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Justin's newsletter

Bootstrapping, indie startups, marketing, build a better life

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.

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Featured Post

Live now - join us

Hey friends, I don't talk enough about this weekly podcast I do with Jordan Gal (founder of Rosie) and Brian Casel (Builder Methods). It's called The Panel. Jordan and I are going live now if you'd like to join us: Today, Jordan and I are going to try to cover these topics: TAKE CONTROL OF YOUR FUNNEL - signup experiment has shocked us. Went from 6 cards on file per day to 12. straight up doubling from one change in the funnel DO CALLS WITH YOUR CUSTOMERS - awesome call with Kent C Dodds. HOW...

6 days ago • 1 min read

Hey friends, Brian is away, but Jordan and Justin are on the livestream today, Friday (June 26), 11 am Pacific (2 pm EST). Possible Topics: OWN YOUR FUNNEL ☝️ Anything else you want us to discuss? Thanks to everyone who shows up in chat + leaves comments. We ❤️ that! Cheers,Justin Jackson – BlueskyBrian Casel – Bluesky | TwitterJordan Gal – LinkedIn | Twitter PS: Did you listen to our last episode? We're available on these fine 🎧 audio podcast apps: Apple Podcasts Spotify Overcast Pocket...

6 days ago • 1 min read
Dozens of online messages vs meeting in person

Hey friends, Since 2018, my business partner Jon and I have built our company remotely. We've never lived in the same city. To communicate, we rely mostly on Slack. Read this post online This past year, we had some disagreements that steadily built up over months. This tension created a gulf between us and set off a vicious cycle: every interaction left us more frustrated, which made us more withdrawn. Eventually, our wives encouraged us to do our annual founder retreat. We flew to Mexico. On...

16 days ago • 4 min read

Hey friends, The livestream is later than normal: Friday (June 12), 12:00 pm Pacific (3:00 pm EST). Possible Topic: "Fable feels like the first time that AI dev is moving away from egalitarian access and back toward big budgets, meaning big advantages." ☝️ Anything else you want us to discuss? Thanks to everyone who shows up in chat + leaves comments. We ❤️ that! Cheers,Justin Jackson – BlueskyBrian Casel – Bluesky | TwitterJordan Gal – LinkedIn | Twitter PS: Did you listen to our last...

20 days ago • 1 min read

Hey friends, The livestream is earlier today: Friday (May 15), 10:00 am Pacific (1:00 pm EST). Possible Topics: BIG CITY ENERGY (Justin's back from London, UK + Toronto, Canada) "Do the hardest thing." How are you feeling about your industry? "Building software is learning." ☝️ Anything else you want us to discuss? Thanks to everyone who shows up in chat + leaves comments. We ❤️ that! Cheers,Justin Jackson – BlueskyBrian Casel – Bluesky | TwitterJordan Gal – LinkedIn | Twitter PS: Did you...

27 days ago • 1 min read
Difference between a low-grade idea and a high-grade idea

Hey friends, Last week, I was walking to a coffee shop on Bloor Street in Toronto, listening to the Mostly Technical podcast. Aaron Francis was interviewing Jesse Hanley, the founder of Bento. Read this post online! Aaron asked about something Jesse had told him after he'd been let go from his full-time job: "I was talking about some ancillary services I could do. And you said: "No, no. Do the hardest thing!" Where does that philosophy come from?" In Jesse's mind, there isn't much competition...

28 days ago • 3 min read
?? London meetup

Hey friends, It felt like I just needed to send a newsletter and just update y'all on what I've been up to. 🇬🇧 London, UK For the past week, I was in London, UK, for The Podcast Show, the biggest international podcast industry event. I had a ton of meetings with industry partners like Apple Podcasts, as well as an open-source meetup for the podcast industry. One of the funnest things I did was just drop in on the indie beers meetup in the Shoreditch neighborhood. I've known Charlie (the...

about 1 month ago • 1 min read

Hey friends, The livestream is earlier today: Friday (May 15), 10:30 am Pacific (1:30 pm EST). Possible Topics: What is Anthropic doing and why? (The price change for devs) What game are we choosing to play in our businesses? Who is our ICP for The Panel? What do they want from our show? What do we want? ☝️ Anything else you want us to discuss? Thanks to everyone who shows up in chat + leaves comments. We ❤️ that! Cheers,Justin Jackson – BlueskyBrian Casel – Bluesky | TwitterJordan Gal –...

about 2 months ago • 1 min read

Hey friends, The livestream is earlier today: Friday (May 8), 10:30 am Pacific (1:30 pm EST). Possible Topics: "AI brain exhaustion": working longer, harder, feels like I'm on drugs.AI increases the pace of everything Cloudflare's layoffs Distribution, distribution, distribution. What can you actually do about distribution? "It's the rare wins that keep us going." We're getting to 80% faster - but the last 20% matters more than ever ChatGPT and Gemini have the most mindshare ☝️ Which of these...

about 2 months ago • 1 min read

Hey friends, Join us today, FRIDAY (May 1) at 11 AM Pacific (2 pm EST) for the Panel live! Possible Topics: Allbirds deal update Strong sales but worried Distribution, distribution, distribution Result of Brian's pivot "AI brain burnout" Thanks to everyone who shows up in chat + leaves comments. We ❤️ that! Cheers,Justin Jackson – BlueskyBrian Casel – Bluesky | TwitterJordan Gal – LinkedIn | Twitter PS: Did you listen to our last episode? We're available on these fine 🎧 audio podcast apps:...

2 months ago • 1 min read