Phil Plante hits $19k in 4 months (after trying to quit)
From $0 to $19,000/mo in 4 months. Whoa. And @pplante of It's Circle Time actually tried to shut it down before launch. Here's how having a solid co-founder saved him:
So we had just finished running a pilot program to validate the product, when my son was suddenly born six weeks premature. I sent my co-founder, Melody, an email from the hospital while my wife was in labor, telling her that I thought we'd need to cancel the launch and close the company entirely. I knew we were on to something — I just could not see how I would handle a global pandemic, my daughter, my newborn son, and starting a new company.
But instead of quitting, Melody just put her head down and started building. Her background is as a preschool director. When we started working together she was entirely non-technical. So this experience forced her to level up her technical and business skills overnight.
I didn't even really surface until mid-July when my son came home from the NICU. We launched in August. Since then it has been a whirlwind. Our team has doubled every month. We went from zero to $19,000 per month.
Neither of us has ever been so excited to get to our desk each day. It is stressful, terrifying, unreal, and motivating all at the same time. I feel like I'm in a spinning clothes dryer, with emotions tumbling around instead of socks. And I absolutely could not have done this alone.
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Hey @pplante congrats for having a new newborn son.
It's inspiring to see founders like you manage a family, social life and work at the same time. And have a co-founder who is very understanding of the situation and going ahead. Co-founders having each other's back when times get tough.
I'm interested to know how does It's Circle Time operation change once the pandemic goes away (let's hope so)?! Once children are back to school and kindergarten.
I wholeheartedly agree with you on having solid co-founders. This would not exist without my ability to rely on the team. That is why we are a team and not a group of lemmings running around.
Great question, and is one that keeps me up at night. I have a plan/bet/guess on how the company can survive the pandemic. I am not ready to share how are planning to survive the pandemic. I am hoping to launch those programs as pilots in late Jan 2021, with a wider rollout shortly after we prove things.
Everything we do is an experiment. We are constantly refining our existing programs to find more efficient ways to deliver the same quality of service.