Feb 18, 2020Spend money like you’re mindfully investing itMoney is a bizarre thing. We spend 8+ hours a day investing our time and energy to earn it, but when it comes to purchasing something, we spend very little time thinking about the company we’re giving our money to. I assume most of us haven’t thought about what a…Finance5 min readFinance5 min read
Oct 10, 2019Burnout sucksI wrote this below post in 2016 when my startup was on the brink of collapse (a few months later, we did close the company down), and at the time only shared it with a few close friends. …Entrepreneurship4 min readEntrepreneurship4 min read
Jun 3, 2019“Sign in with Apple” is the ultimate tool for ecosystem lock-in.iMessage used to be the biggest method of locking people into Apple’s ecosystem, but this legitimately great privacy tool is a dark horse to ensure you never, ever, switch to android. Global logins are an incredibly useful tool and are in some ways the OG of password managers. You remember…Security3 min readSecurity3 min read
Jan 2, 2018Read regularly, create daily, rest wellNew Years resolutions are often attempts at drastic changes to lifestyles which people regularly give up within a matter of weeks, if not days. For 2018 I’m aiming to simply move the needle towards how I want to invest my down time, resting properly, learning more and making stuff. …Productivity3 min readProductivity3 min read
Nov 22, 20176 tips to get through the first year of your startupThis time last year, the second company I started, and my first tech startup, began to fail. We reached the end of our financial runway and couldn’t quite pull together all the investment we needed to give a purpose run at making the company work. …Design6 min readDesign6 min read
Apr 3, 2017What went wrong at AvailoOver the last 18 months we had a few “learning experiences” (read, we made a fair few mistakes), and we think it’s always good to be open about these so people can avoid making the same mistakes as we did. But before we focus on the learning experiences, here are…Startup4 min readStartup4 min read
Apr 3, 2017Availo is offline. BLKBK is now live.In 2015 we set out to build a platform that would make freelancing easier for designers/art directors/illustrators of all digital disciplines and levels. A platform built by freelancers for freelancers. The business model relied on investment from VC’s and Angel Investors, this meant we wouldn’t generate a profit for a…Startup3 min readStartup3 min read
Jan 10, 2017Availo in 2017Last year was a pretty hectic year for Availo. We launched our mobile app, quickly realised we also needed a web client, built and launched that, then on-boarded 300+ freelancers and clients including awesome studios such as UsTwo, B-Reel and DesignStudio. In short, it was manic and relentless, but we…Freelancing5 min readFreelancing5 min read
Dec 5, 2016The designers guide to startup equity‘Every single employee of an early stage startup should be more than willing to take a pay cut in return for equity. And if this isn’t your mindset, I would probably look for jobs outside of the startup world.” This is a relatively controversial statement in the world of design…Startup5 min readStartup5 min read
Nov 8, 2016We’ve launched (our beta) 🎉🍾🍻8 months ago Availo was co-founded by myself, Nick & Nick and we’re now finally ready to show everyone what we’ve been building. Most people, including ourselves, assumed Availo was just going to be an App that helped freelance designers get jobs. …Freelancing5 min readFreelancing5 min read
