A solid company is boring on purpose

My resolution for 2023 has no fireworks in it.

I want the company to be more boring.

Not the work. Not the people. The company.

Let me explain, because I know how it sounds.

When you run a small studio, you get used to living on adrenaline. A new project comes in and the month is saved. A client goes quiet and the month is in danger. Something breaks on a Sunday and you're the fire brigade.

It feels like being alive. It's actually being badly organised.

Excitement is a symptom

I've started to notice something. Almost every exciting moment at Foxnice has the same origin. Something we hadn't planned.

A server nobody was watching. A website nobody remembered who owned. A problem that had been warning us for weeks while we were busy with something else.

The stories are fun to tell afterwards. In the moment, they're just hours. Hours that don't go to clients, and don't go to the product we want to build.

So I've changed what I want from the company. I don't want it to be thrilling. I want it to be like a good boiler. You only remember it exists when it stops working. And ideally it doesn't.

Excitement in a company is usually something that wasn't designed properly.

What boring looks like

For us, boring has three ingredients. None of them would survive a startup pitch.

Money that comes back every month. Maintenance fees. Clients paying a monthly amount for us to look after their websites. Nobody celebrates a renewal. But every renewal is a month in which I don't have to win anything new to pay the bills.

Things written down. Who owns each site. What each client has. What we do when something breaks. If it only lives in my head, it doesn't really exist. It just has a single point of failure, and the point is me.

Fewer surprises, on purpose. Deleting what nobody uses. Saying no to things nobody will look after. Choosing the dull option when the dull option is the safe one.

None of that makes a good photo. That's sort of the point.

Why I can afford to be boring

We started Foxnice with 300 € and no investors. That shapes everything.

A company with a funding round needs a story. It needs to grow fast enough to justify the money. Boring is a problem for them. Boring means the clock is running and nothing is happening.

We don't have that clock. Our money comes from clients, and client money is patient. It doesn't ask for a hockey-stick chart. It asks for the website to work tomorrow.

I think that's a luxury people underestimate. Being allowed to be dull. Being allowed to grow at the speed of things done properly.

And there's a second reason, more selfish. The products we want to build need calm. You can't think about a platform for sports clubs while you're putting out three fires. Boring is what buys the quiet hours.

The resolution, in one line

This year I want fewer stories and more Mondays that look exactly like the previous Monday.

Monthly fees that arrive. Processes that hold. Problems that get found before they find us.

If that sounds like a terrible year to you, I understand.

To me it sounds like freedom.

P.S. If this post bored you, good. It means I'm practising.