year to the day that Podscan got its bootstrapper-compatible funding, and it has taken me this long to reach the very first goal that I set for myself that day: becoming profitable before the funds ran out. And that goal has been reached. THE BOOTSTRAPPED FOUNDER • EPISODE 384 Podscan's Profitability Milestone: What's Next? 21:21 MORE INFO Over the last several months, I’ve slowly but surely ramped up...
20 days ago • 13 min read
Podcast, YouTube, Blog Dear founder, Coming out of MicroConf, I’ve gained clarity about something I’ve been feeling for a while. It’s time to reposition Podscan.fm, shifting away from alerting and monitoring as main features, and moving more decisively toward what it’s already becoming: a comprehensive podcast database. THE BOOTSTRAPPED FOUNDER • EPISODE 383 383: Repositioning Podscan: From Monitoring to Data Platform 18:45 MORE INFO This isn’t just a cosmetic change. It’s a genuine pivot in...
27 days ago • 7 min read
Podcast, YouTube, Blog Dear founder, I went to MicroConf in New Orleans and I have a few things to say. Good things. Very good things. In one of my rare directly-from-the-hotel-room-to-you episodes, I'll dive right into the many wonderful experiences of this uniquely amazing conference, and I'll share my biggest learnings with you right here. THE BOOTSTRAPPED FOUNDER • EPISODE 382 382: I went to MicroConf in New Orleans 16:13 MORE INFO Enjoy! I certainly did! 🎧 Listen to this on my podcast....
about 1 month ago • 1 min read
Podcast, YouTube, Blog Dear founder, The way we build software is changing fundamentally. Through AI systems, the process of creation is transforming into something different - almost a managerial thing, even for technical people. When you build software with AI assistance, you become less of an explorer or implementer and more of a validator or verifier. You’re the person who checks and judges the quality of code instead of generating it. We’re moving from generators to validators, from...
about 1 month ago • 11 min read
Podcast, YouTube, Blog Dear founder, Since I talked to Anne-Laure Le Cunff, the neuroscientist and author, on my Wednesday episode this week, we had a conversation about goal setting, running experiments, and trying to deal with uncertainty. It made me want to take some time to talk about experiments that I’ve recently run in my life: in Podscan, in my media business, on Twitter, off Twitter, and just report on them. I want to give some insight into how my operations work, what things I’m...
about 2 months ago • 11 min read
Podcast, YouTube, Blog Dear founder, Anne-Laure Le Cunff (@neuranne) is a neuroscientist and author of the book Tiny Experiments, where she shines a scientific light on how we set goals, what experiments we should think about, and how we can deal with uncertainty in a high-stress world.We chat about goals, reprogramming your own subconscious, and how learning in public can benefit anyone on any journey. Enjoy! THE BOOTSTRAPPED FOUNDER • EPISODE 379 379: Anne-Laure Le Cunff — Tiny Experiments...
about 2 months ago • 1 min read
Podcast, YouTube, Blog Dear founder, Earlier this week, I read a blog post by Bethany Crystal about how ChatGPT saved her life. She had developed some symptoms she couldn’t place and had blood work done, and the results were available to her but her physician hadn’t looked into them, so she brainstormed with ChatGPT about what the outstanding and non-regular values might mean. She took photos of the bruises that had developed out of nowhere, and the AI diagnosed her to the point where it...
about 2 months ago • 11 min read
Podcast, YouTube, Blog Dear founder, I recently had a consulting call with a founder who asked me the question I've heard countless times before: "How can I write posts that go viral?" THE BOOTSTRAPPED FOUNDER • EPISODE 377 377 — Virality is Poisonous 11:16 MORE INFO Now, here are 59 rules for how to write that viral hook! Yeah, no. Just kidding. Many founders chase virality because they believe it will increase their number of customers, prospects, or collaborators. They dream of creating...
2 months ago • 4 min read
