The Indie Studio Strategy
Defining the experiment: Can an indie studio handle the output of a full agency using modern systems?
In most agencies, as soon as you have more than three clients, you hire a project manager. At six clients, you hire a junior. At ten, you're suddenly spending forty hours a week in meetings just to make sure everyone else is building the right thing.
I'm trying to avoid that.
The "Indie Studio" strategy isn't about being a superhero. It's about systemic advantage. It's about building a stack so efficient that one person can ship at the same velocity as a team of five, without the management tax.
I call this Systemic Speed.
It's built on three pillars:
- Technical Extraction: I use tools like Next.js and Cloudflare that handle the boring infrastructure automatically. I don't need a DevOps team because the platform is my team.
- Creative Assets: Instead of hiring a designer or a photographer, I use strict design systems and AI-generated imagery. It keeps the quality high and the overhead non-existent.
- Automated Authority: I don't have a sales team. I have automated logs and persona-based tracking. The site handles the education, the qualifying, and the scheduling while I'm focused on delivery.
The traditional growth model says you scale by adding people. I reckon you scale by removing friction.
By keeping IntentLabs as an indie studio, I can keep the costs near zero and the execution speed near infinite. It's not just a way to work; it's a way to maintain the craft.
It's an experiment. I don't know if this is possible for every type of business, but I want to find out where the line is.
In my next few notes, I'll show you the exact "Engine Room" setup I use to keep this site running without a single employee.