I hope everyone is a having a great start to Summer, and hopefully going on a nice vacation with an aperol spritz involved. First off, a quick apology to anyone who was planning on popping by the Tetra booth at Columbus Flea, we had to cancel to due an emergency. The good news that we've been invited back for Summer Flea August 4th.
Electric Eye has soft launched a new venture called Storetester. You might have guessed correctly from the name that we will offer a/b testing (conversion rate optimization or CRO) for Shopify stores on a subscription basis. This is a continuation of the work we've already been doing at EE, but with a tighter focus and audience. CRO requires quite a bit of traffic to achieve statistical significance, but if you know larger volume Shopify stores that want to capture more sales, feel free to email me an intro.
Shoutout to Walker Crane for the awesome Storetester designs
Feel is wrapping up an awesome project that I can't wait to share with you. To be transparent, our current strategy in this 'feel'ing out period is to load up on interesting work without fixating on budget. We don't have a ton of pressure or expenses yet, so we can explore smaller projects and quickly add to the portfolio. Doing good work will get good work.
We've been holding open office hours Friday mornings in the Junto lobby and some great people have already stopped through to chat about the next big idea or just talk some shit. Reply to this email if you want to come through and hang. Future goals might be to get back into a flexible office type situation for more collaboration. I haven't worked in an office since Electric Eye went full remote long before the pandemic normalized it.
Hard at work in the office
I've been thinking about how I want to approach work and keep coming back to Jiro Dreams of Sushi. If you've seen the film, (if you haven't, please watch) you know that sushi chef Jiro is slow and meticulous. His work acumen consists of hard work, attention to detail, consistency, passion, respect for tradition, and mentorship. I get the feeling that when he started his small sushi restaurant he didn't expect success, months long waiting lists or a documentary to be made about him. He showed up in the morning, did the job he loved and slowly built a reputation with no compromises.
Jiro, right
It's so easy these days to get caught up in the volume game. Since I play in the busy intersection of tech, commerce, product and design, I see it all the time. Lots of entrepreneurs want hockey stick growth, overnight success, IPOs, and big money. Maybe it's because I grew up punk, or that my mind can't even comprehend building large companies, but I just don't consider revenue or profit as the only measure of success for a business. I'm much more aligned with Jiro, or even the slow productivity movement. Slow design maybe? I also want to encourage other people do try and create a business they love working within first, without the unfair expectation that they need to become the next unicorn. It takes a little time and financial discipline to make a consistent profit, but I believe in you and will help where I can.
Hometeam Advantage retail store in Grove City
Dalton Willis, a friend and collaborator opened a retail store Hometeam Advantage full of vintage goods, Grove City related apparel, and his own brand Sonder. Check it out!
