Single SaaS Founder: Getting it Right the Second Time
Mike Taber is the founder of Bluetick.io, a SaaS product that automates the process of sending follow up emails, while keeping it personal.
Mike is also the co-host of Startups for the Rest of Us podcast and he's the co-founder of Microconf, both of which he runs with Rob Walling, the founder of Drip.
His last startup was AuditShark, a software product that helped regulate businesses such as financial companies to ensure IT security compliance.
He tried for several years to get that business off the ground. It was a long, painful effort trying to make it work, but in the end, the business failed.
Mike believes that it wasn't a product market fit issue, but a product founder fit issue. In other words, the business wasn't a good fit for him as a founder.
For example, selling to enterprise customers typically involves outbound sales. Mike wasn't comfortable doing that and probably wasted a lot of time trying to acquire customers in different ways such as inbound marketing, that just didn't work as well.
In this episode, we talk about the lessons he learned from the failure of AuditShark. And how he's making sure that he doesn't make the same mistakes with Bluetick.
I enjoyed chatting with Mike and I think you'll enjoy this episode especially if you're also in the early stages of building your SaaS business.
Book Recommendation
- Traction: A Startup Guide to Getting Customers by Gabriel Weinberg & Justin Mares
The Show Notes
- Bluetick.io
- Startups for the Rest of Us
- Microconf
- AuditShark
- Rob Walling
- Drip
- Active Campaign
- Aweber
- MailChimp
- Mike on Twitter
- Omer on Twitter
Recommended Podcast Episodes
- Teqtivity: From Failed Hardware Pivot to 7-Figure SaaS Success - with Hiren Hasmukh [428]
- From Bootstrapping Struggles to a $60M Exit and Beyond - with Bob Moore [396]
- Huntress: From NSA Hacker to $120M ARR Security SaaS - with Kyle Hanslovan [429]
- SaaS Idea Validation: How to Ask Customers Good Questions - with Rob Fitzpatrick [206]
- 7 Lessons I Learned from Interviewing 45 Amazing Entrepreneurs
- Scratch Your Own Itch for SaaS Success - with Janna Bastow [158]
- From Struggling Bootstrapper to $10M+ SaaS CEO - with Ryan Fyfe [294]
- pganalyze: The Unconventional Path to a 7-Figure SaaS - with Lukas Fittl [374]
- Boast.ai: The Tough Road to SaaS Success and Beyond - with Lloyed Lobo [377]
- Command AI: Mastering Cold Emails to Grow a 7-Figure SaaS - with James Evans [385]