In episode 737, Rob Walling is joined by Derrick Reimer to recap the experience from MicroConf Europe 2024 in Dubrovnik. They discuss the differences between MicroConf US and MicroConf Europe, some small programming tweaks over the years, and they revisit the highlights from the talks at this event.

If you missed the event and had some MicroConf FOMO, get your tickets now for our New Orleans event!

Hiring senior developers can really move the needle in your business, but if you bring on the wrong person, you can quickly burn through your runway. If you need help finding a vetted, senior, results-oriented developer, you should reach out to today’s sponsor, Lemon.io.

For years, they’ve been helping our audience find high quality, global talent at competitive rates, and they can help you too.

Longtime listener Chaz Yoon, hired a senior developer from Lemon.io and said his hire ”definitely knew his stuff, provided appropriate feedback and pushback, and had great communication, including very fluent English. He really exceeded my expectations.”

Chaz said he’d definitely use Lemon.io again when he’s looking for a senior level engineer.

To learn more and get a 15% discount on your first four weeks of working with a developer at lemon.io/startups.

• 2:47 – MicroConf Europe vs. MicroConf US
• 6:44 – Adding “excursions” to the programming
• 11:29 – From Maker to Founder to Owner to Entrepreneur with Peldi Guilizzoni
• 18:55 – Thinking big and small: Data-driven growth strategies to grow your business with Andrew Davies
• 20:45 – Contributing factors to the success of this event in particular
• 23:47 – 10 Lessons Learned in 10 Years of Starting, Growing, and Selling WebinarNinja with Omar Zenhom
• 26:40 – Bootstrapping Our Freemium Form Builder: From Zero to $1.5M ARR with Marie Martens
• 30:37 – 3 mistakes I won’t repeat after growing my business to +35M and selling it with Tim Vandecasteele
• 33:50 – Breaking Through the 7 SaaS Growth Plateaus with Rob Walling

• Get Tickets for MicroConf US 2025, New Orleans
• Signup for the MicroConf newsletter
• Derrick Reimer (@derrickreimer) | X
• SavvyCal
• Peldi from Balsamiq (@peldi) | X
• The SaaS Playbook
• Omar Zenhom (@TheOmarZenhom) | X
• Episode 717 | Bootstrapping to $1.3M ARR and 300,000 Free Users

If you have questions about starting or scaling a software business that you’d like for us to cover, please

In episode 736, join Rob Walling as he answers some later-stage listener questions in another solo adventure. He discusses common pitfalls in delegation, transitioning from one-time transactions to SaaS models, and when it makes sense to target multiple ICPs. Rob also warns about the limited impact that social media marketing can have on growing your SaaS tool.

Are you drowning in challenging tech decisions? You should check out today’s sponsor, Techstack.

Unlike typical staffing agencies, these folks are startup specialists with over a decade of experience in startup software development.

Techstack can help your startup build an MVP that's designed for explosive growth, rapidly expand your team for new features, or optimize your existing codebase for peak performance. Whether you're launching, scaling up, or fine-tuning, they've got the expertise to supercharge your tech.

One of Techstack’s clients was recently featured on Inc. Magazine's Fast Growth Companies list, and they attributed part of their 375% growth to their partnership.

Here's an exclusive offer for "Startups For the Rest of Us" listeners: Get a 10% discount on your first month of development with Techstack. And if you're one of the first 10 listeners to get in touch, you'll also receive a free, in-depth tech assessment and expert consultation – a $3,000 value – in your choice of critical areas like architecture, infrastructure, development process or project management. This could be the game-changer your startup needs.

Don't let tech challenges slow you down. Check out https://www.tech-stack.com/startups to discover how Techstack can turbocharge your growth.

• 2:17 – What to delegate on the path to $10k MRR
• 6:43 – Be wary of social media marketing masquerading as productivity
• 10:31 – DIY vs. hiring a growth agency for B2B SaaS marketing
• 15:22 – Not every business should be a subscription business
• 22:00 – Defining, targeting, and selling to different ICPs

• Get Tickets for MicroConf US 2025, New Orleans
• The SaaS Launchpad
• TinySeed
• The Stair Step Method of Bootstrapping
• Founding Sales by Peter Kazanjy
• Rob Walling (@robwalling) | X

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!

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In episode 735, join Rob Walling for a solo adventure where he categorizes the different levels of SaaS platform risk. He introduces a framework with three key factors: Replacement, Customer Concentration, and Lead Flow. Rob then defines eight levels of risk according to these factors and other vulnerabilities such as relying on open source – a hot topic with recent news about WordPress, WP Engine, and Automattic.

Hiring senior developers can really move the needle in your business, but if you bring on the wrong person, you can quickly burn through your runway. If you need help finding a vetted, senior, results-oriented developer, you should reach out to today’s sponsor, Lemon.io.

For years, they’ve been helping our audience find high quality, global talent at competitive rates, and they can help you too.

Longtime listener Chaz Yoon, hired a senior developer from Lemon.io and said his hire ”definitely knew his stuff, provided appropriate feedback and pushback, and had great communication, including very fluent English. He really exceeded my expectations.”

Chaz said he’d definitely use Lemon.io again when he’s looking for a senior level engineer.

To learn more and get a 15% discount on your first four weeks of working with a developer at lemon.io/startups.

• 2:32 – Are replacements available for this platform?
• 4:56 – How concentrated are your customers on this platform?
• 5:31 – What is your lead or customer flow?
• 8:54 – Level 1: almost no platform risk
• 10:04 – Level 2: reliant on a commoditized platform
• 11:49 – Level 3: using large cloud providers like AWS
• 15:33 – Level 4: deeply tied to open source software like WordPress
• 18:11 – Level 5: high switching costs, but replacements exist like in no-code
• 20:00 – Level 6: 100% lead flow risk
• 21:44 – Level 7: a friendly app ecosystem
• 23:24 – Level 8: aggressive platforms, few replacements, customer concentration

• Get Tickets for MicroConf US 2025, New Orleans
• TinySeed
• Rob Walling (@robwalling) | X
• Ask a Question on SFTROU
• How to find and validate business ideas from 75+ SaaS Marketplaces

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!

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