Giant Robots Smashing Into Other Giant Robots

Chris gets a surprise while reviewing Upcase's Q4 profit & loss statement, gains some insight into e-mail marketing, wrestles with the added complexity of adding github auth-to-access, and brainstorms new community-driven projects. Meanwhile, Ben gets his hands dirty with Formkeep's Ember removal, is tempted by the siren's call of distraction, and gets an open review from the Bootstrapped Web podcast. Also, Chris does a live user-test of Formkeep's new user activation flow. Formkeep Upcase The Chris Toomey of Real Estate Deep Work- Cal Newport Bootstrapped Web Ep 98- Formkeep Teardown! xkcd: Nerd Sniping Pave the Cowpaths Cooper Press Support Giant Robots Smashing Into Other Giant Robots

Ben resolves to cut back on dashboard checkins, makes progress on Formkeep's Ember extraction, and struggles with product-market fit. Meanwhile, Chris tackles some analytics issues, opens up Upcase landing pages from behind the paywall to improve marketing and SEO, and steps up his marketing and social-media game. Formkeep Upcase baremetrics Formkeep Blog The Pragmatic Programmer SPIN Selling Radical Candor Bootstrapped Web Podcast Support Giant Robots Smashing Into Other Giant Robots

Ben and Chris both struggle with cancelations coming into the new year, Formkeep continues to strip out Ember and focus on content marketing, and Upcase resolves a major issue in the exercise system and improves the checkout flow. Formkeep Upcase The Mythical Man-Month Levenshtein Distance Edgar Laura Roeder on Giant Robots How to 3x your productivity in 10 minutes a week- Mitchell Harper gitolite Test All the F***in Time Finding Your Flywheel- Rob Walling SPIN Selling Support Giant Robots Smashing Into Other Giant Robots

Chris tracks new members after the release of the new Mastering Git course from Upcase, launches a drip e-mail campaign to attract more members, and focuses on increased content output. Ben continues removing Ember from Formkeep, rethinks an activation sequence A/B test, conducts user tests to improve the checkout flow, and adopts a mindset of continuous improvement. Formkeep Upcase Mastering Git course on Upcase Drip Marketing Mastermind Alliance Startup Playbook- Sam Altman Rob Walling on Giant Robots How to 10x in 15 Months The Content Marketing Handbook Airbnb vs Hotels The Effective Executive- Peter F. Drucker Support Giant Robots Smashing Into Other Giant Robots

As Ben transitions from Upcase to Formkeep, so too will the podcast transition to an open discussion around growing thoughtbot's internal projects and maintaining them as businesses, highlighting our hopes, experiments, tactics, failures, and success along the way! Today Ben and new co-host Chris discuss finding that magic feature or metric around which to structure pricing, selecting the right framework for your app, and customer acquisition tactics. Formkeep Upcase Price Intelligently Audience Ops Bootstrapped Web Podcast Middleman Traction Wistia Turnstile Rob Walling on Giant Robots Visual Website Optimizer Mastering Git course on Upcase Chris on Twitter Support Giant Robots Smashing Into Other Giant Robots

Ben talks with Ashe Dryden about ways to approach diversity in the tech community from workplace, conference, and personal perspectives. AlterConf The Diverse Team The Inclusive Event Model View Culture Brianna Wu - 9 Ways to Stop Hurting and Start Helping Women in Tech Fund Club Ashe on Twitter Support Giant Robots Smashing Into Other Giant Robots

Ben and Laura Roeder, founder of Edgar, chat about anthropomorphizing your brand to build better engagement, going the extra step to care about customer success, and some tips for social media marketing best practices. This episode is brought to you by Formkeep: Form endpoints for designers and developers Edgar Edgar is my boyfriend- Sticker shown at the top of this glowing love-letter to Edgar thoughtbot Playbook Laura on Twitter Support Giant Robots Smashing Into Other Giant Robots

Ben talks with Hiten Shah, co-founder of Crazy Egg and Kissmetrics, on the value of helping others, frameworks for a better life, being an infovore, and tips for finding a successful product niche. Upcase: 50% Off Your First Month For Giant Robots Listeners! Crazy Egg Kissmetrics Jeff Bezos - Regret Minimization Framework Hacks for Infovores "Be Good"- Paul Graham The Lean Startup Jack Dorsey on CEO as Editor The Startup Chat Podcast Saas Weekly Hiten on Twitter Support Giant Robots Smashing Into Other Giant Robots

Eric Normand, founder of LispCast and PurelyFunctional.tv, talks with Ben about the pros and cons of Haskell and Clojure, pain points of running an educational coding platform, and how the next "killer demo" in programming will present itself. They also discuss Brendan Dunn's writings, compare Haskell and Clojure, and explore the potential of ClosureScript in hackathons.

Ben talks with Steli Efti, CEO and Co-founder of Close, on maintaining energy and passion in speaking, why engineers make great sales people (and how they can be even better), and managing your emotions to be more productive and happy. Upcase: 50% Off Your First Month For Giant Robots Listeners! Close How to Build a Solo SaaS Sales Machine Engineers Vs Sales People The Startup Chat Steli on Twitter Support Giant Robots Smashing Into Other Giant Robots