Make Lemonade

Hosted by JR Farr, Lemon Squeezy

Business Entrepreneurship

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Jun 2024

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About the show

The show for creators, by creators. Helping inspire today's entrepreneurs to earn money from their own lemonade stand.

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52 recent

June 27, 202441 min

Indie acquisitions, platform risk and life after selling Tweet Hunter for 8-figures

Today we’re joined by Tibo Louis-Lucas , who is most well known for starting Tweet Hunter and Taplio in 2021, before selling the company in 2022 for 8 figures. Since then, Tibo has gone on to acquire an AI video creation tool, Typeframes, which he spun Revid.ai, and Feather.so, a Notion blogging platform. Timestamps 00:00 Intro 01:17 Leaving Lempire and starting from scratch 03:00 Learning from failures 05:29 Growing MRR with influencers 13:38 How Tibo felt selling Tweet Hunter 18:55 Why Tibo will never sell a project again 25:14 Feeling paralysis after selling your startup 27:36 How Tibo has approached acquiring products 29:28 Have Tibo's acquisitions been a success? 34:15 Why Tibo acquired another project for $250,000 36:01 Did Tibo waste $250,000 on buying Feather? As always thanks for being a listener of the Make Lemonade show. Hosted by @jrfarr & @jmckinven — brought to you by LemonSqueezy.com. If you're looking to sell digital products online, be sure to check out Lemon Squeezy or follow us on X @lmsqueezy.

June 20, 202442 min

Lemon Squeezy CEO mid-year reflection: funding, features and football

Today we’re doing a a behind the scenes episode with JR. We haven’t looked at what’s going on since December, so it’s about time I posed some questions to JR about everything from features to growth and more. Links John O'Nolan episode: https://youtu.be/QXwiTZiO46g Simon Pittman episode: https://youtu.be/L11ii1qKD5o Rob Walling episode: https://youtu.be/M_JbjtIYUh0 JR's features tweet: https://x.com/jrfarr/status/1791819342784655760 Product links feature: https://x.com/lmsqueezy/status/1801252160941797848 Timestamps 00:00 - Intro 00:50 - Guess that guest quote 06:02 - Reflecting on 1 year since rejecting venture capital 07:57 - Marketing for Lemon Squeezy 11:07 - JR embracing the hat-free life 12:26 - New features launched 14:26 - Do people still want or need merchant of record? 18:38 - Lemon Squeezy JavaScript SDK package going gangbusters 21:25 - Update on feature requests 28:38 - Trends for sellers JR is seeing 30:06 - Was Lemon Squeezy easier to build than Mojo? 34:56 - JR's dream non-founder guest 38:08 - Why JR hates soccer 41:43 - How is life for the CEO of Lemon Squeezy As always thanks for being a listener of the Make Lemonade show. Hosted by @jrfarr & @jmckinven — brought to you by LemonSqueezy.com. If you're looking to sell digital products online, be sure to check out Lemon Squeezy or follow us on X @lmsqueezy.

June 6, 202445 min

Taking on Adobe with his bootstrapped tool, Screen Studio - Adam Pietrasiak

Today we're joined by one of the most successful sellers on Lemon Squeezy, Adam Pietrasiak . Adam is the founder of Screen Studio , a beautiful tool for creating and editing screen recordings that he started at the end of 2022 and now has thousands of paying users. In this episode we talk about how Adam made $30k in his first month, his approach to creating a well-polished product, and why he's not planning to take VC funding any time soon. Timestamps 00:00 Intro 00:47 Adam's background 02:23 Learning from past failures 05:20 Life building from Poland 07:46 Screen Studio founding story 10:25 Building without validating 12:44 Building in a very competitive market 18:44 Being a designer developer 19:53 Making $30,000 in the first month 25:18 Discovering marketing and growth channels 27:50 Adam setting up a powerful affiliate programme 34:23 How Adam designs in code 37:10 VC funding or bootstrapping 39:42 Monthly recurring vs single license pricing

May 23, 202448 min

Building a $7m non-profit tech company - John O'Nolan

John O’Nolan is the founder of Ghost , an independent publishing platform. John sees Ghost as an experiment in doing the opposite of what every other tech company does. They haven’t raised VC, instead setting Ghost up as a non-profit that can never be bought or sold. The core product is open source, with a simple SaaS model to fund future development. John is opinionated and outspoken but with many views that are hard to argue, so I can’t wait to dive into some of those today. Timestamps 00:00 Intro 00:48 From music to software 01:50 The benefits of anonymity 06:44 Launching Ghost as a non-profit 14:26 Why launch on Kickstarter 19:12 Is the longevity of blogging susprising? 22:25 What companies is venture capital right for? 23:40 Should more companies follow the non profit model? 25:50 John's approach to making great products 27:45 How John views competition 29:41 How do they ship at Ghost 36:38 The fediverse and ActivityPub 42:15 John's favourite newsletters 43:41 John's hobbies As always thanks for being a listener of the Make Lemonade show. Hosted by @jrfarr & @jmckinven — brought to you by LemonSqueezy.com. If you're looking to sell digital products online, be sure to check out Lemon Squeezy or follow us on Twitter @lmsqueezy.

May 16, 202447 min

Building a calm company with a strong financial engine - Justin Jackson

Justin is the co-founder of Transistor.fm , a podcast hosting platform that hosts over 27,000 podcasts. Justin has bootstrapped the business since 2018 and has used it to build a better life for himself and his employees. Justin was on the pod back in January and we ended feeling like there was left with lots more to discuss, particularly Justin’s thoughts on building a Calm Company and what he plans to do with his life and money. Timestamps 00:00 Intro 01:40 Having the #1 podcast in the world on Transistor 04:24 Why Acquired is such a top class podcast 08:22 Justin's financial engine metaphor 16:44 Why the market is so important 18:30 Calm companies 27:41 How much the market impacts success 32:03 Justin's family business experiment 41:07 How Justin approaches investing As always thanks for being a listener of the Make Lemonade show. Hosted by @jrfarr & @jmckinven — brought to you by LemonSqueezy.com. If you're looking to sell digital products online, be sure to check out Lemon Squeezy or follow us on Twitter @lmsqueezy.

April 19, 202459 min

How Better Creating built a 6-figure Notion template business

Simon is the founder of Better Creating, a business he started in 2020 geared towards simplifying productivity and finding the best ideas tools and tech to help people create the life they want. His YouTube channel has over 130,000 subscribers, where he makes tutorials, tech reviews and more. Simon is another creator who has gone deep on Notion, building a second brain and many other systems that he sells as templates. Today we’re going to find out what it’s like being a full-time creator and why the Notion ecosystem is booming still in 2024. Links Better Creating YouTube Channel Simon’s Notion Templates The Generalist Co How to make your first 5 hires podcast James Recommendations Shoe Dog Podcastage Hamilton JR Recommendations Charlie Munger handbook Hard Thing About Hard Things Erik Anders Lang ( Adventures in Golf ) Cirque Du Soleil Simon Recommendations Thinking, Fast and Slow Anything You Want (James has some spare copies of this. DM him if you’d like a copy for free) Into the Woods Scott Yu-Jan Sleep No More Timestamps 00:00 Intro 01:15 From theatre director to content creator 05:47 Choosing to make content not based on his career 07:36 Staying consistent creating content as a side project 12:47 Making money with small audiences 22:38 Keeping up a production schedule 24:53 The Notion template business 27:07 Are Notion templates a waste of time? 31:38 Is the template space too crowded? 34:53 Platform risk building on top of Notion 38:54 Coming up with template ideas 41:58 How to price Notion templates 45:27 Building a team 54:41 Book, YouTube and Theatre recommendations As always thanks for being a listener of the Make Lemonade show. Hosted by @jrfarr & @jmckinven — brought to you by LemonSqueezy.com. If you're looking to sell digital products online, be sure to check out Lemon Squeezy or follow us on Twitter @lmsqueezy.

April 4, 202441 min

Building side projects as layoff insurance - Aaron Francis

On the 6th March 2024, Aaron Francis was part of layoffs at Planet Scale , where he was an educator. Since then, Aaron has had a hard decision to make: find another job, or take the leap to full-time entrepreneur. Now the job offers came in thick and fast for Aaron, with almost 600,000 people seeing his layoff tweet, but after documenting his thoughts on his own podcast, Mostly Technical, Aaron announced what he was doing next. He launched his own content studio , Tryhard Studios. Links: Follow Aaron on Twitter Aaron's Tuple Page Tryhard Studios Timestamps 00:00 Intro 01:28 What it's like being laid off 02:05 Building a studio in an apartment 04:24 Why PlanetScale laid off people 05:06 The reaction to being laid off 07:26 How to increase your chance of getting a new job 09:12 Side projects as layoff insurance 12:29 Do side projects make you more hireable? 15:09 Aaron's existing money making side projects 18:24 Deciding to go all in and not find another job 23:11 Aaron's new thing, Tryhard Studios 28:01 Why the name "Tryhard Studios" 30:15 The business model 32:08 Dealing with the course promotion treadmill 33:29 What things haven't gone so well 34:53 Building a pipeline of new work 37:13 Preparing for burnout As always thanks for being a listener of the Make Lemonade show. Hosted by @jrfarr & @jmckinven — brought to you by LemonSqueezy.com. If you're looking to sell digital products online, be sure to check out Lemon Squeezy or follow us on Twitter @lmsqueezy.

March 28, 202449 min

How Statamic founder Jack McDade stands out with radical design

Jack McDade is the creator of Statamic, a content management system for Laravel. He’s just launched his new course, Radical Design, which teaches people Jack’s unique approach to design and building products. And when unique approach, I mean it. All you have to do it scroll through Jack’s sites, his personal, Statamic, the Radical Design landing page to be immediately entertained by the little nuggets of flair dropped in throughout. In a world of boring landing pages and everyone doing the same thing, it’s nice to have a bit of Jack out in the world. Follow Jack: Twitter YouTube Statamic Personal website Radical Design Timestamps: 00:00 Intro 02:12 JR's question to Jack 03:00 Starting Statamic 04:03 Statamic growth over the years 07:04 Jack's approach to the product 10:03 What does Jack's day look like 11:20 When to hire as a CEO 15:22 Launching a course 4 years after annoucning it 21:49 What is Radical Design and why make a course 26:23 The secret sauce for Radical Design 30:26 Embracing AI as a designer 36:06 How did the launch of the course go 38:59 Where do future sales come from after launching? 45:57 Dabbling in fun projects As always thanks for being a listener of the Make Lemonade show. Hosted by @jrfarr & @jmckinven — brought to you by LemonSqueezy.com. If you're looking to sell digital products online, be sure to check out Lemon Squeezy or follow us on Twitter @lmsqueezy.

March 14, 202442 min

How to build a business on top of Notion - Sara Loretta

Today we're joined by Sara Loretta, who is the 10th US Certified Notion Consultant and Founder of SYSTMS™ , an operations agency for agencies and small startups. She previously owned a design studio, 99 & Saint Claire, and spent nearly a decade before that in the nonprofit sector working in business development. Follow Sara: Website YouTube Twitter Timestamps 00:00 Intro 00:43 How Sara Discovered Lemon Squeezy 02:4 1From Non Profits to Notion Consultant - Sara's journey 08:31 Having the confidence to career pivot 15:37 The Notion Ecosystem 18:58 Notion consultant program 23:49 Why Sara hasn't gone all in on Notion templates 27:24 Launching the Productized AF bundle 29:05 Getting confidence charging for large retainers 31:09 What systems Sara builds for clients 33:32 Running an agency as a solopreneur 36:31 The future for Sara 38:21 Sara's schedule and embracing siestas As always thanks for being a listener of the Make Lemonade show. Hosted by @jrfarr & @jmckinven — brought to you by LemonSqueezy.com. If you're looking to sell digital products online, be sure to check out Lemon Squeezy or follow us on Twitter @lmsqueezy.

March 7, 202442 min

Project $100k Ep. 2 - Domains, positioning and course delivery

Today we’re back with an episode of our Project 100k series, which is all about my journey as a creator going from 0-$100k selling through Lemon Squeezy. I’ve been a podcast producer for years but would like to stop trading my time for money and find a way to build an asset that makes me money while I sleep. In this episode we give our first update on the progress I’ve made on the name, positioning, course outline and distribution. Timestamps 00:00 Intro 01:08 James being stuck on Guernsey 02:42 Deciding on the course name 08:41 Delivery and pricing 11:27 Pricing of cohort vs self paced 17:00 Competitor research 24:37 Monetization through affiliates 26:25 Curriculum Continued 31:36 Workshops 35:28 Marketing 41:01 Wrap up As always thanks for being a listener of the Make Lemonade show. Hosted by @jrfarr & @jmckinven — brought to you by LemonSqueezy.com. If you're looking to sell digital products online, be sure to check out Lemon Squeezy or follow us on Twitter @lmsqueezy.