Episode 725 | SEO in the Age of AI, Freemium, When Brand Becomes Important, and More Advanced Listener Questions (with Ruben Gamez)

Startups For the Rest of Us

In episode 725, join Rob Walling and Ruben Gamez as they answer several more advanced listener questions. They discuss the challenges of pursuing freemium as a bootstrapper and make a suggestion that might surprise you. Rob and Ruben also talk about why building your business as a SaaS founder is usually the best way to build your brand indirectly.

Episode Sponsor:

Hiring senior developers can really move the needle in your business, but if you bring on the wrong person, you can quickly burn through your runway. If you need help finding a vetted, senior, results-oriented developer, you should reach out to today’s sponsor, Lemon.io.

For years, they’ve been helping our audience find high quality, global talent at competitive rates, and they can help you too.

Longtime listener Chaz Yoon, hired a senior developer from Lemon.io and said his hire ”definitely knew his stuff, provided appropriate feedback and pushback, and had great communication, including very fluent English. He really exceeded my expectations.”

Chaz said he’d definitely use Lemon.io again when he’s looking for a senior level engineer.

To learn more and get a 15% discount on your first four weeks of working with a developer at lemon.io/startups.

Topics we cover:

• 2:31 – Considering a freemium plan as a bootstrapper
• 9:52 – Freemium, but without the intent to convert free users
• 12:24 – Raising prices as an alternative to starting a freemium plan
• 18:32 – When to start caring about your “brand”
• 25:10 – Investing directly in branding
• 31:00 – Revisiting your marketing funnels
• 34:08 – AI’s impact on SEO
• 38:20 – Google’s search results are already changing

Links from the Show:

• Get notified about The SaaS LaunchPad
• Ask a Question on SFTROU
• Email a Question on SFTROU
• MicroConf
• TinySeed
• The SaaS Playbook
• Ruben Gamez (@earthlingworks) | X
• SignWell
• Episode 724 | Managing Managers, Breaking Through Plateaus, Thoughts on EOS, and More Later-Stage Listener Questions
• Episode 717 | Bootstrapping to $1.3M ARR and 300,000 Free Users
• Val Sopi (@valsopi) | X
• Blogstatic
• State of Independent SaaS 2024 Report
• Josh Ho (@jlogic) | X
• Lane || Boot.dev (@wagslane) | X

If you have questions about starting or scaling a software business that you’d like for us to cover, please submit your question for an upcoming episode. We’d love to hear from you!

Subscribe & Review: iTunes | Spotify