A founder's guiding light in the SaaS product development world

My journey in the software development industry started back in the 2000s. I was an 11 years old kid when I built my first website. Since then, it has just become a part of my life. First, I dove into the tech side and then became interested in the business specifics.

I’ve been keen on bootstrapped SaaS startups - it's amazing how founders launch products on their own funding and come up with extraordinary SaaS ideas! Before the pandemic, I was quite an early bird at SaaS conferences and an active participant in SaaS communities. I’ve been learning from other founders, sharing my own experience, and participating in various events as a speaker.

That’s what I do on my podcast - collect and share inspiring stories, valuable insights, tips, and best practices from startups founders and industry experts.

The listeners of my podcast are mostly SaaS founders who want to learn how to build and improve successful software products.
 

I love driving, I drive a lot and combine this activity with listening to podcasts. There are loads of SaaS-related podcasts, but hardly any focus specifically on product development.

That’s how I came up with my goal - to create a show that would be a source of helpful information and advice about product development for founders who are building their SaaS businesses. I felt like it would be interesting for many people to hear the stories and discussions on the topics around product development.

Our first three episodes were released in March 2021. But actually, the idea of launching my own podcast was born earlier, I’d say, in spring 2020. It took around a year to release the first episodes. But then it went so easy, fast, and fun thanks to my team, which produces the show on a regular basis now.
 

Well, people always find time and money for things that really matter to them.

Let’s start with time. Episodes are released every two weeks. We always try to have some episodes as a buffer and don't release them right after recording. On average, it takes 6-8 hours to produce an episode. This includes recording a podcast, preparing covers for social media, website, Youtube, email, preparing some snippets and images for guests to share the episode on their social media, etc. Audio editing and preparing transcripts are outsourced.

My responsibility is the research part and preparing questions for the interview. Sometimes finding the time is a challenge, but I enjoy it a lot and always learn something new from our guests.

The podcast is fully funded by my company called Trustshoring. We spent around $250 for each episode production. The most expensive is the audio editing, we use the Castos platform - that’s an awesome tool. Even though the price is on the higher side, good sound is one of the most important things for any podcast, and it is worth investing in it.
 

I learn a lot from the amazing people we interview, and this podcast is becoming a part of the product landscape. This is a very big thing for me!

About the financial outcome, we don't have any sponsorships at the moment, we are still growing, and maybe in the future, we will do that. However, finding sponsors is definitely not our main goal. Initially, this podcast started not to make money out of it but to provide value, help founders, help our clients and educate them.
 

First of all, we look for guests - founders, entrepreneurs, tech, and business enthusiasts involved in the SaaS niche. Our guests mostly come from my network, but we also use LinkedIn/Youtube/other resources to find experts in specific topics, reach out and invite them to speak on Product Stories.

I always do a short discovery call with each guest to get to know them, understand their expertise and come up with the right questions to ask. I then keep thinking about what would be useful for our guests, and that makes an interesting show!

We record the episode, create and generate related materials, and then share it on our website and LinkedIn.

The particular role in preparing each episode belongs to the hardware and software we use. I once started with a Snowball microphone but wasn't satisfied with it and switched to a Samson Q2U microphone. For online audio and video recording, I use Riverside.fm studio, hosting, and audio editing are done by Castos; for transcripts, we have a freelancer on Fiverr; covers and artworks are created by my marketer in Canva.
 

The main source is our website - 70% of listens. When promoting each episode, we always include links to our website, where people can find embedded audio players and listen directly on the website. But we also have listeners on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify, and other directories.

From the marketing side, LinkedIn works best for us. We announce each episode on the company page and my personal page, post quotes from the episodes, and encourage guests to co-promote.
 

Just go start a show if you want! Don't wait for a year, don’t postpone it for better times or more relevant times, don’t hope to start the “next Monday” if you feel like you can and want to launch your podcast right now. It's not rocket science.

Podcasting requires some time, but the biggest effort is actually to start. Then it becomes easier, especially when you have a team or at least a virtual assistant.

Another tip I’d recommend is to use Castos as a hosting platform and editing service, and the WordPress plugin. Our podcast completely relies on Castos, and I love it. They also have some educational materials and a Youtube channel where you can learn more about podcasting.

And here’s my last but not least takeaway after a year of hosting the podcast: a good microphone doesn't have to be super expensive but really makes a huge difference.
 

My podcast site is at https://www.trustshoring.com/productstories/

My podcast on Youtube is at https://www.youtube.com/channel/UColPtFDyDoytKMaL88VXiaw/

Reach out to me via my LinkedIn (by the way, I post a lot of useful stuff there) at https://www.linkedin.com/in/scaling-saas-software-outsourcing-remote-developers/