Lesson 2: Develop for the greater good.

A rising tide lifts all boats. We truly believe that. So we’ve prioritized developing PreQuilt for the greater good of the quilting community, rather than for the exclusivity of specific players.

When we first started, we were very reactive to individual requests and inquiries to develop exclusive features. It felt nice to be wanted. But these requests came at the cost of improving the software in general and we needed to decide what our intentions were. Did we want PreQuilt to be accessible to everyone or did we want to spend our time as someone’s quasi in-house team?

Now, before we invest in a new feature, we make sure it benefits the overall PreQuilt community. We still have a long way to go, but we hope that one day any quilter can use PreQuilt, regardless of their skill level or quilt style.

The PreQuilt Designer Market features fabric designers who showcase their collections on the platform, giving quilters an easy way to explore their fabrics and bring their creative ideas to life.

Lesson 3: Collaboration is our competitive moat.

Honestly, we wish there was no competition at all — that we could work at our own pace and explore whatever we wanted. Competition can feel threatening and be extremely distracting. But we’ve learned to focus our energy on creating the best features, staying our course, and building relationships within the industry.

Our favorite part of PreQuilt is connecting with people. We love building things, and sometimes those things are relationships. We engage with our community by providing great one-on-one customer service, attending as many quilt events as possible, and collaborating with quilt designers and fabric manufacturers. All these interactions root us in the industry and create a moat that, we believe, sets us apart from our competition.

Lesson 4: Don’t be afraid to change what already exists.

It’s hard to admit when something is not working. Revising and iterating can be harder than building new and sometimes we are resistant to changing things. Our natural instinct has been to create a workaround or overexplain something that should be intuitive.

At the core of this resistance is anxiety over how change could impact or frustrate our customers. We have come to accept that the short term discomfort we inflict is better than the long term loss we face if we continue to offer something we know isn’t as it should be.

Our change management workflows need improvement, but we’re proud that we are choosing to implement change over reinforcing something that isn’t right.

The online quilting software comes with designer fabrics preloaded, making it easier for quilters to experiment with colors, patterns, and quilt designs.

Lesson 5: Do the hard thing next.

With so much to do, it can be too easy to prioritize manageable tasks and push off the hard stuff. Customer service emails and fixing bugs are necessities and feel like an honest day’s work. But unless we make a concerted effort to focus on the things that don’t come naturally to us, they may never get done.

Consequently over the years, Gar has gotten really good at developing and Laura has created tons of operational workflows. But you know what we haven’t really focused on or gotten good at? Marketing. Or ironclad educational content.

Our goal is to make more room for the hard things. To focus on them, if not first, then at least next. And getting started can make a hard thing feel a little easier.

Lesson 6: Ask yourself, is this an imaginary deadline?

At the beginning, it felt like everything needed to be launched as soon as possible. We were working hard, fast, and constantly toward arbitrary deadlines we created for ourselves. Honestly, most of these deadlines were anxiety based and they started to take a toll on not only our health, but also our marriage.

We knew that we had to find a better balance. We started pushing back the arbitrary deadlines and giving the real ones more space. We prioritized our marriage, our health, and being available to our children.

Of course there are exceptions, a big bug on a Saturday can’t wait till Monday. But we know that by maintaining balance, we will be able to stay the course and be here for years to come.

Always be iterating.

Unfortunately, we don’t have a magical solution to share with you. But we can impart the importance of being flexible and open to iteration. We’d like to encourage you to not be afraid to circle back around, to tweak, or to even bulldoze to the ground and begin again.

Good enough is good enough for today. You can always iterate on it tomorrow to make it better.

Gar Liu and Laura Henneberry

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