Episode 749 | TinySeed Tales s4e1: Introducing Hammerstone.dev

Tiny Seed Tales Season 4 follows Colleen Schnettler, founder of Hammerstone, as she navigates the challenges of building a bootstrapped SaaS company. Co-founded with Aaron Francis, Hammerstone creates developer tools with components for both Laravel and Ruby on Rails, exemplified by their flagship product, Refine. The series highlights Colleen's non-traditional path as a self-taught Rails developer and military spouse, emphasizing resilience and adaptability. Despite early struggles with product-market fit and pricing strategies, Hammerstone is pivoting towards offering custom reports, leveraging insights from product managers to refine their positioning and expand their market reach.

• Tiny Seed Tales is a narrative-style podcast following startup founders over two years, offering insights into their journey.
• Season 4 features Colleen Schnettler, founder of Hammerstone, highlighting the challenges and triumphs of building a SaaS company.
• Tiny Seed is a startup accelerator for bootstrapped SaaS companies, providing funding, community, and mentorship.

"Starting this week and for the next eight weeks, we're going to have episodes of Tiny Seed Tales season 4 in your feed every Thursday morning."

• Introduction to the schedule and format of the podcast series.

"The idea is to give you some insights into the ups and the downs, the struggles, the victories, and the failures of a real startup founder growing a real SaaS company."

• The podcast aims to provide a realistic view of the entrepreneurial journey, highlighting both successes and challenges.

• Hammerstone is founded by Colleen Schnettler and Aaron Francis, focusing on developer tools.
• The company offers two separate products under the brand "Refine," catering to both Laravel and Ruby on Rails developers.
• The dual product strategy allows Hammerstone to reach a broader developer audience.

"Hammerstone is the name of the company started by Colleen, a skilled Ruby on Rails developer, and her co-founder Aaron Francis, an expert in Laravel development."

• Introduction to the founders and their technical backgrounds.

"Refine is sold as a single product that exists as a drop in visual query builder but refine is actually two completely separate products due to the fact that they offer a version for Laravel and a version for Ruby on Rails."

• Explanation of Hammerstone's flagship product and its dual nature.

• Aaron Francis developed a custom query builder for a tax property company, retaining the IP.
• A large company requested a Rails version, leading to Colleen's involvement as a consultant and eventual co-founder.
• The strategic decision to maintain IP allowed for product expansion and partnership.

"Aaron... was working for a tax property company and they kept getting asked for custom reports and so he built out this custom component... and kept the IP in his contract."

• Aaron's initial project and strategic IP retention laid the groundwork for Hammerstone's product offerings.

"I joined... as a contractor for him for this big enterprise client... and then two months after that the original enterprise client said no we need full-time support on this product."

• Colleen's transition from contractor to co-founder was driven by client demand for ongoing support.

• The enterprise client's rebuild and use of open-source frameworks facilitated Hammerstone's IP retention.
• The client's business scale made the ownership of the IP less critical to them, allowing Hammerstone to leverage the code commercially.

"This company was doing a complete rebuild... their philosophy is to keep their team lean and basically use off-the-shelf components for everything they can."

• The client's strategy and scale allowed Hammerstone to retain IP, supporting their business model.

"I kind of think that they're doing hundreds of millions of dollars in business they don't care like if we do five million a year they don't care."

• The client's financial scale and strategy influenced their decision to allow Hammerstone to retain IP.

• Large companies often fall into the trap of developing everything in-house, believing it to be faster or more cost-effective.
• In reality, developing software internally can take months or even years and often results in mediocre outcomes.
• Some enterprises recognize the value in focusing on their strengths and outsourcing other tasks.

"It's not often you see a company with that kind of mindset. Usually, large companies try to make everything themselves, believing that it'll be faster or more cost-effective than buying an existing solution."

• This quote highlights the common misconception among large companies about the efficiency of in-house development.

"It takes months or in some cases years to develop software in-house, and the results are often pretty mediocre."

• This emphasizes the time-consuming nature and often subpar results of in-house software development.

• Colleen is a self-taught Rails developer, starting her journey as a stay-at-home mom seeking flexible remote work.
• Her initial venture into software development involved creating an iOS app, which resulted in a net loss.
• She pivoted to web development using Rails due to its popularity and comprehensive framework.
• Colleen's story is a testament to perseverance, as she worked for free initially to gain experience.

"I did not. I am a self-taught Rails developer."

• Colleen's self-taught background underscores her non-traditional entry into tech.

"I was a stay-at-home mom... and I wanted flexible remote work."

• This quote reflects Colleen's motivation to enter the tech field for flexible work opportunities.

"I worked for free for like a year until eventually, I got my first consulting job."

• Demonstrates Colleen's dedication and willingness to work without pay to build her skills and network.

• Learning to code is a challenging and time-consuming process, often misrepresented as easy on the internet.
• Success stories of rapid transitions to high-paying tech jobs are not the norm for most people.
• Persistence and dedication are crucial, as exemplified by Colleen's nightly study routine for years.

"I would listen to... the Code Newbie podcast... and then I'd work every night trying to teach myself Ruby on Rails."

• This quote illustrates the consistent effort Colleen invested in learning to code.

"It's not easy... I spent four months and now I'm making $120,000 working from home, and that just doesn't feel like reality for most of us."

• Highlights the unrealistic portrayal of quick success in learning to code found online.

• Self-taught skills in tech can significantly alter one's career trajectory, as seen in both Colleen's and the host's experiences.
• Early exposure to coding and self-directed learning can lead to long-term career benefits.
• The journey from self-teaching to professional application involves overcoming many challenges.

"I had the luxury of my parents were able to afford an Apple 2E in the 1980s, and I wrote code because we couldn't afford to buy any games for it."

• The host's early exposure to coding illustrates the long-term impact of self-taught skills.

"I worked construction but had this coding knowledge from like 15 years prior."

• Demonstrates the lasting value of coding skills acquired through self-teaching.

• The internet and social media often glorify the idea of quick and easy success in tech and entrepreneurship.
• True success requires hard work, persistence, and a significant time investment.
• The journey involves overcoming both physical and mental challenges, but the intellectual stimulation can be rewarding.

"The internet or social media somehow glorifies the easy path or that it's easy."

• This quote addresses the misleading portrayal of effortless success in tech.

"I remember it being a lot of hard work and just a lot of hours... but it was stimulating."

• Reflects the host's experience of the demanding yet fulfilling nature of tech work.

• The transition from learning to code to entrepreneurship is seen as a significant life change.
• Achieving goals can feel unattainable until experienced, highlighting the importance of perseverance.
• The journey of coding and entrepreneurship is a long-term commitment, requiring thinking in years rather than months.

"I often use the phrase think in terms of years not months as a Founder especially as someone who is bootstrapped or mostly bootstrapping a company."

• Emphasizes the importance of long-term planning and patience in entrepreneurship.

• Military life involves frequent relocations, impacting career development and employment opportunities.
• Remote work is crucial for maintaining a career amidst constant moves.
• Life experiences as a military spouse, including single parenting and loss, build resilience and perspective.

"Military spouses are traditionally underemployed for this reason when you're moving a lot it is hard to build a career so the remote was so important to me."

• Highlights the challenges of maintaining a career due to frequent relocations and the significance of remote work.

"Nothing in the world is harder than single parenting three little kids like if I survive that you know I've kind of lived through I just feel like my life experience... changed who I am and how I approach the world."

• Illustrates the resilience and strength gained from challenging life experiences, influencing perspectives on work and life.

• The company is in its early stages, still searching for product-market fit.
• The uncertainty of the business's future is both exciting and daunting.

"We're kind of in that position right now where it's kind of sort of working but we don't feel like we have landed on real product Market fit."

• Describes the uncertainty and potential of an early-stage startup still seeking its place in the market.

• Joining Tiny Seed provides financial support and a valuable network for growth.
• Access to a mastermind group and a supportive community is crucial for startup success.
• Networking is essential, especially when starting from scratch.

"The money is going to make a huge difference for us it is going to enable me to free myself up as a consultant and work on the business full-time."

• Highlights the financial benefits of joining Tiny Seed, allowing for full-time focus on the business.

"Tiny seed has really is is giving that to us we're in a mastermind I have access to you I mean it's it's um it's really expanding our Network."

• Emphasizes the importance of networking and support systems provided by Tiny Seed.

"It's not what you know it's who you know and that pissed me off cuz I felt like an outsider and I was and you just have to figure it out right."

• Reflects on the challenges of building a network and the realization of its importance in entrepreneurship.

• Tiny Seed offers a supportive, non-hustle-oriented culture that aligns with personal values.
• The community consists of like-minded founders, which is vital for personal and professional alignment.

"The whole not crazy not like hustle bro has been very nice because again military spouse I've three kids I'm still mostly the primary caregiver."

• Appreciates the supportive and balanced culture at Tiny Seed, which aligns with personal responsibilities and values.

• The company struggled with positioning their product effectively in the marketplace.
• Initial pricing strategy involved selling an admin panel for Laravel at $1,000 a year.
• A decision was made to drop the price to $250 a year to increase sales.
• The price drop led to only one additional sale, indicating that price was not the primary barrier for customers.

"We thought we'll drop our price from $1,000 a year to $250 a year and sell it kind of as an add-on like a step business."

• The company attempted to reposition the product by significantly reducing the price.

"Someone bought the Laravel package for $1,000 the next day we dropped the price one person buys it from our list."

• The price reduction resulted in a need to refund the customer who purchased at the higher price, leading to financial loss.

"It's obvious people were not not buying because it was expensive."

• The realization that price was not the issue highlighted the need for further analysis of customer needs.

• Conversations with product managers revealed a demand for custom reports for customers.
• The company has developed 85% of the necessary infrastructure for custom reports using a query builder.
• The focus shifted from a visual query builder to providing custom reports, based on customer feedback.

"We've built out 85% of that we've built out the hard work of that with this query Builder."

• The company has already completed the most challenging part of the development for custom reports.

"So we think from these product manager conversations we're going to lean into instead of visual query Builder whatever that means to custom reports."

• Customer feedback has driven the decision to pivot towards offering custom report capabilities.

• The company is considering repositioning the product rather than a complete pivot.
• The focus is on expanding the software's capabilities and possibly rebranding it to better align with customer needs.
• The development of a V2 of the product is underway, driven by early customer feedback.

"It's an expansion of the software's capabilities you're adding features but then it is it all sounds like aition positioning and that you're going to call it something different."

• The expansion involves adding new features and potentially rebranding to better fit the market.

"We are also responding to a lot of early customer feedback and building out essentially a V2 of our product."

• The development of a new version of the product is in response to customer feedback and aims to improve usability.

• The company is planning significant changes and risk-taking strategies for 2023.
• There is excitement and anticipation for the outcomes of these strategic moves.
• The focus is on customer ports and overall product repositioning.

"2023 is all about risk-taking and I I feel like that's the perfect way to end the first episode of this series."

• The company is embracing risk-taking as a central theme for the year, indicating a willingness to innovate and adapt.

"I'm really excited to see where Colleen and Hammerstone are the next time we talk."

• There is anticipation for future developments and the impact of current strategic decisions.