The only thing that's made money isn't the thing i've been building.
Day 5 of building in public
Last night at 8:36, I emailed myself a subject line: “pivoting milkcrate.”
New idea —> kill the platform play and build the marketplace that replaces the middleman. Automate what they do, and you’re sitting in the middle of the transaction.
It felt good for about twenty-five minutes. Then I emailed myself again: “Damn. Really small TAM if we go after this slice. I’m thinking too small. I want to build a meaningful company, not a niche one. May need to go back to the drawing board.”
one hour. one idea. one self-rejection. that’s what ideation looks like at 8pm, six weeks in, with nothing locked.
but here’s what i couldn’t see last night and can see this morning: the market has been voting this whole time. i just kept arguing with the result.
By the end of today, I’m pivoting again.
the no’s
9:01pm I tested the bureau idea with two speakers I’m already working with. Same answer from both. The model could work once you prove it, but a monthly subscription is a hard no because they’ve already paid for promises that didn’t deliver. One offered me a 20% commission on a booking, not a dollar until she saw results. The other forwarded a screenshot of a platform she already pays for. Zero leads. Her words: “There are a ton of options out there that promise a lot for an upfront fee and never deliver.”
I forwarded both replies to an investor at 6:33 this morning. useful data. uncomfortable data.
The yes’
Then look at what came in the other door.
6:42am — a seed-stage founder in public safety ai replied to the fractional cro pitch i sent this week. “definitely interested.” best reply i’ve gotten on the fractional side in two weeks.
11:34am — A VC contact introduced me to another public safety AI founder. Replied in three minutes, locked a call for Friday. Overlaps the sled vertical I’ve been building around.
11:34am — An edtech founder I advise came back asking for another hour of my time. Inbound. I didn’t chase it. Coffee Friday.
And the line from my own notes at 11:07 I can’t unsee: fractional cro is “the only place I’ve made money so far.” $xk/month from a fractional engagement. Milkcrate has made zero.
Here's where I landed:
The product ideas keep getting a polite no from the people who’d have to pay. The fractional work keeps getting a yes — real money, real inbound, real calls on the calendar.
I’ve spent six weeks trying to talk myself into the harder story. Today I decided to stop. I’m doubling down on building a GTM services/fractional CRO business, and the gravity keeps pulling toward SLED because that’s where the recurring money is and where the new pipeline overlaps.
But if I’m being honest, it feels small. Like I’m doing it for “the lifestyle and to get away from the grind” (for real, a CEO I talked with said that to me…). I don’t know why that stings so much, but it does.
What you can steal from today
test your price on the people who’d have to pay it, before you build anything.
last night i pitched a brand-new business model to two real potential customers in one evening. Both said no to the subscription. Both said commission-only might work, but only after they see results. that’s not a maybe. that’s the market handing you the exact terms it will accept, for free, in under an hour.
i didn’t lose those conversations. i got the answer before spending six months building the wrong thing.
If you’re sitting on a pricing assumption that you haven’t tested, send two emails tonight. Ask the customer. Hear the hard answer now before you spend years building something no one will pay for.
signal of the day
The LinkedIn alerts keep coming. Today: VP of Sales at a cloud AI company, Head of Sales at an AI startup, and SVP at a software firm. All six figures. All landing in my inbox because I used to be the guy who got those jobs.
If I’m being honest, I’m tempted, but I didn’t engage. What I don’t know yet is whether the story I’m writing instead is better. But it’s mine.
foley