DesignJoy · B2B · design subscription service
Copy another agency's model for your own skill and launch it in a day
Became a ~$1.3M/year business; founder says it launched in 6-7 hours
Workedvalidationpositioning-niche
What they did
Saw a subscription agency doing graphic design; applied the same model to his own skills (web/landing page and product design) and aimed to be the highest-quality option. Built it in one Saturday, 6-7 hours: a one-page Webflow site plus a Trello board structure. He applies the same minimum-effort approach to side projects (a 6-hour app, a course recorded as audio in his car): release something minimally viable and see if it bites before investing weeks or months.
What happened
The day-one site became DesignJoy
- Stage
- Pre-launch (Idea / launch)
- Effort
- 6-7 hours on one Saturday
“And I happened to come across another agency doing something similar to what I'm doing today. They were doing it for graphic design, but I was a web designer. I did landing pages and product design. I thought I could take what they do, apply it to what I'm good at, and just make it the the highest quality option out there.”
“I'd rather just release something minimally viable out there and see if it bites, and if it does, then I can figure things out from there.”
Related topics
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More from this episode
- DesignJoy: Sell design as a flat monthly subscription with unlimited requests, not by the hourAbout $5,000/month per client; ~20 clients and ~$1.3M/year solo
- DesignJoy: Give each new client a Trello board right away and skip all meetingsOne person serves ~20 clients with his whole day free for design work
- DesignJoy: Launch on Product Hunt to land your first clientsBrought in early interest and clients; no numbers given
- DesignJoy: Build in public on Twitter so your tweets bring in client leadsMost leads now come from his tweets; no ad spend
- DesignJoy: Offer only the work you do fastest, and turn down the restFounder credits it for his model; no separate numbers
- DesignJoy: Run the business beside your day job until it hits $80K/monthRevenue doubled the month he quit; he says he waited about 2 years too long