The Cushion Journal

Hiring a Team of Freelancers

This past month, I did something I never thought I’d do — I hired people. From the very beginning, I always saw myself building Cushion as a solo developer, riding into the sunset with a small, sustainable app. I romanticized growing Cushion to the point where I could live off…

Slack as a Notification Center

Slack is commonly used as a chat tool for teams, but for the past year and a half, I’ve used Slack as a notification center for Cushion. Until recently, I’ve been a one-person team, so people were always surprised when they learned that I had a Slack for Cushion. When you…

Document Your Features

Recently, I discovered that a specific feature in Cushion was causing confusion for almost everyone who used it. This feature was originally called “Blocks”, then “Project Blocks”, then “Time Blocks”, and now finally “Workloads”. Renaming the feature is another story, but I want to talk…

300

Yesterday was a big milestone for Cushion. Roughly six months after officially launching, Cushion has reached 300 paying customers. I think it’s important to celebrate these milestones, however small, because like freelancing, running an app can be an emotional roller coaster. You might see a dozen new subscribers one…

Vacations

These past few days, I’ve been working on a feature for Cushion that’s been on my to-do list for over a year now — vacations (or holidays… or breaks… or leave… depending on where you live). Regardless of the name, the gist is that you’ll be able to block off spans of time throughout the year when you plan to…

Offering Discounts

Recently, I’ve been partnering with freelancing communities and conferences in an attempt to get Cushion in front of more freelancers. I wish I could send out a beacon to alert all freelancers of Cushion’s existence because I know there are countless people who still don’t know about it. This…

Retention Through Useful Features

I recently introduced a major new feature in Cushion — weekly summaries. On the surface, this might…