What’s On My Mind

Good morning from my desk-junk jungle 🌴

Quick announcement: We’re giving away 3 tickets to Valiocon live today on Release Notes. Show goes live at 12pm CST - tune in to win.

I’m writing this with three keyboards in front of me—because “research,” obviously—and my accountants love it.

But after chatting with Mike De Genova, co-founder of Worklouder, I had to hit send. His origin story is so gloriously scrappy it makes my Stripe receipts blush.

Grab your coffee. Here’s how two guys met on Instagram and built a seven-figure hardware brand in just four years—and what the rest of us can steal.

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Worklouder made me a believer (and mildly jealous)

I’m drawn to founders who obsess over corner-radius choices and Discord replies with equal intensity. That’s Worklouder.

They started with two grand, no manufacturing background, and a healthy disrespect for “the right way.” Instead of begging for VC checks, they posted renders, talked to early fans in DMs, and just made it happen. Instead of only charging premium prices (looking at you Mode 👀) they chopped their $400 flagship into a $99 “Creator Micro” so more folks could try the brand without selling a kidney.

When tariffs threatened their U.S. sales (70 % of revenue!), they didn’t whine—they came up with a way to let customers 3-D-print half the enclosure at home. That’s designer DNA applied to business: sweat the small stuff, stay curious, and keep moving.

Designers are elite founders: the playbook you should steal

Every time I talk to Mike, I’m reminded that great products start as great questions. What if the render is enough to validate demand? What if our launch partner already has the audience we need? What if the cheapest SKU is actually a Trojan Horse for the premium one? 

They treat marketing assets like Figma components - one Ben Fryc animation becomes twenty TikToks, three landing-page loops, and a hero GIF for press.

They replace ad spend with authenticity: hang out in the community channel, share factory outtakes, own the mistakes (their first “prototype” was basically an aluminum paperweight).

That mix of honesty, detail-obsession, and relentless shipping is exactly why I believe more designers should be founding companies, not just polishing someone else’s roadmap.

👉 Watch the full interview (and subscribe too if ya don’t mind)

YouTube gods need to know we’re alive, so do me a favor:

1. Watch: In Conversation with Mike De Genova, the Keyboard Kingpin

2. Subscribe: New designer-turned-founder chats drop 4x a month—pure signal.

3. Ignore the jittery frame-rate: Descript had an off day; my bad, won’t happen again. 💔

Every view tells the algorithm we’re worth feeding, and every sub buys me one more excuse to drag bizarre hardware through airport security. Appreciate you.

Mike had zero industrial design or engineering experience when he jumped into Work Louder. Neither did his co-founder. It’s like agreeing to bake a cake without knowing what an oven looks like—but if you're excited enough, you'll figure it out before the house burns down.

Mike openly admits he was never the "best" or "fastest" at anything. His secret weapon? Just showing up—every damn day. Turns out relentless consistency beats sporadic brilliance almost every time. Who knew?

Mike’s entrepreneurial journey involved flings with education, vodka, and finally keyboards (quite the romantic arc). Each failed startup became invaluable fuel, helping him swipe right on the idea that clicked: Work Louder.

It took almost two years for Mike to turn a conversation with Figma into a real collab. Lesson learned: working with corporate giants requires patience (and probably some snacks). Keep knocking gently, and bring a comfy chair.

PRODUCT NEWS

Granola punked Notion and dropped 2.0

Notion announces new AI features including AI Meeting Notes. Next day, Granola launches 2.0 and announces a $40m+ fundraise. This is the energy I’m here for.

If you know much about me, you know that I’ve got beef with Notion. I think it’s a mess and doing even the simplest of things is greatly overcomplicated. Granola 2.0 just showed the world how simple managing your teams notes & docs should be.

RELEASE NOTES

Ryo Lu shows us how Cursor and vibe coding will evolve

Ryo dropped by Release Notes to share a behind the scenes look at Cursor’s approach to designing frontier AI products. We also got a personal tour of RyOS.

NEW PRODUCT

I can’t wait to use Apple Carplay Ultra in my Aston Martin that I can totally afford

Just when you’re ready to keep hating on Apple for the disastrous “Apple Intelligence” they announce Carplay Ultra. It’s beautiful. I want it. I just don’t want to have to buy a (checks notes) ASTON MARTIN?! to use it.

Web Designer (Framer)

Remote — Freelance

Product Designer

Remote — Full Time