We're Building This!

Hey, I’m Joseph — founder, builder, and someone who still believes that taking smart, calculated risks is one of the best uses of time in your 20s.

Welcome to We’re Building This, a transparent look at how I’m building a portfolio of products in public—sharing every step, every misstep, and every breakthrough along the way. This is more than just my journey—it’s a space where I hope you’ll learn, contribute, and maybe even be inspired to build your own.

Why I’m Doing This

This series exists as a response to the dominant startup narrative: go big, raise fast, chase a unicorn outcome. But I’m not chasing a moonshot. I believe there’s tremendous value in building thoughtful, sustainable businesses that solve very specific problems—problems that don’t need to scale to everyone, everywhere, to be successful.

I’d rather build 1–3 solid, 2–4x return businesses that create real value for real customers than pin my hopes on a single Hail Mary.

It’s not about pedigree. It’s not about being from the “right” school, the “right” accelerator, or having a network of VCs on speed dial. It’s about building something useful and making it better week after week. That’s what this space is about.

I’m still early in my career. That gives me time—time to experiment, time to fail, and most importantly, time to take smart risks and share what I learn along the way. Because when you’re early, the upside isn’t just in success—it’s in the compounding of skills, lessons, and relationships.

My Thesis: The Portfolio Approach

Instead of betting it all on one idea, I'm taking a portfolio approach—building multiple small, focused, and validated software products that address underserved pain points in clear, narrow markets.

This approach gives me:

• More shots on goal

• More feedback loops

• More ways to learn what works (and what doesn’t)

Each product I work on is grounded in a real pain point—not a hypothetical market, not a flashy trend. I’m starting with what’s broken, inefficient, or overlooked—and building toward something better.

The Problems I’m Tackling First

Here’s what I’m working on solving right now:

• Subcontractors and small construction firms struggling to get paid on time. These are often people without in-house legal counsel, trying to navigate lien laws just to get paid for work they've already done. The existing solutions are expensive, complex, and built for large firms—not the small crews on the job site.

• Small waste haulers operating on pen, paper, and spreadsheets. In an industry where timing, logistics, and compliance are everything, these businesses are still tracking pickups on clipboards and chasing down paperwork days after the fact. There’s no real-time visibility, and efficiency is sacrificed daily.

• Independent real estate agents and small brokers without referral visibility or professional networks.Referrals matter in real estate, but most small players lack the tech and structure to manage them. They don’t have a reliable way to find trusted partners or track the commissions they’re owed.

• Small sales teams wasting time on repetitive, manual tasks. For many lean go-to-market teams, there’s no dedicated sales ops—so they end up stuck updating CRMs, copying data between tools, and losing precious selling hours. I’m working on solutions that help these teams move faster and sell smarter.

These are the kinds of problems I’m obsessed with—unsexy, but real. Solving them won’t get you headlines, but it might get someone paid on time, back an hour a day, or finally feel like they’re in control of their work.

What You’ll Get From This Newsletter

If you’re subscribed, here’s what you can expect:

📬 Regular updates with:

• Honest insights from customer interviews and early pilots

• Lessons from both failures and breakthroughs

• MVP launches and feedback loops

• Frameworks, tools, and strategies that I’m using (and refining)

🧠 Deep dives into:

• Building multiple products at once

• Lean startup methods applied in real time

• Avoiding common traps in early-stage SaaS

📣 Opportunities to contribute:

• I’ll be sharing mockups, concepts, and open questions—and I’d love your thoughts.

How You Can Get Involved

👋 Reply anytime – I read every message and try to respond to all of them.

🧵 Follow the journey – I’ll be posting progress, thoughts, and experiments on my Twitter, Instagram and LinkedIn.

📩 Share what you’re building – If you’re working on something, I’d love to hear about it. Really.

If you’ve ever wanted to build something but didn’t know where to start—or if you’ve been waiting for permission—this is it.

Let’s build this together!

• Joe