I'm the co-founder of Transistor.fm (podcast hosting and analytics). I write about SaaS marketing, bootstrapping startups, pursuing a good life, building calm companies, business ethics, and creating a better society,.
AI isn't going to build your startup
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My friend Brian Casel and I have a new podcast. In it, we invite other founders to discuss (and debate) the realities of building a business. In our first episode with Colleen Schnettler and Tyler King, the topic of AI came up. Some people think AI will make launching software products trivial. "I'm still not convinced," I told our panel. I don't think AI can replace a talented human expert who can craft the entire experience." Colleen Schnettler, founder of Hello Query, agreed: "AI is very good at these individual things, but it's not very good at system-level thinking." When building a product, you want to sweat the details: each screen, every user flow, and every interaction. These elements contribute to the overall feeling of quality. A web app feels solid when all its pieces have strong architecture and cohesion. We've all used products that aren't built well and have constant bugs—buttons that don't respond when clicked, pages that randomly crash, and confusing error messages. Instead of a cohesive experience, they feel janky, like they're held together by duct tape. Cheap, poorly made apps have always existed. In the SaaS / indie hacker gold rush, many people were willing to create what Colleen calls "crappy little apps." If anything, this new wave of AI-generated "crappy apps" will create even more opportunities for talented builders who care about quality. As Brian Casel pointed out, "Customers are more savvy and have a much higher bar in terms of what they're willing to put up with in the software tools that they buy and use in their businesses." What gets people talking about, recommending, and using an app is a good user experience. The hardest part isn't the buildingIn our panel discussion, Tyler King hit the nail on the head: "The hardest part about SaaS was never the building. It's getting anyone to notice you." Even if your product is good, you need to be able to find customers. In the past, I've talked about how founders need to stack every advantage they have to get noticed:
So much good marketing is accumulating these resources over a lifetime and deploying them to get distribution for your product. The marketing materials AI produces are generic, soulless, and unremarkable. The public has already grown tired of them. What will stand out? The human touch. As Brian says, "People are craving human connection, human realness. YouTubers do well because people connect with them through video. When I search for something on Google, what do I click on? The Reddit links. Why? Because that's where the humans are." An AI can't care the way you canAnother quote of mine is: "In small business, whoever cares most about the customers, wins." Small businesses have always competed by being willing to do what the big incumbents wouldn't. When people ask me on Transistor's live chat what the difference is between us and Spotify, I say: "Daniel Ek (Spotify's CEO) isn't answering customer support tickets." If you ask an AI to generate an app for you, it won't care about the overall experience the way you can. If you ask an AI to write you a blog post, it won't care about something that resonates with the audience you've been building for 10 years. For years, indie SaaS founders have put a "made with ❤️ by Jill and Bob" in the footer of their websites. It's the heart that sets us apart. What do you think? Cheers,
PS: Brian and I would love your help in getting the word out about The Panel podcast. If you listen to the show and it resonates, please share it with your friends! You can find it here:
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Justin Jackson's SaaS marketing experiments
I'm the co-founder of Transistor.fm (podcast hosting and analytics). I write about SaaS marketing, bootstrapping startups, pursuing a good life, building calm companies, business ethics, and creating a better society,.
I think most folks assume that people who create content (YouTube videos, podcasts, screencasts, public speaking) are mostly extroverted.But this conversation I recently had with Aaron Francis, Marie Poulin, and Brian Casel on the Panel Podcast calls that into question: Curious how you would answer this question. Reply on Bluesky Reply on YouTube Or, reply to this email. Cheers,Justin Jackson PS: this is just a short clip from a fantastic episode of The Panel podcast. Listen to the whole...
Hey friends, This episode was so good. Marie Poulin and Aaron Francis joined us to discuss the realities of building creator-driven businesses. We talked a lot about YouTube (they describe how each got traction there) and their current video making process. They also challenged conventional wisdom about sticking to one niche. For them, pivoting between projects keeps them fresh and prevents burnout, even when the traditional wisdom is to "just focus." Listen wherever you get your podcasts:...
In the pursuit of "making podcasts more discoverable," the podcast industry has welcomed YouTube with open arms. However, I think we're underestimating YouTube. I think it's "eating the world" in a way we've never seen before: I just made a video about it: I also wrote a blog post about it: 👉 justinjackson.ca/podcast-industry-youtube And I released it as a podcast as well: JUSTIN'S BRAIN • EPISODE 11 Is YouTube going to kill audio podcasts? 10:19 MORE INFO I don't think YouTube cares about...