Olly

Who's in Vancouver? I'm going to spend a few weeks in this beautiful city Any bootstrappers around and want to hang out?

@robj3d3 Where is @euboid?

Stripe is the king of ROI 1 PowerPoint slide = millions of views

@robj3d3 @tibo_maker One day @euboid

First time meeting your cofounder be like: @tibo_maker

@sab8a Never leaving X

In 2015, Ben Pasternak took my app and became Australia’s youngest tech millionaire. Today, I’m sharing the full story:

Confession For years Senja had two versions of testimonial forms: Classic and 2.0 Every user had to pick. Every support convo started with "which one are you on?" Every flow got built twice. Today we're merging them. All 34,000. This is the biggest technical and UX debt in Senja. Finally fixing it lays the foundation for significant improvements to forms, invites, feedback and automations. It also makes educating customers much easier. Please pray for us 🙏 #buildinpublic

I always offer candidates a paid one week trial This is easy if they’re working freelance or between jobs But if they’re currently employed, is it reasonable to suggest they use holiday time?

@dr @robwalling That’s what I’m reflecting on If it’s not the business I need a side quest, I did consider learning to fly a light aircraft 😬

@helloitsolly @robwalling 0 to 1 is always the best time. Sounds like you’re living the dream, do you need anything different?

My SaaS revenue and sign ups are flat I'm plateau-d at $1,000,000 a year A great achievement but a challenging spot to be in According to @robwalling only 5% of bootstrapped startups escape these types of revenue plateau The more complicated issue is that I am struggling to stay motivated The business is funding my lifestyle and that lifestyle is really good I travel constantly, see friends, train 5x week, give back, connect with other makers, spend time in nature, and fly business class The things that motivated me no longer do, and the idea of pushing through feels almost ridiculous At times, when things are flowing I feel capable and ready to keep going But my desire to move through tougher challenges (hiring, addressing technical debt) is decreasing I'm unable to cultivate urgency in the way I was before Maybe the lifestyle business I've built is enough

@onlinedopamine @robwalling I don’t feel guilty it’s just something I’m exploring about myself right now

@helloitsolly @robwalling i remember you once posted about the toll the business took on you honestly, enjoy the spoils of your labor, feeling guilty about not growing isn't going to do you any good either

@alangsilveira @robwalling A lot of fun ahead of you

@helloitsolly @robwalling I'm plateau-d at $0 a year

@_DidZW @robwalling Thanks, very insightful This is the experience I’m having and exploring I am a competitive person and do want ‘more’ including mastery, just not sure I want the trade offs (more hard work) Do you know where I can find the talk you mention?

You know, there was a lecture from Jordan Peterson talking about this. Comes out to this, that really tiny minority of people (mainly males) are super highly competitive enough do keep pushing even after they hit this milestone. So it got a lot to do how your brain is actually wired. Sharing this since to me this sounds like you got issue with yourself and how to find motivation again rather than pure business scalability problem. Turns out most just stop or feel exactly the same way simply because money no longer make any difference. I was there once, but then I bankrupted, had to rebuild everything and find the spark again. Anyway I am confident if you feel okay, you will just enjoy your lifestyle and if you are not, you will find a way to push yourself further. As the saying goes. For every level, there is another devil. To me personally, I always hated when someone tells me. "Be happy, with what you've got."

@ankursharma1493 @robwalling The rush partly comes from starting at 0 and hustling And partly comes from wanting more financial freedom Only the first thing exists now so I’m not sure how it would land Not sure what @euboid would say about this as it’s his experience

@helloitsolly @robwalling Really curious You already have the experience and skillset, why not try something new on the side? That way, you can have the adrenaline rush and excitement through that product, and also keep working on Senja for lifestyle and in general

@_david__wright_ @robwalling I’m open to this in future if I can find the right person I would also like to have a side quest I’ve started first, so I’m not left with nothing to do

@helloitsolly @robwalling Maybe you need to hire someone who would like to take it to the next level and have some skin in it and you can move to a more operational management and find another more intesting hobby you can spin up to motivate you more

@imis4n @robwalling What was the problem? A business one or something else?

been in a similar spot at way smaller numbers and honestly the "maybe this is enough" feeling is valid the urgency thing is real - once you've solved your own problems it's hard to manufacture that hunger again what helped me was finding a problem i actually cared about beyond the money, not forcing motivation that wasn't there

@glauberamos @robwalling Being retired scares me too 😂😂

@helloitsolly @robwalling You can treat it like a milk cow, cut costs drastically, take most of the profit every month and invest in global ETFs and/or create new products. If you invest this amount of money, in 2 or 3 years you can retire.

@TheCraigHewitt @robwalling I wish I could find an advisor in the uk to help me navigate this There’s definitely more I’d be doing around this if I felt supported

one thing to consider: what could the cashflow from the business do outside of the business and in your life? buying real estate, acquire another business (inside or outside of SaaS)...just some way to make that money work for you. no investors, nobody to report to. the world is your oyster

There are three things impacting my motivation atm 1. I haven’t been in a good working rhythm for several months 2. There’s some major technical debt from the early days. Some of this shows up in the UX so fixing it requires product decisions that impact customers and need communicating 3. Life is good I think establishing a regular working rhythm is the first step to getting my motivation back This requires me to travel less (I’m in my 6th country this year)

@robwalling This reply assumes most / all founders want to break through a plateau, right? Do you ever see founders who are accepting of it aka ‘I’m happy maintaining the status quo, and trying to return to growth is more work than I’m willing to undertake now’

@helloitsolly Probably more than 5%, I think it was around 15 or 20% when I looked at our data. But the point holds; making it through plateaus is super tough. Most startups don’t do it. Rooting for you 🤜🤛

@ikoichi @robwalling It’s not even 4 years yet lol Feels like longer though

@helloitsolly @robwalling You’ve built the dream lifestyle business in 5/6 years and that’s absolutely incredible. You have the opportunity to do whatever you want, i.e. take a pause from your business and return more energised You have plenty of options If you want to mentor me, I’d be more than happy

@jackfriks @marclou @ky__zo @sobedominik Good for you guys! Have fun

forgot to tag, @marclou @ky__zo @sobedominik :)

meeting people from the internet and realizing they are real is a wild thing shoutout to @stripe for hosting and brining me out ❤️