4 ms·

I started http://fairpixels.pro http://fairpixels.pro - ui design firm for startups, for less than $100. Before we had a website, we were profitable and quickly

by fairpx 9y ago

I started http://fairpixels.pro http://fairpixels.pro - ui design firm for startups, for less than $100. Before we had a website, we were profitable and quickly grew to $10k/mo in a few weeks. like mentioned in the article, cashflow is key here. It allows you to reinvest earned money and keep growing. Startups shouldnt raise IMHO before reaching product market fit. Ive made that mistake in the past myself. Having a lot of VC money in your bank that you can burn through while looking for a business model sounds fun, but isn't.

whytaka 9y ago
I'm very curious about how this company is managed. It's an interesting way to structure your offer. Simple with as little commitment as possible. What happens when there are projects that compete for your designers' time?
- fairpx 9y ago
  Every time that problem occurs, we hire new people. The model basically funds its own growth, so when scaling issues rattle the system, we can hire people with the cashflow that's already there.
askaboutit 9y ago
How do you feel about the budget players in your space, which have practically grown to apparently $50,000 monthly revenue, but have missed client files, gotten plenty of negative reviews on producthunt and churned out designs nothing like what they state on their site. Manypixels.co
- fairpx 9y ago
  Many of those I know very well because the founders contacted me with questions before launching a cheaper competitor. In all honesty I don't think about them at all. Our goal isn't to build a $1B company and have this complete monopoly position. The opposite is true. We deliberately stay small, work only with a few companies and basically do work that we really really love. The reason all the great companies have big in-house design teams is that design is about more than cheaply moving pixels from one person to the other. Because we go deep with each startup, we learn a lot about everything what works and what doesn't. In other words, we learn about how our design decisions impact business. How they increase conversion, profits, etc. And so this deeper level of involvement allows us to use that knowledge and expertise with the next startup. For many startups, just having something that looks ok is enough, and for those, the cheaper competitors are the way to go. For others who want to build a great product for their customers.. those who care about details and using design to grow their business, those are the only companies we work with.
  - askaboutit 9y ago
    Great reply. The pro version looks great for serious startups or agencies. Our personal experience with manypixels ended in a refund. So I just wanted to get your take on the cheaper end.
    - fairpx 9y ago
      Love to learn what you used it for and what went wrong.

by fairpx 9y ago

whytaka 9y ago

I'm very curious about how this company is managed. It's an interesting way to structure your offer. Simple with as little commitment as possible. What happens when there are projects that compete for your designers' time?

fairpx 9y ago
Every time that problem occurs, we hire new people. The model basically funds its own growth, so when scaling issues rattle the system, we can hire people with the cashflow that's already there.

askaboutit 9y ago

How do you feel about the budget players in your space, which have practically grown to apparently $50,000 monthly revenue, but have missed client files, gotten plenty of negative reviews on producthunt and churned out designs nothing like what they state on their site. Manypixels.co

fairpx 9y ago
Many of those I know very well because the founders contacted me with questions before launching a cheaper competitor. In all honesty I don't think about them at all. Our goal isn't to build a $1B company and have this complete monopoly position. The opposite is true. We deliberately stay small, work only with a few companies and basically do work that we really really love. The reason all the great companies have big in-house design teams is that design is about more than cheaply moving pixels from one person to the other. Because we go deep with each startup, we learn a lot about everything what works and what doesn't. In other words, we learn about how our design decisions impact business. How they increase conversion, profits, etc. And so this deeper level of involvement allows us to use that knowledge and expertise with the next startup. For many startups, just having something that looks ok is enough, and for those, the cheaper competitors are the way to go. For others who want to build a great product for their customers.. those who care about details and using design to grow their business, those are the only companies we work with.
- askaboutit 9y ago
  Great reply. The pro version looks great for serious startups or agencies. Our personal experience with manypixels ended in a refund. So I just wanted to get your take on the cheaper end.
  - fairpx 9y ago
    Love to learn what you used it for and what went wrong.