I'm Rob!
First off, thank you for letting me be part of this incredible community. I have been a long-time observer (as someone put it Indie Stalker) and I'm stoked to finally contribute.
Second, I wanted to introduce myself.
My name is Rob. I'm married to the most beautiful woman on earth. I am a designer and work mostly with startups. And I'm a lifelong entrepreneur.
I started my first business at 15 years old (29 now). I think the total is 8 startups now. Two failed. Two in purgatory. Three succeeded. And one being built.
Excited to talk more about the one being built. It is a tool for salespeople (another thing I'm very passionate about... cold selling!). Excited to continue to learn and hopefully contribute.
Nice work Rob and thanks for sharing. Thinking back about my early attempts as an entrepreneur; At 16 I made skateboard decks. They were painted in bright neon colours. Unfortunately they had no strength and snapped pretty much straight away. A lot of fun but failed. My next venture was screen printing t-shirts. Mostly band t-shirts that I hand screen printed using paper stencils. It was lots of work and again heaps of fun but nothing that could really scale. I was always thinking up ideas. Now the rest as they say is history.
Haha, I love the skateboarding story Nomis! That is classic!
I have learned that if you want to get good at anything, you have to go through a period of failure. But failure isn't bad! It takes us where we want to go.
Welcome to the community @alpinerob.
Thank you @Ibsylla13. Great to be here!
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Happy to @Primer
#1 Started a window cleaning company in high school. So much fun! Hired my friends. Towed ourselves behind the truck on a wakeboard. Made $$$. Total success.
#2: Started a company called FlyTunes. An airport kiosk that let you download movies onto your iPod. This was pre-Wifi & iPhone becoming huge (wow that feels crazy to say). Failed very quickly. Couln't get it off the ground.
#3: Started a guitar teaching studio. Huge success! Paid for my expenses during college. Some students are still playing guitar today.
#4: Started a company called Ever Rings. Sold custom men's wedding rings online. Failed after 18 months. Never could figure out consistent marketing. Helped a few people get some very cool rings though.
#5: Started Mental Help. A marketplace built in Webflow that helps people find a mental health professional. The site shows videos of therapists answering questions so anyone can feel if they would be a good fit. Currently in purgatory. But one of my favorite ideas. VERY challenging problem to solve and VERY needed.
#6: Started Alpine Studios. A UX studio designed for startups (mostly venture-backed seed or late-stage bootstrap). Succeeding for the last two years. Still going strong and growing!
#7: Started a company called Flyerly. Literally, we hung flyers on people's doors. Very brief project to help my friend get more Christmas light jobs. Thought it could be a great business. In purgatory, but more on the dying side.
#8: Starting a new company called Sales Software Co. As you might guess, it makes sales software. Specifically for people like me... who didn't learn how to sell in school but need it for their business to be successful. Very easy to use and very heavy on education and community.
Hope that is helpful. It sure was for me! Cool to look back and see where I've gone. Thanks for asking!
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Thanks so much Primer. I loved both of those ideas. Still do to be honest. Really appreciate you asking the question. It was a great time looking back through the successes and failures.