Introduction

PurposeTab shows your daily focus, habits, to-do's, goals, and more - every time you open a new tab (just a single click away.

why + Thought process

(Link to blog post with full thought process at the bottom of this page)

I was sitting and journaling in a coffee shop one day and thinking “What should exist?” It came to me that there was no good system to regularly see the goals that I was working towards, with daily action items right next to them.

I was also thinking asking myself what is the easiest way to make this as top-of-mind as possible.

Well…I’m always in Chrome…so how about a new tab extension?!

It made perfect sense to build this tool in the well-known ecosystem of the Chrome Web Store (distribution is immensely valuable).

I had never shipped a software product. It was about time to see what I could do.

Results

PurposeTab quickly reached 1,000 weekly active users within about a month, and now has > 2,000 weekly active users. I’m super proud of the number of 5-star reviews in relation to its overall number of weekly active users. It blows me away that so many people are willing to see and utilize my product so often (every time they open a new tab…this must be countless times per day).

I had the most fun being extremely particular and scrupulous about the minimalist design and what features should be built. Seeing that I was bootstrapping this, I could only spend a very finite amount of money, and I also didn’t want to just feature-dump.

I loved the puzzle of trying to figure out what exactly PurposeTab was solving for users / what it could solve via regular surveys. It was fun to personally experience being extremely caution and asking myself: “Does this absolutely need to be in the product?!”

Looking back - what would I have done differently?

I actually don’t know what I would have done differently. I was overall extremely proud of what I was able to create and truly proud of my product decisions.

Skills learned

• Wireframing + prototyping

• How to hire a front-end designer and developer and effectively collaborate with them

• How to launch a Chrome extension / simple software product

• How to be a product manager

• How to be hyper-focused on design and adding features/roadmapping

• The basics of software testing

• How to co-create with your audience via user surveys

Introduction

PurposeCards were designed to be “journaling for the rest of us.” Take 60-90 seconds to fill out the front (sun) side in the morning, the back (moon) side in the evening, and store it back in the box.

why + Thought process

PurposeTab was getting some traction, but I had no idea how to monetize (especially inexpensively). I felt before I tried to monetize that, it would need at least 10x more weekly active users.

I also was thinking that analog tools, specifically pen + paper, are still underrated. Sure I liked PurposeTab, but I wasn’t always at my computer.

I wanted a minimalist “roadmap” to a successful day. I could journal, but those are too clunky to lug around. Guided journals, in addition to being hard to lug around, are a bit too type-A / structured.

So I designed PurposeCards to be super minimal, portable, and with just the right amount of structure.

Being the size of a credit card made them super easy to just put in one’s wallet and fill out or reference at any time.

I also really liked the consumable nature of the cards; so if we were successful, this would be like recurring revenue.

Results

I was able to successfully pre-sell ~$700 in units at first with just a basic website and some nice mockup images.

I wanted to launch this as a B2B product (e.g. corporate gifting), but my business partner at the time was very adamant to launch it as a Kickstarter, which I agreed to.

I delayed the initial Kickstarter launch to ship prototype units to numerous influencers that I prospected. I reached many of them and was able to ship them prototype units in time for the planned Kickstarter launch. We received good feedback, but it didn’t take off unfortunately.

We chose to launch the Kickstarter at the start of COVID, because we figured that at a time of such mania, people would really value a tool like PurposeCards.

Our Kickstarter ended up yielding just under $3,000 in pre-sales, but that fell far short of the $20k goal, so the entire endeavor was tabled. I set the $20k goal, as that would have financed premium branding/design and high-end custom packaging, while also leaving some room for margins after a first small-batch run.

My business partner on PurposeCards was a very successful entrepreneur, whose business was unfortunately decimated by the pandemic in a way that was completely out of his control. He’s a great marketer, which is one of the reasons we decided to partner up on this. COVID forced his main business into complete survival mode, and he was (rightfully so) unable to dedicate further time to helping the PurposeCards launch (which again, I completely understand).

Skills learned

• Brand creation and positioning

• Sketching and creating a physical product

• Sourcing vendors to produce a prototype

• Launching a pre-sales mechanism

• Launching a Kickstarter (and filming a Kickstarter video)

• Testing an “influencer” launch program early on

Looking back - what would I have done differently?

My business partner at the time wanted to launch on Kickstarter. I was never interested in a DTC business, but was more excited about the 1:many possibilities of being a prominent corporate gifting product. I didn’t care about selling one or two units every 3-4 months to an individual consumer (and dealing with tons of tiny interactions). Instead, I was far more excited about selling 500 - 10,000 units in one fell swoop to a company or organization and really building deeper relationships that would be easier to manage and far more lucrative.

I don’t necessarily regret launching the Kickstarter campaign during the exponential rise of COVID. I didn’t want to cancel the launch, and I figured it wouldn’t necessarily end anytime soon once the spread started. It was a reasonable hypothesis to think people would have wanted something like this.

I have a bit of regret in terms of not pushing harder for this to be a B2B product like I initially wanted it to be. If the Kickstarter campaign was successful, it would have only furthered the case for building a DTC business, which again - I was not interested in. This of course doesn’t mean that PurposeCards would have been successful in the B2B or corporate gifting route, but of course part of me wonders “What If?”.

I think my business partner and I worked pretty well together overall, but I still believe I could have been firmer in setting expectations around communication and responsibilities.

Introduction

MealTribes was a potluck dinner platform + community for people in their 20s & 30s.

why + Thought process

I’ve never really liked going to bars, yet many believed that was a way to socialize and meet people.

I never understood how packing people into a crowded + dirty space to pay for overpriced drinks of varying quality while trying to talk over shitty music in the background, but hey, to each his/her own.

I wanted an easier way to have meaningful conversations with my peers/like-minded people (and maybe that would turn into additional friendships).

Everyone likes potluck dinners and they’re a great way to meet + connect with people.

It started with me arranging a potluck with friends who I thought would all enjoy each other’s company. We had a blast and arranged another potluck the following month.

After that, myself and a few of the guests all realized “Hm, perhaps we have something here” - and became co-founders.

The whole point of MealTribes was to connect with like-minded peers for meaningful conversations. And that means at the start, it’d just be open to others in their 20s & 30s in the DC area. We posted our core values prominently on the homepage, because we wanted like-minded people to self-select into checking us out.

Results

MealTribes peaked when it crossed 750 signups just in DC, with multiple potlucks occurring each week - sometimes two on the same night in different places.

We received a variety of inbound emails; from authors that are community-building experts, to possible brands to collaborate, to people that were in their 50s/60s who were angry that they felt excluded because we specified 20s & 30s.

Overall, the response was overwhelmingly positive from first-time and repeat attendees. We received requests to start MealTribes communities in other cities and experimented with making our local superfans into “Tribe Leaders” - whose job it was to spin up more potlucks and recruit new members to do the same.

MealTribes fizzled out when other life responsibilities took over for myself and the co-founders. While we all had a blast (and are still friends), it was hard to consistently dedicate time to something that we didn’t really see a way to turn into an actual business.

Of course there were ways to drive revenue, but the operational execution of each potluck would be exhausting to scale and the margins of a variety of business models would be slim. And we didn’t want to compromise the integrity of the community. Not to mention that one can only attend so many potlucks in a month without getting exhausted.

Finally “community is cool” in 2020, but many awesome communities probably should never become self-sustaining businesses on their own, because it could ruin them.

Skills learned

• Brand creation and positioning

• Creating a company’s core values

• System/process creation

• Earned PR / press

• Creating an in-person community

• Creating an online community

Looking back - what would I have done differently?

I’m super proud of what we built with MealTribes. Me and my co-founders had a ton of fun and learned a lot.

While I don’t think I made any glaring mistakes, I could have definitely done a better job of checking in with my teammates and seeing how they were doing/feeling about things.

It’s also possible I could have tried experimenting with a revenue model earlier on, though that might have lowered the traction. MealTribes was extremely inexpensive to operate - just some hustle / manual effort. I wanted to understand the potential of the community by optimizing for growth (both in signups and people attending potlucks / repeated attendees) — and then see if a revenue model could really add significant value to that core experience.

Introduction

WebsiteByTonight is the easiest way to get a simple + professional website built quickly and cost-effectively. We work both directly with clients and with agencies/organizations in a whitelabel capacity.

why + Thought process

There is a massive need for simple websites, but the usual web design process is inefficient, expensive, time-consuming, and risky — definitely overkill for simple websites.

At the time, I was a one-man Squarespace shop. While that was fine and business was good, scalability of a normal services business is hard for a variety of reasons; from creative bandwidth, to price inconsistency, to lack of a specific process.

I also realized that I was turning down many leads that would have been otherwise excellent clients, but their budgets were too small and needs were too simple.

I came up with the process of creating a simple GoogleDoc intake form, and then building websites with clients in real-time via screenshare. Clients agree to do some legwork up-front and understand that they’re not getting a super white-glove process.

I initially created WebsiteByTonight as an offshoot business with a “productized” model to test on prospects that needed something simpler than a more complex custom Squarespace site.

I realized that the real opportunity was with WebsiteByTonight over my normal custom Squarespace site business, so I focused on it fully.

Results

WebsiteByTonight is now a 6-figure business with >50% margins, and I only spend about 5 hours/week on managing it (I have two great designers right now that do the work).

Client reviews have been fantastic. I have found a way to effectively service a widely-ignored market segment (budgets too small + websites too simple).

The business is designed in an extremely lean way with great cashflow. Websites are paid for in-full up-front and designers are paid a flat rate upon successful project completion. The business’s only fixed costs are around $100/mo in software to run operations.

With WebsiteByTonight, I believe I’ve carved out a unique niche with very little competition and extremely clear + predictable unit economics.

I have had some success in creating a whitelabel partner program for agencies who would build multiple sites per month consistently.

After a single quick onboarding call with me, I send them a link where they can spin up a project on-demand without ever having to talk to me. It works flawlessly, and I do believe that if there was a talented salesperson working diligently on recruiting agencies to the program, WebsiteByTonight could become a significantly bigger business.

Skills learned

• Brand creation and positioning

• Creating and consistently delivering an extremely efficient B2B productized service

• Transactional sales (simpler sales in the $1k - $1.5k budget range)

• Hiring and running a remote team

• Creating a value-added-reseller “Partner” program for agency clients who whitelabel our services

• Partner marketing (e.g. webinars and podcasts with affiliate/preferred pricing deals)

Looking back - what would I have done differently?

I’m overall very proud of what I’ve built with this business and the way it functions. I did make a few critical mistakes early on:

• My pricing was too low starting out (started out at $749 / $999, ended up at $899 / $1299).

• I should have been a bit more selective when choosing my first few designers.

• I very consistently hyper-qualify clients and set expectations, seeing as the nature of the service of WebsiteByTonight is kind of unusual (and to make money, it has to operate extremely efficiently). My mistakes have often come when I liked the prospect and I felt like going a bit out of my way to help him/her. I learned long ago to stop doing favors and deviating from a proven process. The prospect is either a perfect fit or not; there’s basically no in-between.

*The rating has since dropped, specifically because the course was released 7 years ago - so of course, the Squarespace web design platform has drastically changed since then (I’ve never desired to update the course, though it’s still relevant)

Introduction

My course was designed to show someone, from start to finish, how to build a simple + professional website (e.g. if they were an independent consultant). From conceptual frameworks and design decisions to actually watching me build the site from scratch - while I’m working side by side with my client.

why + Thought process

I initially developed this course because I wanted a product that I could sell to the masses that couldn’t necessarily afford my WebsiteByTonight service. I thought $20 was an approachable price.

Most courses just go into some level of how-to. I wanted for my course to not only show the building itself, but also the thought frameworks I used when thinking about website design, as well as the real-time deliberation and discourse with a real client working side-by-side with me.

I wanted to create this once and send to tons of people - while creating a passive income stream for myself.

Results

I’m extremely proud of this Udemy course, having over 2300 students and a 4.3-star rating.

Skills learned

• Designing, creating, and launching an online course

Looking back - what would I have done differently?

As proud as I am of this course, it was an immense amount of work to develop something, especially with decent production value.

I also experimented with providing free access to the course as a lead magnet on WebsiteByTonight, which yielded some small results.

While I’m super proud of the course I created, looking back and knowing what I know now…I’m not sure I would have done it! And now I warn people about how difficult it is to create a high-quality online course.