That Randy Brown

Happy Acorn Venture Q1 2025 Check-in

Happy Acorn Ventures (HAV) has been running for a month now. So far, my weekly run rate is about $100. Not quite as good as I'd like, but not bad for a business that's only a few months old.

Right now, HAV has three buckets of effort:

  1. DevOps as a service: I build pipelines and environments for founders of mostly bootstrapped startups for a small fee, and provide support and enhancement as needed. Right now, this bucket of effort accounts for 100% of HAV's revenue.

  2. Business Coaching and Consultation: I really want to help other veterans start businesses and create secondary (and maybe even primary) income. I'm committed to getting folks started and helping them earn their first dollar. I've helped one other veteran start their business so far. I used that opportunity as a feedback loop on the process. I'm looking for my first partners and customers on this now.

  3. Board Games and Board Game Accessories: When I initially set out to start HAV, I wanted to have something that wouldn't be successful by default--that had to be made to grow and succeed. And I wanted my boys to be part of the process. This was a natural direction since we are all into boardgames. I've released two free games, but only recently went through the process to take payment. This is definitely more of a long play.

This natural progression (I added these one month at a time: bucket 3 in January, bucket 1 in February, and bucket 2 in March) and led met to a bet: I can create a bucket of effort for potential income every month, and prune those that aren't rewarding (in effort and income, but also interest) as I meet goals.

So I'll be looking to add more buckets in Q2 as I work toward my year-end goal of $500 WRR. The other goals are all measured on a twelve-month runway; I haven't reached even the first milestone yet: minimal impactful income. For that, I need $720 of cash allocated to compensation.