Today Jack and Paul get very candid about what’s going on with Fathom Analytics lately, specifically regarding distractions. At the beginning of a bootstrapped business, other things are distracting (like how you make the bulk of your revenue). But eventually, as a bootstrapped business grows, it becomes a distraction from the product in and of itself—because you’ve got to juggle support, taxes, running a growing company, hiring, and so much more. So you can’t just remove distractions because the distraction (your company) is just as important as the product you’re building.

Today Jack and Paul get very candid about what’s going on with Fathom Analytics lately, specifically regarding distractions. At the beginning of a bootstrapped business, other things are distracting (like how you make the bulk of your revenue). But eventually, as a bootstrapped business grows, it becomes a distraction from the product in and of itself—because you’ve got to juggle support, taxes, running a growing company, hiring, and so much more. So you can’t just remove distractions because the distraction (your company) is just as important as the product you’re building.

When the business itself becomes the distraction

Matt Damon

At the time of recording this episode, Coinbase just laid off 18% of their workforce and they rescinded all job offers that had already been already accepted. Jack and Paul have a lively discussion about fast-growth, Big Tech monopolies, and whether or not the best way to compete with monopolies is to change the game and focus on slow, sustainable growth (instead of market share or competition).

At the time of recording this episode, Coinbase just laid off 18% of their workforce and they rescinded all job offers that had already been already accepted. Jack and Paul have a lively discussion about fast-growth, Big Tech monopolies, and whether or not the best way to compete with monopolies is to change the game and focus on slow, sustainable growth (instead of market share or competition).

Can Matt Damon save Coinbase?

Jack and Paul talk about a wide array of topics related to running a growing software company. From how the job of cofounder changes as a company grows, from using your skillset to becoming more of a manager; to how their minds are changing about enterprise plans; to ensuring a product company isn’t wholly reliant on a single customer; to how Fathom’s tech stack has changed lately; to the importance of moving slowly to move quickly.Jack talks through the reasons for moving Fathom’s codebase from Ember JS to Inertia.js and Vue.js.

Jack and Paul talk about a wide array of topics related to running a growing software company. From how the job of cofounder changes as a company grows, from using your skillset to becoming more of a manager; to how their minds are changing about enterprise plans; to ensuring a product company isn’t wholly reliant on a single customer; to how Fathom’s tech stack has changed lately; to the importance of moving slowly to move quickly. Jack talks through the reasons for moving Fathom’s codebase from Ember JS to Inertia.js and Vue.js.

Does Jack Scale?

Sherry Walling

Jack and Dr. Sherry Walling dive deep into our minds to discuss burnout, depression, the benefits of neurological diversification, the mental health fallout from Covid, psychedelic assisted therapy, and more for people who work for themselves.They also get into the mindset, values and traits of becoming and sustaining going out on your own as an entrepreneur.Dr. Walling is a clinical psychologist, speaker, podcaster, best-selling author, yoga teacher, and mental health advocate. Her company, ZenFounder, provides mental wellness resources to leaders and entrepreneurs as they navigate transition, loss, conflict, or any manner of complex human experience. 

Jack and Dr. Sherry Walling dive deep into our minds to discuss burnout, depression, the benefits of neurological diversification, the mental health fallout from Covid, psychedelic assisted therapy, and more for people who work for themselves.They also get into the mindset, values and traits of becoming and sustaining going out on your own as an entrepreneur.Dr. Walling is a clinical psychologist, speaker, podcaster, best-selling author, yoga teacher, and mental health advocate. Her company, <a href="https://www.zenfounder.com" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">ZenFounder</a>, provides mental wellness resources to leaders and entrepreneurs as they navigate transition, loss, conflict, or any manner of complex human experience.

Dr. Sherry Walling on the mind of entrepreneurs

Universal Analytics (the version most people use) of Google Analytics is being sunset shortly. And worse, there's no path to migrate that data into GA4 (their new product). But even worse still, they'll be deleting all Universal Analytics data as well. Yikes!Jack and Paul ruminate on why Google Analytics is so awful to use, so hard to understand, and why it feels like Google doesn't care about the end user of their software. Is it because free users of GA aren't their true customers? Is it because Google is tired of being bogged down by privacy rulings against them? Is it because SMBs weren't converting to their paid GA360? Or, is it because the true customers of Google Analytics data are advertisers, not the website owners who install GA?

Universal Analytics (the version most people use) of Google Analytics is being sunset shortly. And worse, there's no path to migrate that data into GA4 (their new product). But even worse still, they'll be deleting all Universal Analytics data as well. Yikes! Jack and Paul ruminate on why Google Analytics is so awful to use, so hard to understand, and why it feels like Google doesn't care about the end user of their software. Is it because free users of GA aren't their true customers? Is it because Google is tired of being bogged down by privacy rulings against them? Is it because SMBs weren't converting to their paid GA360? Or, is it because the true customers of Google Analytics data are advertisers, not the website owners who install GA?

Is Google Analytics 4 a middle finger to SMBs?

Jordan Gal

Jack and Jordan share stories from the front lines of indie companies. Starting and running a software business, mistakes made along the way, exiting a company built from the ground up, living with bigger competitors who get all the industry press, and so much more.They also get into the rise and meteoric fall of Fast, who raised over $120m in funding, ended up only making around $600k in revenue total, and then shutting down. Jordan discusses his point of view on what mistakes they made as a company and how they moved far too fast (pun intended).Jordan's company Rally helps online merchants offer a more profitable checkout, post-purchase offers, and helping boost conversions.

Jack and Jordan share stories from the front lines of indie companies. Starting and running a software business, mistakes made along the way, exiting a company built from the ground up, living with bigger competitors who get all the industry press, and so much more. They also get into the rise and meteoric fall of Fast, who raised over $120m in funding, ended up only making around $600k in revenue total, and then shutting down. Jordan discusses his point of view on what mistakes they made as a company and how they moved far too fast (pun intended). Jordan's company Rally helps online merchants offer a more profitable checkout, post-purchase offers, and helping boost conversions.

Jordan Gal on competing with giants

Jack and Paul briefly chat about launching a few small features in Fathom Analytics: search filters, event currencies and a graph update. They also try to think through whether or not validating "Product Market Fit" is something you can plan for, just luck into, or if it's simply a trailing metric you can only learn after the fact.

Jack and Paul briefly chat about launching a few small features in Fathom Analytics: search filters, event currencies and a graph update. They also try to think through whether or not validating "Product Market Fit" is something you can plan for, just luck into, or if it's simply a trailing metric you can only learn after the fact.

Is product market fit really just luck?

Jack and Paul discuss our business failures... past, present and possibly even future ones. Even with Fathom, there was a point were it was only doing a couple grand a month and didn't feel like a success (so why keep going with it?) The answer to that and much more in this episode. Jack also announced that the Google Analytics import feature for Fathom will be released before April 1st.

Jack and Paul discuss our business failures... past, present and possibly even future ones. Even with Fathom, there was a point were it was only doing a couple grand a month and didn't feel like a success (so why keep going with it?) The answer to that and much more in this episode. Jack also announced that the Google Analytics import feature for Fathom will be released before April 1st.

How we've failed

How a higher than usual growth rate has been affecting Fathom Analytics.

Growth is testing Fathom

Businesses aren’t people, but they’re run by people. That means your own values can help inform actions and stands you take. With Fathom, we’ve always been a values-driven company and don’t shy away from letting our customers and audience know how we feel about certain topics, so when Russia illegally invaded Ukraine, we decided that Fathom should do something.

How can small businesses make a difference to Ukraine?

A podcast exploring running an indie + bootstrapped software (SaaS) company. Follow Jack and Paul (the co-founders) in their journey of building and growing Fathom Analytics.		Published every two weeks, listen in on lively debates about profit, customers, software, and how they’re working to keep their business in line with their values.This is a podcast from Fathom Analytics (usefathom.com).

Rob Walling

See: https://usefathom.com/above-board/rob-walling

See: <a href="https://usefathom.com/above-board/rob-walling" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">https://usefathom.com/above-board/rob-walling</a>

Should we take funding? (feat. Rob Walling)

Often in business, people talk a lot (or only) about the money they make and not about the money they spend to run their business. And it’s important to consider how much of your revenue you should be spending, what to be spending your money on, and how to best prioritize what expenses should before others.

When to spend money

In this episode we were joined by our buddy Brian Casel, the founder of ZipMessage, to interview us on the backstory of Fathom and what it took to get Fathom off the ground.

What it took to get Fathom off the ground: Jack and Paul interviewed

In this episode Jack and Paul talk about the ruling from the Austrian DPA stating that Google analytics is illegal. Who does this affect? What can be done? Did Fathom Analytics have the inside scoop on this, and that’s why they created EU Isolation in 2021? All this and more in today’s episode."

In this episode Jack and Paul talk about the ruling from the Austrian DPA stating that Google analytics is illegal. Who does this affect? What can be done? Did Fathom Analytics have the inside scoop on this, and that’s why they created EU Isolation in 2021? All this and more in today’s episode."

EU Ruling: Google Analytics is now illegal

Jack and Paul talk through how they’ve set up (and are continuing to tweak) their daily routines. Not just to get the most out of work and productivity but also to ensure they are enjoying their lives outside of work as much as possible too.

Our daily routines

Paul has once again quit the internet, but this time he’s left Twitter (namely, this personal Twitter account). What does this mean for Fathom, if anything?NFTs were the final (minor) strawFathom’s recent launch of FathomCatz was the final straw in my decision to leave Twitter behind. I was excited to launch this fun new project, thought through the environmental aspect of blockchain things, and set up a local animal shelter to donate most of the proceeds to.But then, the second I shared it, a troll surfaced to cut down my tweet. At first, I was mad, but then I realized: I don’t feel like defending myself and my ideas to everyone, everywhere, all the time. I don’t need to “be right” to others who don’t matter. I don’t need to argue with strangers. I don’t need my attention and mental bandwidth to be taken up by social media. So while the NFT troll didn’t matter and wasn’t why I left, it was the final straw (of thousands) that led to the decision to remove my Twitter account permanently.Does this decision impact Fathom?Initially (i.e. years ago when Fathom Analytics started), a large chunk of new customers and awareness for Fathom came from my personal audience—via my mailing list and my writing.Currently, this is no longer the case. Fathom isn’t just “Paul and Jack do software”; it’s its own brand. Sure, “Paul and Jack” the people are part of it, but the order goes Fathom first as the brand, then us.So while removing my personal Twitter account could impact sales and growth with Fathom, it’s undoubtedly very minor. And, we have no plans to get rid of our Fathom Twitter account.We’ve (especially myself) been very conscious about how we build the brand for Fathom: where the product is always first (or our cats are first?), and Jack and my personalities are a far second. Yes, who we are as cofounders of the company matters a great deal, but it’s the most important thing. And thankfully, we’re now at a place where my personal brand disappearing shouldn’t have a noticeable impact.Scale scales negativityWhen you have a small audience, there’s typically less negativity because there are just fewer people. But as an audience grows (as mine did), the number of trolls also increases.Tim Ferriss has written about this (and the negative aspects of fame), as his audience is as big as you can get on the internet. And with it can come a volume of responses that one person could never be able to have time or mental capacity to deal with.The Fathom NewsletterYes, at the start of the episode, I spoke about deleting my personal newsletter, but the reasons for deleting that don’t apply to… the new Fathom content newsletter.The Fathom newsletter exists because we wanted a better way to distribute the articles and podcast episodes we’re creating all the time and putting a great deal of time and energy into. So it’s not a “personal, Paul Jarvis” newsletter; it’s a roundup of what Fathom has been up to, what we’ve written about or what we’ve talked about on our Above Board podcast.

Paul has once again quit the internet, but this time he’s left Twitter (namely, this personal Twitter account). What does this mean for Fathom, if anything?NFTs were the final (minor) strawFathom’s recent launch of <a href="https://usefathom.com/nfts" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">FathomCatz</a> was the final straw in my decision to leave Twitter behind. I was excited to launch this fun new project, thought through <a href="https://blog.polygon.technology/polygon-the-eco-friendly-blockchain-scaling-ethereum-bbdd52201ad/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">the environmental aspect of blockchain</a> things, and set up a <a href="https://spca.bc.ca/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">local animal shelter</a> to donate most of the proceeds to. But then, the second I shared it, a troll surfaced to cut down my tweet. At first, I was mad, but then I realized:<ol> <li>I don’t feel like defending myself and my ideas to everyone, everywhere, all the time.</li> <li>I don’t need to “be right” to others who don’t matter.</li> <li>I don’t need to argue with strangers.</li> <li>I don’t need my attention and mental bandwidth to be taken up by social media.</li> </ol> So while the NFT troll didn’t matter and wasn’t why I left, it was the final straw (of thousands) that led to the decision to remove my Twitter account permanently.Does this decision impact Fathom?Initially (i.e. years ago when <a href="https://usefathom.com/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Fathom Analytics</a> started), a large chunk of new customers and awareness for Fathom came from my personal audience—via my mailing list and <a href="https://usefathom.com/blog/categories/pjrvs" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">my writing</a>. Currently, this is no longer the case. Fathom isn’t just “Paul and Jack do software”; it’s its own brand. Sure, “Paul and Jack” the people are part of it, but the order goes Fathom first as the brand, then us. So while removing my personal Twitter account could impact sales and growth with Fathom, it’s undoubtedly very minor. And, we have no plans to get rid of our <a href="https://twitter.com/usefathom" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Fathom Twitter account</a>. We’ve (especially myself) been very conscious about how we build the <a href="https://usefathom.com/brand" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">brand for Fathom</a>: where the product is always first (or our cats are first?), and Jack and my personalities are a far second. Yes, who we are as cofounders of the company matters a great deal, but it’s the most important thing. And thankfully, we’re now at a place where my personal brand disappearing shouldn’t have a noticeable impact.Scale scales negativityWhen you have a small audience, there’s typically less negativity because there are just fewer people. But as an audience grows (as mine did), the number of trolls also increases. <a href="https://tim.blog/2020/02/02/reasons-to-not-become-famous/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Tim Ferriss has written about this</a> (and the negative aspects of fame), as his audience is as big as you can get on the internet. And with it can come a volume of responses that one person could never be able to have time or mental capacity to deal with.The Fathom NewsletterYes, at the start of the episode, I spoke about deleting my personal newsletter, but the reasons for deleting that don’t apply to… the new <a href="https://usefathom.com/newsletter" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Fathom content newsletter</a>. The Fathom newsletter exists because we wanted a better way to distribute the articles and podcast episodes we’re creating all the time and putting a great deal of time and energy into. So it’s not a “personal, Paul Jarvis” newsletter; it’s a roundup of what Fathom has been up to, what we’ve written about or what we’ve talked about on our <a href="https://usefathom.com/above-board" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Above Board podcast</a>.

Paul quit the internet… again?!

Jack and Paul get into the pros and cons of indie companies sharing their MRR and MRR milestones publicly. There’s definitely an appeal to sharing this, as many companies do, but is it worth doing, or more importantly, actually helpful, useful or beneficial to do so? Or, is sharing your gross revenue, just gross?

Sharing MRR is egotistical

In today’s episode Jack and Paul get into why they had to roll back a piece of a new feature they spent a year building (and had to delete an episode of this show). As well as touching on why ad-blockers hate us in the most misguided way, why our EU isolation is such an important feature, and most importantly, why Fathom doesn’t simply guess at privacy laws - we hire multiple experts to inform our decisions. Not going as far as we do in the legal department would put our customers at legal risk.

Adblockers & breaking the law

Sometimes Jack and Paul feel like every day is groundhog day, and that not much changes day-to-day. But in reality, lots has been launched, updated, changed, and made progress on. Including: a content survey, a new freelance writer, Fathom NFTs, open-sourcing a Fathom project, disabling MRR emails and how we think about support as it relates to growth.

The episode where we initially think there’s nothing new, but in actuality a whole ton of things are new

Jack and Paul get into all the things that have been happening behind the scenes at Fathom Analytics, including: a new graph, some nerdy details about infrastructure updates, better labels for data on our dashboard, the new high traffic page, and our latest multi-domains feature.

What’s been happening at Fathom?

A podcast exploring running an indie + bootstrapped software (SaaS) company. Follow Jack and Paul (the co-founders) in their journey of building and growing Fathom Analytics. 		 Published every two weeks, listen in on lively debates about profit, customers, software, and how they’re working to keep their business in line with their values. This is a podcast from Fathom Analytics (<a href="http://usefathom.com" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">usefathom.com</a>).

Above Board

The best podcast episodes on Startups. For anyone working in a startup, or anyone interested in the incredible stories behind how people built companies like Instagram, and Facebook. Offering both practical advice and insights, as well as the stories for how many of the biggest startups got to where they are today. Add episodes you're interested into your queue below!

OwlTail

Best Startups Podcasts

The best podcast episodes on physical health. Episodes talk about your diet, sleep, exercise and all the things that people do to improve their physical health and live a healthier life. This topic is for everyone, with applications in all of our everyday lives. Add episodes you're interested into your queue below!