Thread by @awilkinson

I’ve been cracking a new way to start companies this year...

I used to work my face off starting companies. It’s a TON of work.

Now, I have a simple formula 🧮

Example: I just launched Mailman (mailmanhq.com)

I spent about 5 hours on it 🧭

Here’s how I did it...

I always start with a problem. In this case, it was that my nightmarish email inbox kept filling up 🤯

As I’d send emails, new ones would constantly stream in and I’d end up spending my entire day in my email instead of focusing on deep work 😩

I had a eureka moment when...💡

I asked my Dad “how did you deal with this before email? When all these were letters?”

He responded: “The mailman only came once a day! You just sat down, responded to your letters, then didn’t think about mail for the rest of the day”.

And so the idea for @Mailman_HQ was born

I needed to slow my email down 🧘🏼‍♂️

Calm my inbox 🌀

Only get email a few times a day—like an old school mailman,

Scratching the itch, I tweeted about it in February:

https://twitter.com/awilkinson/status/1229451446082555904

A developer named @mohitmamoria messaged me.

He wanted to build it together.

We quickly emailed and negotiated a deal:

He would become CEO, get a sizeable equity stake, and salary.

I would help ideate and provide all the financial resources and contractors he needed.

We never even spoke on the phone.

Here’s what I did next:

✅ Intro’d him to @z1digitalstudio to handle design.

✅ Intro’d him to DoubleUp (doubleup.agency) to handle marketing/launch.

✅ Intro’d him to a Pilothouse (pilothouse.com) to handle PPC.

Mohit and I would text every few days, as the product evolved.

I was Mailman’s first power user and was constantly sending feedback.

We quickly realized there were a few key Jobs To Be Done:

✅ Slow down the rate of responses to create time for deep work (deliver email less)

✅ Provide a break from email (Do Not Disturb on weekends, evenings, etc)

✅ Only show the important stuff (Email Digesting from senders we don’t recognize - like Sanebox, which I’d used for years)

✅ Make sure people see the super important stuff immediately (VIP list/domains)

From February, when we started building, to our launch last week, I spent about $100,000 funding the company.

I paid for salaries, contractors, advertising, accounting, etc.

Other than my money, my personal time commitment was:

- 4-5 hours giving feedback via iMessage and email
- Tweeting about it

That’s it.

I came up with the idea...

Assembled a great team.

Funded them.

Gave feedback as needed.

They did everything else. From initial beta to launch, I just helped around the edges.

It’s the Pareto approach to starting a business.

20% of the effort for 80% of the result.

I did the same thing with @BuyerInc this year too.

Is it as sexy and exciting as being a @Ycombinator founder?

Of course not.

And I wouldn’t have been able to do it without some startup capital + ability to let go/delegate + a good network of trusted contractors...

But if you can assemble those things, there’s no reason you can’t start a simple company in 5-10 hours.

It’s a great way to follow-through on an idea without getting distracted from your core business. In my case, acquiring more great internet businesses at Tiny.

*Pilothouse.co