FROM THE START: A chat with the co-founders of Subless
Ascender’s FROM THE START series continues with our 2022–2023 Incubator!
Too often, we learn from other founders only after they’ve “already made it,” but there’s a lot to gain from their journeys as early-stage entrepreneurs. FROM THE START is our ongoing interview series with founders from our Incubator that traces their startup stories from the beginning, reveals some of the resources helping them overcome the bumps, and points out ways you can help them thrive.
Since joining the 2022–2023 Incubator in June, all of the companies have been hustling to get their brands and businesses out there. Now it’s time to get to know them!
Some answers have been edited slightly for brevity.
What’s been the journey that’s led you to start your company?
Jon and I (Marshall) were both in creative spaces — I majored in journalism, and Jon was in a band, but we both went into software development to pay the bills. We learned technological skills but didn’t forget the struggle it takes to get paid as a creator online. So when we had the idea for a system that would make it easier for creators to get paid, we took that technical skill and jumped on it.
What’s the problem that your business is solving?
Jon and I both have subscriptions to a number of content services and creators, like comic artists and videomakers on Youtube. Even so, we constantly have to say ‘no’ to other creators we’d like to support and juggle our subscriptions.
With Subless, we’re creating a system where we can set one monthly budget and have it paid out to all the creators we visit based on how much we visit them. All we have to do is browse the internet, and our technology keeps track of the creators we visit and splits up our payment for us.
Having been creators ourselves, we know this field and have the technical skills to build Subless. With Ascender’s help, we’re also learning the business skills we need and filling in the gaps in knowledge we still need to get.
That said, our biggest strength is that we’re constantly polling our creators and subscribers, who are telling us what they want, and iterating on it. Our secret weapon is having that engaged userbase who’s excited to use us.
What bumps have you encountered so far in your entrepreneurial journey?
It’s impossible to list all the bumps, but honestly, the biggest mistake we made was working on a product before we actually asked anyone whether they’d like it.
This is such a common mistake, and we were incredibly lucky that it was the first thing that StartupBoost PGH asked us to do, and, likewise, it was the first thing brought up by Ascender, too. Since learning this, we’ve made collecting customer feedback the guiding star for our business, and it’s been a massive help towards keeping our community happy and creating something they want.
What does being an entrepreneur mean to you?
Honestly, at first, the word felt like an empty title. I think being programmer nerds, Jon and I were a lot more focused on getting things off the ground. The word “entrepreneur” was something applied to us, as opposed to a mantle we took up.
However, after engaging with StartupBoost PGH and Ascender, the word brings to mind the awesome community we’ve worked with while bringing Subless to life. For me, it’s less about what being an entrepreneur means and more that the entrepreneurs I’ve worked with in Pittsburgh have all been a great community to join.
What’s a resource or tip that’s helped you develop as a founder and move your business forward?
When asking for ideas on how to poll customers, I was pointed to The Mom Test, a book whose premise is “everyone is lying to you when you ask them about your product.” It focuses on turning questions away from “Would you buy this?” or “Would you like this?” — which people feel obliged to answer with a “yes” — to “What do you currently do? What’s frustrating about that? And, do you actually spend time working around it or do you just deal with it?”
Applying this approach to customer discovery and feedback instead of our previous list of checkboxes has given us some feedback we wouldn’t have thought to ask about in our polls. It’s a short book and is definitely worth a read.
What’s next? How can our readers help you?
We’re about 7 months into our beta of Subless and are currently making agreements to expand Subless to new websites and platforms. Any connections you have to websites where creators host content — art, music, videos, or anything else they make — would be wonderful.
In addition, if you have experience working with creators and doing product rollouts, we’d love to pick your brain on our expansion strategy.
Our goal for Subless is to be everywhere you watch a movie, listen to music, or look at a work of art online, so any way you can help us reach that goal would be great.
You can reach us at contact@subless.com. Thanks for your consideration!
Learn more about Subless.
Visit: https://subless.com/
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MARSHALL CONOVER & JON BLANTON was originally published in Ascender on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.
