Hiut Denim and 400 Jobs.

Hey, it’s Guy & Farzan.

Sunday afternoon front yard newsletter session. Sitting in my red deckchair. Enzo the Covoodle snoring in the sun. We've got decaf and the laptop's heating up on my lap. Time for some founder stories.

Reading time: 8 mins

In the mail today. 3 founder stories, 1 Google story, 1 tweet

 Founder story 1 

The Welsh town that makes jeans again: A story about Hiut Denim and 400 jobs.

As someone who loves creating stuff,
this is a story I keep coming back to.
It's such a real and honest way to do business.

Sometimes a town loses more than jobs.
It loses its mojo.
Its reason to be.

In 2002, Cardigan's jean factory closed.
400 people.
35,000 pairs of jeans a week.
Gone.

The makers became cleaners.
The craftspeople became shop workers.

But skills don't die.
They hibernate.
They wait for spring.
They wait for someone crazy enough.

Enter David and Clare.
Two copywriters who knew nothing about making jeans.
But they knew lots about telling stories.

They had a company before.
Howies. Their first love.
Started in '95 with nothing but ideas.

Growth is like chocolate.
You crave it until you're sick.
Then you learn moderation.

It grew too fast.
They craved growth.
It killed them.

Independence shattered.
They had to sell.
A hard lesson learned.

But the worst of times gives you the best of times.
Without Howies, no Hiut Denim.
Sometimes you need to lose to learn.

"Dear internet, we make jeans."
That's how it started.
5 people. 150 pairs a week.

They called their makers "Grand Masters."
Because that's what 40 years of knowledge makes you.
When you've made 1 million pairs of jeans, you earn that title.

No production line here.
Each Grand Master makes one pair at a time.
Start to finish. No shortcuts.

Do one thing.
Do it remarkably well.
Everything else is noise.

Who tells the best story, wins.
Who makes the best product, wins.
Everything else is just noise.

Their marketing budget?
A coffee machine. That's it.
And you know what? It didn't matter.

When the surf's good, Paul doesn't come in.
When Claudio cuts, he's pure poetry.
When Elin speaks, the factory listens.

They love endeavour here.
They love it when you work hard.
When you stay humble.

Then one day, Kensington Palace called.
Meghan Markle wore their jeans.
3 months of orders. In one night.

But this time was different.
This time they remembered:
"Too much chocolate makes you sick."

Strong companies take time.
Like an oak, not a mushroom.
The next ten years matter more than the next ten months.

The old factory stood empty.
Until it didn't.
The Grand Masters came home.

For some, it was unfinished business.
For others, a second chance.
For all, it was coming home.

Now they make jeans again.
Not 35,000 pairs a week.
But every pair carries a story.

Of hands that never forgot
Of a town that never gave up
Of people who dared to dream again

The mission isn't finished.
400 jobs to win back.
One perfect pair at a time.

In a small town in Wales.
Where they make jeans.
And they make them damn well.

Founder story 2

Colin Macintosh built an AI Resume Builder side project that hit $20K monthly revenue in just its second month.

The key points:
- Journey: Started as a recruiter giving free resume advice on Reddit, which became the #1 Google result for "resume advice Reddit"
- Problem → Solution: After manually reviewing thousands of resumes, Colin partnered with a software engineer friend to turn his expertise into an AI tool
- Business Model: $99 lifetime access or $29 weekly access, with nearly 100% profit margins

Success Factors:
- Built trust by helping people for free first
- Leveraged existing Reddit reputation
- Focused on genuine value over quick profits
- Used AI to scale personal expertise

The timing insight:
AI tools and credits (like OpenAI) are currently cheap for user acquisition, making now an optimal time to build AI businesses - but this window of opportunity likely won't last forever.

Founder story 3

From open-source project to SaaS: How Aykut built ToDiagram to 150K monthly visitors and 4-figure Revenue.

Quick Stats
- Founded: 2022
- Location: Turkey
- Team Size: 1 Employee
- Revenue: 4 figures revenue (USD)
- Reach: 1,500 newsletter subscribers, 150,000 monthly website visitors
- Funding: Bootstrapped

Early Journey
- Started coding at age 12 in Balıkesir, Turkey
- Built news website, Flash games platform, and social media site before high school
- Created mobile game clone with 250,000+ downloads in three months
- Lost early project due to not using Git (important learning experience)
- Initially avoided web development, focused on C#
- Built Discord game bot reaching 100k+ monthly users
- Studied Software Engineering while building open-source projects

The Problem ToDiagram Solves.
ToDiagram addresses the challenge of understanding complex data structures. The tool helps users:
- Visualize JSON and YAML data in interactive diagrams
- Edit and manipulate data visually
- Transform complex data into understandable formats
- Process various structured data formats
- Create hierarchical visualizations

Building the first user base.
The path to success focused on validation before monetization
1. Open Source Launch: Released initial version (JSON Crack) on GitHub
2. GitHub Feature: Selected for GitHub Release Radar
3. Social Media Growth: Project featured on GitHub's Twitter
4. Community Building: Engaged with users through issues and pull requests

Product-market fit indicators:
- Organic growth through word-of-mouth
- Featured on GitHub's Release Radar
- Strong community engagement
- Regular user contributions
- Transition from free to paid users

Distribution strategy:
- GitHub organic discovery
- Word-of-mouth marketing
- Social media presence
- Cold outreach to potential users
- Strategic use of free trials
- Personal customer engagement

Tools for growth:
- GitHub Copilot for development
- Twitter/X for networking and inspiration
- AI tools for accelerated progress
- Direct customer communication

Aykut's guiding philosophy:
- Balance between full-time job and business
- Freedom to take calculated risks
- Strong focus on customer service
- Continuous learning and improvement

Key takeaways:
- Start with solving personal problems
- Build in public for organic growth
- Focus on genuine user value
- Consider finding complementary partners
- Maintain direct customer relationships
- Balance experimentation with stability
- Consider strategic market positioning

Google story

The Crazy Story of Google's First 7 Investors.

A nuts story about luck, timing, and Silicon Valley:

1. Andy Bechtolsheim (The Golden Boy)
- Sun Microsystems co-founder
- Met Larry & Sergey at 8AM in a parking lot
- Wrote $100K check to "Google Inc" before it existed
- Now worth billions

2. David Cheriton (The Billionaire Professor)
- Stanford prof who heard about Google from Andy
- Invested $150K immediately
- Worth $10B+ but still rides his bike everywhere
- Silicon Valley's most frugal billionaire

3. Ron Conway (The Super Angel)
- Bet everything on "the internet" in 1994
- Makes 5-minute investment decisions
- Built Silicon Valley's most powerful network
- Invested in Twitter, Facebook, Airbnb, PayPal

4. Shaquille O'Neal (The Accidental Investor)
- Met Conway's grandkids playing in a hotel lobby
- Got invited to invest after this chance encounter
- Invested "a couple hundred K" and forgot about it
- Turned into $100M+ after IPO

5. Susan Wojcicki (The Garage Owner)
- Rented her garage to Larry & Sergey for $1,700/month
- Became employee #16
- Later became YouTube CEO
- The famous "Google Garage"

6. Jeff Bezos
- Put in $250K early on
- Showed even competitors invest in each other

The big lessons from this story on building such ridiculous wealth:

1. Proximity is Power
The best deals happened through casual encounters in coffee shops, garages, and hotel lobbies. Location matters more than most realise.

2. Speed over Analysis
The best investors decided within 5-10 mins. They focused on founder quality over market analysis.

3. Networks are Everything
Each investment came through personal connections. Even Shaq did this through a chance encounter.

4. Think Bigger
Early investors couldn't conceive Google becoming worth trillions.

These big returns didn't come through complex analysis. They came through being in the right place, knowing the right people, and acting quickly.

Lucky buggers. What a crazy story.

Thanks to Sam Parr and Shaan Puri who talked about this on the show My First Million.

 A tweet we loved

I jumped out for a bit, had Indian for dinner, then back to check through and press send.

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See you in 7 days.

Guy + Farzan
Founderoo