A Forming Idea

This idea has been forming for a while.

For years I’ve watched the same pattern play out. I help someone build a product. It ships. It grows. They own it, I move on. Repeat.

I got good at the work. But I never got any leverage from it. Every project started from zero. Every relationship ended when the contract did. I was building value, just not for myself.

The Question

At some point I started asking: what if I just… did this for myself?

Not as a side project squeezed into nights and weekends. As the main thing. A real studio, building real products, with real focus behind it.

The more I thought about it, the more obvious it seemed. I already knew how to build. I already knew how to ship. I already knew how to think about users and markets and positioning. The only thing missing was pointing all of that at something I owned.

Why Now

Two things changed that made this feel possible.

First, AI. Not in a hype way. In a practical way. The tools available now let a small team do what used to require a much larger one. Design, development, copywriting, research, automation. A lean team with the right skills and the right tools can move incredibly fast.

Second, distribution. It’s never been easier to reach people. App stores, product directories, content marketing, social platforms. You don’t need a sales team or a marketing budget. You need a good product and the ability to talk about it clearly.

The window is open for small, focused studios to compete with much larger players. That window won’t stay open forever.

The Model

The idea is simple: build a portfolio of products.

Not one big bet. Multiple smaller ones. Each solving a real problem, each generating its own revenue, each compounding over time. Some will work, some won’t. The goal is to keep shipping and let the winners emerge.

Everything is AI-first. Not because it’s trendy, but because it’s a genuine advantage. AI makes the products better and makes the team faster. It’s the lens through which we evaluate every idea.

Stay small. Stay focused. Own everything.

What’s Next

This note is from before mx.works officially launched. I’m keeping it here because it captures where my head was at when this started forming.

The studio is real now. We’re shipping products. The idea became the thing.

If you want to see what we’re building, check out the products page or follow us on X.

Read the official announcement for more on what mx.works became.