Today we’d like to introduce you to Justin Harmon.
Hi Justin, we’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
I didn’t grow up around entrepreneurs (like, at all). My family worked traditional 9 to 5 jobs. When I got married, my wife’s family was the same way. Both dads worked hard labor jobs, and every sibling punched a clock. I still wanted to become my own boss, I just didn’t believe I had the guts to do it. No amount of books and podcasts convinced me I was ready. It was my wife who started pushing us, saying it was time to stop talking about ‘some day’ and start making it happen. If we didn’t, we’d regret it. She was right, but I wanted financial security.
It wasn’t until 2017 I felt myself hitting the end of my rope. I started to hate going out the door to work. The work itself wasn’t my issue, it was the lack of control I had. It hit hardest one day when I came home for lunch and had the best time with my kids. As I was leaving to return to work, my oldest ran to block the door with her arms across the door and begged me to stay home. It was the beginning of the end.
My wife and I started our first home business, growing our client list and making a plan for me to leave my job. Within six months, clients were finding us on their own and it looked like we could replace my salary, so I pulled the trigger. I left my corporate job and told my wife it was time. I remember her being so excited, and then instantly terrified (same as me). It was crazy to everyone, ourselves most of all. We weren’t known to be high risk takers. And honestly, the day I left felt like both a celebration and entering a warzone. We had to ask ourselves if we really understood what we’d just gotten ourselves into.
Sure enough, three months later hit us like a wrecking ball. The leads we’d been generating dried up almost overnight, like customers either didn’t see us or ignored us completely. That really surprised us, because we were getting such great reviews. But it got bad enough that we were draining savings, and we seriously considered whether we’d made a huge mistake. So we did the only thing we could think to do: get out of the fetal position and find the bottleneck. We had to stop trying to be ‘the company for everyone’ and start being for a clear ‘someone’. We needed to define our ideal audience: who they were, where to find them, and whether they understood the solution we offered. Once we knew that, we had to figure out if they’d pay what we were charging. Having our audience figured out changed everything. Our branding became clear, people started finding us, and they started telling others.
As the leads grew again (much bigger than before), we tried bringing in systems to help manage it all. But we weren’t really envisioning a big sales team, so nothing quite fit. We kept messing with CRMs and business management tools, but there were too many to choose from, and none of them quite fit. We wanted to run a business that managed its clients well and didn’t come off like an impersonal automated machine. That’s when we built Stackedo. It would keep our clients straight, help us with follow up, and bring essential business tools under one banner.
Working with numerous amazing small business owners since, we feel like we’ve got the best customers out there. These customer-experience centered owners are who Stackedo was built for. That’s why we love doing what we do.
Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
Yeah… I love when there’s a small stretch of smooth road here and there, but no. I think most business owners would agree starting a business feels like jumping off a cliff and hoping the parachute you built yourself actually deploys. Leads disappearing three months in was the first big gut check, and I’m glad it happened. It taught me to stop hoping something will happen and start looking for the root cause of what’s keeping us from getting attention. I’ve leaned on that lesson a lot since.
Later, once we had momentum and referrals coming in, a competitor moved in and tried to undercut us. By then we’d built a system (thanks partly to my need to be more efficient, but mostly to my wife’s problem-solving brain), and it let us keep delivering fast without cutting quality. That system got us through it, and most people stuck with us, or came back once the competitor dropped out.
As you know, we’re big fans of Stackedo. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about the brand?
You know the feeling. You’ve got a CRM in one tab, your task list in another, invoice templates buried in a folder somewhere, an SEO tool you forgot the login for, and a couple of AI chats open trying to find where you asked that one question. By the time you’ve bounced between all of it, half your morning’s gone and you haven’t actually worked on any of your goals you actually had for the day yet.
That’s the problem Stackedo solves. It’s small business management software built for solopreneurs, people running the business of one (or even a small team), and it puts your CRM, task and project management, invoices and proposals, SEO tools, and AI-assisted support all in one dashboard that actually ties all of your tools together. Your CRM knows what’s on your task list, your AI assistants know your business goals, so you’re not duplicating work bouncing between apps.
We also built in Journey Mode, which walks you through the real stages of running a business, from startup to efficiency to growth to eventually exiting. Business education you can get a lot of places. Ours includes guided, interactive tools that make it about taking action, and the results get added to the DNA of your dashboard.
What I’m most proud of is that we kept it powerfully simple on purpose. You can start solo and add on collaborators when you’re ready. On average, people cut their subscription costs significantly when they move to Stackedo. And while we’re not aiming to be the cheapest, we do want to be the best option for small business owners who want their business to still feel personal to their customers.
This isn’t enterprise software squeezed into a small business shape. It’s built for someone running things solo, so instead of managing five tools, you’re just running your business.
Giving back matters to us too. Every month we hand a full year of Stackedo, completely free, to a solopreneur through our Access Grant Program. No catch, we just ask for their honest feedback along the way. We remember what it’s like trying to get a business off the ground while stretched thin on time and money, and this is our way of helping someone else get a jump on their dream when resources are limited.
How do you think about happiness?
Being home with my kids, eating Thai food with Ashley, going on hikes. That’s the whole reason I did any of this in the first place: freedom with my time.
We love to travel too, and every family vacation feels like it outdoes the last in some way. Crab fishing off the Pacific Coast in late September, authentic Mexican tacos on a trip south of the border, or getting lost in the hallways of some castle in England that’s older than our whole country. Deciding for ourselves when to take time off and traveling with the kids somewhere they’ll never forget is something that never gets old.
Pricing:
- Starter: Free — core tools, general business management, CRM limited use
- Full Access: $180/year — unlocks every tool, AI assistant, Business Management, Journeys, and the full CRM
- 14-day free trial of Full Access, no credit card required, then reverts to Starter
- Optional Collaborators (extra seats for helpers): +$60/year each, up to 3
- Access Grant Program: each month, one solopreneur is selected to receive Full Access completely free for a year (application at stackedo.com/stackedo-access-grant-program)
Contact Info:
- Website: https://stackedo.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/stackedo_/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/stackedo/
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/stackedo
- Twitter: https://x.com/Stackedo_
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@stackedo
- Other: https://stackedo.com/stackedo-access-grant-program/
