The future of “growth hacking”

Show Notes

Wistia, Basecamp, Transistor.fm...companies that are run by teams who actually need and use the product they build. Here’s another rant about the advantages of being your own customer and NOT JUST knowing your own customers.

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What is Getting To Ramen?

One SaaS-trepreneur's journey to building a sustainable lifestyle business online. With all of the failures, successes, and learnings along the way (including interviews with people like Justin Jackson, Rob Walling, Ben Orenstein, and others).

Joshua Anderton: 00:02

Hey. This is episode three of the Getting To Ramen podcast, and I'm still Josh Anderton. So I I may have already brought this up in one of the the other episodes, but because it's been something that I've been thinking about a lot lately. But it's the concept of being your own customer. So not just not just knowing your customers really well, but actually being somebody who uses your own product and the value that that or how that feeds into marketing and feeds into features and and and and so many things.

Joshua Anderton: 00:46

And it's been something that's been on my mind a lot lately because well, I'm a I'm a big fan of a few companies that do that really well. So so Wistia is one of those. Wistia is a a tool that allows you to they're so they're video hosting for businesses, so you can have a great player. It's an alternative to YouTube. Basically, you have, like, this great video player.

Joshua Anderton: 01:18

You can customize it, have, a nice color, and and then you've you're given analytics and and and even like email, like lead generation pop up and everything like that too. Like, great product. It's been around for a long time, but because they're so but they because they're they do video hosting, they've they've invested in making in a in making some really great video series over the years. And and since they are taking that so seriously, they they're kind of their ideal their own ideal customer. And so they they know what features they want, and so they know what features their customers want.

Joshua Anderton: 02:04

And and I think that with the way that marketing so sorry. Let me get another another great example is Basecamp. Basecamp uses their own product, and they're they're constantly coming out with these great features that are that are more than just, like, based on feature requests, but they're actually solving they're solving integral or deep issues that teams just like theirs have. And so, like, Hillcharts, the feature they just released that Jason Fried has been talking a lot about lately is this concept of rating rating a task or a project's progress based on a on a hill rather than a line. So you're either you're either at a point where you're you're still pushing up the hill or it's still difficult and there's still a lot of unknowns left, or you're you're, really you're really moving and you're it feels like you're going downhill.

Joshua Anderton: 03:18

And so this is a concept that just it it just you you don't get to those kinds of solutions, I think, just by talking to customers, unless, obviously, you're very good. But in the case of solo entrepreneurs, solo founders who are trying to run a small company and do a lot of different things, it becomes so important to to be your own customer like this. So one more awesome example because I've been listening to their podcast religiously lately is Transistor FM, Transistor dot FM. So this is Justin Jack Jackson and John Buddha. And Justin Jackson is you know, he's been a podcasting legend for for years, and now he's building a company for podcasters.

Joshua Anderton: 04:15

And it's like, he there probably aren't a lot of people on the planet as suited for for that, to run that company, you know, alongside John Buddha, to run that company as as Justin Jackson. And and props to John Buddha because he reached out to him with this idea in the first place. But they're just a fantastic team. It's been really great listening to them, but just such an awesome just such a great example of of being your own customer. And so so I've got it written down here with some thoughts.

Joshua Anderton: 05:00

So I'm just looking back at my notes so that I don't I don't keep trailing off. But it actually this this reminds me of well, sorry. So the other thing that this feeds into is you know where your customers hang out because you know where you hang out. And so so it's so it's and you're not guessing. You're not it it kind of reminds me it it reminds me of, like, when you go to a new city and you're looking for the places that the locals eat.

Joshua Anderton: 05:35

So it's not like the touristy places, but it's the places where the local only the locals eat. And you if you go as a stranger, it's hard to to discover. You don't really know if you're finding those places because because you just aren't you just aren't spending enough time there unless you're there for months and months to really know where those spots are. And and I feel like it it's like that with in marketing when you're searching out your customers. Like, for myself, if I'm trying to find, you know, if I'm trying to find a like, where cyclists hang out online.

Joshua Anderton: 06:18

To me, was like, I have no clue. I'm gonna start googling it. Well, first things that come up on Google are not gonna be where the, you know, the elite hang out. It's gonna be where the majority hangs out. And so if I wanna find the, you know, the elite of the cyclists who are spending the most money on gear or whatever, I I might have a little bit of luck just by doing that Google search.

Joshua Anderton: 06:43

But I'm gonna but not the same as if I was a cyclist. And I and I know where those people are hanging out because they're my friends and they're, you know, they're me. And so in the same way that I I feel like as like like, for myself, like, I was to if I was to do that, it would it'd a Gong Show. But if I knew if it if my customer is, say, like, you know, like, solo entrepreneurs or whatever early stage founders of SaaS companies, like, know where they hang out because I know where I hang out. It's I'm gonna go on Indie Hackers, I know how to ask a question that they care about because I know what questions I care about, what questions that I I respond to.

Joshua Anderton: 07:26

And so I can ask the right questions, and it's not as it's not like this marketing genius thing. It's just being authentic and and knowing who your customer is because your customer is you. So, anyways, this is just another another thing that's can kinda been rocking around in my rocking rolling around in my brain. And I don't know. Hopefully, it would made sense.

Joshua Anderton: 07:54

But I'm working on domain for getting Getting To Ramen. So it's gonna be getting to ramen.com that I found, which is kind of exciting. Of course, it's not really you know, it's a .com. Woo hoo. But it's I can see why it's not hasn't been taken.

Joshua Anderton: 08:10

Kind of a obscure statement for most industries. But that's kind of why I'm choosing it because I feel like no one I know will get it. No. Sorry. No one no one like my family or or friends or anyone that's outside of the bootstrapping world will understand what I'm what that is, and that was kind of the point.

Joshua Anderton: 08:34

So I'll have that domain up soon. Otherwise, I'm on Twitter at Josh Anderton. Oh, sorry. At Joshua Anderton. There is a Josh Anderton on Twitter.

Joshua Anderton: 08:50

He's not me, but I'm sure that he's got interesting stuff to say too. So you can go follow him too. Anyways, thanks for listening. I will talk to you probably next week. Now that I've put out three podcasts here or episodes, I feel like that's enough for me to share it with a few people and see if I've got anything worth saying at this point.

Joshua Anderton: 09:14

So yep.