Dave Dlaney · Builder History
Seven startups.
About 100 projects.
Dave has been building since he was 15. Two of his projects reached 25 million people each. Most of the rest taught him something he now uses every day at E2. This is the whole list, the honest version, lessons included. His own words live on his blog at hidave.lol.
The seven startups
From his post "I Built Seven Startups. Here's What I Got Wrong." Seven companies, seven honest mistakes, and the lesson each one paid for.
Age 15 · First
A web design agency
He started building websites for local businesses when he was 15, before he could drive. The work was great. The business habits were a kid's: tiny prices, no contracts, paid like favors.
What he got wrong: he charged like a kid doing favors. Lesson: charge what it is worth from day one.
Early · Online
A book reselling business
Buying and selling used books online, learning how the internet moves things people love from one pair of hands to another. It earned while he worked on it, and only while he worked on it.
What he got wrong: he ran it like a hustle, not a system. Lesson: if it dies when you rest, it is a job, not a business.
The jeans era · 25 million people
Denim Blog
A website about jeans that became the largest jeans site on the internet and reached 25 million people. DenimBlog.com, at its height in 2012, was the jeans chapter of the internet.
What he got wrong: a huge audience and no real business under it. Lesson: traffic feels like winning. By itself, it is not.
Silicon Valley · 25 million visitors
A tech startup out west
He moved west and built a startup that 25 million people visited. Servers to keep alive, strangers emailing at 3 in the morning, every day starting with a number bigger than the town he grew up in. And here is the part nobody tells you: a visitor is not a person you know. 25 million people passed through, and he could not have named ten of them.
What he got wrong: he chased growth because growth is what you are supposed to chase out there. Lesson: he could tell you every number. He could not have told you what it was all for.
Still running
The Studio
A creative studio and record label where artists build in the open and help each other grow. Home of the Studio cast, the films, and the music. It is still running today, and it is the direct ancestor of E2. Visit The Studio →
What he got wrong for years: he tried to carry everything himself. Lesson: it got good when it became a team, not a one man show.
Consulting
Tugboat
Helping other companies grow, using everything the first five taught him. These days that work sails as Tugboat.
What he got wrong: he said yes to clients who were not a fit. Lesson: helping the wrong fit helps nobody.
Now · The one it was all practice for
E2
A kinder internet, and the thing everything else was practice for. This time the number is not the point: the people are known by name, the work is public, and the money flows to kind builders. Visit E2 →
What he is still getting wrong: trying to build everything at once instead of one kind thing at a time. Working on it daily.
The E2 era build list
What startup number seven grew into: a whole network, built in public, most of it live right now. This is where the project count quietly climbs toward 100.
hidave.lol
His own site, maintained by Dave himself. Startups, music, and books.
The home baseE2
The kinder internet: 712 Discord members, free member sites, passports, bounties.
Free universityStarvard
287 courses, a library of thousands of books, Finn the professor, FinnChat, CEO Training.
Clean food webClear Recipe
664 dishes in 15 languages on clean pages with zero clutter.
The castThe Studio and Tugboat
The creative studio and record label, plus the web design crew fixing local business sites.
SocialLlama Chat and Llamagram
His friendly social apps: chat and photo sharing, the Llama way.
GamesYour First Game and DriveFolio
Playable starters anyone can remix, plus Beach Drive, his endless coast drive.
The moneyTippy
The community tips bot with a public ledger, built so members get paid for real work.
IdentityE2 Passports
Passport books for the Agent Managers, with records checked against the ledger.
The crewSam, Tippy, and Shippy
The AI agents who welcome members, pay bounties, and log every shipment.
Books and music
The building was never only websites. Six books on the shelf, and a music streak that started from actual zero.
Six books published
Keep Cranking (the one he says to read first), A Few Thoughts, The 400 Hour Workweek, The Battle at Skull Cave, Short Bus: The Musical, and The Million Dollar Lemonade Stand. Thoughts on Kindness is in the works. See the bookshelf →
99 days of piano
He started piano from zero and practiced every single day, posting the proof in public, mistakes and all. Small daily reps beat big occasional efforts, at piano and at everything else.
Dlaney, the artist
39 songs and counting, written in public toward two albums, aiming for 5,000 Spotify streams of real music, played and sung himself. Listen on Spotify →
And the experiments
Doodle, Doodle Maps, Cardboard, and a long tail of small tests and prototypes. Not every project became a company. Every one of them taught him how the next one should work.
The pattern
Seven startups, two audiences of 25 million, and one conclusion: a visitor is not a person you know. E2 is built the other way. Small numbers, real names, real money, real work, checked with his own eyes. That is what 100 projects of practice bought.