In episode 686, join Rob Walling for another solo adventure where he answers listener questions. He answers how to evaluate monetary success, combat hedonic adaptation, and how to evaluate the capabilities of technical co-founders. Rob also discusses whether outsourcing sales and marketing is possible and considers some alternative no-code approaches.  Topics we cover:  4:20 – Success after stair-stepping, confronting hedonic adaptation 15:35 – Sales funnels, friction before demos, and collecting email addresses 19:24 – Outsourcing marketing and sales 23:54 – Evaluating the technical capabilities of your technical co-founder(s) 29:41 – Reducing the platform risk of developing in typical no-code tools Links from the Show:  State of Independent SaaS Survey and Report MicroConf Local in Austin MicroConf Connect Bernard Huang (@bernardjhuang) | X WP Engine (@wpengine) | X Tracy Osborn (@tracymakes) | X The Stair Step Method of Bootstrapping Start Small, Stay Small: A Developer's Guide to Launching a Startup  The SaaS Playbook This Took 11 Years to Be An "Overnight Success" - SaaS Exit Strategy Once  If you have questions about starting or scaling a software business that you’d like for us to cover, please submit your question for an upcoming episode. We’d love to hear from you! Subscribe & Review: iTunes | Spotify | Google