Hello Peeps,
Eric Salsa here. I’ve decided to blog a bit on my pursuit of a new business venture. Although my last blog covered a far heavier topic of cancer recovery, I found the process of writing to be very freeing. I’m hoping to find the same liberation with this effort, and albeit get a chance to connect with some of you and share a set of far more upbeat and exciting topics.
I have spent the last 8 months or so figuring out how to balance being the “Manny” of the house while launching an entrepreneurial venture. The latter role is the main topic of this blog. Since I decided to launch my own business at some point last year, I’ve gotten a chance to speak to some of you about this quest and business idea. For others, we haven’t got a chance to catch up in probably far too long. If we haven’t spoke in a while, I’d like to, and hopefully we can soon.
The concept of the business I’m launching is one I’ve been sitting on for about four years. The origin story was one day I was flailing at a home DIY project in an attempt to swap out the door knob on our front door. My father-in-law is incredibly handy so I typically call him for advice. On this phone call, he told me he couldn’t understand what I was describing and asked me to call him back on video call. I did so, and when he could see the problem first-hand, he advised me quickly and successfully on how to finish the project.
When I got off the phone, Diana and I had a quick exchange that this type of conversation could be a surefire business concept. Having a video-consultation with a handyperson when these home-project obstacles inevitably arise would be a invaluable resource when compared to the alternatives of desperate YouTube scrolling or the time/money consuming process of finding and outsourcing the task to a capable professional tradesperson.
Jump forward to mid-’22, I had thought after engineering my own sabbatical (and quitting) from my previous employer, I’d go get another corporate gig. However, after some light interviewing efforts, I found myself uninspired by the prospect of another corporate role. The introspection that came with that realization was that it was finally time to take the plunge intro entrepreneurship. While it had long been a desire of mine, some combination of risk-aversion and practicality kept me from doing it before.
The timing of my emotional readiness likely wasn’t pure coincidence. We are able to manage our costs, as both kids are in a great, neighborhood public school and we let go of our nanny of 8+ years. Diana also continues to do well in her career, so we’ve reached a place financially where my loss of income wouldn’t cripple us month-to-month.
And so here we are. Some of you may have been bored by this rehash of the build-up; I’m sorry if so. I think I can do a better job of tying in some of these themes of my personal and professional values/goals in future entries. I will also get far more specific about the process and challenges of launching this business in future posts. So hang in there with me.
Before I get to those topics, I thought I’d share some actual stuff about the business. Below is an image of early iteration design work. It’s actually a few months old, as the current versions have evolved some as I’m working with a new designer, but I thought it’d be fun to share some of the progress along the way.
You’ll see that this is still a low-fidelity mock. There’s work to be done on the images, copy, and inherent product functionality. However, hopefully you can begin to see some of the vision that I have for this business. And ideally, that vision becomes clearer for you (and me) as I write future posts.
Until then…
