Independent designer specializing in data-driven UX that makes it easy for people to interact with SaaS products.
Joined August 2009
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I'm building Midnight Marketing together with
@WeddingVenueGuy We just finalized the design of our visual brand identity. Would love to get some feedback from the community on our logo and color palette!
There are a number of offshore recruiting companies like Somewhere, Jules, and Sagan. Which one would you recommend? I need an SDR and cold caller for my design shop.
We are working on a logo for a marketing agency that will cater to experiential hospitality brands. We are deciding between two options. Which one do you prefer? Left or right?
Brand positioning requirements:
The visual identity, including the logo and color palette, should embody sophistication and expertise without veering into overt luxury. It should feel modern and capable, yet very accessible. Colors and design elements should communicate confidence and creativity, suggesting the innovative approach to marketing in the hospitality space.
Hey @markskovorodko would love feedback from a fellow designer. Which one do you prefer?
Ivan Annikov retweeted
I've spent a decade working as a UX designer in the crazy world of Silicon Valley startups.
Here are the 5 insights that I wish someone would have shared with me ten years ago:
Build Bridges, Not Just Software: The cornerstone of a thriving tech career? Personal relationships. The secret sauce to landing dream jobs isn't just what you know, but who you know. So, while you're designing or coding that next product feature, remember to connect, engage, and make friends. Networking isn't just for the extroverted; it's for the smart techies who know that the next big opportunity might just come from a chat over coffee or a shared project.
Ride the Wave of Curiosity: Ditch your five-year career goals. Instead, just ride the exhilarating wave of curiosity. The tech world is a vast ocean of innovation, where interests and trends shift like the tide of the ocean. Following your curiosity not only makes the journey exciting but also leads you to unexpected and fulfilling destinations.
Step Up to Level Up: Promotion in tech doesn't wait for an invitation; it's a party you start by taking on more responsibility. Want that coveted title? Don't just wait in line—jump into new projects, volunteer for challenging tasks, and show you're already performing at the next level. It's like leveling up in a video game: tackle the bosses (challenges) to advance.
The Discipline Dance Floor: Think of the tech field as a dance floor where the boundaries between disciplines are just illusions. Feel free to dance across the floor—from coding to design, from marketing to development. Lateral moves aren't just side steps; they're more like cha-chas to new skills, perspectives, and opportunities. Every move is a step towards becoming a more versatile and valuable player in the tech space.
Start Where You Are: Dreaming of a particular role? Begin now, right where you are. If you aspire to be a project manager, start by leading a small volunteer project. Eyeing a role in UX? Design a mockup for a friend's app idea. Action attracts assistance; when people see you're already rolling up your sleeves, they're more inclined to lend a hand, share advice, or open doors to that next opportunity.
This business makes good money but more importantly it creates a space for joyful moments that will be remembered for many years by it customers. That's inspiring!
My wife and I started creating our vision for our venue when we were only 25.
This is 1 of the 100 couples we booked before our building was even finished being built.
We use to just meet with everyone at coffee shops or via zoom since the venue was just a pile of dirt back then.
It's crazy to think back at those days. We got so many questions.
Parents would look at us in disbelief and thought there was no way we were the ones building it. I don't entirely blame them.
It was a lot of pressure and super stressful. It all worked out though and makes it worth it to see pictures like this of everyone enjoying the space.
Excited to continue build places and experiences that everyone can enjoy.
Ivan Annikov retweeted
My wife and I started creating our vision for our venue when we were only 25.
This is 1 of the 100 couples we booked before our building was even finished being built.
We use to just meet with everyone at coffee shops or via zoom since the venue was just a pile of dirt back then.
It's crazy to think back at those days. We got so many questions.
Parents would look at us in disbelief and thought there was no way we were the ones building it. I don't entirely blame them.
It was a lot of pressure and super stressful. It all worked out though and makes it worth it to see pictures like this of everyone enjoying the space.
Excited to continue build places and experiences that everyone can enjoy.
A quote that I'm pondering today...
"Maybe the journey isn't so much about becoming anything. Maybe it's about un-becoming everything that isn't really you, so you can be who you were meant to be in the first place."
Oftentimes simplifying and removing excess layers yields better results in business, in life, and also in design 😆
Ivan Annikov retweeted
Looking to reach top creators like Sahil Bloom, Steven Bartlett, or Justin Welsh?
Start creating insightful posts and comments with a visual touch.
Here's how👇
Can thoughtful design save a fledgling tech startup from failure? A decade of designing software products for early-stage startups in the Valley gave me the answer to that question.
Many factors ultimately decide the fate of a startup. But one of the more important factors is resource allocation and its impact on the bottom line.
I personally witnessed how founders fresh off the Seed round rush to build out their product teams - they hire full-time designers and engineers, then add some PMs into the mix. But the problem is that experienced product designers work super fast, and after a few months the engineering team is so backed up that design resources have to be reallocated to other projects. Even with a solid roadmap, design is always running way ahead of engineering. But are they designing features that will be eventually built, or are they designing experiments for a company that has no capacity to run those experiments?
Designers at startups with no significant development velocity oftentimes end up doing very little between major feature builds. Sometimes these designers do absolutely nothing, sometimes they get asked to assist marketing with some graphic design projects. But a product designer is not a graphic designer. Sure, they’ll push some pixels and make a good-looking presentation or come up with solid landing page to promote the product feature they designed. But at what cost does this all happen?
Well, today a solid product designer commands a salary of 150K plus benefits. Some founders immediately hire a full-time marketing designer thinking that they will be able to keep them busy with work. Now they are looking at 250K per year in design expenses. Do they get that much value out of their design team? That’s a negative.
And that’s precisely the reason I have been able to offer my clients a great deal of value as a fractional product designer for the past seven years. Startup founders are starting to realize that hiring a fractional designer when they are just ramping up their product development is the best way to go. They don’t need to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on design - they just need to find an experienced designer who can work with them on an as-needed basis, deliver impactful work, and take a break when engineering needs to catch up.
This model of engagement has worked for dozens of my clients, and my relationships with some of them have lasted for several years. Sure, some companies grow exponentially, and eventually they have resources (and more importantly, development velocity) to bring design in-house, but for early-stage startups, in my opinion, it’s increasingly beneficial to work with fractional designers to avoid problems with resource allocation.
Anybody else in the startup world who thinks this way?
Happiness precedes accomplishment! That's a quote I'm pondering today.
It's from a book called Unschooled. The book is about alternative models of educating young children. The idea is that children must be happy first so they actually want to learn, and the premise behind that idea is that traditional education models focus on student accomplishment more so than on their happiness which in reality does not foster an environment conducive to real learning.
This makes so much sense to me! And I think it's also very applicable to adults well past the school age who are looking for ways to grow intellectually, especially entrepreneurs.
What do you think?
Early-stage startups often mismanage their design talent, leading to UX designers being underutilized or misplaced into projects to support non-tech teams with things like graphic design. Solution = hire fractional UX designers until you reach solid development velocity!
That’s all the proof you need to understand the value of this platform! And by the looks of it, Alex is just getting started! Give him a follow for helpful business tidbits and practical knowledge that he shares with his audience.
When I got on here I had just one company, our wedding venue, that just finished doing its first 135,313.10 in revenue over its first fall wedding season. Still even had my full time W2 until last September.
I now have multiple businesses that will do 3,000,000+ in 2024.
Its been exactly 1 year since I created this account.
10.6k post and 15k followers later it’s pretty much changed my life.
I now have 4 businesses and am in the process of buying our 5th. #6 will be launching soon as well. Working on being apart of a few other awesome projects too.
I joined because I started to get sucked into the smb/Retwit world. The algo was so good that I couldn’t get enough of this place.
I saw a few people building in public and also noticed “guy” accounts popping up. Quickly looked up to see if there was a wedding venue guy (there was not). So thought what the hay I’ll give it a go.
The goal of this account has always been to share real numbers and behind the scenes while we run around with our heads cut off trying to build our business and now businesses.
I think this next year is going to be wild and I could grow this account to 100k followers.
Here’s what I have going on now:
1. The Midnight Gem: Wedding venue in Iowa, built for 3M, booked 100 weddings before opening. Pushing towards 1M in revenue per year
2. Midnight Coffee: purchasing a local coffee co with 4 locations thar will do 2M in revenue and 500K in ebitda in 2024. We plan to rebrand a few months after opening. Think we can grow it to 8-10 locations and start selling beans online, stay tuned.
3. Midnight venues: This is my consulting company where I focus on helping others build or buy wedding venues. I would love to eventually help other types of business owners as well. I think I could connect well with young guys just getting started.
4. Little gems baby boutique: Wife is leading the charge on this. She couldn’t find anywhere to get nice clothing for our 2 boys other than instagram shops or typical carters/target/old navy clothes. So figured we would do it ourselves. Check out little gems baby boutique . com and on insta.
5. Midnight marketing:
We are just about to launch our marketing agency/design studio that will specifically specialize experiential hospitality brands. I am launching partnering with @iannikov who already runs a successful design studio and will be running the ops. DM me if your interested in working with us.
6. Local newsletter: now that we have 3 local businesses with 6 total locations and can see ourselves getting to 10 locations rather quickly we want to double down on local marketing. Newsletters are all the rage but one specifically focused on us our local community is genius. We can build a real business while feeling promote our local business and others in the community. Partnering with @lifeof_scoop
7. Also working on a secret project with @molzer @shirazghauri97 😉
8. Also might have something in the works with @jason_howerton & @uniquestaysguy 🤫 🤐
Hiring a fractional UX designer can offer tremendous value to startups. It's a cost-effective strategy that allows them to work with an experienced designer on an as-needed basis, ensuring that design, product and engineering teams can work in harmony.
One critical factor determining SaaS startup success is how it allocates resources, especially after a Seed round. Rushing to build out product teams without considering the pace at which each team works can lead to inefficiencies.
Embracing the concept of fractional designers offers startups a sustainable model for integrating high-level design expertise without the overhead of full-time salaries. It enables founders to maintain flexibility and reduce expenses. Thoughts?
The power of connections on this platform does not cease to amaze me!
Been quiet on here. I’ve been putting everything into working on Coffee company deal.
QofE rolling with @BoilerPlateCPA
Due diligence/legal with @lawyer4SMBs
SBA lending: @SBA_Matthias
Entire team is from X along with all my capital partners.
Who wants some merch and beans when they are ready? I want to blast Twitter with it when we launch the rebranding.
Wordpress, Squarespace, HubSpot, you name it, there are so many website builders to choose from nowadays. How do you know which one is right for you?
Well, there are many factors to consider, but let me tell you why Webflow is the top pick for my design studio and most of our clients.
Collaboration: Webflow streamlines teamwork on projects and allows clients to participate easily in the development process.
Personalization: Offers robust customization options for unique design requirements.
CMS: User-friendly content management for non-technical teams to update content.
No Plugins: Reduces dependency on external plugins.
SEO Controls: Offers comprehensive built-in SEO tools.
Fast Landing Pages: Accelerates the creation of landing pages using pre-built templates.
Security: Built-in SSL functionality
Has anyone worked with consultants that help launch packaged non-alcoholic beverage brands? I'd love an intro to someone who offers paid consults to get some questions answered. Thanks in advance!