profile

Arvid Kahl

Geoff Roberts — Playing the Long Game — The Bootstrapped Founder 331

Published over 1 year ago • 1 min read

​

​

Dear founder,

​Geoff Roberts (@GeoffTRoberts) is the co-founder of Outseta, and he's halfway there, 7 years in. Outseta —the SaaS starter kit and the business behind it— is built and operated on a multi-decade timeline, and it's not been easy to achieve profitability.

Geoff shares the ups and downs of a long and painful story; what it means to think and operate both in the here and now as well as focusing on the birds-eye view when it comes to bootstrapping a SaaS business.

We also dive into Outseta's choose-your-won adventure compensation model: a full-time salary of $210,000 for everyone with massive flexibility and choice.​
​
Enjoy this conversation with a veteran of self-funded software.

​

​

Check out Podscan.fm! It's my media monitoring service that tracks every mention of you and your brand across all podcasts. Discover where your name pops up in the podcast world.

(And if you're a builder, the Podscan API allows access to fully transcribed episodes for millions of podcasts!)

​

​
​

​

Thank you for checking out this week’s interview edition of The Bootstrapped Founder. Did you enjoy it? If so, please spread the word and ​share this issue on Twitter.​

​

To make sure you keep getting your weekly dose of Bootstrapped Founder, please add arvid@thebootstrappedfounder.com to your address book or whitelist us.

Did someone forward you this issue of The Bootstrapped Founder? ​You can subscribe to it here!​​

Want to change which emails you get from The Bootstrapped Founder or unsubscribe for good? No worries, just click this link: ​change email preferences​ or ​unsubscribe​​.

Our postal address: 600 1st Ave, Ste 330 PMB 92768, Seattle, WA 98104-2246

​Opt-out of preference-based advertising​

Arvid Kahl

I help founders and creators serve and empower their customers.

Being your own boss isn't easy, but it's worth it. Learn how to build a legacy while being kind and authentic. I want to empower as many entrepreneurs as possible to help themselves (and those they choose to serve).

Read more from Arvid Kahl

Podcast, YouTube, Blog Dear founder, A while ago, I asked my Twitter friends to tell me what the most annoying and most infuriating piece of entrepreneurial advice is that they ever received. And overwhelmingly, “follow your passion” stood out as the one that frustrated them most. I’ve seen this particular piece of advice being given a lot by people who have made it—successful entrepreneurs who found success in the field they’re passionate about. And I may have, from time to time, hinted at...

4 days ago • 7 min read

Podcast, YouTube, Blog Dear founder, Let’s add another one to the series of entrepreneurial advice that just really irritates me. Today, I’m going after “improve 1% every day” — you know, that meme or mantra about making tiny little improvements every day because they supposedly compound into something massive over time. This one is infuriating, and I’ll tell you why: it’s almost impossible to measure. I get the sentiment behind it. Make micro improvements every day, and ultimately they’ll...

11 days ago • 5 min read

Podcast, YouTube, Blog Dear founder, Let’s dive into a piece of entrepreneurial advice that’s highly irritating and very dangerous. Today I want to talk about the one that I get so much: “Don’t give up. Don’t ever give up. Force yourself, grind it out.” This advice is very dangerous because it builds on the founder’s capacity to struggle through challenges, but it uses this for the very wrong reasons. THE BOOTSTRAPPED FOUNDER • EPISODE 432 432: Don't Give Up... Your Assumptions 10:32 MORE...

18 days ago • 6 min read