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Andy Chung
11/11/22
Created on November 11, 2022 at 4:49 pm
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Tl;dr with Andy Chung
:wave Hi, I'm Andy.
:wave
You've built meditation games, productivity software, & more. In a world where you can build anything, how did you land on the modern approach to the resume?
I've been helping friends .build.personal.websites since college. While I love designing and building unique individual websites, I've also found that person to person their needs are fairly ubiquitous.
My favorite products, digital or physical, are the ones that feel hardened and reliable and that don't occupy a lot of brain space or require constant upkeep.
.Indexhibit, a web publishing tool built by .Daniel Eatock and .Jeffery Vaska in 2006, has been influential in how I personally think about product. In his book .Imprint, Eatock describes Indexhibit:
I felt that the web had so many options and standards were not embraced enough. I wanted to create a structure that could be navigated intuitively by all users, that was easy to maintain, and did not detract from the content. The more people use the format, the more recessive and archetypal it becomes, allowing the content to come to the forefront.
The opportunity to meet a ubiquitous personal need in a thoughtfully designed, archetypal way is very compelling to me!
Going from a senior designer to CEO, what advice would you give to designers who are about to start their first company?
Don’t be afraid to start small. .Read.cv was started and launched as a solo side project without any funding or marketing strategy. By simply putting the idea out into the world, we could see how it resonated with people and built the confidence to turn it into a real company. You are uniquely positioned to envision something out of nothing as a designer.
I am a big believer in doing it yourself, and I don’t think publishing software needs to be any different than releasing music. Sure, you can spend millions producing and marketing the next big pop album, but the really interesting stuff is going to be made by some producer operating out of their bedroom.
.Read.cv has an inspiring community that startups would dream to have. What's your advice for those wishing to start a community?
Strong communities tend to form around soulful products. If you look at products that have really strong communities, like Notion or Figma, I would describe these as such. Products born out of conviction, not just capital. It’s hard to put your finger on it, but you know it when you see it. And it’s obvious when something doesn’t have it!
Tell us about one of your teammates and share how they complement you?
.Mehdi Mulani is my good friend, engineer, and co-founder at .Read.cv. Not only is he an incredible engineer who complements my design and bad programming, but he’s the one who has the patience to dig into European tax policy or keep me accountable for updating our burn rate spreadsheet every month. Most importantly he keeps the vibes super positive and is an all-around hilarious guy to spend a ton of time with.
Who do you look up to and how do they influence your entrepreneurial journey?
.Soleio was one of the first people who DM’d me about pursuing .Read.cv when it was just a side project, and in general, is someone who has done a ton to advocate for design within the world of software.
We are working on a project with .Laurel Schwulst right now who has an incredible perspective on art and design. Every time we meet I end up with a pile of fascinating links to dig into. This is a .nice mix from Love on the Run playing in the studio right now.
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