Rob Walling

The TinySeed Millionaire Rate is 43%. Definition: Of @tinyseedfund companies no longer in operation (sold OR shut down), 43% of those founders are now millionaires.💰 This % will obviously change over time. It's still early, and the numbers are still small (~2% of companies have shut down. ~4% have sold). But this is yet another reminder of how resilient and insanely valuable SaaS companies are. Personally, I find this number incredible. Much higher than I would have expected, and it brings me nothing but joy knowing the lives that have been changed through entrepreneurship. (cc @einarvollset)

Every email I receive from someone using Polsia is spam. So many that I’ve blocked the entire domain. It’s a shame that this 7-figure, one-person AI startup is finding success by making the internet worse.

@earthlingworks So weird. The internet told me I could use AI to build a product and I’d be a billionaire. Crazy the internet was wrong for the first time ever.

“Nice job building a copycat, now go build the brand, get distribution, and get thousands of paying customers like they did.” Hmm weird that it didn’t work.

@saurabhag1 I like this.

@robwalling Decade feels long until you realize the alternative is never.

Overnight success usually takes a decade.

@TheWowDeveloper Heh. Same.

@robwalling A decade feels like it was just yesterday

@compoundvalue1 I’ve also written three books since I stopped writing essays. So it’s not like I stopped writing altogether.

@robwalling curious what made you stop for 15 years. I find writing helps me think through problems but I never actually publish any of it

I haven't published new essays in almost 15 years. But I started writing again, and am now sending out a weekly email with new thoughts on topics like: - The 6 stages of SaaS growth, and how to know which you're in - The mistakes I watch founders make over and over, and how to avoid them - My 3-factor framework for choosing your next marketing channel - How to hire without destroying your culture or your bank account - The 5 traits I see in every founder who actually makes it - When to sell your company (and when to keep going) Link to subscribe below...

@compoundvalue1 No time. And I’m able to think through problems either in my head or on the podcast.

@jojo_data They build too much, don’t market enough 🫤

@robwalling Really looking forward to this. I'm in the earliest stage right now — side project, still working full-time, figuring out distribution after months of just building. Would love to read what you've seen founders get wrong at this point.

@pavel_ivanovsky @walls_jason1 @dvassallo Heh. Yep.

@walls_jason1 @dvassallo @robwalling Recalled you and your brother right away

Yesterday Mark Cuban reposted my work, DM'd me, and told me to keep telling my story. So here it is. I'm a Master Electrician. IBEW Local 369. 15 years pulling wire in Kentucky. Zero coding background. I didn't go to Stanford. I went to trade school. Every week I'd show up to a home where someone just bought a Tesla or a Rivian. And every time, someone had already told them they needed a $3,000-$5,000 panel upgrade to install a charger. 70% of the time? They didn't need it. The math is in the NEC — Section 220.82. Load calculations. But nobody was doing them for homeowners. Electricians upsell. Dealers don't know. And the homeowner just pays. I got angry enough to build something about it. I found @claudeai. No coding experience. I just started talking to it like I'd explain a job to an apprentice. "Here's how load calcs work. Here's the NEC code. Now help me build a tool that does this." 6 months later — @ChargeRight is live. Real software. Stripe payments. PDF reports. NEC 220.82 calculations automated. $12.99 instead of a $500 truck roll. I'm still pulling wire. I still take service calls. I wake up at 5:05 AM for work. But something shifted. Yesterday @vivilinsv published my story as Claude Builder Spotlight #1. Mark Cuban saw it. The Claude community showed up. And for the first time, I felt like this thing I built in my kitchen might actually matter. I'm not a tech founder. I'm a dad who wants to coach little league and be home for dinner. I just happened to build something that helps people. If you're in the trades and thinking about using AI — do it. The barrier isn't technical skill. It's believing you're allowed to try. EVchargeright.com

@earthlingworks @jessethanley @dagorenouf Wow, “order takers” is a sick burn 😂

@jessethanley @dagorenouf Over the last few years it’s been interesting interviewing/hiring salespeople and hearing their views on this. Many self described “hunters” say they bring in the biggest/best deals by getting them themselves. They also describe ones that don’t as “order takers.”

No time for outbound. This is my calendar with just inbound leads.

@asishpandalabs Learn to market.

@robwalling Whats your one sentence advise for people who love building but blank at marketing?

@minhasv Thanks!

@robwalling I enjoy your emails for what it’s worth. 👍🏼

Sign up here to receive weekly essays that can get you unstuck: robwalling.com/subscribe

@compoundvalue1 @balindenberg Usually a mix of gut feel, watching customers, and testing.

@robwalling @balindenberg with my scheduling app, the aha moment usually comes at the first booking. so trial length almost didn't matter — they knew in 10 minutes. but that's probably not true for more complex tools. curious how others have figured this out

How do we feel about this for SaaS? We've done 14, 30, and 7 day trial periods. 30 felt too long. 7 feels a bit short. May go back to 10-14 here soon.

@ericbuildsio Heck yes. And I think more people should try to get better at it, rather than wasting time rewriting every codebase they take over.

@robwalling Reading code is harder than writing code

“We need to rewrite the entire codebase.” Dev agency translation: “We don’t want to read someone else’s code.”

@BK9899554834606 I’m not sure what you’re asking. Right version of what?

@robwalling Fair point, I may have paraphrased loosely. Happy to correct it. What's the right version?

@robwalling Bootstrapped niche SaaS is underrated precisely because it's unfashionable. No one's writing Medium posts about it. That's the point.

@EnriqueGRXB @balindenberg Both. Generally, if what they have works well enough they really don't want to switch and retrain themselves or their staff. Most are pretty tech-averse.

@robwalling @balindenberg is it because its hard to sell to contractors/engineers ? or because there are big incumbents ?

Back by popular demand, another episode of Hot Take Tuesday! 🔥