The Busy Creator Podcast, episode 11 with guests Michael Sacca and Alex Rolek, co-founders of Brandisty.com
Michael Sacca (@MichaelSacca) and Alex Rolek (@AlexRolek) are the co-founders of Brandisty.com, a website that allows companies to put their brand on the web. The duo started out as a small agency doing web design and software development before shifting towards a B2B product. Along with Prescott, they discuss the origins of Brandisty, how they went about getting early feedback, and the day to day scrappiness of running a small web software company.
Show Notes & Links
- Brandisty is a small software company, about 5 staffers plus contractors
- TinyFactory, the agency from which Brandisty was born
- Brandisty’s inception was born from frustration — “can I get a transparent PNG?”
- Valio Con, a design conference where Brandisty was introduced as a beta product
- The Busy Creator on Brandisty
- Delete Blood Cancer on Brandisty
- TinyFactory started as an agency
- Michael studied the music business
- Alex studied finance and real estate development
- Entrepreneurs struggle to install productivity habits
- Distractions at work are annoying
- The difference between marketing and sales
- The conference was to validate the idea
- “customer service is our marketing”
- Say Rhythm rather than Routine.
- Alex endorses a lifestyle of moderation
Tools
- Brandisty.com, (obviously)
- HTML5
- Node.js
- AoHell (RIP)
- Visual Basic
- Amazon Web Services: Route 53, EC2, Virtual Private Cloud, S3
- SublimeText, the text editor of choice
- TextMate, also good
- Git and custom Git servers, rather than GitHub
- GoLang, a language for lower-level image processing
- Trello, for project management
- Do.com (RIP), Jira — other project management software tools
- Salesforce, the owners of Do.com
- gChat and Skype to keep track of remote workers
- Google Docs for company-wide assets
- Medium, well-read site but doesn’t convert well
- Reddit, as an underrated communication medium
- Designer News and Hacker News
- Inbound.com / Hubspot.com
- GrowthHackers.com
- HOW Forums (RIP)
- Creative Mornings
- Likemind
Techniques
- Use a blackboard in your office. Keep it old school
- Keep a Kanban board with projects; rearrange as necessary
- Use small post-its on the cards
- Don’t use a mobile phone app to do your laundry (it’s not needed!)
- Use the Rubber Duck test
- Template your email responses and communication tools
- Set “Do Not Disturb” mode for the working day, counter-interuitively
- Generate potential leads, do some research, ask them to become beta testers
- Generate leads from content and social media
- Aim for better quality traffic, not necessarily more
- Give up coffee or alcohol; observe results.
- Don’t forget to read books, in addition to blog posts, to learn other people’s perspectives
Habits
- Get everyone together for planning and vision; let people work independently from there
- Monday morning meeting: plan the week, review stats, update on all departments
- Friday meeting focused on marketing and to review stats
- Handle communication and responses in the morning; focus on productivity the rest of the day
- Alex favors the “anti-routine”, and fear of monotony. Varies his wake-up and work-out times.
- Michael favors a strict routine (due to fatherhood). Gym in the morning, breakfast, shower, and off to work.
- Wake up before the sun rises.
- Try networking events in the morning, rather than those in the evenings
Get The Episode
- Download The Busy Creator Podcast, episode 11
(MP3, 35:39, 34.6 MB) - Download The Busy Creator Podcast, episode 11
(OGG, 35:39, 36.6 MB)
Subscribe to The Busy Creator Podcast on iTunes
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