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Do you use the EOS system? How do you gauge when to give your team a little bit of downtime? What are your 2021 goals and initiatives? What are your online and offline businesses and how do each of those marketing and business skills transfer over? In today’s episode, Dave and Craig are talking about their holiday and New Year break, updates on Recapture and Castos, and what their 2021 Initiatives are. From quiet days at work to customers with no chill, it’s already been an interesting year of juxtapositions so far. They also briefly go over vanity metrics and what they do to analyze the numbers that really matter. The episode rounds out with the topic of EOS, level10 meetings (how they’re “supposed” to go), Craig’s goals for his team, Dave’s goals for Recapture, and Dave’s newest investment endeavor. What are your rocks? Are you ready for 2021? Send us an email at podcast@roguestartups.com. And as always, if you feel like our podcast has benefited you and it might benefit someone else, please share it with them. If you have a chance, give us a review on iTunes. We’ll see you next week! Resources:  Dan Martnell’s YouTube page EOS books Radical Candor – Be a Kick Ass Leader and Empower Your Team Recapture.io Castos

In this episode, Dave and Craig try to reflect on the good parts of 2020. They’re sharing eggnog stories as well as other holiday drinks and Christmas traditions that 2020 tried to ruin. Today, they tried to stay positive by talking about how the year allowed them to find time to exercise and bond with loved ones. They felt the absence of BigSnow and MicroConf but were able to maintain some of their work relationships remotely. Dave talks about learning some hard but necessary lessons in eCommerce. Craig talks about work/life balance.  It’s been a year of difficulties, lessons and weirdness. How was your 2020? What lessons did you learn in that tumultuous mother of a year? Send us an email at podcast@roguestartups.com. And as always, if you feel like our podcast has benefited you and it might benefit someone else, please share it with them. If you have a chance, give us a review on iTunes. We’ll see you next week! Resources:  Recapture.io Castos

In today’s episode Dave and Craig are talking about surviving Black Friday, busy schedules, churn, and marketing initiatives around the holidays. How and when do you market around the big holiday push?  Today’s big topic is all about business finance and their thoughts on how they spend money on their businesses. Craig talks about what they do personally and what they’ve heard from others in the industry. They’re tackling all of the aspects of financing from positive peer pressure to defining which direction the money flows. Dave also goes over financial literacy and the importance of teaching kids how to be financially responsible.They go over tech savvy financial apps and old-school finance lessons. How are you thinking about your money (business finance or personal finance)? How do you teach your family about money? Send us an email at podcast@roguestartups.com. And as always, if you feel like our podcast has benefited you and it might benefit someone else, please share it with them. If you have a chance, give us a review on iTunes. We’ll see you next week! Resources:  Famzoo – an app that teaches kids about financial responsibility and literacy Recapture.io Castos

In this episode, Dave and Craig are talking about what they’ve been up to for the past few weeks. They’re catching everyone up on Recapture and Castos as well as sharing their Black Friday/Cyber Monday stories, including Black Friday deals on Business Directory plug-ins. Craig touches on Giving Tuesday and giving back to the community. He also talks about Castos’ newest staff member and an open developer position, remote communication, trial jobs, and how it has changed since the pandemic. Dave brings up the question of marketing tactics, from emails to pop-ups.  How do you feel about pop-ups? How well do you listen to your content marketers? Have you created a positive and involved community around your product? Send us an email at podcast@roguestartups.com. And as always, if you feel like our podcast has benefited you and it might benefit someone else, please share it with them. If you have a chance, give us a review on iTunes. We’ll see you next week! Resources:  Recapture.io Castos

In this episode (recorded on Election Day), Dave and Craig are talking about the big topics: elections in the United States and Black Friday. This 2020 election has been about straddling lines: blue versus red, mail-in ballots versus in-person voting, etc. Craig talks about explaining the electorate voting system to adults and how difficult that is. Both Dave and Craig talk about their predictions, silent Trump supporters, and the potential for shenanigans. On the business side of things, Dave and Craig brainstorm techniques and ideas for Black Friday. What role does loyalty play in Black Friday deals? And how do you do that with a SaaS? What about the quality of customers? What about retention? They also touch base on Dave’s search for a new marketing person and chat about autoscaling. Send us an email at podcast@roguestartups.com. And as always, if you feel like our podcast has benefited you and it might benefit someone else, please share it with them. If you have a chance, give us a review on iTunes. We’ll see you next week! Resources:  Recapture.io Castos

In this episode Dave and Craig talk through Dave’s recent founder retreat and his realizations about implementing EOS in his business and the changes that need to come about as a result.

In this episode of the Rogue Startups Podcast, Craig is joined by Steve Mcleod from the Bootstrapped podcast. Steve is also the founder of Feature Upvote and the acquirer of Saber Feedback. Bootstrapped has been creating helpful episodes for software bootstrappers since 2013. The formatting of the show consists of episodes which are interviews with experts, open discussions between bootstrappers, and (every now and then) solo episodes where Steve does a deep dive into a business topic. Today, Craig and Steve are talking about what it’s like being an expat and running a business abroad (specifically in Europe). While the positives of living and working in a different country are showcased on various social media accounts, the downsides aren’t always covered. So they decided to share information about some of the more difficult aspects like bookkeeping, language barriers, running multiple businesses, work/life balance, and being homesick. Send us an email at podcast@roguestartups.com. If you feel like our podcast has benefited you and it might benefit someone else, please share it with them. If you have a chance, give us a review on iTunes. We’ll see you next week! Resources:  Bootstrapped Podcast Steve Mcleod, Twitter Saber Feedback Feature Upvote Radical Candor by Kim Scott Recapture.io Castos

Dave and Craig are back behind the mic. This week they’re talking about being pulled in different directions, bookkeepers, and perseverance. How long is too long when it comes to being persistent? They’re also covering updates on Castos and Recapture, along with Dave’s Tweetstorm about luck surface area.  We would love to hear stories about times when you’ve followed-up with someone which led to you maximizing your personal luck surface area. Send us an email at podcast@roguestartups.com. Tweet at us: @RogueStartups. As always, if you feel like our podcast has benefited you and it might benefit someone else, please share it with them. If you have a chance, give us a review on iTunes. We’ll see you next week! Resources:  Bench.co FollowUp.cc FollowUpThen.com Spark WooCommerce Dave’s Twitter Recapture.io Castos

On this episode of Rogue Startups, Dave and Craig talk about the newest member to the Castos team, expanding time zones and work hours for customers, integrations and plug in news for Recapture, Black Friday, and unplugged time. After talking with some of the people from Big Snow, Dave ponders over EOS (Entrepreneur Operating System).  Dave and Craig talk about the EOS system, how it would work within their team, doing “the Diet Coke” version, invested team-members, and what type of company would work best with EOS. We’d love to hear from you. Do you have any experience with EOS? Do you have any tips or tricks you’d like to offer with us? Or questions you’d like us to answer in any future episodes? Send us an email at podcast@roguestartups.com. And as always, if you feel like our podcast has benefited you and it might benefit someone else, please share it with them. If you have a chance, give us a review on iTunes. We’ll see you next week! Resources:  VTO Organizer RS214: Implementing EOS with Kevin McArdle ninety.io Recapture.io Castos

In this episode, Craig and Dave are back talking about their current state of affairs. They’re going over everything from kids going back to school, to “Members Only” jackets, to updates with their businesses. Today’s topics include integration, the hiring process, the role of communication in remote roles, developer stories, and affiliate programs. We’d love to hear from you. Do you have a lot of experience with affiliate programs? Do you know someone who is? Send us an email at podcast@roguestartups.com.And as always, if you feel like our podcast has benefited you and it might benefit someone else, please share it with them. If you have a chance, give us a five-star review on iTunes. We’ll see you next week! Resources:  Who: The A Method for Hiring, by Geoff Smart and Randy Street CodeSubmit.io Recapture.io Castos

In this episode, Craig and Dave are back behind the mic talking about work hours, quality time with automations, Dave’s emotions after selling, and the benefits of working with a full plate. They also explore private podcasting with Castos, the limits of not having $10 million in the bank, infrastructure changes with Recapture, as well presumptions about bootstrappers and start-up founders.  Do you think it’s easier or harder to build wealth as a single-founder start-up? Send us an email at podcast@roguestartups.com. We’d love to hear your opinion on that. And as always, if you feel like our podcast has benefited you and it might benefit someone else, please share it with them. If you have a chance, give us a five-star review on iTunes. We’ll see you next week! Resources:  Recapture.io Castos

In this episode Dave has some big news to announce. He has sold his two WordPress plugins: Business Directory and AWPCP In this episode Dave and Craig talk through: The process of getting the plugins ready for saleWhere and how to list themWorking with the right broker for the business you’re sellingThe due diligence processWhat working with a buyer looks like. The buyers of the plugin are Syed Balkhi and Stephanie Wells With the sale of the plugins Dave is now freed up to focus more on Recapture.io which is still experiencing strong growth and has massive potential to become a strong 6 or 7 figure business. Questions, comments, or virtual high fives for Dave? Shoot us an email at podcast@roguestartups.com

In this episode, Craig sits down with Alex Theuma (Founder and CEO of SaaStock). They go over conferences, the SaaS industry, and how the coronavirus is affecting everything.  Alex talks about the perks and pitfalls of online conferences. He summarizes some of the lessons when transitioning from in-person conferences to online conferences. They also chat about likelihood of burnout in the current state of the industry. Alex Theuma is an entrepreneur who knows the value of shared knowledge from those in a similar sector. He believes it’s his mission to share the newest ideas and connect the brightest minds in SaaS so everyone can benefit. Alex founded SaaStock with the goal of connecting a community of SaaS founders and investors in order to help SaaS companies get traction, grow and scale through SaaStock global conferences, local meetups, community, and content. If you enjoyed the episode, please share this episode with someone who might benefit from it. Resources Mentioned: SaaStock.com

In this episode Dave and Craig talk through a few updates in their businesses. For Craig the big news is that the PodcastMotor brand has officially been merged into the Castos business. Over time both brands will continue to become one but that migration takes some time to complete. Castos also hired Matt Medieros of the Matt Report podcast as their new Director of Podcaster Success. Be on the lookout for some great stuff from Matt on the Castos front here soon. For Dave it’s been interesting to see the effect of Covid on different (types) of Shopify stores. Certain sectors are seeing immense growth and other are really suffering. Overall business for Recapture is strong still, but there are shifts for his customers. Dave has big news brewing on the plugins, but can’t talk about it just yet. Stay tuned to next episode when we break down what happened there.

In this episode I sit down with Ruben Gamez, founder of both Bidsketch and Docsketch. Ruben has been running Bidsketch for some time now, and along the way he’s developed quite a savvy approach to marketing and content marketing in some unconventional ways. Now with getting Docsketch off the ground in a competitive market Ruben […]

In this episode Craig sits down for a chat with Rob Walling, founder of TinySeed and previously founder at Drip. In this conversation Craig and Rob talk through how things at TinySeed are going here in the second cohort, what things he’s learned along the way in running the accelerator, and what they’re doing differently […]

In this episode Craig talks with Christopher Gimmer, co-founder of Snappa about how they approach content marketing and SEO as a primary growth engine in their business. With recent developments in competitor companies, Christopher and Craig talk through how news like massive funding rounds or buyouts make them feel about the path that their respective […]

In this episode Craig is joined by Ward Sandler, cofounder of MemberSpace. Here Craig and Ward talk through how the Memberspace team is organized, how the run the business, and what successes they’ve seen in growth in the past few years, especially during the Covid crisis. Ward is a firm believer that EVERY business should […]

After a few weeks away to process what is going on in our lives between the Covid-19 pandemic, a crumbling economy, and police brutality and the Black Lives Matter movement we’re back to talk through how all of this has affected us. Also in the startup news cycle this week was Basecamp’s “Hey” email client, […]

The term Product Led Growth is quickly becoming commonplace in the SaaS marketing and product world, but what does it mean when it comes to implementing this into your business practice? In this episode I sit down with Moritz Dausinger, founder of Refiner.io, to talk through how he is building a suite of tools to […]