Above Board

May 06 2024 93
Above Board Podcast artwork

A podcast exploring running an indie + bootstrapped software (SaaS) company. Follow Jack and Paul (the co-founders) in their journey of building and growing Fathom Analytics. Published every two weeks, listen in on lively debates about profit, customers, software, and how they’re working to keep their business in line with their values. This is a podcast from Fathom Analytics (usefathom.com).

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The art of progress

May 06 2024 42 mins  
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

Apr 22 2024 22 mins  
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

Dec 18 2023 18 mins  
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

Nov 14 2023 24 mins  
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)

Oct 30 2023 29 mins  
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

Vacations for bootstrapped founders

Oct 16 2023 29 mins  
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)

Sep 25 2023 31 mins  
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

Aug 28 2023 26 mins  
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

Jul 31 2023 74 mins  
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 m

Is a lot of startup advice incorrect?

Jul 17 2023 32 mins  
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.