Above Board

Paul has retired

Fathom Analytics — Wed, 04 Dec 2024 06:43:46 -0800

In this episode of the Fathom Analytics Above Board podcast, hosts Paul Jarvis and Jack Ellis dive into a significant transition—Paul's retirement from the company. The conversation is both heartfelt and insightful, reflecting on the bittersweet nature of this change.

Key Highlights:

Retirement Announcement: Paul shares his decision to retire, emphasizing it as a positive step rather than a departure from something he disliked. He discusses the importance of leaving Fathom in a strong position without compromising its independence
Bittersweet Emotions: Both hosts express mixed feelings about the end of their five-year partnership, acknowledging the deep connection they've built while also looking forward to new beginnings
Company Evolution: The discussion touches on Fathom's unexpected journey from a side project to a thriving business, highlighting the trust and collaboration that defined their co-founding relationship
Future Plans: Paul contemplates his next steps post-retirement, sharing that while he doesn’t foresee jumping back into entrepreneurship , he remains open to possibilities. He reflects on how he has never tied his identity to the business, allowing for a smoother transition

This episode is not just about retirement; it’s a celebration of growth, friendship, and the unpredictability of entrepreneurial life.

Why Google search is failing us

Fathom Analytics — Tue, 15 Oct 2024 09:33:54 -0700

In the latest episode of The Above Board Podcast, hosts Paul Jarvis and Jack Ellis discuss the decline of Google as an effective search engine, particularly in light of its increasing reliance on AI-generated content. They share personal anecdotes about their frustrations with search results, noting that traditional search engines like Google and DuckDuckGo have become less reliable, often returning irrelevant or incorrect information. Jack expresses skepticism about AI's ability to replace developers, arguing that while AI can assist with basic tasks, it often fails in more complex scenarios, leading to wasted time and confusion. Both hosts lament the impact of SEO practices on content quality, which they believe prioritizes keyword optimization over meaningful information, resulting in a frustrating user experience filled with ads and irrelevant content. They conclude that many users are outsourcing their critical thinking to AI and search engines, which may ultimately hinder their understanding and knowledge retention.

Takeaways

Google search has become less effective over time
AI is not a reliable tool for complex technical tasks
SEO practices have led to a decline in content quality
Search results can significantly influence public opinion
Understanding the incentives behind search engines is crucial
AI-generated content can often be incorrect or misleading
The reliance on AI may lead to a decline in critical thinking
Users are increasingly frustrated with the quality of search results
The future of search engines may involve more AI integration
Trust in search engines is diminishing due to advertising influence

Fathom updates and WP drama

Fathom Analytics — Mon, 30 Sep 2024 10:00:01 -0700

Jack and Paul discuss what’s new at Fathom Analytics recently, like the ongoing refactor project. This paves the way for great new features, including entry and exit pages. They also give their opinions on the recent drama in the WordPress (WP) community between Automattic and WPEngine.

Jack and Paul talk politics

Fathom Analytics — Tue, 27 Aug 2024 15:03:08 -0700

In the latest episode of the Above Board Podcast, hosts Paul Jarvis and Jack Ellis discuss various topics, with a significant portion of the conversation focuses on the recent arrest of Telegram's CEO in France (Pavel Durov), exploring the implications of privacy and censorship, encryption, and the responsibilities of social media platforms in policing illegal activities. The hosts debate the complexities of freedom of speech, censorship, and the role of government and corporations in regulating discourse, emphasizing the importance of allowing open discussions to foster understanding and informed opinions.

Small updates, big progress

Fathom Analytics — Mon, 29 Jul 2024 11:58:20 -0700

Things are humming along at Fathom Analytics - we’ve released several new features, have more in the pipeline coming soon, and the redoing of our internal processes is going quite well. Jack and Paul also discuss the Stripe acquisition of LemonSqueezy, the CEO of Paddle stepping down and finally, why Fathom does’t do discounts or sales (ever).

New Fathom UI, who dis?

Fathom Analytics — Mon, 15 Jul 2024 14:01:41 -0700

Jack and Paul get into updating the application’s interface design and how that paves the way for new features coming soon. They also discuss why no one should trust Google’s business model (and their penchant for killing off popular products like Universal Analytics), the lengths Fathom goes to to support old analytics data, why you should lean into what works for you (even if it’s not the consensus), why companies should care a lot more about protecting their customers data, why public corporations are incentivized for being sociopaths, and so much more.

Exploring the Ethics and privacy implications of AI

Fathom Analytics — Tue, 04 Jun 2024 10:27:23 -0700

The conversation delves into the ethical implications of AI, the use of AI in software, and the impact of AI on various industries. It also explores the challenges and limitations of AI technology, as well as the importance of privacy and data protection in AI development.

Takeaways

AI has the potential to revolutionize industries but raises ethical concerns about privacy and data protection.
The use of AI in software development presents challenges and limitations, including the need for accuracy and reliability.
Privacy and data protection are crucial considerations in the development and use of AI technology, especially with what data is used to train these models.
The impact of AI on various industries requires careful evaluation and ethical decision-making, not just “moving fast and breaking things”.
AI’s ego is it’s problem: it thinks it’s correct when it’s not, and attempts to be convincing about things it can’t know for certain is true.

The problem with big projects

Fathom Analytics — Wed, 22 May 2024 11:24:57 -0700

Today Jack and Paul discuss what's not been working with getting the next version of Fathom Analytics launched. They come up with a plan, in real-time, to overcome this hurdle and get back to a regular cadence of releases (i.e. not a big project). They also come up with a set of rules to govern internal projects.

The art of progress

Fathom Analytics — Mon, 06 May 2024 12:42:15 -0700

Software is complex. This episode goes into the pros and cons of how Jack (developer) and Paul (designer) work in terms of how they each make progress in huge projects, start and execute tasks, and deal with analysis paralysis that comes with complicated things.

The road to version 4

Fathom Analytics — Mon, 22 Apr 2024 11:25:53 -0700

It’s been a while since Jack and Paul have recorded an episode of this show, so there’s a lot to catch up on! A new marketing site was launched, we’re still a small team navigating focus, we’re working on a brand new version of our software, and we’ve prototyped a new ingest to be the fastest analytics ingest in the world.

Version 3.5 and the shape of things to come with Fathom Analytics

Fathom Analytics — Mon, 18 Dec 2023 10:20:14 -0800

Last week, we released several new features in our software and a fresh coat of paint in the UI. Jack and Paul discuss these features and how they relate to what’s coming up next, and they chat through the pricing increase that happened simultaneously. Lastly, they talk about why analytics software is more expensive than most hosting.

Dealing with negative feedback

Fathom Analytics — Tue, 14 Nov 2023 08:29:58 -0800

What do you do when you can’t always please all your customers? Jack and Paul discuss how they deal with negative feedback, the different types of negative feedback, when it’s valuable (and when it’s not), and even how they deal with negative feedback internally in the company.

SaaS founder time machine (questions)

Fathom Analytics — Mon, 30 Oct 2023 07:13:33 -0700

Jack and Paul get into what’s going on inside Fathom Analytics right now, and then answer some questions about what it was like starting the company, what they’d do differently (or the same), and if there’s anything they’d change if they had to start Fathom again.

Special thanks to Ben and Adam from the "Hackers Incorporated" podcast for the most of the questions answered on this episode.

Vacations for bootstrapped founders

Fathom Analytics — Mon, 16 Oct 2023 06:57:35 -0700

Can bootstrapped founders take time off for vacation? Is that even legal? And under what circumstances is that possible? Jack and Paul dive into vacations for indie founders, as well as a short update on what’s going on with Fathom Analytics on this episode of Above Board.

Paul’s perfect day (for productivity)

Fathom Analytics — Mon, 25 Sep 2023 05:39:45 -0700

Jack and Paul dive into Paul’s routine and how he approaches tasks and work that needs doing. They chat about motivation, complex work, focus and so much more.

Consultants for Startups

Fathom Analytics — Mon, 28 Aug 2023 07:00:00 -0700

Is it harder for startup founders to hire consultants when they’re used to being the ones who do all the work? Why hire a consultant in the first place? Why not hire full-time instead? Aren't good consultants ridiculously expensive? Jack and Paul dive into these questions and more on this episode about SaaS companies hiring consultants.

Justin Jackson and Paul Jarvis chat about starting and maintaining a SaaS

Fathom Analytics — Mon, 31 Jul 2023 05:54:27 -0700

Old friends Justin and Paul catch up for the first time in years and catch each other up on the state of Transistor and Fathom. They cover lots of lessons for new and veteran entrepreneurs, spanning their decades of experience in the world of indie software: cofounders, markets, surfing, experience, product moats, free time, the importance of putting things out there, and so much more.

Is a lot of startup advice incorrect?

Fathom Analytics — Mon, 17 Jul 2023 06:00:00 -0700

Maybe it’s not even that advice is “incorrect”, maybe it’s just that it’s simplified to the point of being uselessly reductive. Regardless, Jack and Paul get into dissecting popular business and startup advice found online, and see what fits, what doesn’t, and where nuance and reason should be liberally applied.

What does retirement look like for a SaaS founder?

Fathom Analytics — Mon, 03 Jul 2023 06:31:33 -0700

Can we retire? Do we want to retire? Can we adjust our work now (pre-retirement) to get the most out of life while we’re still young (ish)? Jack and Paul dive into what retirement looks like both for each of them, but also what their retirement from Fathom could look like too.

What’s important when everything’s important in your company?

Fathom Analytics — Mon, 26 Jun 2023 13:50:22 -0700

Jack and Paul get into a discussion about what happens when the company you started begins to do well, and you have to prioritize things that all seem equally important, and all seem like they need to get done at the same time. While they may not have any answers here, they do discuss what’s worked (and not worked) as far as Fathom Analytics is concerned.

No more branches, ever!

Fathom Analytics — Tue, 06 Jun 2023 14:42:22 -0700

Jack and Paul discuss changes to how Fathom Analytics develops features, moving from long-lived branches to "continuous development." Why did we start doing this? What are the benefits? And most importantly, what could go wrong?

The saga of building our Google Analytics Importer

Fathom Analytics — Mon, 22 May 2023 06:02:59 -0700

Universal Analytics is dead. GA4 is a dumpster fire of complexity. So what what did we do at Fathom? We build an importer to save your historical data from Google. How’d we build it? Why’d it take so long? What worked and what didn’t work? Jack and Paul get into the whole story about building one of their biggest features.

How our SaaS company approaches marketing and promotion

Fathom Analytics — Mon, 08 May 2023 06:01:59 -0700

Back in 2020, we recorded an episode about all our marketing efforts to grow our software company. In this new episode, we look at what we’ve changed, what’s still the same, what we’ve abandoned in terms of how we promote our bootstrapped company, and look ahead at what our marketing strategy could be. Meowing cats, TikTok kids dancing to analytics, and costumed protestors — all this and more.

Ruben Gamez on marketing, long-term success and making the right decisions as business owners

Fathom Analytics — Mon, 24 Apr 2023 06:03:43 -0700

You don't need to have a huge audience or social following to start and build a successful and sustainable business. People have started companies this way for centuries. Jack and Paul speak with Ruben today on how marketing and sales work at his companies, how he's managed to succeed long term with two companies, what a lot of bootstrap founders get wrong and so much more.

Ruben Gamez is the founder of Bidsketch and SignWell and can be found on twitter at @earthlingworks

How to build a multi-million dollar SaaS without funding (an interview with Rob Walling)

Fathom Analytics — Mon, 10 Apr 2023 06:29:22 -0700

Jack and Rob Walling get into the nitty gritty of running a SaaS company with an honest and transparent conversation, based around Rob’s new book: The SaaS Playbook.

You can learn more or pick up a copy of the book at https://saasplaybook.com/.

Silicon Valley Bank and bootstrapped companies

Fathom Analytics — Mon, 27 Mar 2023 06:15:16 -0700

In this episode, Jack and Paul chat about what happened with SVB, if they feel that more banks are going to fail, how it affected and could affect indie or bootstrapped companies, and how they’d (this is not legal advice, just opinions loosely held) fix things if they were in charge.

Matt Wensing on Product Market Fit, raising money and enterprise sales in SaaS

Fathom Analytics — Mon, 13 Mar 2023 07:02:09 -0700

Our guest today was Matt Wensing, the founder of Summit. Jack and Matt get into an in-depth conversation about:

What things do many entrepreneurs get wrong?
How to pivot well, starting a business with slow funding.
Why crowdfunding may be a bad idea for investors.
How his SaaS excels at enterprise sales (and why it's their main focus)

Summit is a zero-party marketing data platform - usesummit.com. Matt Wensing can be found on Twitter at @mattwensing.

45m

Can makers become managers?

Fathom Analytics — Mon, 27 Feb 2023 06:00:00 -0800

Jack and Paul discuss changes at Fathom Analytics. What used to work in the past in terms of workflows and specs is no longer working and actively blocking them from moving forward as quickly as they’d like. So, they sat down, formulated a plan, and shared it on this episode.

Are programmers going to be replaced by OpenAI?

Fathom Analytics — Mon, 13 Feb 2023 06:48:15 -0800

In today’s episode Paul and Jack get into using AI to help write code for software. Is it useful? Is it accurate? Can it be used to write entire applications? And most important of all, will OpenAI tools like Github’s CoPilot eventually replace developers and take their jobs?

Jack and Paul answer your questions (Pt. 2)

Fathom Analytics — Mon, 30 Jan 2023 05:00:00 -0800

Listeners and customers sent in their questions for us to answer, and we did just that! Questions about burnout, Google Analytics importer, our new hires, and more.

Jack and Paul answer your questions (Pt. 1)

Fathom Analytics — Mon, 16 Jan 2023 07:00:00 -0800

Listeners and customers sent in their questions for us to answer, and we did just that! Questions about our brand, infrastructure, upcoming features, and more.

Paul and Jack are back

Fathom Analytics — Mon, 24 Oct 2022 15:29:02 -0700

Jack and Paul catch up on the last few weeks. They cover a wide range of topics including: Do you really know what your weather forecast means, dots on charts, T-Rexs hunting you at coffee shops, wobbly desks, hiring our first customer support person (exciting!), Peppa Pig Land, North Korea, existential developer crisis’, Winnie the Pooh and so much more.

A brief history of (Fathom Analytics) time

Fathom Analytics — Mon, 29 Aug 2022 06:00:00 -0700

In this episode, Jack and Paul look back to the beginnings of Fathom Analytics (which started in 2018). There was no big break here or instant success. Instead, it was a series of small bets, iterations, and tiny risks. Thankfully enough of them paid off and moved us forward enough to go from a side project to full-time jobs, not only for us, the cofounders, but for our employees too.

Can bootstrapped startups survive a recession?

Fathom Analytics — Mon, 15 Aug 2022 09:27:35 -0700

When the economy is hurting, do small businesses have to suffer? Jack and Paul discuss how Fathom is (hopefully) built to be able to weather financial storms by not growing beyond our means at any given time and because we optimize for where we’re at, not where we hope to be if things go well. May all the huge hyper-growth companies who are laying off their staff could learn a little from leanly-run bootstrapped companies.

The art of making great decisions for your business

Fathom Analytics — Mon, 25 Jul 2022 06:00:00 -0700

It’s no secret: Fathom Analytics is growing. So what are Jack and Paul deciding to do about growth regarding development, support, and the business in general? How do they decide how to make the best decisions for the growing business and its long-term sustainability? Tune into this week’s episode to find out (hint: we’re hiring 197 people tomorrow).

When the business itself becomes the distraction

Fathom Analytics — Tue, 12 Jul 2022 11:07:31 -0700

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.

Can Matt Damon save Coinbase?

Fathom Analytics — Mon, 20 Jun 2022 01:00:00 -0700

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).

Does Jack Scale?

Fathom Analytics — Mon, 06 Jun 2022 05:00:00 -0700

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.

Dr. Sherry Walling on the mind of entrepreneurs

Fathom Analytics — Mon, 23 May 2022 01:00:00 -0700

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.

Is Google Analytics 4 a middle finger to SMBs?

Fathom Analytics — Mon, 09 May 2022 05:00:00 -0700

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?

Jordan Gal on competing with giants

Fathom Analytics — Mon, 25 Apr 2022 02:00:00 -0700

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.

Is product market fit really just luck?

Fathom Analytics — Mon, 11 Apr 2022 11:43:34 -0700

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.

How we've failed

Fathom Analytics — Mon, 28 Mar 2022 08:59:00 -0700

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.

Growth is testing Fathom

Fathom Analytics — Mon, 14 Mar 2022 01:00:00 -0700

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

How can small businesses make a difference to Ukraine?

Fathom Analytics — Tue, 01 Mar 2022 11:10:50 -0800

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.

Should we take funding? (feat. Rob Walling)

Fathom Analytics — Mon, 21 Feb 2022 01:00:00 -0800

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

When to spend money

Fathom Analytics — Mon, 07 Feb 2022 01:06:00 -0800

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.

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

Fathom Analytics — Mon, 24 Jan 2022 01:00:00 -0800

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.

EU Ruling: Google Analytics is now illegal

Fathom Analytics — Mon, 17 Jan 2022 09:52:15 -0800

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."

Our daily routines

Fathom Analytics — Mon, 10 Jan 2022 01:00:00 -0800

Paul quit the internet… again?!

Fathom Analytics — Mon, 27 Dec 2021 01:00:00 -0800

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) straw

Fathom’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 negativity

When 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 Newsletter

Yes, 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.

Sharing MRR is egotistical

Fathom Analytics — Mon, 13 Dec 2021 01:00:00 -0800

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?

Adblockers & breaking the law

Fathom Analytics — Mon, 29 Nov 2021 01:00:00 -0800

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.

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

Fathom Analytics — Mon, 18 Oct 2021 01:00:00 -0700

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.

What’s been happening at Fathom?

Fathom Analytics — Mon, 27 Sep 2021 01:00:00 -0700

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.

The pros and cons of being the Chief Hype Officer

Fathom Analytics — Mon, 30 Aug 2021 01:00:00 -0700

Jack and Paul discuss what it means to work in public and tweet about “coming soon” features. They also talk about how the momentum from releasing new features plays a pivot role in Fathom’s growth, and how it’s simply not possible to stay on the feature momentum train at all times.

usefathom.com/above-board

Interview with the the founder of Carrd: going from bootstrapping to raising venture capital

Fathom Analytics — Mon, 16 Aug 2021 01:00:00 -0700

On today’s show, Jack and Paul speak to the enigmatic and mysterious founder of Carrd, “AJ”. Carrd is a single page website builder that started in 2016 and now has over 2 million users, 3 million sites and is doing over $1 million in ARR. Our conversation covered how Carrd caught on and grew, what led Kim Kardashian to share a Carrd website, and why AJ decided to accept venture capital funding for his business.

What’s the best pricing model for a SaaS?

Fathom Analytics — Mon, 02 Aug 2021 01:00:00 -0700

Should you compete on price? Should you go after lots of smaller customers or a few massive customers? In this episode Jack and Paul have an honest conversation about who Fathom is for, and who Fathom isn’t for. They discuss pricing, enterprise customers, and how they are adapting the business to be more in line with the specific type of customers that best suit the software.

Hiring, firing and retiring

Fathom Analytics — Mon, 19 Jul 2021 01:00:00 -0700

Jack and Paul figure out live, on-the-air, how they want to approach bringing more people into Fathom to work on the core product and integrations. They also cover the “VC vs non-VC: fight!” debate and where Fathom’s operating philosophy fits.

Version 3 is live

Fathom Analytics — Mon, 05 Jul 2021 01:00:00 -0700

Jack and Paul get candid about the behind-the-scenes of launching a major software product release (previously known as “v3). What went wrong, what went right, how feedback is going, and of course, what’s next.

Privacy stories: The Markup

Fathom Analytics — Mon, 21 Jun 2021 06:25:38 -0700

In this episode Jack and Paul speak with Julia Angwin, the co-founder and editor in chief of The Markup, a newsroom who uses technology to investigate technology (Big Tech). The conversation covered why The Markup is a non-profit, what their methods for investigating are, why digital privacy is important, and what the potential solutions are to fixing Big Tech’s inclinations towards deviousness.

Drug abuse and WWDC

Fathom Analytics — Fri, 11 Jun 2021 09:18:30 -0700

Caffeine is the most consumed psychoactive substance in the world. Jack’s gone from 6 or more shots of espresso daily to cold turkey—and has been noticing a clearer head and improved thought processes. As well as a lively discussion about caffeine, Jack and Paul chat about the latest news from WWDC as it relates to privacy, as well as a brand new (secret) Fathom podcast project which Paul is working on.

usefathom.com

It doesn’t have to be fascist at work

Fathom Analytics — Tue, 25 May 2021 09:16:45 -0700

Jack and Paul share their views on the turmoil at Basecamp and why they deleted the episode of this podcast that featured DHH. They also talk a lot about what’s coming as far as updates to Fathom (and v3), and why Fathom has switched from “coming soon” marketing to “now” marketing… and what that means.

https://usefathom.com/podcast/basecamp

Privacy stories: Sparktoro

Fathom Analytics — Tue, 11 May 2021 01:00:00 -0700

Today Paul caught up with Rand Fiskhin, co-founder of Sparktoro (market research + audience intelligence SaaS). They spoke about starting a business at the start of the pandemic, why aggregated data (i.e. trends) can useful, why Rand isn’t growing a huge company but hiring consultants instead. And, of course a lively debate about digital privacy and targeted advertising.

Investing in relationships

Fathom Analytics — Mon, 05 Apr 2021 15:11:03 -0700

https://usefathom.com/podcast

How to destroy the privacy of your entire customer base with a single line of code

Fathom Analytics — Mon, 22 Mar 2021 12:49:23 -0700

Jack and Paul give their professional(ish) opinion the weight and risks of using external scripts on a website. They talk about what is considered with Fathom's embed script and what the ramifactions are of other scripts (like Facebook). There's also a touch of cryptocurrency, pair programming and a smattering of database migration too.

Why ad-blockers are completely wrong

Fathom Analytics — Fri, 05 Mar 2021 10:20:00 -0800

A quick catchup with Jack “and team” about what’s going on with Fathom and our upcoming V3 release. As well as why we believe ad-blockers got it wrong about unilaterally blocking all third-party scripts… and why that’s fired us up to create something that’s (as Jack puts it), “completely unblockable”.

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We landed a whale!

Fathom Analytics — Fri, 19 Feb 2021 09:41:16 -0800

A virtual cornucopia of topics in this week’s show. We cover getting an amazing new customer using Fathom, the DogeCoin revolution and investing in general, and of course, some very specific details and features that are coming soon to Version 3 of Fathom.

We don’t want your business

Fathom Analytics — Wed, 20 Jan 2021 07:36:34 -0800

If you’re starting a new business (like a SaaS) you may think, “let’s make this a really low price so that everyone will use it because it’s really cheap”. A race to the bottom in pricing is never a good idea (both for you or your customers). Jack and Paul discuss why the best-case scenario with that idea is you’ll get screwed by your own growth.

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Paul quit the internet

Fathom Analytics — Fri, 11 Dec 2020 18:45:13 -0800

What happened when Paul quit the internet? What does it mean for Fathom? What does it mean for Jack now having to field every Paul-related tweet? This, and talking about professionalism/tone as a business, all in today’s episode.

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Privacy stories: Fastmail

Fathom Analytics — Fri, 04 Dec 2020 01:00:00 -0800

In this episode Jack and Paul speak with Bron Gondwana, the CEO of Fastmail and how they’ve managed to run their privacy-focused email software since 1999. The conversation covers balancing privacy with real-world usability, competing with one of the worlds biggest tech company, why they no longer offer a free product, and much more.

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Someone tried to put us out of business

Fathom Analytics — Fri, 20 Nov 2020 09:07:04 -0800

A malicious person decided they wanted to have a go at ruining our company and it’s reputation. In this episode Paul interviews Jack about a high level attack that was targeted at Fathom Analytics. We cover what happened, how we responded and talked to our customers about it, and then what we’re doing to mitigate this type of threat in the future.

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Privacy stories: DuckDuckGo

Fathom Analytics — Fri, 13 Nov 2020 02:00:00 -0800

Jack and Paul connect with DuckDuckGo’s Communications Manager, Daniel Davis to chat about their search business, DDG's take on digital privacy, and how DDG competes with big tech (Google). This is the first of many episodes where we speak with other companies in the digital privacy space.

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We're taking a break

Fathom Analytics — Fri, 04 Sep 2020 01:00:00 -0700

Jack and Paul talk about taking a short break from this show until November or so. Also hear Paul lose his sh*t about the state of banking in Canada, a bit more on enterprise sales processes, and how they're slightly tweaking their charitable donations.

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Building an audience, analytics & virtue signalling

Fathom Analytics — Fri, 28 Aug 2020 01:00:00 -0700

Jack and Paul get into a smorgasbord of topics on today’s show including: Jack’s Laracon talk, building an audience, what to do about all the virtue signalling in the ethical product space and much, European privacy laws and their impact on American businesses and services, and much more.

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Being competitive, YouTube and going viral

Fathom Analytics — Fri, 21 Aug 2020 01:00:00 -0700

On today’s episode Jack and Paul chat about using competitiveness to your advantage, the good and bad of video games, how we dealt with a very viral customer, the logic of a privacy-focused company like Fathom using a platform like Youtube and Jack’s upcoming Laracon talk.

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Credit cards, trust and why people buy indie software products

Fathom Analytics — Fri, 14 Aug 2020 01:00:00 -0700

On today’s show Jack and Paul talk about the reasons Fathom asks for a credit card up front, and how that impacts our growth. They also get into why people buy certain SaaS products. As an added bonus, Jack calculates how much it’d cost you to use Facebook is they removed any/all ads and targeting and charged their users instead. Spoiler: it’s a LOT less than you think.

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New hires and vacations

Fathom Analytics — Fri, 07 Aug 2020 01:00:00 -0700

On today's show Paul and Jack chat about bringing a privacy officer on board, why taking proper breaks are important (even if you run an indie business) and what we are considering for the future of Fathom Analytics (version 3). Jack makes a joke about steak-cations, which does not land well.

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Bad CEOs and Cat Jumpers

Fathom Analytics — Sat, 01 Aug 2020 01:00:00 -0700

Jack and Paul dissect a few issues they've had with other companies and leadership at those companies, and then how those companies responded (both the good and the bad).

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SaaS collaboration tools, organization, pancakes and more

Fathom Analytics — Fri, 17 Jul 2020 05:00:00 -0700

Jack and Paul answer questions from listeners today, including: our favourite pancake recipe, the tools/apps we use to collaborate, how we determine hiring vs bringing on cofounder vs freelancers, and our full design and development processes. We also touch on food and routines (because it's not an episode without Paul mentioning he's vegan).

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You’re fired!

Fathom Analytics — Fri, 10 Jul 2020 05:00:00 -0700

Jack and Paul speak about having to fire a customer for the first time. It was tough, but it had to be done. They also discuss boundaries, tolerance and office politics.

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Wealth

Fathom Analytics — Fri, 03 Jul 2020 06:30:00 -0700

We’re not trying to sell you anything right now, we’re only here to share our experiences making money working for ourselves. The techniques discussed in this podcast episode can help you generate millions of dollars.

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Are you a bad person if you use YouTube?

Fathom Analytics — Thu, 11 Jun 2020 14:00:00 -0700

Jack and Paul get into if Fathom should create and post videos to YouTube (which is obviously owned by Google). Are you a bad person if you watch YouTube? Are you a worse person if you upload videos to their service?

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Is Joe Rogan a sell out?

Fathom Analytics — Thu, 28 May 2020 12:00:00 -0700

Joe Rogan recently signed an exclusivity deal worth $100M with Spotify which goes into effect sometime after September 2020. Is this a trend towards the end of podcasts being a free and open platform? Is this moving more towards how televisions shows have functioned with networks since the start? Are listeners going to suffer or benefit from deals like this? Jack and Paul debate the pros & cons… two enter the cage, one leaves (sorry, we had to make a bad MMA joke).

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Were we wrong about enterprise customers?

Fathom Analytics — Mon, 25 May 2020 13:00:00 -0700

Jack and Paul discuss the pros and cons of supporting enterprise clients, along with a SPECIAL GUEST: Ben Orenstein from Tuple. How are thinking about working with bigger clients while still ensuring our smaller clients are happy and taken care of?

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Customer happiness over money

Fathom Analytics — Fri, 15 May 2020 04:00:00 -0700

A lot of businesses put money before their customers’ happiness. We’ve all been there: we get a bill for a yearly subscription, but didn’t get any warning about the charge happening. And then, if we want to cancel, have to go through the onerous process of cancelling… sometimes via phone, to get the charge (hopefully) reserved. Jack and Paul dive into this topic, explain why Fathom doesn’t do this (and why it works out well), as well as cover several other topics like general expenses, standing desks and new features in our privacy-focused website analytics software.

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Capitalism and copycats and communism, oh my!

Fathom Analytics — Fri, 08 May 2020 01:00:00 -0700

Jack and Paul talk about the benefits and problems involving taking venture capital for a software company, what we think about competitors copying us, and why “free markets” should potentially have some limits or at least some regulations.

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Why was the first $10k MRR the hardest?

Fathom Analytics — Fri, 24 Apr 2020 06:00:00 -0700

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Fighting with COVID-19

Fathom Analytics — Mon, 23 Mar 2020 20:00:00 -0700

Paul and Jack get brutally honest about the current pandemic, and it’s horrible effect on small businesses. Oh, and they also get into cruise ship bailouts, the Canadian government (and what they’re doing right), and building toilet paper roll forts while video conferencing.

Why do programmers suck at design?

Fathom Analytics — Tue, 10 Mar 2020 00:00:00 -0700

Jack and Paul dive deep into what goes into a design (if you're a designer, like Paul), and talk about the value of design. Jack queries Paul about his process and approach, and how developers can learn a few tips to make their designs suck a little less.

Jack is leaving

Fathom Analytics — Tue, 25 Feb 2020 00:00:00 -0800

It's the end for Jack, as he has a heart to heart discussion about wrapping things up for good.

Being a solo founder sucks

Fathom Analytics — Tue, 11 Feb 2020 02:00:00 -0800

As you know, Jack and Paul are the cofounders of Fathom Analytics, a 50/50 split. What do they think about working as cofounders? Is it better to be a solo founder? What are benefits of only making half as much (and giving the rest to someone else)? Let's dive in on this nail-biting episode.

Every single marketing effort Fathom has used thus far

Fathom Analytics — Tue, 28 Jan 2020 01:00:00 -0800

From content marketing, to paid ads, to social media, Jack and Paul dive into every single type of marketing they’ve done to promote Fathom. They talk about the effectiveness of each, as well as the difference between “marketing as brand awareness” vs “marketing as driving conversions”. Paul also drops a #thoughtleader bombshell, “Marketing is talking when you have something to say, not just when you have something to sell”.

How many hours of work is enough?

Fathom Analytics — Tue, 14 Jan 2020 07:00:00 -0800

Jack and Paul ring in the new year with a hearty debate about how many hours you need to work per week. Is it as simple as “no more than 40”, or is this debate more nuanced?

How to win friends and influence features

Fathom Analytics — Tue, 03 Dec 2019 06:50:00 -0800

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The open-source dilemma

Fathom Analytics — Mon, 18 Nov 2019 07:00:00 -0800

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Announcing Above Board, an episode about all future episodes, also known as a trailer

Fathom Analytics — Wed, 13 Nov 2019 12:25:00 -0800

Welcome to the Above Board Podcast. In this podcast Jack Ellis and Paul Jarvis will discuss all things Fathom Analytics (the product they co-own), ethics and business, and whatever else comes up as they build and sell their software product. Learn more at usefathom.com