How I Started Our $20K/Month Design Subscription Service [In Beta Phase]

Kerim Al-Lami

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Published: November 21st, 2023

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Kerim Al-Lami

Founder, Revolution Design

$20K

revenue/mo

Founders

Employees

Revolution Design

revolution.design

from Prague, Czechia

started January 2023

$20,000

revenue/mo

Founders

Employees

Discover what tools Kerim recommends to grow your business!

platform

Figma

Webflow

trello

web hosting tool-icon

GoDaddy

social media

Twitter

productivity tool-icon

Trello

Slack

Airtable

design

Figma

Discover what books Kerim recommends to grow your business!

Want more updates on Revolution Design? Check out these stories:

Hello! Who are you, and what business did you start?

Hey there, my name’s Kerim, and I’m the co-founder of Revolution Design, a design as a subscription service for fast-growing tech companies. Think Netflix for design, but instead of movies, you get top-tier designers in 24 hours, saving you six figures a year and supercharging your growth.

People searching for designers can avoid overpriced design agencies, unreliable freelancers, and complicated in-house hiring. Instead, hire a team of designers in 1 day for $4,990/mo, pause or cancel anytime with a 7-day risk-free trial.

Don’t have design work? Just pause the subscription and resume whenever you need to. Don’t want to work with us anymore? Just cancel your subscription.

We are 10 months in, still in the beta stage, and sitting at $20k/mo purely from inbound leads.

What's your backstory, and how did you come up with the idea?

I believe that the design industry is broken. The main problem is hourly billing.

Before founding Revolution Design, I’d been freelancing for the last half-decade. I’ve gone through it all. I founded an agency with a co-founder I left, had a freelance career, a full-time job at a Y-combinator startup as a lead brand designer, and then again freelancing. Still, this time, I was part of another Y-Combinator company. Think of a design platform that sourced talent for other YC companies.

While part of this platform, I’ve become a founding designer and worked closely with the co-founders. They are probably some of the best and smartest guys I’ve ever met on the internet to create the v1 of the online platform using no-code tools such as Webflow, Airtable, and Zapier.

I’ve gotten equity in the company and hoped on weekly calls with the founders. I felt like a founder of a YC startup. A small dream come true. To build something from nothing. Not only have I worked with people I absolutely admired and enjoyed working with, but they have landed a contract where the design platform was selling me to another YC startup for $130/hour and 30 hours a week, for which I was being paid around $80/hour.

Since I had such a close relationship with the founders, I knew what they were selling me and the other designers. I had access to every little data of the company. All of the designers, what they were charging, and what this design platform sold them for. Designers charging $10/hour selling for $130/hour wasn’t a surprise. I understood that this is a contractor arbitrage and is common in agency space; however, it never really made sense to me.

Why? Because I work extremely smart and fast. Just like any other senior designer. Tasks that others take 10 hours take me 1 hour. The problem? The best designers were getting paid the least and the worst ones the most! Not only that, but many designers have purposely stalled projects to get paid more, leaving the client hanging and cheating.

So, from the 30 hours/week package I was being paid for to work for this YC company, I worked 5-10 but got paid for the 30 for several months. One of the breaking points came when they needed a 3D designer. So we’ve gone to Upwork, found a designer for $10/hour, and tried selling it to the client for $120/hour. They declined, and the most important project parts have been almost destroyed.

Also, the founders have asked me multiple times to lower my hourly rate because it was not feasible for them to sell me for $150/hour. This kept me frustrated, and I stopped believing in our actions. I felt that the design industry was broken. Hourly billing is the main cause. I wanted to fix that, but I didn’t know how.

By that time, I had discovered Brett from Design Joy. One of the pioneers of the productized service model. After diving through his content and discovering everything he does, I believe this is an antidote to hourly billing. Clients pay A flat monthly fee for unlimited access to designers and unlimited task requests but work one active request at a time. (Requests usually take anywhere from 8-24 hours to deliver).

This way, you get paid for how fast you work, not how long it takes you to do something. This was a perfect idea. The client will get access to a pre-vetted senior designer with all the design roles included and just create requests.

So I had 2 things to do:

1) I stayed in my 6 figure job while helping build a YC startup with people I enjoyed working with and admired while working a few hours a week. 2) Find a company that revolutionizes how designers get paid for their work and how clients access top design talent quickly and affordably.

I chose the latter, and here’s how I built the first version.

Take us through the process of building the first version of your product.

The first version was and still is very scrappy. We use the Trello board to manage design requests. Figma to deliver them and Webflow to build out sites and apps.

So our expenses out of pocket when starting out were - LLC formation in the Czech Republic, $1000, and Webflow $29/mo. We use Slack to communicate with my co-founder and save seeing each other in the real world only one time.

This is what our typical Trello board looks like.

So the takeaway is: don’t be fancy. You probably don’t even need a website to start. A simple one done through a template will do the trick.

The main thing is to have a great offer that solves a real pain point and some form of a risk reversal/trial. All of the other things are not needed at the start.

Once you grow and hit multi-six/seven-figure years, you can start thinking about your brand strategy, identity, and website. This is probably not applicable to design agencies. Selling websites while having a dull website is like an auto mechanic driving an old, broken-down car. Just doesn't seem to be correct.

Describe the process of launching the business.

I always say that being a designer is a blessing and a curse. You can design, prototype, and code almost anything, but it will never be perfect. There is always something else to add.

I only knew one better designer than me. He lived in another country, and I’ve worked with him on multiple projects for many years, known him only from Zoom meetings, and never met him.

I convinced him to become my co-founder, and we formed a company that month. Let me tell you, 2 designers have to launch something - almost impossible. It took us almost 2 months to finish our website because there was always something else to tinker with.

After 2 months of back and forth and probably hundreds of concepts, we have stuck with a design developed in 48 hours. 3 months after that, we launched a new one, our current one, at Revolution Design. We still think that it looks terrible and always want to remake it. We call it the designer’s curse.

Since launch, what has worked to attract and retain customers?

We have 2 ways to try Revolution Design for free.

1) People can go to this link to submit their brand, website, or product, and one of our expert senior designers will give them constructive feedback. All of this happens asynchronously. The customer Only needs to fill out their details (takes 1 minute) and receive a loom video asynchronously with no strings attached.
2) We also offer a 7-day free trial where people can access our elite design talent. In that week, we can start working on new concepts for their branding, create a new homepage design, or think about improving the product design. And if you decide on the 7th day that Revolution Design is not for you, you can keep all the designs with no strings attached.

The main channel we got our initial beta clients from is messaging our past clients on Linkedin and email. Nothing fancy. Anyone can review their email list, LinkedIn, or close contacts to get the initial beta clients.

Currently, we are acquiring most of our clients from cold outreach campaigns.

If you are in the high-ticket agency space, learn everything there is to know about outreach. It’s the lifeblood of any agency business.

Here’s a breakdown of our outreach process:

Tools we use:

Leadlists:

Cyberleads a monthly subscription to get a lead list of startups that have just raised $ and are looking to hire.
LinkedIn Sales Navigator - search for anyone on LinkedIn and build lists.
Apollo - huge database of millions of contacts with their email addresses and data.
Upwork - hire someone to build a list for you.
Airtable - a more comprehensive Google sheet that is easy to manage and can be easily connected to various apps such as openai chatgpt or webflow.
OpenAI - where you pay for chatgpt credits
Debounce - validate that the emails are correct

Outreach tools:

Instantly.ai - Email Automation Tool (100x better than Lemlist) as you can connect unlimited email addresses. (We are looking to switch to smartlead.ai, though)
LinkedIn Sales Navigator - message anyone on Linkedin
Make.com - Connect 2 or more apps together without knowing how APIs work. E.g., when a lead answers an email, replies to it using ai, or connects chatgpt to the lead list to create personalized first lines, etc.
Office365 - the best choice now as Google domains got shut down. (quick tip: save hundreds of dollars by buying the office365 email addresses through Godaddy instead of the office365 official site.)

Other tools:

Pipeline tracking
Pipedrive or Notion, both work!
Make.com is an automation tool that connects Airtable and chatgpt - an alternative to zapier, which is much more affordable!

Our current process is as follows:

1) Get a leadlist, e.g., from Cyberleads / Linkedin Sales Nav / Upwork. 2) Import it into Airtable for easier manipulation.

A typical lead list from Cyberleads

3) Find a field called a company description - most lists will have this, or you can just pull it from their LinkedIn company profile. 4) Create 2 rows in airtable, 1 for the prompt for chatgpt and another one for the output of the chatgpt. 5) Create a prompt for chatgpt, which we use now, but might change later. Message me to find out the latest one we use. I’d love to help you out. A. “Craft a compelling and informative description of the company's operations and services, drawing from the details provided in "& Description &” Please use 1-3 sentences to capture the company's essence, incorporating relevant keywords.

Remember that this is an icebreaker for a cold outreach email, so it needs to appear personal. Be direct, persuasive, and to the point. The tone should be casual friendly, yet professional. Make them feel important. Be confident; don't hedge."

6) This is how the prompt looks in the airtable. On the top right is a company description. On the bottom right is the chatgpt output we use an icebreaker. 7) Open Make, connect your airtable, and chatgpt. In the first, let the make find the prompt from airtable; in the second step, send the prompt to chatgpt. In the third one, update the record with the prompt.

8) Start the flow by clicking the bottom let run arrow. 9) The chatgpt will generate intro lines for your prospects as if you were to their site and studied everything about them.

There might be easier ways to do these intro lines with various tools, but to be honest, we love having granular control over every aspect of our outreach.

I could talk about outreach for days, so If you have any specific questions, please ask me. I’m most active on my Linkedin. Connect with me, and I’ll answer your question and be your next online friend.

How are you doing today, and what does the future look like?

It’s pretty hectic nowadays since we are a business that relies on labor to make it work. With people, there are complexities. But we believe in the cause and our mission to empower every innovative brand with top-tier design talent quickly and affordably.

We are scaling our outreach to reach more people, improving our offer, and providing as much free value to others as possible. Sales is a numbers game in our eyes.

Other than that, we are scaling our team of designers, hiring them mainly from the countries we are from - Slovakia and the Czech Republic as we believe the best design talent is here. (fun fact: that’s why the most significant design agencies in the world are based in Prague.)

Through starting the business, have you learned anything particularly helpful or advantageous?

I learned that business is all about people. If you know the right people, you will get opportunities thrown at you left and right. So just connect with them. The business partner I met when I was 19 was introduced to me by my sister's friend; I’d never be where I am without him.

Another example that has worked well for us is connecting with partners at VC firms. We exchange a free value to get their trust, and then they recommend us to the startups they’ve invested in.

Another thing I’ve learned is that having the right mindset is 80% of success. Actions account for the other 20%. You will not do the work if you don’t have the right mindset or self-identity.

My mindset is the sole reason I landed a job in a high-growth YC startup as a lead brand designer when I turned 20, making 6 figures remotely from that age. My freelance business went to 6 figures in just a year upon that.

What platform/tools do you use for your business?

For design, we use Figma, Webflow, and Cinema 4D. You can design anything in Figma, from logos to apps and websites. If you learn that tool with the basics of design, you can design anything. (I'm happy to help you with the basics of design. Btw just shoot me a message.)

For managing our design requests, we use Trello and Slack. We are keeping it simple as we approach the exit from the beta stage. We are building our custom platform, which will change soon.

We use Instantly.ai, Airtable, OpenAI, Linkedin Sales Navigator, and Apollo for outreach.

What have been the most influential books, podcasts, or other resources?

The best book I’ve ever read on mindset is called Psycho-Cybernetics by Maxwell Maltz,written more than 80 years ago. My mentor, Sam Ovens, recommended it to me, who was doing $40M/year at that time.

It’s a book that genuinely changed my life; most of the current self-help books just take concepts from it. The term “self-image” was invented by the guy who wrote the book. Just read it, and when you’re done, tell me how it was by connecting with me on Linkedin!

Other than that, I have consumed probably every piece of information that Alex Hormozi, Alex Becker, and Sam Ovens have put out on the internet. If you want to copy my success, you can just watch these guys and read the psycho-cybernetics.

Advice for other entrepreneurs who want to start or are just starting?

I know this might be repetitive or unattainable, but just start building. Build a scrappy v1. If you are ashamed of it, you’ve built it correctly. Send it to your target audience. Offer free value. Just do something every day to get where you need to go.

If you can’t start, it’s probably because your mindset is wrong. Just fix it. Examine your current character and see if it’s fit to hit the goals you’ve set. If not, it’s time to design a new character and grow into it. You, as a master, pull the strings, not the character.

If you are in the high-ticket agency space, learn everything there is to know about outreach. It’s the lifeblood of any agency business. Contacting anyone on the earth, creating an email copy that gets a response, and scaling is probably the best skill you can have.

Are you looking to hire for certain positions right now?

We are always looking to hire great designers. If you know anyone, or if it is you, email me at [email protected] or my Linkedin.

If you can refer someone who will work with us, we will happily provide you with a nice commission.

If you are a designer, we are a team of young people revolutionizing how tech startups hire top-tier designers and want to wipe the hourly billing for design work from the earth. If that resonates even a little, just go to this link and fill out the form. (takes 1 minute)

Where can we go to learn more?

For high-growth tech startups, there are 2 ways to get free value from us:

Get your website, brand, or product audited by one of our expert designers. Just fill out a form. We will send you an in-depth loom video to review your brand, website, or product.
Try our limited-time offer that will grant you access to top-tier designers for 7 days for free. Go to this link, and fill out the form (takes 1 minute).

For fellow builders, as said, the business is all about people you know — so let’s be friends! Shoot me a message on my Linkedin or an email to [email protected]. I read and reply to all my messages and would love to help you!

I’m also starting my brand new account on X (Twitter), so if you’d like more tips about outreach, mindset, and scaling to 6 figures - follow me there.

And if you got that far, just DM me on Twitter/LinkedIn the word “Starter Story,” and I will send you a website launch checklist that we use together with cool concepts you can implement with your brand and website as a thank you.

If you have any questions or comments, drop a comment below!