Starting a business is hard, but it doesn’t have to be

I can’t tell you how many times I’ve had people ask me how to start a business. Everyone has their own superpower, but one of mine is starting something. If you gave me only three words to describe myself, one of them would be “Starter.” It comes easily for me, plus, after a lot of practice doing it for a while, it’s become even easier.

The idea for Hopscratch birthed from this place. Especially for people who are solopreneurs aiming to venture out and start working for themselves, the process can feel daunting. Just because they’re excellent at their craft or have an idea doesn’t mean they know the first thing about starting a business.

With my good friend and former collaborator, Brian, the genesis of Hopscratch came on the heels of my departure from User10. We decided to start working on the concept as a side hustle, seeing what would become of it. Soon after the first annual PHX Startup Week, I felt we had made enough progress on the idea to start looping in some other co-founders who could help us get the thing off the ground, too. That’s when I shared the idea with Kirk, Adam, and Paige. Between the five of us, we had an amazing team ready to revolutionize how people started their businesses.

To do that, we focused on a concept that had long been mentioned, but never fully executed upon: a business-in-a-box. Look at how beautiful this thing was…

I could share hundreds of designs and a wild amount of content that was created for this startup. It was one of the best things I’ve ever worked on, and I was super proud of the final product. Entrepreneur Magazine had some good things to say about us. Ultimately, though, we merged the company with another insurance startup, Trym, and joined forces with the new #insuretech player as it entered 500 Startups’ latest cohort, Batch 18. It was the right decision, but I must admit my sadness in having departed from the original concept.

Ultimately, Hopscratch felt like an outcome that had to occur in my life. Maybe even it’s an idea I’ll revisit again later in a future iteration of some sort. Because people need help as they start, and I’d love to be the starter that helps make that happen for people. The reason is simple. Entrepreneurship changes lives—and it can change the world.