Startups For the Rest of Us
Episode 852 | Getting Big Name Customer Case Studies and More Listener Questions (with Ruben Gamez)
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Show notes
Should you be worried that another founder will steal your idea if you ask them for advice?
In this episode, Rob is joined by Ruben Gamez to answer four listener questions: whether reaching out to more advanced founders puts your idea at risk, how to convince big name customers to agree to a case study, what to do when a platform ecosystem (like Shopify's app store) turns hostile, and how to sell a B2G SaaS product when your sales cycle only runs during the hours you're already at a day job.
Want to get your question answered? Submit your question for an upcoming episode.
Topics we cover:
- (1:59) – Fear that outreach could get an idea stolen
- (3:50) – Why no one actually steals ideas
- (9:12) – Getting copied is inevitable once you're public
- (13:45) – How to land big brand case studies
- (15:39) – Using discounts to secure case studies
- (18:11) – Shopify's fake review extortion
- (20:21) – Should you move to a standalone SaaS
- (25:06) – B2G SaaS around a day job
- (28:29) – Why GovTech rarely attracts angel investment
Links from the show:
- Tiny Summit | December 5–7, 2026 · Cancun, Mexico
- TinySeed SaaS Institute
- MicroConf
- SignWell
- Ruben Gamez (@earthlingworks) | X
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!