The Busy Creator episode 11, w/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 contractorsTinyFactory, the agency from which Brandisty was bornBrandisty’s inception was born from frustration — “can I get a transparent PNG?”Valio Con, a design conference where Brandisty was introduced as a beta productThe Busy Creator on BrandistyDelete Blood Cancer on BrandistyTinyFactory started as an agencyMichael studied the music businessAlex studied finance and real estate developmentEntrepreneurs struggle to install productivity habitsDistractions at work are annoyingThe difference between marketing and salesThe conference was to validate the idea“customer service is our marketing”Say Rhythm rather than Routine.Alex endorses a lifestyle of moderationTools
Brandisty.com, (obviously)HTML5Node.jsAoHell (RIP)Visual BasicAmazon Web Services: Route 53, EC2, Virtual Private Cloud, S3SublimeText, the text editor of choiceTextMate, also goodGit and custom Git servers, rather than GitHubGoLang, a language for lower-level image processingTrello, for project managementDo.com (RIP), Jira — other project management software toolsSalesforce, the owners of Do.comgChat and Skype to keep track of remote workersGoogle Docs for company-wide assetsMedium, well-read site but doesn’t convert wellReddit, as an underrated communication mediumDesigner News and Hacker NewsInbound.com / Hubspot.comGrowthHackers.comHOW Forums (RIP)Creative MorningsLikemind Techniques
Use a blackboard in your office. Keep it old schoolKeep a Kanban board with projects; rearrange as necessaryUse small post-its on the cardsDon’t use a mobile phone app to do your laundry (it’s not needed!)Use the Rubber Duck testTemplate your email responses and communication toolsSet “Do Not Disturb” mode for the working day, counter-interuitivelyGenerate potential leads, do some research, ask them to become beta testersGenerate leads from content and social mediaAim for better quality traffic, not necessarily moreGive up coffee or alcohol; observe results.Don’t forget to read books, in addition to blog posts, to learn other people’s perspectivesHabits
Get everyone together for planning and vision; let people work independently from thereMonday morning meeting: plan the week, review stats, update on all departmentsFriday meeting focused on marketing and to review statsHandle communication and responses in the morning; focus on productivity the rest of the dayAlex 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, show, and off to work.Wake up before the sun rises.Try networking events in the morning, rather than those in the evenings
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