My First Startup for 2020

Timing the launch of a product can be tricky. On the product side of the business you have a balance between being ready and procrastination: better copy can always be written; small issues/bugs can be found/fixed; an additional feature can be "needed". Some of these might be necessary, but in most cases they are not. They can be built and deployed as the company is in existence, with the added benefit in providing customers a sense of forward movement by a company. Deploying features quickly can be a great thing for customers to see, and teams to experience.

On the other hand, market timing can be a massive issue.

It is this latter issue that has been at the crux of my mind for the better part of three weeks now. We are seeing massive disruptions to personal and professional lives due to coronavirus and extreme global market volatility, bringing a lot of uncertainty as to what the world will look like not only tomorrow, but what will the world look like a month from now, or a year from now? These are truly unprecedented times. This has created a foggy environment on how to move forward in a lot of ways for a lot of people. For myself, and the projects I intended to launch this year, this is no exception.

The coronavirus has basically rendered the first product I planned to launch as "firma non grata." Or in other words, not all that practical for the time being.

Times of uncertainty bring times of opportunity

Instead of launching my product today, I will do my best to write a series leading up to the eventual launch of this product. The series will contain: the genesis of the product, the process of building the product and ultimately the launch of the product. This is the first post in hopefully a short series before launching. Hope you enjoy, and thank you for reading.

The Genesis of Project Diplomat

A friend and fellow entrepreneur - Ryan Kulp - and I started to think about Project Diplomat last year. Our idea was predicated on Ryan's personal experience in running a distributed team (apparently it is called remote team nowadays), and the retreats they planned.

We both initially invested $500 each into the venture for a Webflow design, and a designer to design it.

I'm excited to announce that I'll be building 3 to 4 startups this year. Besides building companies that generate revenue, my goal is to write about my process as well as expand on my previous experiences/skillsets in: design, product, programming, operations, marketing, and running startups in general. Ideally the companies I build in 2020 will have both product market and product zeitgeist fit.