One Year Ago Today

January of last year, my co-founder and I launched byDesign Monthly. Starting as a project grown out of our love for design and serving startups, we offered unlimited design in a fixed-rate subscription model.

On January 9th, 2020, we went in blind and launched a Facebook ad. Silence for a full week. Which is what happens when you have no idea how to (effectively) run Facebook ads.

Fast-forward to January 16th. I get a call from a random number out in California. Thinking it was spam, I answered it and gave a pretty blunt hello. The guy on the other line asked, “is this byDesign?” Shit. Totally forgot I left my personal number on the website.

That guy went on to become our first customer on January 16th, and a year later, is still subscribed.

I flew out to Los Angeles two weeks later to learn about his role, what his needs were, and how byDesign could be the best investment he ever made.

That constant desire to learn about our customers is likely why we are where we are today. It’s forced us to adapt and change on the fly. Which is why in the past twelve months…

• We shifted our plan offering from focusing strictly on design, to more broad-reaching marketing activities like copywriting and content strategy.
• Our customer went from a bootstrapped, solo-founder, to small marketing teams in twenty-employee organizations.

In September, with a proven MVP, we put an unofficial pause on sales and marketing to double-down and focus on how to bring things to the next level. February is that next level.

Next month, we’re launching our own web application, with the goal of delivering a robust customer experience built on our learnings over the past twelve months.

We’re rolling out a expansive digital marketing strategy, paired with a brand new front-end website.

All while having the confidence in where the map is leading us.

Today, we have customers all over the country, an incredible team of fifteen strong, and are seeking to raise our seed round in Q1. Amid a pandemic, we’ve been able to weather the storm, and are thankful for everyone who’s believed in us; from our team, to family, to customers.