Hey there!
Hope you've been well. After wrapping up Ops Hacks, I took a summer break with the family. Fun fact: Felix is now a certified beach enthusiast! We explored several lake towns with sandy beaches, and it was a blast.
As you may know, after transitioning from full-time work around when Felix was born, I've explored various roles and projects. From being a fractional head of ops to delving into the world of DAOs, this self-employment journey has been a period of exploration and discovery.
This summer, in particular, offered a chance to pause and reflect, a chance to distill these experiences and gain clarity on the kind of work that excites and energizes me, guiding my next venture.
So, before diving into details about the workflow company, allow me to share the four guiding principles that shaped my thinking:
1. Retain autonomy
If the past 2 years of going solo have taught me anything, it’s that I absolutely love the autonomy of working for myself.
The freedom to select projects, decline ones that don't align, and even take extended breaks to recharge is invaluable. Sure, there's a trade-off in terms of stability, both in schedule and income. But one, recent mass layoffs has taught us that stability of a corporate job is an illusion. And two, more importantly, the pros of self-direction far outweigh the cons.
So I want to keep things the same in this regard. I'm bootstrapping the business, which means no external investors and complete independence (and responsibility).
2. Hedge risks
Bootstrapping has its challenges, especially when dipping into personal savings - which I’ll be doing over the next however long until the business gains traction. So, the goal is to have a business model that's revenue-generating from day one. Not a free community or a consumer app to be monetized later, but a venture that has a chance to make money from day one.
And to further reduce the risk of not finding a product-market fit, I'm kicking off with a service-based model. The idea is simple: offer a valuable service and get paid for it.
3. Align with my interests
While I consider myself a generalist, I've always been drawn to the technical side of things.
Whether it was automating data updates with VBA in banking or mastering SQL at Uber, the allure of tech has been constant. Most recently, I’ve been going deep into full-stack Javascript programming, which has only deepened this interest.
Building and creating with technology is exhilarating. So, it's only natural that my next venture has a strong technical aspect, which will ensure that I can build for the long-term and not lose interest midway.
4. Leverage my experience
Working independently on multiple projects with a wide array of teams has allowed me to identify my strengths and preferences.
One area I'm particularly drawn to is the intersection of operations with technology, where my experience meets my curiosity - specifically, it’s designing, streamlining and automating processes.
I believe that combining my understanding of business strategy, operations, and stakeholder management with the technical knowledge of automation will align my experience with my interest, and deliver value to clients that I work with.
In essence, I hope to build a long-lasting company in a sustainable manner and in a domain where I have both experience and interest.
Introducing: the workflow company
The workflow company is a bootstrapped micro-agency that specializes in automating manual workflows for startups and SMBs - thereby helping them save time and money, and empowering their employees to take on more interesting and creative work.
Here's why this venture excites me:
The “no code” ecosystem, with tools like Make, Pipedream and Airtable, has reached a level of adoption and popularity where you can build an automation to gain some serious efficiency. And while AI and automation are two separate things, the recent surge in popularity of AI has rekindled interest in leveraging the power of technology to reduce manual work.
Both budding tech startups and established SMEs have numerous manual processes ripe for automation. Often, these organizations lack the blend of business acumen and technical expertise to streamline these workflows.
Manual processes often span multiple departments. An external perspective, devoid of internal biases, can offer a holistic view and bring clarity to these processes.
You can learn more about the workflow company at wfco.co.
A little favour
Finally, a couple asks of you if you would like to support me:
Please share the launch post of the workflow company with your network
Drop me an email with any questions or thoughts on workflow automation
Connect with me on LinkedIn where I’ll be sharing automation ideas, progress updates, etc.
Thanks for being on this journey with me. Stay tuned for more updates!
Joe