Startup Founder Stuart Brent
After Stuart Brent founded Vacord Screen Printing in a basement in 2006, and grew it to into a shop with 12 people he fell into the startup world. He worked on, among other things, Ignite Your Match, a failed startup that provided feedback on online dating profiles, and userinput.io, a successful startup that provides feedback on websites and business ideas.
His other projects include startupresources.io, a curated directory of tools and resources for startup founders. Stuart most enjoys exploring growth techniques (which he also did for Vacord), customer discovery, feedback, CRO and front end development. Stuart’s hobbies include making soap and hot air ballooning.
What inspired you to become an entrepreneur?
I think it’s sort of in my blood, as both of my grandfathers were entrepreneurs. But I fell more into entrepreneurship after college. I was working two summer jobs, and neither would give me full employment in the fall. I had recently started screen-printing as a hobby, and I decided to pursue making t-shirts for a living, people told me I couldn’t do it. But I didn’t listen, and here we are.
Can you remember what the biggest barriers to entry entrepreneurship were for you?
No one really believed in me, that I could make my own living as an entrepreneur. As corny as it sounds, I learned that you have to believe in yourself, and if you’re the only one who does, so be it, that’s enough. Of course, cost was an issue too. Once I showed some dedication, my parents started helping fund my screen-printing operation. My background in web design and being a geek in general helped me survive and find initial customers. Screen-printing is difficult to master, but I slogged through it. After a few years, I phased myself out of production, then out of the day-to-day altogether, and that’s what freed me up to enter the startup world.
What does success look like to you personally?
Freedom. People knock “lifestyle businesses”, but I think that’s stupid. It fits me well. I see success as having a wide-open schedule, flexibility, location independence, and semi-passive income. Being able to work from anywhere, go out and meet people when I want to, stuff like that.
What is your role at Userinput.io?
Founder. It’s a very lean operation, so really it’s just me and my hired developer (who is awesome.) I did the front-end design of the site, and my developer built out the back end. I do everything else, growth, marketing, customer service. But the orders come in passive and are executed passively. And I don’t have to put out too many fires anymore
What does a productive day for you look like?
At the office by 8am, crossing stuff off my legal pad full of tasks. I try to do more intense stuff like development, design and writing in the AM hours, then miscellaneous stuff and email after lunch. If I can cross off nearly everything on my written to do list, I’ve had a great day.
“I love seeing orders coming in passively, and just having Stripe buzz on my phone about it.”
Which problem are you solving with Userinput.io?
Providing on-demand feedback on websites and business ideas easily and affordably. People who build things can’t see what’s wrong with them, because they’re too close to the project. Userinput.io helps you see what’s wrong and how you can fix it.
Where does your motivation to solve this problem come from?
I’m really into giving and getting effective feedback. I used to use a similar service to find issues with my websites, and then I decided to improve upon it and build my own version.
What does success look like for Userinput.io?
When people tell me how helpful the feedback is, that’s awesome to me. That I can actually help other founders improve with it. And honestly, I love seeing orders coming in passively, and just having Stripe buzz on my phone about it.
Which one thing would you love to tell your younger self?
“Don’t cling to broken things so long”.
What has been your biggest failure?
I spent two and a half years, off and on, on a startup that just didn’t work. I kept putting it on the back burner, slowly putting more and more money into it. It sort of worked, but never had great Product/Market Fit. I loved the business model and wanted it to help others (this was the startup that provided feedback on online dating profiles, and it helped me meet my wife). I learned a ton, as it was my first startup, but I should have killed the project way earlier.
What would you highly recommend aspiring entrepreneurs to do?
Don’t wait to figure everything out, just execute. And build something that you need, that other people can use too. That sounds simple, but it will give you something useful that you can be passionate about.
How big is the team?
Just one part-time developer and me.
What makes you worry?
Credit card debt.
Challenges expressed are in no way meant to solicit commercial acquisition.
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