The first product was a dud (2017)

At the end of 2016 I quit my job to start my own company. I’d spent almost 6 years at a distressed-mortgage investment firm. That November I wrote down the reason in one line - “I don’t want to be an asset manager, I want to be a marketer.”

I filed the certificate to form FIXnotes LLC on December 19, 2016.

The plan was a productized service. A note investor would send us their data tape, their collateral files and every other document they had. We’d organize the paperwork and send back four core reports. I’d still offer portfolio management and sales on the side, because that’s what I already knew how to do.

My conference prep list from New Year’s Eve has five lines on it: website, business cards, flyers, exhibitor booth, webinar. At the end of January 2017 I took the pitch to my first conference, the Diversified Mortgage Expo. I had the booth and a seat on a panel (not bad for a company that was 6 weeks old).

The product was a dud. It just wasn’t what the market wanted. A clean & organized collateral file is nice to have, but it didn’t directly benefit the client’s bottom line - it was mostly cosmetic.

The other half of the plan was free. I’d written the script for my first welcome video in December, and it promised a free online course. “I’m not asking for your money and there’s nothing left out,” it says. A few lines later - “I’m not a guru, I’m not making money as a teacher - I’m a practitioner.”

In February I sat down and wrote it. I spent two weeks straight writing out everything I knew about note investing, and I published it on fixnotes.com for free.

I also asked my first email list what to build. “What should I focus on that will add the most value to your business?” The welcome email had three links to choose from, tracked as a poll (training & education, due diligence & asset management, or notes to buy and sell).

By the end of 2017 the business was mostly brokerage - buying & selling loans for clients, the thing I’d listed as a side offer.