Closed my business this week

I’m gutted. Excited. Angry. Over the moon relieved. It’s wild.

Been in business 11 years. I can see clearly where I went wrong; I extended way way way too much credit to the wrong client, in good will, to get the project done. I let that goodwill eat my cash position. I should have stopped work in November until we could get money issues sorted out, but I didn’t. They got deep into my company and when I called in the debt due to my own cash issues, they flipped and torpedoed their own project. They’re completely in the wrong here, but it’s my own fault.

We built custom software for mid market businesses whose needs and processes were too complex for SaaS to handle well, with a primary focus on internal processes. Think, for example : A client is a company with a payroll of 2000 people, and something like bamboo, gusto, is too simplified and difficult to customize to their way of doing business, so we build a custom solution that fits their processes perfectly. Or client is a city-planning-consultancy, and they’ve got 90+metrics they use to measure the health of their business, and need a solution that brings all that info together and gives them a health score. Work tech is what we called it.

I’m saddened that I had to let the team go. It’s strange to be working on a resume for the first time since 1999. But I’m so excited to see what is next for me and my family.

AMA.