Launch 30 Companies in May (update)
The author recounts launching 27 ventures in 30 days during May, sharing practical lessons on rapid execution, resilience, and the realities of building multiple businesses simultaneously. The experiment tested speed over perfection, revealing insights on product validation, time management, and the emotional ups and downs of entrepreneurship.
Background
This is an update from Todd Merrill, founder of CommunityOS (a startup that builds tools for online communities), documenting his challenge to launch 27 ventures in 30 days (May 2024). The post reflects a "ship fast" or "venture studio" mindset popularized by startup accelerators like Y Combinator and indie hacker culture — the idea that speed and volume of launches matter more than perfection. Key context: the ventures are small digital products, newsletters, community projects, or service businesses (not VC-backed unicorns). Merrill provides a real-time log of revenue, traffic, and failures, making the post useful as a raw case study on rapid experimentation. Readers should know that "community" as a monetizable business model has grown sharply since 2020, and that Substack (the platform hosting this post) is a newsletter/publishing tool that many creators and founders use to build audience before launching products.