The Curious Engineer

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Stacking the Bricks

stackingthebricks.com

Ship more stuff. Make more money. Help more people.

Essays / personalTech news / industry

’15’20’25
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270 from 27 Mar 2014 to 10 Jan 2025
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2025 2

  1. 3 big ways a brutal job market paves the way for people like you
  2. Earnings disclaimer

2023 1

  1. 2025 Tech Stack for Bootstrappers

2022 1

  1. Don't take this advice.

2021 6

  1. 4 things nobody tells you about preselling your product
  2. Give your past emails new life with Content Mixtapes! aka Success with ConvertKit, Part II
  3. How to Succeed with ConvertKit (Part I)
  4. 9 rapid-fire notes about the "Fear of Success"
  5. How To: Very high quality transcripts and captions for under $1.50/minute.
  6. 11 timeless lessons Mário learned selling his first product

2020 20

  1. Is your content too long? Not long enough?
  2. Podcast
  3. Marooned At Work
  4. Amy Hoy's Totally and Completely Biased Review of The Tiny MBA
  5. Get your business out of a rut...using time travel
  6. Vote
  7. Two high-impact changes to our flagship, 30x500
  8. Why we removed The Tiny MBA from Amazon's Kindle store.
  9. New Book Pre-order Sale: The Tiny MBA
  10. How to overcome the fear of putting yourself out there
  11. Realtalk: list size, conversion rates, and ACTUAL subscribers
  12. Why an Unknowable Future is So Hard
  13. What we believe, and what we’re doing about it
  14. 14 bootstrappers talk COVID-19: Loss? Growth? Change?
  15. Podcast: How to be resourceful in uncertain times
  16. Recession Realtalk with Courtland Allen and Amy Hoy.
  17. Outlast the Recession with Amy's Financial Survival Guide
  18. How to Survive in Extraordinary Times
  19. Wanna recession-proof your biz? "Get closer to the money"
  20. To survive a down market, be an 💰investment, not an expense

2019 14

  1. 5 rules for marketing content that converts
  2. The real secret to building your audience
  3. The Pizza Crust Problem, or...the Wrong Way to Find a SaaS Idea
  4. Overcome your fear of failure & draw the damn snowman ☃️
  5. How often do you launch?
  6. You Probably Shouldn't Launch on Product Hunt
  7. New Video Series! Mojca Mars is Changing Gears from services to products
  8. Alex dishes dirt on our imperfect business relationship
  9. Improving ConvertKit UX with CKPro User Styles
  10. How to survive panic in business & life
  11. Value vs Valuation, A Lesson From My Childhood
  12. The 13 Business Failure Modes
  13. Don't Fave This Post - How you can REALLY launch a product business this year
  14. How I went from a hopeless procrastinator to starting a 7-figure business

2018 12

  1. twas the night before Launchmas...
  2. 6 Critical Mistakes You're Making with Your Landing Page
  3. How to ship when things are shit
  4. The First Rule to Build Trust with Your Audience - Don't Lie
  5. How to Pick a Business Idea That Won’t Make You Miserable
  6. My magic response to "Hey, can I pick your brain?"
  7. Shut Up and Take My Money! - Or, How to Pitch So People Will Listen
  8. How to kick ass at a new skill you’re not wildly passionate about
  9. Why Don’t People Buy: Too Much Choice
  10. 9 Ways to Make Your SaaS Customers Hate You, Ranked
  11. Accountability does not work the way you think it does
  12. Finding a Job vs Building a Job

2017 33

  1. The Anatomy of Launching a Successful Product Bundle in just 7 Days
  2. Eliminate your #1 cause of struggle
  3. Don't STRESS launch, soft launch!
  4. Does your content suck?
  5. BAD Billboards ➔ GREAT Headlines
  6. Beware entreporn
  7. The Heavy Metal Launch Curve
  8. "The F-word behind my $6 million in revenue"
  9. "Developers don't pay for things"
  10. Competiton? SEO? Saturation?! How to Survive + Thrive
  11. How to sell when they're NOT buying
  12. How the Blog Broke the Web
  13. CODE RED for US Entrepreneurs: Senate Healthcare Bill Will Destroy Us
  14. The Creative Atom
  15. Raise your SaaS pricing with my proven email templates!
  16. The #1 mistake that'll kill your product before you even start, AND how to avoid it entirely
  17. Massive Unsubscribes - Diagnosing and Solving
  18. Design Problem - The Invisible Cofounder
  19. How to find your audience's online watering holes
  20. When you don't know where to start, start at the edges
  21. Unicorn Free is dead! Long live Stacking the Bricks!
  22. What you can learn from the $120m Juicero Disaster
  23. How do you sell a $5,000 SINK?
  24. The Fear of Beginning Again
  25. When you don't FEEL ready
  26. Why a late lunch = a smart investment
  27. Your Execution Can Suck If You Get This Right
  28. 4 Products ANYONE Can Make
  29. Hey Designers—8 Perfect Products You Can Make
  30. 9 Perfect Products for Devs
  31. The Best Career for a Maker Is...
  32. A Third of Your Life...
  33. Dead-heading

2016 17

  1. Why not the best?
  2. But I’m not an expert.
  3. When should you start a SaaS?
  4. Five rules for doing Great Work
  5. Uncertainty
  6. Success Stories
  7. The Fine Art of "Flintstoning"
  8. Declaring Your Independence… a History
  9. 5 Things I Wish Somebody Told Me Before I Founded My SaaS
  10. The Good Enough Launch
  11. How do you design products people love?
  12. The right motivation
  13. Invest now, or pay later
  14. On resolutions that don't suck
  15. Time to Let Go of Startup Fairy Tales
  16. 2015 Year in Review - Seven Figures, World Domination, Chaos, Time for a Mojito
  17. Why is “work” so freakin complicated?

2015 37

  1. Are you thinking, or only farting?
  2. Make your customers beg you to charge more
  3. How I raised prices... by customer request
  4. Picture perfect.
  5. One weird trick to raising your monthly price without a customer revolt
  6. Confessions of a (Reformed) Whiner
  7. The 3-part 30x500 Taste Test
  8. The Ebomb Recipe That Works (free lesson)
  9. How your “Fuck This!” moment changes everything
  10. Why women entrepreneurs fail.
  11. Making huge projects work - Implementation
  12. How to deal with haters.
  13. Making huge projects work - Design
  14. Anatomy of a Launch
  15. The Ship by September Challenge
  16. The sounds of self-sabotage
  17. The 24-Hour Book Challenge — A Six Month Update
  18. Lies and deception in the Make Money Online industry
  19. Burnout.
  20. Be Your Own Angel - a revenue model for slow startups
  21. What does '30x500' even mean?
  22. What I learned making a living on eBay
  23. Nobody will pay $10,000 for an Apple Watch! & other reasons you can’t sell shit
  24. From “Oh, I shouldn't charge money for this…” to a $20k Launch
  25. So, you've got some Safari and ebombs. Now what?
  26. I just need someone to hold me accountable.
  27. VIDEO - Failure vs Creating a product people want to buy
  28. I had a product. But having a product wasn't enough to be a success.
  29. From Pain into a Product, a Real Live Coaching Session
  30. What a Japanese organizing expert can teach you about your startup
  31. Insider peeks - Watch us build the next 30x500
  32. I used to suck at shipping.
  33. Should I support PDF, epub, AND mobi?
  34. 2014 Year In Review - The year that sucked, or did it?
  35. Chasing cats, dumb risk and smart strategy
  36. 12 13 of our Bootstrapping Students to Watch in 2015
  37. The 4 Mistakes I Made Setting My Annual Goals

2014 27

  1. The responsibility to give back - Our charitable giving in 2014
  2. How to create a USEFUL feedback loop after launch
  3. I'm about to JFS a price increase
  4. 24-hour book, 1 week later — sales, time, next steps
  5. I wrote an ebook in 24 hours. Now what?
  6. 24-Hour Product Challenge
  7. Don't Write 1,000 Words a Day
  8. What if your product launch fails? This interview will give you $10k reasons to do it anyway.
  9. How to design the most efficient software your users have ever seen
  10. My secret startup past
  11. How Your “Fuck This!” Moment Changes Everything
  12. Finish your drafts! Three rules to make writing for your audience easier
  13. Startup Winter is Coming
  14. From Zero to $3k MRR in 10 days — the story of launching RubySteps
  15. How to Negotiate a 4-day Work Week - Chris' Story
  16. The #1 reason user feedback can ruin your app
  17. Is bad copy killing your product?
  18. Help! My SaaS isn't growing! +60% revenue, 1 year later…
  19. Startup Escape Plan - How to free up time, energy & money to build your future
  20. Oxygen Mask Entrepreneurship
  21. Mojito Island & Entreporn, Revisited
  22. Fuck "Innovation" 2 - Time is a Line, You Guys!
  23. Fuck Innovation, Everything We Have Now is Shit
  24. Should You Ignore Customer Feedback?
  25. Validation is backwards
  26. 4 Economic Facts That Say “Bootstrap Now”
  27. Why You Have to Develop an Investment Mindset

Undated 100

  1. Gears
  2. Guides
  3. Products
  4. Terms
  5. How do you market a product that’s for everyone?
  6. Learn All About Launches In My Online Roundtable
  7. Goals for 2014 - $700k, conf, book contract, 100 more students profiting
  8. Done should be spelled F-A-I-L
  9. The problem with "accountability" in a nutshell.
  10. 7-part guide to kicking ass at the product biz
  11. My customers don't know they have a problem…
  12. Creative work while traveling — your survival guide
  13. Destroy Introwank (Copywriting for Conversions)
  14. Memento Mori.
  15. VINTAGE - Sales Safari in Action
  16. Habits - Part 1 & 2
  17. 5 Years of SaaS Growth - Every Month, Exact Numbers
  18. The responsibility to give back - 2013 Charity Breakdown
  19. Fuck features you “have to have”
  20. Does everyone have their price? Do I?
  21. Lessons Learned from 5 Years of SaaS… and $1 Million in Revenue
  22. Using Stripe to divvy up your revenue with your partners
  23. Startups Do Not — Repeat, DO NOT — Prepare You to Create Products
  24. 37signals Isn’t Mythical, You’re Not Paying Attention
  25. The Karate Kid - A Parable for Your Startup
  26. How do you persuade someone to pay for "free" information?
  27. How do you stay motivated when you're not making any money?
  28. Chronic Illness - The best reason to bootstrap?
  29. How to build a product biz while consulting
  30. How I increased conversion 2.4x with better copywriting
  31. Help! My SaaS isn't growing!
  32. The Harsh Truth about "Fear"
  33. VIDEO - Sales Safari in Action
  34. How do you create a product people want to buy?
  35. Why You Should Do A Tiny Product First
  36. The Truth About What's Holding You Back
  37. 30x500 is Dead, Long Live 30x500
  38. 3 critical, non-obvious ingredients for ANY launch
  39. “Launch Day” is a toxic idea
  40. How to (REALLY) Travel the World, Run Your Biz & Not Go Broke or Crazy
  41. Curing the Lie of the Big Win (and the Big Fail)
  42. A Customer Is Your MVP - A (Video) Talk on Making Products that Sell
  43. Why We Shut Down Charm on the Eve of Public Launch, at $48k/Year and Growing
  44. Nathan Barry's $5k App Challenge - My Seasoned Bootstrappy Advice
  45. 4 Years Into Our SaaS—Why Bootstrapping Was the Only Logical Choice
  46. Why Bootstrapping Is Better than an Accelerator Program
  47. 9 Years Ago, 37signals Had No Products…
  48. Be Your Own Angel - How to Make Money Happen
  49. Parenting Yourself - You Suck At It?
  50. Why Blacksmiths are Better at Startups than You
  51. Henry Ford on Startup Ambition - Are you in the 5%?
  52. Do You Deserve the Money You Earn?
  53. Henry Ford on Selling Sex & (Not) Listening to Customers
  54. You Need to Get Better At This NOW
  55. Why I Love Running My Bacon Biz
  56. Henry Ford, the Bootstrapper
  57. Second-Hand Tales from the Startup Trenches - The Bitter Truth
  58. Vaccinate Yourself Against Crappy Customer Feedback
  59. My Smart, Generous, Very Attractive Students Teach You Stuff
  60. 3 Years of Bootstrapping - Half a Million Dollars A Year Later - and 30x500, Redux
  61. Building Habits – Respect Your Cues, & Listen to Your Organs When They Talk
  62. I Can't Remember to Brush My Teeth… But I Can Run a Business
  63. Letter to My Struggling Baby Business - Feb, 2009
  64. Fuck Glory – Startups are One Long Con
  65. Startups & Risk - Petting Puppies with Peter Drucker
  66. Startups are a Boy Band (Biz Book Friday!)
  67. Success - The Boring Way! The Only Way
  68. Will Low Prices Help You Sell More?
  69. You Are So Damn Lucky - Stop Blaming Your Family, Your Friends, & Your Society & Get Off Your Ass
  70. I Half-Expect a Kitten with a Top Hat... - Why I Do What I Do
  71. When Customers Bitch About Your Price (Biz Book Friday)
  72. Why I Pass Up Thousands of $$$ - & Turn Away Prospective Students
  73. The Truth about Success - Brick by Brick
  74. Biz Book Friday - The Hazards of Cake and Icing Pricing
  75. When You Should Ignore Your Customers
  76. Pricing Your Product - The D&D Test
  77. Niches Don't Work - but Worldviews Do
  78. The Forehead Slap Test for Sexy Sales
  79. The Problem with the Startup Craze… by Steve Jobs
  80. Will Internet Fame Help You Sell Shit?
  81. Raising the Price - Not a Single Customer Lost
  82. 7 Hardass Rules for Business and Life
  83. 5 Big Nasty Fears Keeping You on the Hamster Wheel
  84. When Your Job Is Killing You Slowly
  85. 21 Lessons Learned from 16 Years of Hustling
  86. How to Make Financial Decisions, a Play in 1 Act
  87. Let's cofound a baby! and other phrases you should never speak
  88. Let's Draw Back the Curtain
  89. Don't Follow Your Passion
  90. Follow the Money
  91. I've Made $216,688 From Products This Year
  92. Is it Hard? Or Do You Just Don' Wanna?
  93. When Selling Turns You Evil
  94. Running the Numbers - Your First Infoproduct
  95. Developers, Designers - Make an Infoproduct
  96. A Simple Rule for Pricing Newbs Who Got The Fear
  97. How to Sell Your Digital Goods
  98. Happy Burnout
  99. 3 Parts, 1 Simple Plan for Building an Empire
  100. Don't Bite the Shit Sandwich