Business building with a spouse

Important pivots only happen after 10pm.

Building a business is tough, no doubt about it. But when you’re doing it with your spouse, it’s a whole different kind of challenge. This past year, 2024, has been particularly interesting for us. On one hand, we’ve had the privilege of working with some incredible clients doing amazing work. On the other hand, many of our tech SaaS clients have been tightening their budgets or bringing work in-house. Not going to sugarcoat it; it’s been a turbulent year. With AI advancements and a general correction in the sector, where valuations were previously sky-high and money was flowing freely, investors are now much more cautious.

So, a few hot topics have come up recently, especially during those late-night discussions after the kids are finally asleep (which seems to be getting later and later). One big question is whether we should stick with our normal retainer basis—time for money, easy to calculate—or switch to a subscription model that’s more results-driven. Transitioning would mean changing our setup, and change always comes with its fair share of pain. There's a lot of negative chatter online about subscription designers price gouging, which we definitely want to avoid. We need to do our homework to figure out where we fit in and how we can make this shift smooth and beneficial for our clients.

Another topic that’s been on the table is pivoting our target audience. It's more of a small tweak than a complete 180. We’ve decided to focus on helping B2B tech founders become investment-ready. This means creating investor decks, basic websites, branding, brochures, annual reports, pull-up banners—all things we’ve been doing but now with a sharper focus on telling the story rather than just listing deliverables. We feel more confident about this direction and are eager to see how it pans out.

Footnotes: Image generated using Mystic 1.0 from Freepik. Prompt: an asian woman and a asian man having serious talk in living room. green tones, editorial, floating shapes, artistic #illustratedpop