Video
[ 12 / Best Practices ]
Walkthrough: our internal CAC dashboard (video)
A 6-minute screen recording of the CAC dashboard we use internally and ship to every client. Includes the template.
Maya Rao
[ Field Notes ]
Brand. Build. Grow.
Playbooks, teardowns, and field notes for founders running real businesses. No recycled agency takes. Everything here comes from work we've actually shipped.
[ Learning Paths ]
Series & teardown bundles.
Curated multi-post tracks for when one article isn't enough.
[ Learning Path · 3 posts ]
Milestones: $1M → $10M
A four-post series on what actually changes at each revenue milestone, team, systems, brand, metrics. Built for founders who hate surprises.
Explore →
[ Series · 3 posts ]
Brand → Build → Grow
Three essays on how the three pillars interlock. Read them in order, the arguments compound.
Explore →
Long-form
[ Featured / Milestones ]
The $1M Trap: why most founders stall here (and what unlocks $3M)
Hitting $1M ARR with a scrappy system is easy. Getting to $3M requires killing that system. Here's the specific rebuild sequence we run with clients.
Read the post →[ All Field Notes ]
Every post we've shipped.
Video
Maya Rao
Long-form
[ 11 / Growth Areas ]
Retention is the new growth area (and nobody's ready)
Acquisition costs are up 34% YoY across the categories we track. Retention isn't a nice-to-have anymore, it's where $1M–$10M founders win or die.
Maya Rao
Milestone
[ 10 / Milestones ]
Milestone: the $3M playbook we wish we'd had
What changes between $1M and $3M, team, systems, ops, brand. A checklist you can print out and tape to the wall.
Talha Siddiqui
Long-form
[ 09 / Best Practices ]
Why most $1M founders are one brand refresh away from stalling
At $1M, your brand stops being a logo and starts being an operating constraint. Here's how to tell whether yours is helping or strangling you.
Jordan Park
Long-form
[ 08 / Growth Hacks ]
10 growth tests worth running this quarter (and 3 that aren't)
A curated list of experiments we're running across commercial services and financial services clients right now, with predicted impact and effort ratings.
Maya Rao
Teardown
[ 07 / Case Teardowns ]
Teardown: How SARO TECH's site lifted qualified leads 240%
A line-by-line walkthrough of the 6 changes that moved SARO TECH from a corporate site nobody scrolled to a B2B sales engine. Includes the exact copy diffs.
Jordan Park
Quick Take
[ 06 / Punchline Metrics ]
CAC is dead. Contribution margin per lead is what matters now.
If you're still optimizing for CAC in 2026, you're optimizing the wrong number. Here's the replacement metric, and why it's more honest.
Maya Rao
Quick Take
[ 05 / Growth Hacks ]
Email isn't dead, you're just writing it like it's 2019
Open rates lie, inbox placement matters more than list size, and the four-line email crushes the template. A short take on what changed and what to do about it.
Maya Rao
Long-form
[ 04 / Growth Hacks ]
The 2026 marketing stack for bootstrapped SMBs
Updated picks for the post-AI era. Nine tools that earn their seat, three that used to and no longer do, and the single thing to stop paying for.
Maya Rao
Milestone
[ 03 / Milestones ]
Milestone: Brillion Studio joins the 2025 Cougar 100
Named to the University of Houston Alumni Association's ranked list of fastest-growing alumni-owned businesses. What it took, what it doesn't tell you, and what's next.
Talha Siddiqui
Long-form
[ 02 / Best Practices ]
The social media plan that actually works when you're the owner
Most social media plans are built for agencies billing against hours. When you're an owner-operator, the math is different. Here's the 5-slot weekly rhythm we use with $1M–$10M clients.
Jordan Park
Long-form
[ 01 / Best Practices ]
Your brand isn't your logo, it's the shortcut in your buyer's head
At $1M–$10M, brand stops being a decoration and starts being a decision accelerator. Here's the working definition we use, and how to tell if yours is earning its keep.
Jordan Park
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