3 ms·

I'm trying to do something along these lines with my company, Contraption Company (https://contraption.co https://contraption.co). "Ethical" is an ambiguous wo

I'm trying to do something along these lines with my company, Contraption Company (https://contraption.co https://contraption.co). "Ethical" is an ambiguous word - so I've focused on the idea of "Dependability", which I've broken down focus on "Sustainability", "Transparency", and "Craftsmanship" that I outline on the homepage. I built a couple VC-backed companies and didn't like that the products only lasted a couple of years, so this company structure allows me to focus on building products that I won't shut down, and it lets me leave money on the table with pricing. Technically this is a "Personal holding company" (PHC) - I'm a one-person business with no investors. I think you'll see more companies like this in the future. And, I think that the PHC model allows businesses to focus more on customers than investors, because they don't need to transition to a "value extraction" phase in the future.

solardev 3y ago
I really like what you've done here! Is it enough to live off? I think your product pages (Booklet, Postcard) are great. Booklet in particular is intriguing... it reminds me of Discourse (the forum). Might be helpful to have a comparison page?
- philip1209 3y ago
  Thanks! Yes, Booklet is where I spend most of my time. I think it's a big opportunity to have more of a hosted Discourse alternative. I'll work on some comparison pages - thanks for the suggestion. > Is it enough to live off of? I do a little bit of consulting [1] , which bridges the gap. That way, I'm not losing money building the company. Though, all of my products make revenue, and things are doing well in relative growth (+60% MoM last month) even if the absolute numbers aren't big. I did some consulting to bootstrap Moonlight [2] to profitability, and it worked. I find the consulting is motivating, because I get to work directly with founders on high-growth businesses. It maintains a sense of urgency, and makes sure I am building a business instead of an art project. I strongly believe that fractional work is the future, which is why one of the Contraption Co. projects is a community for fractional workers called FRCTNL [3]. Affiliate links on it have surprised me as a non-trivial revenue source. [1] https://www.contraption.co/consulting https://www.contraption.co/consulting [2] https://moonlightwork.com https://moonlightwork.com [3] https://frctnl.xyz https://frctnl.xyz

solardev 3y ago

I really like what you've done here! Is it enough to live off? I think your product pages (Booklet, Postcard) are great. Booklet in particular is intriguing... it reminds me of Discourse (the forum). Might be helpful to have a comparison page?

philip1209 3y ago
Thanks! Yes, Booklet is where I spend most of my time. I think it's a big opportunity to have more of a hosted Discourse alternative. I'll work on some comparison pages - thanks for the suggestion. > Is it enough to live off of? I do a little bit of consulting [1] , which bridges the gap. That way, I'm not losing money building the company. Though, all of my products make revenue, and things are doing well in relative growth (+60% MoM last month) even if the absolute numbers aren't big. I did some consulting to bootstrap Moonlight [2] to profitability, and it worked. I find the consulting is motivating, because I get to work directly with founders on high-growth businesses. It maintains a sense of urgency, and makes sure I am building a business instead of an art project. I strongly believe that fractional work is the future, which is why one of the Contraption Co. projects is a community for fractional workers called FRCTNL [3]. Affiliate links on it have surprised me as a non-trivial revenue source. [1] https://www.contraption.co/consulting https://www.contraption.co/consulting [2] https://moonlightwork.com https://moonlightwork.com [3] https://frctnl.xyz https://frctnl.xyz