Startups For the Rest of Us

• Episode 795 | TinySeed Tales s5e4: The $20K Milestone

  Harris hit $20k MRR. It’s real. What’s next? In this episode of TinySeed Tales, Rob Walling celebrates with Harris Kenny after OutboundSync crosses $20k MRR ahead of schedule. They talk about why hitting a milestone can feel both exciting and overwhelming, the arrival fallacy, and how simple, consistent execution may be all it takes to reach $30k. Harris shares the bets that moved the needle, including Salesforce, SOC 2, and what hidden demand taught him about building integrations before anyone asked. Topics we cover:  (1:32) – Crossing $20k MRR and aiming for $30k (6:29) – The Salesforce bet (8:17) – Runway, burn, and pricing upmarket (10:34) – Raise capital or keep bootstrapping (15:03) – SOC 2 as a sales unlock (20:11) – Marketplace credibility and AppExchange (22:05) – Hidden demand for Salesforce (26:11) – The push to $30k and parity Links from the Show:  Invest in TinySeed Fund 3 Coaching Call Bonus MicroConf Events OutboundSync Harris Kenny | LinkedIn 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

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• Episode 794 | From Struggling Side Project to Life-Changing SaaS Exit

  B2C, low price point, one-time payments… not the typical recipe for a life-changing exit.   In this episode, Rob Walling talks with longtime listener Zamir Khan, founder of VidHug (now Memento). Zamir’s story broke a lot of SaaS “rules”: B2C, low price point, one-time payments, and years of slow growth. He shares how he nearly gave up, the pandemic surge that changed everything, and the emotional ride that led to a life-changing exit. Episode Sponsor: AI is completely changing how people discover brands and content online, and Ahrefs has built a full-blown SaaS marketing platform to help you stay ahead. With over 15 years of real-world web data, and AI that actually understands marketing, Ahrefs helps you measure your brand presence, build authority, and monitor reputation across search, social, and AI platforms like ChatGPT, Google AIOs, Perplexity, and more. You can also dig into what’s driving your competitors’ visibility and spot market gaps before they do, helping you create content that ranks and drive new traffic to your business. There's no need to juggle a bunch of disconnected tools- get Ahref’s all-in-one platform to make your brand unmissable in a fast-moving world.  Try it free at ahrefs.com/awt. Topics we cover:  (3:47) — From podcast listener to SaaS founder (7:59) — The role of luck, timing, and the pandemic in growth (18:37) — A birthday gift becomes a product (23:54) — Charging early and surviving slow growth (30:47) — From $1k a month to 80k daily users (39:58) — Support load, stress, and the edge of burnout (48:58) — Deciding to sell (and why timing mattered) (52:57) — Life after the exit: slowing down and finding balance Links from the Show:  TinySeed – Applications close tonight! MicroConf Connect – The community for SaaS founders The SaaS Playbook  Memento (formerly VidHug) Zamir Khan (@zam1rkhan) | X Zamir Khan  | LinkedIn 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

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• Episode 793 | TinySeed Tales s5e3: Building Momentum

  What happens when momentum hits and your biggest challenge becomes keeping up? In this episode of TinySeed Tales, Rob Walling catches up with Harris Kenny, founder of OutboundSync. Revenue is growing, the team is moving fast, and enterprise leads are coming in. But with success comes complexity: support load, pricing strategy, and product demands are all increasing. Harris is hiring again, learning to say no, and figuring out how to keep the momentum without losing focus. Topics we cover:  (1:40) – Closing his biggest deal ever and what it unlocked (4:26) – Learning how to do enterprise sales (6:20) – How SOC 2 made the product stronger (12:18) – New hires are paying off (18:23) – Building the Salesforce integration (22:13) – Getting pull from the market, not pushing (24:10) – Taking customers from unicorns  Links from the Show:  TinySeed SaaS Accelerator - Applications close on September 9th Coaching Call Bonus Invest in TinySeed YNAB (You Need A Budget) Dynamite Jobs OutboundSync Harris Kenny | LinkedIn 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

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• Episode 792 | Hot Take Tuesday: GPT-5 Struggles, the A.I. Bubble, and the Windsurf Debacle

  Is GPT-5 a real risk for SaaS founders, or just the beginning of a new chapter? In this Hot Take Tuesday, Rob Walling, Einar Vollset, and Tracy Osborn dig into GPT-5’s mixed reviews, signs of stress in the A.I. bubble, and how Windsurf’s $2.4B exit left early employees with nothing. They also unpack why returning a VC fund is such a rare (and big) deal. Episode Sponsor This episode is brought to you by Gearheart.io, which specializes in helping early-stage founders validate ideas, prototype SaaS products, and build AI-powered MVPs with real user testing, so your code won’t crumble when your first customers show up. Founded by entrepreneurs who’ve launched and exited their own startups, Gearheart has helped launch over 70 B2B SaaS products, including SmartSuite (which raised $38 million). They get where you’re at. Book your free strategy session at gearheart.io and mention Startups for the Rest of Us to get 20% off discovery, validation, or prototyping services. Topics we cover:  (3:12) – TinySeed returns Fund One (9:40) – GPT-5: Upgrade or letdown? (19:19) – Are we in an AI bubble? (24:09) – The Windsurf debacle: $2.4B exit, $0 for early employees (31:06) – The bigger problem: Are startups forgetting to share the upside? (40:05) – Lifestyle vs. Ambitious Bootstrapping Links from the Show:  TinySeed Fall 2025 Applications Live Q&A - Join us Wednesday September 3rd TinySeed SaaS Accelerator - Applications are Open! Invest in TinySeed MicroConf SaaS Institute Discretion Capital  Einar Vollset | LinkedIn Einar Vollset (@einarvollset) | X Tracy Osborn  Tracy Osborn | LinkedIn Tracy Osborn (@tracymakes) | 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

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• Episode 791 | TinySeed Tales s5e2: Growing Pains

  In this episode of TinySeed Tales, Rob Walling reconnects with Harris Kenny, founder of OutboundSync, to explore the rapid evolution of his SaaS business just months after transitioning from agency work. Harris shares how niching down to outbound-focused agencies unlocked sales momentum. He talks about hiring, his Salesforce breakthrough, SOC 2 prep, and why finally spending his TinySeed funding changed everything. Topics we cover:  (2:27) – Launching a lower-priced version and building expansion revenue (6:40) – How lead-gen shops are outpacing legacy rev ops (12:01) – Hiring full-time: Dev speed, onboarding load, and customer success firepower (18:15) – A surprise Salesforce breakthrough and what it means for product strategy (24:42) – SOC 2 prep, pricing confidence, and finally spending the TinySeed check Links from the Show:  Join the TinySeed Mailing List Apply for TinySeed - Applications reopen September 1, 2025 OutboundSync Harris Kenny | LinkedIn Coaching Call Bonus Dynamite Jobs Vanta 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

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