Software as a Service (SaaS) and community building

Welcome to Building Better Developers, the Developer podcast, where we work on getting better step by step professionally and personally. Let's get started. Well hello and welcome back. We are continuing our interview this episode with Tim Branion of True Fans and we're going to continue into discussion about what does software as a surface really look like? How do you build a community? How do you go out and try ideas and then build on those? How do you create a business that's going to have a mobile application, a web presence and some of these other things that we see from business to business to business? Well we're going to speak with Tim about it because he's done it a few times. So let's get right back into our conversation and join it where we dropped off last time as we paused from part one. Back to the revolution of SaaS into the mobile app. What was sort of the genesis of that? And I guess as part of that, is it the same functionality on both places or is there something where you created the mobile app and you took like a couple of pieces of functionality that everybody needed to have mobile and you created it there? What was sort of the, I guess a little bit of that thought process of how you evolved the platform? So it's cost like early on, at least for us, like when we're proof, you know, proving a concept and getting early adoption and getting it out to market. The faster way for us was not to build a native app first. It was to build a web-based SaaS. Cost less. It was going to take less time to get to market and it was going to be a proof of concept. And that would limit our expenses upfront. And then from there, once we dialed in on some of the, maybe their support issues or some bugs or technical stuff, then we take that as a framework and use a battle-tested web-based platform to then kind of guide what we do with an app or other variations. So that was kind of the thought process there. You know, everybody's different. Some people may want to start with a native app. Maybe they've got a different budget. That's in my opinion, one of the best user experiences is through a native app. It's going to be very fast. It's like the Ferrari, if you will, of building materials. But yeah, we didn't start there. Personally with this one, we started with a web-based. That was the idea. We wanted to create an even better experience. We wanted to enhance some of the speed. And as we grew, and this happens in every SaaS or technology company in general, once you start building a user base, you're going to start needing different tools, if you will. You're going to start needing different infrastructure. So very different platform as far as our backend engine to run our servers, our content compression from when we had 100 active users to when we had 100,000. So knowing that in advance and building a foundation that can scale thinking about the future, that went into account. Okay. So this was something you had sort of in your vision from the start was that you were going to sort of evolve there. At least you had that, maybe not necessarily the exact path that's like, hey, I think this is where we want to go. Yeah. So you're still there now. You know, there's a, it's only a matter of time. Like I've seen SaaS really grow fast and it can happen like that. You want to be ready. So, you know, but at the same time, you don't want to spend too much. You want to be ready for when you want to be ready for when there's a large demand for tenants in your house or your property, but you don't want to spend a whole lot of money on the light bill before they get there. Does that make sense? So, so that's kind of the analogy then and how we use it. So with our system, it's very smart. So let's say if somebody joined today that had a million people in their audience or more, the platform would know that the demand is significantly increased and it would create more. It would turn more lights on as needed for those occupants. Does that make sense? Yeah. And that's, I think that's, you know, ideally that's what you do is you, you have it. And that's the nice thing about the virtual side is you can say, okay, we've got all these doors closed, but oh no, we've got a flood of people. We can open these doors and we have access to these things that we just, you know, we didn't turn those on and then suddenly boom, they're, you know, you turn them on and it's maybe not that quick, but sometimes it is. It's just like, it's going to spin it up and you're off and running. And so now you've got more space to hold that, that new crowd and you don't have to, you know, that's nice thing. A lot of those, you don't have to, you don't have to like rent that space necessarily even beforehand. You can just say, okay, we're going to, that's part of what the monetary bonus of that is. It's like, Hey, we will add on quickly maybe. And we want to make sure we can add as fast as we need to. So that flood of a million people can come in. Right. Then we're not, we're not like, you know, we're not paying out holding that in the hopes that they're going to be there. We've been able to do it sort of, I guess they say just in time delivery of that, that platform or those resources. Yeah. The stakes are high, man. People's, you know, specifically if we're staying on true fans, the expectations are extremely high because people are used to, to interfacing with multi-billion dollar software. You know, that's the reality. Those are our competitors are multi-billionaires. They've been in the game for many years. They have really complex systems and they've battle tested their messaging. They've battle tested their content compression algorithms, which is this complex thing that goes on behind the scenes that no one's even aware of as a user. Mostly they're, they're just engaging with the platform as they, as they desire to. So that creates this really high expectation for functionality and user experience. And so having your finger on the pulse of that or knowing that and being, being able to manage all the stuff that people mostly don't care about. Right. Like they don't, they don't, they want a solution. They want the experience. They don't care how you get it. And with tech, they're very unforgiving. Something's, something's down for 30 seconds. It's too long. You know, you can't be. And so, you know, that's when I say high stakes. So it's important to, to consider those things when you're building anything and, and, you know, yeah, have solutions in place to avoid, you know, catastrophic breaks or, you know, in advance, be thinking about your tenants and how many people will be there and what ifs to the best of your ability. So you have contingency plans and you're able to create a really good experience for your occupants. So a little bit of a change of pace here, because this is a nice little open Pandora's box question potentially. But this one that I noted that you had said, hey, here's a great one to ask. What's wrong with traditional social media today? Yeah. So there you're the product and be aware of that. Like any time you, you get something for free, typically you're the product. And data is this thing that everybody's after right now. I mean, at the time of this video chat, GPT is pretty new still to the general public and those systems rely heavily on data. So I think to kind of go down this pigeonhole for a second, Google hasn't even really fully announced like what they're going to do with all their data. It's just going to be really interesting to see. But so that's one thing is they are mainly working for advertisers and big companies to give them pay to play reach to sell, you know, sell you their stuff. Liberty Mutual pays a lot of money to Metta and all these platforms to hit you with their ads and, you know, get some valuable insights. So they, in some degree, they are almost like stakeholders of these major platforms. Same thing happens with YouTube. Same things happen with Google and other platforms are all kind of interwoven. And so all that stinks. You're limited because of that. Your reach is limited. You only get maybe one to three percent. I don't know the exact metrics, but it's not, not everybody's seeing your stuff. Even if you bring them there, even if you're one, you know, doing the juggling act and providing all the value, you know, you're not participating in a large revenue stream and you're not getting your data either. You don't get your customer list and your people aren't seeing you. So these are all some of the important things that aren't happening on traditional social media. So that's where the paradigm shift starts to happen for someone that's an entrepreneur or creator that's wanting to avoid some of those things that I was just mentioning is to find an alternative and to realize the power of your list, you know, realize the power of your data. That's your asset as an individual or company. Those are your people. And, you know, you should maintain those. And the reality is to do on the same thing that sucks is like people are being like your platform when you're deplatformed, you're done. You don't get to see your list anymore. You don't get to even make stories or share your content anymore. And good luck trying to get on the phone with customer support because it's just not existent, really. So. If you don't have your email list, if you don't have your customers, you have to start fresh and just hope that people find you again and you have to start fresh and stuff that happens all the time. So somebody that's experienced that, they'll know the hardship. Somebody that hasn't yet. You know, we'll see if they care about their list after. I hope they can listen to me. You care about it. You're going to care about a lot more when you don't have it anymore. When it disappears, you're like, oh, that's that was that had some value to it. Yeah. And I only know from experience, right? Like I was I was banned on Facebook before it was cool. Like I really was. And I, you know, for a product that I built years ago that integrated with their API incorrectly, like against their terms. So I lost the platform and that's fine. It was a bummer at the time. But, you know, through experience of failure, that's how I've arrived at where I'm at and how I have some of the knowledge I have to share about the importance of those things that I went through. So hopefully someone listens, they don't have to go the hard way like me. They can they can learn from your pain as opposed to experience sprinting it as well. So now, how do you within your within true fans? Because, you know, you're bringing these these content creators and their their tribe in basically. Do you have is this an is this a social network in a sense where you have crossover amongst members? Is there something where like if I if I come to and I'm like, hey, I love Tim, I want to support him and I'm on that platform. Are they able to say see that, oh, hey, here's some other people. You just say, here's some people like Tim that you might be interested in or anything like that, or is it is it much more siloed? Yeah. So we we have we call it cross pollination. And there's a really simple way that subscribers have a have a kind of like a for you page or a search area in their dashboard where they can search for keyword name. And it's a very simple algorithm that pulls up the highest earning person that's closely relevant to that keyword that they searched. And they can choose to kind of review, browse, subscribe to that person. But as far as us advertising any creators, we don't really do that outside of our blog. Like we do creator highlights or we showcase some of their story and who they are, why they're awesome and help them connect with with those creators there. That's a good way to showcase them. But there's no in-app ads. There's no enticing that's going on or, you know, ways that creators could pay to get other people's traffic. It's way more so. You know, here's your here's your channel. Here's all of your unique functionality. It's going to help you succeed and go out and make money in e-commerce. And we're here to give you some baseline strategy and some education on how you can do new client acquisition based on who you are, what you have going on. And we're working on some even, you know, even more material to help in that realm, because that's that's what we're finding people need the most help with is is promoting and growing and positioning their offers. And, you know, ultimately, new client acquisition, getting in front of the right people that will then exchange dollars for access to them. And that's while that's like a really wide. I'm thinking of a hundred different creators right now that are different in in theme, in niche and what they do. We're trying to generalize that knowledge to to be valuable to the whole community. Easier said than done, right? So, you know, and maybe in the future, we'll do more of an over the shoulder, like sort of coaching system or process, or maybe it'll be more of a high ticket thing where they can come to a workshop. I've got ideas, but I'm trying to I really try to think about the whole creator economy and give general practices to help them. One, to save us time, like I can't. Obviously, I can't be on the phone every single day talking to every individual. We're limited. But but yeah, so we'll see where things kind of evolve. But that's that's more of our approach is helping the individual empower themselves, use the vehicle effectively. That's just true fans and hit their goals, whatever those may be. So in the when in your interactions with all of these, these content creators, what are there some what are some maybe some trends that you see either from social sites or amongst content creators? And particularly with if you think back even a few years, it seems like it is an area that is is definitely progressing at a pretty good pace. So there's what are some like some trends or some things maybe you're seeing now that you wouldn't have seen a year or two ago. We're seeing big competitors start to realize like we're almost twisting their arm in a way to be more generous, I think. I think they're they're forth there. They're realizing that creators are realizing their power and they are figuring out ways to share some of the wealth to empower and inspire their their existing creators and build like nurture more of a relationship or verse. You know, an employee, it's more of a partnership. So we're seeing some of our competitors attempt to get into the space and and, you know, that's that's great for creators in general as a whole. I think I'm like a cheerleader for creator economy in general. So that's that's great. And that's so we're seeing that. And then we're also seeing more people just discover us like people that are looking for, you know, the wholesome alternative or the classy alternative to what's out there. Like I mentioned, where this space of membership site is predominantly like for creators, predominantly adult. And we're not so many people once they find out who we are and what we're about, what we're not about. They're really excited to then apply and kind of get into this world because that's the biggest thing holding back is not wanting to be associated with. So that's that's a grilling trend. And even a lot of people that maybe have been a part of that, that industry, the adult space, they're looking to transition out. You know, they're they're tired of or they realize they don't have to, you know, be in that world and to each their own. But that's that's, you know, great for us, too. It's like, OK, cool. Yeah, you can come here. You can you can not do that here and we can teach you how to use, you know, teach you how to market yourself without necessarily having to to do all the extra stuff. And it's good to have that that opportunity for him because, you know, it's you don't want to be in a situation where that's your only thing or that's your primary. And that's we've seen that with some of your competitors, where they, they change a couple of rules. The next thing you know, they were sort of effectively shut down because it's like that's that's, you know, too much of their their business. They get shut down for it. So it gives you a it is something that's more particularly because you mentioned, you know, dozens of countries you're in. I know that there are restrictions in certain areas. And certain countries have their own restrictions of what can be shown and what even what constitutes adult or not. And and some, you know, where it's just completely blocked. So that could and that could get you on a list of your own where it's like, oh, we can't nobody can see this site because some of their content falls under our, you know, what's illegal or not allowed within our our area. Right. I think the biggest, you know, sexy has always sold through the dawn of of mankind. There's you know, there's nothing wrong with being beautiful. There's nothing wrong with sharing, at least in my opinion, there's nothing wrong with. I think it's an advantage, especially on the Internet. I think it's like a hack. If you're a pretty person, you're going to do well in life than even more so. Like you're you're statistically going to do really well on social media. So that doesn't mean that you have to give yourself away. You know, it doesn't mean necessarily they have to go, you know, the adult space. Or I think what's cool about it is like you can with this hack or with this power, you can be the pretty person that does cool shit in tandem. So it's like you're you're the and that's what we see. Most of our top creators are pretty girls or pretty dudes that do cool stuff for the girls. Specifically, they're pretty girls that do cool stuff in typically like male predominant career fields, like farming and agriculture, welding, construction, roofing, black topping, multiple construction, but like riding dirt bikes, huge lifted monster trucks, just like these rad people that would again, wanted to have a home but didn't want to lose their brand deals, didn't want to be associated with that. Like they still have their their identity is not that. And so it's just been really cool to be like that, that life preserver form or give them a stage, if you will, that they don't have to go into that road. Yeah, that's that's an interesting little factor. It's like all those, you know, I guess all the cute tomboy's from, you know, growing up that thought they would never have a place. Now they've they've got the ultimate platform and they can go nuts with that. And it is it's as you know, it's like when you have something like that and you've given them an opportunity to to to monetize that, to turn that into something that they can actually get paid for. So now you're doing what you love. You're making money at it. And then that's just like, you know, that snowballs. And so you get some really great content that comes out because you get people that love what they're doing. Yeah. And that's man, like on that topic, like for me as the founder and one of the, you know, I guess this is my brain child. It's been so cool to see people's stories and like watch from the sideline, like as it changes their life and as they're developing and going on and building their communities and audiences and like all the stuff that they learn and how quickly, you know, I've been able to watch some of these people change and have just a little impact on their life is profoundly fulfilling for me. And like, we'll always share that connection together, which is, you know, it's just really cool. And I'm so grateful for like, you know, some of the people that this has helped already and who it's going to continue to help. And yeah, it's just been a lot of fun. So that's probably one of my, you know, I know you didn't ask the question, but one of the one of the coolest things for me, like as a founder, is knowing that this vehicle is helping people through different hardships or helping them hit their goals. But then also, like a lot of people are hurting for money right now, too. You know, we're in this recession. Eggs are like a hundred dollars a dozen right now, I think. I don't know what they're up to. That's like egg, like golden eggs. And to have some supplemental income or at least become aware of a vehicle that can help, it's like really cool. So, yeah. And then and then also like, you know, to be able to do your thing or give yourself permission, like who you become in the process of giving yourself permission to sing your song, do your dance, you know, ride your wheelie, whatever you do as a creator and, you know, not have to to go down a different route that could be catastrophic, could be wonderful. I don't know. That's that's really cool. So, you know, to do more of that is fulfilling and inspiring. Oh, I agree. And that's that's again, that's one of those nice things about when you build a business and then you see that it's actually helping people out. There's always that you get that extra warmth in your heart of knowing that, hey, it wasn't just it wasn't just me scratching an itch. This is actually something that does, you know, it does impact other people. It does have some value as you start it, as we said earlier, it's not maybe life and death, but it can be still can be life impacting. Yeah. Yep. So I want to, you know, I think we're running into our time here. I want to be cognizant of that. So what would be, I guess, two things. What would maybe be a parting thought that you would have the audience actually across anything, it's just anything you've got on your mind. And then also, what would be the best way for people to get a hold of you if they're like, man, I like this, like what you're doing, want to see, want to learn more about it? Yeah. So I guess I'll start with like a thought. So if you're an entrepreneur, I don't know, just human beings in general. We limit ourselves so much with just fears and apprehensions, limiting beliefs. And the truth is, on the other side of that, that nonsense that you keep telling yourself is, you know, that's the good stuff. Given yourself permission to be the expert, to be the person in front of the camera, to, you know, share, share your song or even fail forward at anything that you've been wanting to do or trying to do, like just do it. I think the biggest reason is that we stop doing things or ideas kind of die. By the wayside is just the opinions of other people are so worried about what someone might think or say, because it matters. We're all self-conscious. We want to do good. We want to want to hit some home runs. But the truth is, man, like if you're out in the game, like if you're out swinging the bat, swinging the axe, whatever you want, in this analogy, you're out doing the thing. That is super admirable. And just that activity is going to give other people to do permission. People probably are going to talk shit. But, you know, at the end of your life, you'll look back and be glad that you didn't stay stagnant. You'll look back at your life and you'll have actually had lived a life because you gave yourself permission to take some steps. And that's, you know, that's rad. I don't think life's supposed to be lived just quietly, you know, and sitting on your hands, go out there and create and work and build. You're going to help people. Everybody's got a gift. Excellent. But yeah, man, in closing, like to find me, you can Google Tim Brandon, B-R-A-N-Y-A-N. My website's timbrandon.com. So we talked about a lot of different stuff, Rob. So if you're interested in building an app, you got an idea for a tech platform or solution, I'd love to talk to you about that. Our whole process is free. You can basically submit our questionnaire. We'll give you a quote and a wire frame design like that whole system's free. Send you on your way. If you don't decide to work with us, that's totally cool. At least you'll be better off, like at least have more of a plan than I did when I first went out. And then, yeah, you can connect with me on there too. And I'd love to connect with you. Excellent. Well, thank you. Thank you so much for your time. This has been a pleasure. We didn't even get halfway into all the different things we could have discussed. So that was definitely anybody that's that has found the slightest bit of interest through all this. Definitely feel free to reach out, check out some of his stuff and see some of the other things. I know you're into a lot of different other areas and we just we scratched the surface on this one. Again, I want to thank you for your time and have yourself a good day. Thanks for having me, Rob. Thank you, too. And that will wrap up our interview with Tim. If you are a content producer of some sorts, he has a really interesting model. It sounds like a very good support community. So I definitely recommend you reach out to him and try to get into their system and be part of that. It seems like it's a really good one and really has a lot of support for you. A lot of people that are of like mind and want to see you succeed as well because they like the platform as much as anybody with content. And maybe you got a few ideas because there are some interesting combinations of people and topics in that that he mentioned along the way that have worked very well. So maybe one of those things fits you. That being said, we are not done yet with our interviews. We're done with Tim, but we're going to come back next episode, dive right into our next interview, and we're just going to carry on until we wrap these up. And we still have a few more left. Again, just like this. It's some great people had enjoyable time talking with them. I hope you have even half as much enjoyment listening to them and learning from them. That being said, it's time to go out there and listen and learn from the rest of your day. So go out there and have yourself a great day, a great week, and we will talk to you next time. Thank you for listening to Building Better Developers, the Develop-a-Nor podcast. You can subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, Amazon, anywhere that you can find podcasts. We are there. And remember, just a little bit of effort every day ends up adding into great momentum and great success. Please check out school.develop-a-nor.com. That is where we are starting to pour a lot of our content. We've taken the lessons, the things that we've learned, all of the things that make you a better developer. And we're putting it there. We have a range of courses from free short courses up to full paid boot camps. All of these include a number of things to help you get better, including templates, and quick references, and other things that make us all better developers.