Raised $30 MM in capital for real estate through LinkedIn and Guest Podcasting | Posts about Real Estate, Writing, and Audience Building

CAP X MEDIA

Helping Real Estate Investors Build Their Brand and Raise Capital Through Digital Media.

Founder

Elite Podcast Bookings

*Rebranded to CAP X MEDIA

Revolutionizing real estate investing marketing with guest podcasting and organic lead generation to raise more capital and explode your personal brand online.

Founder 

Boardwalk Wealth

Oversaw and assisted a real estate portfolio of assets valued at $50MM and achieve goals through allocation, monitoring, and risk management.

Asset Management

Leveraged expertise in market research, financial analysis, and risk assessment to drive informed decision-making and optimize returns within the real estate investment portfolio.

Senior Analyst

Managed communications, built relationships with media outlets, and produced engaging content to enhance brand visibility and effectively communicate key messages to real estate investors.

Investor and Media Relations

Rabbit Hole Finance

Conducted insightful interviews with prominent figures in the bitcoin industry, delving into topics of Austrian economics, finance, and global markets to provide valuable insights and perspectives to the audience.

Podcast Host

Real Estate Journeys

114 episodes in syndication, our business podcast has achieved a remarkable feat as a top 400 podcast, offering valuable insights and knowledge to real estate investors.

99% of Real Estate LinkedIn is Chat GPT posts and noise.

There's a better way to stand out online ⤵️

If this sounds like you:

❌ Lack of capital
❌ Feeling tired and burned out
❌ Not growing your presence online

Now, imagine this:

✅ Securing more deals
✅ Successfully raising $5 million in capital
✅ Having a loyal following that knows, likes, and trusts you

If you're a 6-figure real estate entrepreneur who's serious about raising more capital and closing more deals, join my free newsletter, Digital Leverage. 

You'll be in good company with over 300+ entrepreneurs who are making their mark online. 

(See featured section above ⤴️)

Matthew Baltzell 🌴

$7,000 staging job replaced by a $12 AI render. 

Here’s what happens next...


Look at this photo.

Left → AI staging.
 
Right → $3,000/month vacant liability pretending to be a listing.

Buyers make a decision in 8 seconds.

Physical staging?

Trucks. 
Movers. 
Insurance. 
Two days of hassle.
Thousands of dollars. 

AI?

Ten bucks. 
Twelve seconds.
Zero excuses.

Virtual staging isn’t “coming.”
 
It’s already the default mode: cheaper, faster, and built for conversion.

And the investors who pivot first?

They’ll have the lions share of the deal transactions

And the investors who pivot first?

They won’t “win more deals.”
 
They’ll take em  down...while everyone else wonders what just happened.

Agree or disagree?

Matthew Baltzell

$20M+ Raised | LP Pipeline Systems for Real Estate & PE Firms | Build Trust, Fill Deals, Raise Faster

I didn’t know a single missed ID check could unleash $50,000 worth of chaos.
(Turns out…it can)


Back in college, I worked the door at a bar called The Pickle Barrel.

One night, I didn’t check an ID properly.
 
The "kid" was an undercover cop.

The fallout was brutal...

- Liquor license suspended for a week

- $50,000 in lost sales

- Bartender fined

- Manager furious

- Staff treating me like I burned the place down

Ten seconds.

That’s all it took.

And a month later, I got fired (go figure)

Lesson: tiny lapses in process can create massive consequences.

Same in capital raising.

I see operators with great deals lose millions because they don’t have a system to attract investors.
 
No process = no pipeline.

At CAP X MEDIA, we fix that.
 
We build predictable investor pipelines through podcasting + media funnels.

One mistake cost that bar $50K and my job.
One mistake with your investor brand could cost you millions.

2026 rate forecasts explained in 6 seconds...

I failed the Series 6 exam. Twice.

Turns out, failing was the best thing for me.



I used to think passing the Series 6 was my golden ticket into finance.

- Woke up at 5am
- Studied before work
- Spent weekends at the library
- Highlighters
- Flashcards
- Tests

It was overwhelming. 

First try? Missed by 3 points.

Brutal!

But I chalked it up to pacing. 

So I doubled down...

- New prep books
- Study groups
- More pressure

Second try? 

Missed by 7

Sat in the car afterward and thought, "Maybe I’m not cut out for this."

That license felt like the gatekeeper. 

Like without it, I wasn’t legitimate. 

I was just another guy “trying to break in.”

I never took it again.

Instead, I asked a better question:

What if I stopped chasing credentials and just solved real problems for real people with real money?

That’s when things changed.

Fast forward...

✅ Raised $20M+ for investors
✅ Built a 400+ unit portfolio
✅ Help PE firms turn media appearances into LP trust engines

No licenses...
...No letters behind my name. 

Just results.

Lesson?

No one cares about your resume.

They care if you can get the job done.

You don’t need another certification. 

You need clarity, proof, and a compelling story.

Especially if you're raising capital.

If you're a fund manager stuck behind paperwork, jargon, and silence, skip the next credential.

Start telling the right story in the right rooms.

That’s what LPs actually trust.

Cold investors don’t wire capital.

Here’s how to build trust pre call...


Most capital raisers think the hard part is getting the investor to book the call.

Wrong!

The hard part is keeping their conviction long enough to get them to... 

Show up
Stay engaged
And eventually deploy capital.

That week between booking and the call? 
...That’s where founders fumble the raise.

Here’s what strong sponsor's do differently:

1. Send a credibility asset immediately.

A clean one-pager.
A case study.
A short Loom.

Something that says: “You’re in good hands.”

2. Frame the call so they know what to expect.

Investors avoid chaos.
If the agenda is clear, they show up prepared and serious.

3. Build anticipation with social proof.

Past deals. 
Track record. 
Testimonials.

Investors trust momentum more than promises.

4. Drip reminders that actually add value.

Not “friendly reminders.”

Actual insight.
A quick market note.
A short win from your portfolio.

Something that keeps them warm.

5. Reaffirm why the call matters.

You’re not chasing them.
You’re giving them a shot at something they could miss.

By the time an investor hits your Zoom room, they should already trust you enough to lean in...not sit back.

Cold investors don’t wire capital.

Warm, informed, confident investors do.

Start nurturing the gap.

Watch your raise get easier.

if you’re raising capital, read this twice.

most firms can raise their first $5M+ with just 2 channels...


but most founders choose the wrong two because they get seduced by vanity.

the channels that actually produce money:

– guest podcasting (done strategically, not “spray & pray”)
– outbound (cold email + cold DM)
– LP referrals
– partnerships

the channels that drain your time and starve your pipeline:

– organic social
– weekly newsletters
– “personal brand building”

why

because you don’t need “brand.”
 you need investor trust and investor calls.
 
today.
tomorrow.
 
not Q4 next year.

list one makes money.
 
list two burns money until you’re already big.

here’s the founder mistake I see every week:

they build a media company before they build a deal flow engine.
lighting kits.
podcast mics.
LinkedIn posts that get 8 likes.
SEO roadmaps that won’t rank until 2027.
 
zero investor conversations to show for it.

stop confusing activity with progress.

your first $5M–$20M raise is about:

→ manufactured trust
→ borrowed credibility
→ forced distribution
→ controlled conversations

that’s what guest podcasting + outbound gives you.
once you have momentum, then do the cute stuff.

if you skip the “trust engine” stage, you lose years.

CAP X MEDIA exists so you don’t.

Everyone says they want a $1B+ exit...

(Until they see what a 10 figure day looks like)


I was listening to My First Million when Shaan Puri said something that stuck.

People get jealous of the outputs:

The money
The freedom
The “success

But...they never study the inputs.

Shaan shadowed a founder who sold his company for billions.

After watching him grind through non-stop meetings, he realized...
...he didn’t want that life at all.

It made me think:

We worship people’s results without asking if we actually want their routine.

So before chasing someone’s “level,” study their inputs.

Would you trade your day for theirs?

JSESSIONID

li_at

Talks about #creatoreconomy, #entrepreneurship, and #realestateinvesting

Sara Blakely started SPANX with $5,000…


No investors.
No venture capital.
No big checks.

Today?

SPANX is worth over $1,000,000,000 — and she still owns a huge piece of it.

When asked how she did it, Sara said:

• “Start small, think big, scale slowly.”
• “Focus on one thing and do it better than anyone else.”
• “Clarity attracts. Confusion repels.”

These principles apply directly to raising capital in real estate — and most sponsors miss them.

At CAP X MEDIA, we help fix that.

1) Start small, think big.

Investors don’t fund potential…
 …They fund proof.

Your content, your brand, your messaging — they must show competence long before investors wire money.

We help you build that trust strategically.

2) Focus on one thing and nail it.

Most sponsors try speaking to everyone…
…So they connect with no one.

We help you:

• Clarify your message
• Simplify your story
• Own your niche

Because focused messaging raises capital.
Scattered messaging kills it.

3) Clarity attracts. Confusion repels.

Investors aren’t saying no to your deals.
They’re saying no to unclear communication.

We help you articulate:

• Your model
• Your track record 
• Your investor value

Clearly. Simply. Confidently.

Clarity raises capital.
Confusion raises doubt.

At CAP X MEDIA, our mission is simple:

• Build brand authority
• Craft investor-focused messaging
• Help you raise more capital with less friction

Want to raise capital the modern way?

DM “CAP X” and we’ll schedule an intro call.

Struggling to get any traction on LinkedIn?

Here’s the uncomfortable truth…


You can have:

• Solid hooks
• Clean formatting
• Clear CTAs

…and still get ignored.

Not because your content is bad.
 
Because the game changed.

Your text posts are fighting uphill against an algorithm that’s bored out of its mind.

Want to fix it?

Short-form video.

It’s getting 3× more engagement than text right now.

More impressions → more attention.
More attention → more leads.
 
Simple math.

But here’s what most people miss:

This window won’t stay open.
 
Every gold rush ends.
 
Once everyone floods LinkedIn with video, reach tanks.

So you can sit around polishing another text post…

Or you can ride the algorithm while it’s basically begging you to win.

If you’re a real estate investor or entrepreneur who wants predictable inbound leads on LinkedIn...

DM me “video” and let’s build something that actually moves the needle.

I Asked ChatGPT What Would Happen If Every Capital Raiser Started a Podcast (Here’s What It Said)


It said...

Most wouldn’t make it past episode 5.

Because the truth is…

Most capital raisers don’t have a lead problem.
They have a trust problem.

Everyone’s fighting for attention with recycled LinkedIn posts and “our latest deal” emails.

Meanwhile, the ones who win?

They’re the ones who own attention.

A podcast isn’t about going viral.

It’s about getting 100 serious investors to spend hours hearing your voice, your story, your conviction.

By the time they book a call, they already trust you.

They’ve heard you think.
They’ve heard you lead.

That’s leverage.

So no- not everyone should start a podcast.

Only the ones who want to stop begging for capital and start attracting it.

11 years ago, I auditioned for a Jack in the Box commercial…



My role?

A stone r who loved late night tacos.

Spoiler: I didn’t get the part.

But looking back...

Those auditions taught me something about life and business you don’t always get the “role” you thought you wanted.

Sometimes, the rejection just redirects you toward where you were actually supposed to perform.

Fast forward...

I’m not reading side anymore. 

I’m helping founders tell stories that actually land.

The camera changed, but the mission stayed the same: 

Get attention
Be real
Make people feel something

P.S. Still waiting on that chicken cheesy sandwich.

This One Mistake Is Costing You Millions in Investor Capital...



Most capital raisers are horrible podcast guests.

And nobody wants to say it… so I will.

You’re not going on podcasts to “share your journey.”
You’re going on to raise money and grow your pipeline.
 
Period.

But almost everyone screws up the one moment that actually moves dollars:

The Call to Action.

Here’s a real example of what NOT to do:

Host: “Where can people find you?”
 
Guest:

“Go to Capital Group dot com…”
“Or email me…”
“Or Google me…”
“Or contact Laura on my team…”

Four options! Zero clarity. No urgency.
 
A perfect recipe for watching warm leads evaporate.

IF you haven’t seen the clip 🙄 Stop and go watch it. It’s chaos.

Where it went wrong:

Too many choices. 
(Listeners don’t want a scavenger hunt.)

No clear direction. 
(Confusion kills conversions.)

No urgency. 
(Give them a reason to act right now.)

Podcast listeners are primed.
They already trust you.
They want the next step.

And if you don’t give it to them?

They move on. Fast.

How to Fix It (The Operator Way):

1. Pick ONE destination.
One link. One action. One funnel.

2. Make it stupid-simple.
Short. Memorable. Easy to type.

3. Add scarcity.
Eg:
 “Email me at joe@capital.com...
 ...First 3 listeners get a free 30 minute underwriting breakdown.”

Now you’ve created urgency.
 Now you’ve created action.
  Now you’ve created money.

Most people go on podcasts and waste the shot.
 
You fix your CTA, and your conversions will spike like asset prices in 2020.

Want to double your capital raise in 2026? DM me “easy mode."

3 months into learning guitar and I finally understand why most people quit...


It’s painfully slow.
Your fingers hate you.
Your strumming sounds like a lawnmower hitting a metal pipe (no joke).

And every YouTube teacher with perfect hair makes it look “so easy.”

Meanwhile, I’m over here celebrating that I switched G to C chord cleanly for once.

But here’s the kicker...

I’m actually loving it.
Not because I’m suddenly good.
Because it reminds me what it's like to learn something new.

That dying thirst for the unknown.

The need to reinvent yourself.
Humble yourself.
And enjoy yourself.

You don’t need to monetize everything.

You don’t need to chase followers.
 
You don’t need a KPI for every hobby.

Sometimes it’s healthy to suck at something.

It wakes you up.
 
It slows you down.
 
And it gives you permission to just be a beginner again.

Business is where I perform.
Guitar is where I breathe.

Three months in, I’m not trying to become a rockstar —
 I’m just trying not to scare the neighbors.

And honestly?

That’s enough for now.

In 2011, Netflix pulled a move 99% of companies are too soft to even attempt…



They didn’t “adjust pricing.”
They detonated a 60% increase overnight.

Customers went absolutely loco. 

800,000 vanished in a single quarter.
The stock got obliterated. 
Twitter mobs (back when that meant something) declared Netflix dead.

But here’s the psychology behind the move...

Weak companies optimize for comfort.
Strong companies optimize for control.

Netflix saw the truth...

DVDs were a slow-motion collapse.
Streaming wasn’t printing cash yet.
 
And trying to keep everyone happy would trap them in the worst place possible:

The middle.

So they did what real operators do...

They took the painful swing that created long-term leverage.

And that moment:

• Severed their dependence on physical products
• Forced total commitment to streaming
• Built the foundation of a global content empire

From the outside, it looked reckless...
...From the inside, it was strategic survival.

This is business 101:

Do what’s easy and your business becomes hard.
Do what’s hard and your business becomes unstoppable.
-
Have you ever taken short-term hate to build long-term leverage?

Don’t say: “6–8% pref.”
Do say: “8–6% pref.”
Here’s why…

Most operators talk about returns in a way that kills investor confidence without ever realizing it.

They anchor low.

“Most deals return around 6–8%.”

Great!?

Now the investor’s brain is locked onto six.

Six feels “normal.”
Seven feels “fine.”
Eight feels “maybe… if the stars align.”

Flip it:

“Most deals in this market land in the 8–6% range depending on structure.”

Now eight feels normal.
Seven feels logical.
Six feels like the conservative downside.

Same numbers.
Different order.

Totally different psychology.

But wait… won’t investors now expect the higher return?

No, because anchoring doesn’t create expectation.

Anchoring creates context.

Investors aren’t dumb.

They know the preferred return is a fixed number in the PPM.

You’re not changing the pref.
You’re shaping how they interpret the pref.

When you anchor high:

- Confidence increases

- The middle feels solid

- The low end feels conservative

The actual deal (say a 7% pref) lands stronger, not weaker.

You’re not promising eight…
You’re making seven feel normal, not disappointing.

This is how sophisticated operators communicate.

They don’t manipulate numbers.
They frame them in a way that builds certainty.

High-net-worth investors aren’t buying math.

They’re buying the conviction behind the math.

Happy Thanksgiving from The Baltzell’s 🦃🍁🎃

No alternative text description for this image

10 Reasons You Shouldn’t Start a Podcast.

 If you’re thinking about it… watch this first.


If you're a real estate investor and you want 2x your capital raises next year DM me "Capital" and I'll give you more details.

Valentine Boyev

Halo Lab — Your Digital Partner

Halo Lab is a full-stack design & development team.

We created digital projects almost every day since 2013.

We work with a diverse range of innovative startups and established companies. We've launched over 350 projects, helping our clients secure a total of $370M in funding. 

Some of our standout projects include:

- Kinetik: A healthcare platform with over 3,500 integrated providers.
- Bookclub24: A German online library for book collectors.
- Raven.gg: A leading brand in custom esports clothing design.
- Mighty Buildings: Pioneers in sustainable 3D-printed houses.

Co-Founder & CEO

OPUS

OPUS is a membership community for entrepreneurs, founders and business builders. We unite our members to create opportunities together by addressing isolation, knowledge and skill gaps through our digital platform, events & experiences, and partnerships, helping our members achieve their missions.

Member

Dribbble

Since 2013, I have partnered with Dribbble to enhance brand awareness and create new project opportunities for Halo Lab. Throughout this collaboration, I have played a key role in driving growth and expanding our presence in the industry.

Partner

CEO at Halo Lab ✦ Helped 500+ companies to raise 💲revenue and investments through digital design and marketing → $500M+ in client total funding

Results my company has delivered to my clients:

🔥 TutorChase — 1,000+ satisfied students.
🔥 DevelopHealth —  $2.3M raised in funding.
🔥 Felyx —  7.5% CR increase with our services.
🔥 LinkByCar — 18 car brands in their partnership.
🔥 Bookclub24 — #1 German online library for book collectors.

———————————————————————————

With a passion for creating unique and scalable digital products, I help brands achieve their goals and elevate their presence in the digital world.

Key Achivements:

✅ $370M in client total funding

✅ 500+ happy clients

✅ 99+ international awards

✅ 80+ glowing reviews


I specialize in:

⤷  Web Design Services: Creating eye-catching and user-friendly websites that grab attention and drive results.

⤷  Website Development: Building strong, reliable websites that fit your business perfectly.

⤷  User Experience Design: Making sure your users have a smooth and enjoyable experience.

⤷  Brand Design: Crafting unique brand identities that really pop.

⤷  Conversion Optimization: Helping turn your visitors into loyal customers.

⤷  Digital Web Solutions: Providing all the web solutions you need in one place.

⤷  Website Redesign for Results: Giving your old website a makeover to boost performance and engagement.

———————————————————————————

My Journey

My career began 15 years ago as a UI/UX designer, driven by a passion for creativity and beauty. For me, design is more than a job—it’s a way of life, an ever-exciting, fantastic world.

I believe in thinking outside the box and continuously renewing my knowledge. This mindset has guided me in helping people fall in love with brands and assisting agencies in winning new business.

———————————————————————————

Halo Lab

Another passion I discovered is mentoring young designers at Halo Lab, where I help them become true professionals. Sharing my knowledge not only helps others but also fuels my own learning journey.

———————————————————————————

Have BIG idea in mind?

Contact me directly: inquiry@halo-lab.com

“How much does it cost to design a website?”

Classic answer: “It depends.”

But that’s not helpful, especially when you’re trying to plan budgets and justify ROI to your board or investors.

So let’s break it down.

1. Landing page.
$1000–$5,000
A single conversion-focused page - ideal for campaigns or product launches.
Quick, simple, measurable. But every word and visual must work perfectly together.

2. Small business website.
$5,000 – $15,000
Usually 4–6 pages (Home, Services, About, Contact, maybe a Blog).
You get custom branding, a consistent UI, and a trustworthy structure that helps people understand and act.

3. eCommerce website.
$25,000 – $100,000
Product pages, filters, checkout flow, mobile optimization.
At this range, you’re investing in UX that prevents drop-offs and builds trust.

4. SaaS website.
$75,000 – $300,000
A good SaaS site tells your story, guides visitors to demos, and aligns with your product UI.

5. Enterprise website.
$20,000–$100,000+
Think of this as a digital ecosystem - dozens of templates, multilingual layouts, case studies, and complex integrations.

A website isn’t an expense. 
It’s your digital sales team that works 24/7.
And like any high-performer, it needs training, systems, and strategy behind it.

So the next time someone asks, “How much does it cost to design a website?”
The better question is “How much revenue am I losing by not investing in a site that converts?”

♻️ Share this to help others estimate better.
🔔 Follow Valentine Boyev for more updates!

CEO @ Halo Lab ✦ Leading a 130+ design-driven B2B software company → 500+ products shipped & scaled

“So… how much does it cost to build an MVP?”

That’s the question I get from almost every founder we talk to.

There’s no one-size-fits-all number, but there is a clear pattern in how MVP costs break down.

And understanding it early can save you from burning six figures in the wrong phase.

Typical MVP cost.

1. SaaS MVP: $30,000–$100,000 (more with complex backend or AI features).
2. Mobile App: $60,000–$150,000 (iOS + Android doubles cost unless cross-platform).
3. Marketplace: $30,000–$150,000 (multi-role logic and payments drive cost).
4. Internal Tool: $15,000–$100,000 (simpler UI but requires solid integrations).

How founders blow the budget:

1. Too many “nice-to-haves.”
You don’t need every feature. 
You need one that solves a real pain.
Amazon’s MVP sold only books, that’s it.

2. Reinventing what already exists.
Use Stripe, Auth0, Firebase, Twilio, not custom clones.
Integrating proven services can cut MVP costs by up to 60%.

3. Building all at once.
Launch the essentials (Phase 1), test, iterate, then scale.

4. Ignoring “hidden” costs.
Hosting, compliance, and early marketing add up fast.
Always keep a 20% buffer, it’ll save your runway when surprises hit.

5. Skipping validation.
A small discovery phase costs 5% of the budget but prevents 50% of rework later.

The best MVPs aren’t just cheap.
They’re intentional, focused, and fast to learn from.

♻️ Share if it was useful.
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7 rules I wish I knew earlier.

(to make the UI work for the product growth).

1. Focus on fixing real user problems, not curious design. Function over form.

2. Stop guessing what works. Test all UI elements - buttons, CTAs, days of the week, color schemes - before you make a decision. Let the data choose.

3. Waiting for the perfect design means you're going to miss the needs of your users. Get feedback early and iterate fast.

4. Do not make the user think. Use simple, clear language that anyone can understand. The simpler the better.

5. The best way to reduce friction is to eliminate a choice. Focus on what matters.

6. Your UI is never "finished." It will evolve with user feedback and as your product changes.

7. If your product isn’t optimized for mobile, you’re losing users. Make sure mobile works perfectly before scaling to the desktop.

Ultimately, outstanding UI is about making your product simple, clear, and effective for the people using it.
Design for your users, not for your ego.

What are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced in designing for usability?

♻️ Share this to help others avoid mistakes.
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You can hire a designer.

Or you can hire a design brain.

One gives you beautiful screens.
The other gives you a product that thinks.

When you hire a single designer, you get skills.
When you hire a team that works as one brain, you get experience that compounds.

At Halo Lab — Your Digital Partner, our teams don’t work in silos.
The UX researcher sees what frustrates users.
The product designer connects it to business goals.
The UI designer turns it into clarity and trust.
The developer translates it into something fast and functional.

Each person covers a blind spot the others can’t.
And together, they don’t just design, they solve.

That’s the difference between design as a task and design as a system.
Between a pretty interface and a product that scales, converts, and feels effortless to use.

When founders realize this, everything changes:

1. They stop hiring portfolios.
2. They start hiring thinking systems - teams that anticipate problems before they appear, align design with ROI, and build products that last.

If you’re scaling your product, don’t just hire a designer.
Hire a brain that’s trained to think like your users and build like your business depends on it.

🔔 Follow Valentine Boyev for more updates!

Most founders think a new design will fix performance issues.

It rarely does.

In fact, a full redesign done for the wrong reasons can hurt your brand, rankings, and pipeline.

At Halo Lab — Your Digital Partner, we’ve seen it repeatedly: what looks like a “design problem” is usually a structure problem.

Here’s how to tell the difference.

Don’t redesign if:
– Only a few pages underperform - fix those first.
– You’re already aligned with web conventions users expect.
– Your SEO is healthy (a rebuild could reset that progress).
– You lack data pinpointing what’s broken.
– The real issue is unclear messaging, not the layout.
– Conversion drops stem from slow load times or clunky forms, not visuals.

Do this instead:
– Refine your site structure and navigation logic.
– Rework content flow for clarity before aesthetics.
– Simplify forms and checkout - small changes, big ROI.
– Optimize speed; it lifts conversion faster than any redesign.
– Test incremental updates, measure, then scale what works.

A redesign should be your last resort, not your first instinct.
If users can’t find what they need or don’t understand what you do,
that’s not a design failure. That’s a communication gap.

Redesigns feel exciting.
But optimization delivers faster wins, lower risk, and measurable ROI.

At Halo Lab, we help companies uncover what actually needs fixing - structure, UX, or messaging - before spending six figures on a rebuild.

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The hardest thing about building an AI product is getting people to trust what it does.

You can create a great model all you want, but as soon as users feel the slightest bit of uncertainty, they are going to ponder, hesitate, and leave.

When founders build trust into the product experience, three things happen fast.

1. Users stop second-guessing and start exploring. First session activation goes up because they understand the what and whys.

2. Every click of trust compounds itself into usage, retention, and upsell. Without trust, the best AI feature will remain unused.

3. You do not have to wait for product market fit to learn how users actually feel. Trust patterns can save you weeks of guessing, and reduce the launch chaos.

4. Transparent UX with design-based trust cuts confusion before it even reaches support. No more "I am left wondering why it said that?" tickets or bad reviews for hallucinations.

Most AI products are built for power. 
The real winners are built for confidence.

✦

At Halo Lab — Your Digital Partner, we help founders design AI products users trust enough to actually use and pay for.
If that’s the stage you’re at, let’s chat.

♻️ Share this to help others build AI products.
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UI Patterns for AI products

Working with revolutionary teams is always exciting.

But being involved with a team that could potentially transform the way millions of people see and feel about themselves is an honour.

OmniBuds is creating the world’s first ear-worn AI/ML platform for real-time physiological monitoring.

That vision deserved an experience that felt just as innovative.

The first step was to design a digital ecosystem (app and website) that would convert complex data signals into a visual representation that users can understand and relate to quickly and easily.

We focused on three key pillars.

1. Clarity.

We designed intuitive, soothing visual representations of the complex multi-signal outputs of the AI.

2. Confidence.

The design of our user interface allows users to feel secure and informed about their health and wellness without feeling overwhelmed.

3. Scalability.

The design of our digital ecosystem supports the addition of new biosensors or biometric data and accommodates future generations of devices.

In conclusion, we have built a companion app that is capable of pairing devices, calibrating sensors, and tracking five vital signs (heart rate, respiratory rate, oxygen saturation, body temperature, and blood pressure).

Huge thanks to the OmniBuds team - your clarity, vision, and relentless drive made this collaboration special.

Thank you for trusting Halo Lab — Your Digital Partner to help bring such an important mission to life.

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OmniBuds Case Study

How can we make our busy lives a bit calmer and more growth-oriented? 

Routine Hero is the app for that. 
It's a habit-tracking app designed by Artgrafii.
And we are excited to share the background on one of our most significant collaborations.

The mission to bring mindfulness and structure to everyday life resonated with us at Halo Lab — Your Digital Partner.

We added a soft, warm look to draw attention to meaningful actions. When you combine that with thoughtful, user-centered UX design, the tracker becomes a creative canvas with clear, intuitive visualization.

The result?

✦ Higher engagement.
✦ Stronger emotional connection.
✦ A growing base of users who trust Routine Hero to help them stay grounded.

Since launch, Routine Hero has supported thousands of users to build sustainable routines, and reduce anxiety around routine-building practices.

Huge thanks to the team for trusting Halo Lab to bring your mission to life. 
It’s a privilege to design for products that make people’s days lighter.

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Routine Hero Case Study

The scariest part of building software isn’t the code.

It’s the bill at the end.

Most projects don’t fail because the idea was bad.
They fail because cost estimation was a guesswork.

The price of software depends on:

1. Scope & complexity → Features, integrations, third-party APIs.
2. Team composition → Seniority, location, skill sets.
3. Technology stack → Some tools demand more time & resources.
4. Design & UX → Often underestimated, but critical for adoption.
5. QA & maintenance → Testing, bug fixes, long-term support.

Ignore any of those, and the budget unravels.
An accurate estimate is about protecting your business from rework, scope creep, and missed deadlines.

The best teams don’t sell you a price.
They walk you through why it will cost that much and what risks you’re avoiding by doing it right.

Did your project cost what you expected?

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How to Estimate Software Development Costs

A few years ago, I worked with a product team that doubled its user base in six months.

Great milestone, until everything started breaking at once.

Buttons no longer fit real workflows.
Dashboards collapsed under new data volumes.
Features designed by different teams looked like they came from different companies.

That’s when it became obvious: you don’t scale by adding features, you scale by designing for growth.

Here’s what changed (today I call it the 5 pillars of scalable design):

1️⃣ We stopped designing screens.
We designed systems.
Modular components, reusable everywhere, so new features didn’t require redesigning the whole product.

2️⃣ We built a real design system.
Tokens, rules, documentation, ownership.
A structure any new designer or developer could plug into instantly.

3️⃣ We switched to adaptive layouts.
More roles, more data, more devices.
The UI had to flex without breaking clarity.

4️⃣ We future-proofed content.
No hardcoded text.
No rigid page structures.
Everything had to scale with localization, new markets, and dynamic data.

5️⃣ We optimized for speed.
Because nothing kills scalability like lag.
If a key screen doesn’t load in under 2 seconds, the experience collapses under growth.

Looking back, the real shift was in mindset.
Scalability isn’t a phase. It’s a discipline.

What’s been the biggest scalability bottleneck in your product so far?
Tech, design, or people?

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“We saved money choosing the cheaper option…

but paid for it three times over.”

And I’ve seen this story play out again and again.
The “cheap” choice looks good on paper.

But here’s what it usually costs you:
→ Extra months fixing broken systems.
→ Support teams buried in avoidable tickets.
→ Lost trust from customers who won’t come back.
→ Higher churn that eats away at revenue.

That “cheap” website, tool, or app?
It ends up being the most expensive decision you make.

What’s worth paying for:

1. Better UX = lower support costs.
2. Clearer onboarding = fewer drop-offs.
3. Scalable infrastructure = fewer rebuilds later.
4. Stronger design = higher conversion and trust.

Cheap is never just cheap.
It’s delayed launches, frustrated users, and lost growth.
The real ROI comes from durability, clarity, and trust.
Not the lowest upfront price.

What’s the most expensive “cheap” decision you’ve ever made?

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Hiring in-house designers & developers?

Check the real cost before you commit.

Many founders default to building an in-house team for their product.
But here’s what the numbers actually say:

🔹 In-house.
High salaries + benefits.
Recruitment delays + costs.
Equipment + admin overhead.

🔹 Dedicated team.
No hiring delays.
Immediate start with senior talent.
Clear monthly cost, no hidden overhead.

That’s cost saved you can keep for marketing, sales hires, or your next runway extension.

Dedicated teams aren’t just cheaper. They’re faster.
You skip 3-6 months of recruitment delays.
You get structured delivery and clear accountability.
While others are still hiring, you’re already shipping.

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A redesign driven by aesthetics rarely fixes business problems.

A redesign driven by user almost always does.

You just have to do it when you are certain of what’s broken and why.

1. When not to redesign.
If your brand feels stale but your product is functional, do not rebuild.
You likely need optimization, not rebuilding.

- Simplifying user workflows.
- Updating visual aspects to current design standards.
- Clarifying your value proposition through copy.


2. When a redesign is actually warranted
You can redesign when: 
- Users have outgrown your original logic of production.
- Your technology or architecture is restricting/making it difficult for you to grow.
- The perception of your brand is much more than what you deliver.
- All metrics indicate friction, and specifically not just aesthetic boredom.
That point is when design becomes a strategy tool versus a decoration exercise.

3. How to redesign without breaking everything.
We approach redesigns as a controlled evolution, not a revolution.

It starts with:

✅ Data: Identify and evaluate where users are actually struggling.
✅ Alignment: Balance your business goals with the the user needs.
✅ Phased rollout: Test, measure, iterate changes before scaling.

Good redesigns feel familiar yet new.
They keep the user oriented and provide a sense of progress.
Redesign is not for something new.
Redesign is for something to work.

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Most leaders will agree that "good UX matters."

But few can prove it in financial terms.

That’s where growth is slowly leaking.

When design is measurable, it is also scalable.
When it is scaleable, it is a competitive advantage.

This is what the math shows:

✦ Each $1 spent on UX returns between $2 and $100. (Forrester)

✦ A load time faster by 0.1 seconds can boost conversion up to 10%. (Deloitte)

✦ 18% of customers abandon the website because the site is hard to use. Baymard Institute)

✦ Companies with design maturity outperform similar companies by 2x in revenue and shareholder returns. (McKinsey Design Index)

So why measure your UX ROI?
Because if you do not measure it, design becomes "subjective."

When you measure it, you have a lever to influence:

1. Conversion rates and average order value.
2. Operational efficiency and support costs.
3. Customer lifetime value and churn.

Here’s how leading companies do it:

1. Benchmark experience metrics – funnel conversion, time-to-task, support volume.
2. Make UX optimizations – simplify flows, reduce friction, increase clarity.
3. Measure the delta – either revenue, savings or time.
4. Quantify into dollars.

UX isn't about how good your product looks.
It's about how much it earns.
When organizations measure that, UX is no longer subjective.

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How to Measure the ROI of UX

A few months ago, I evaluated a health app that checked all the boxes.

It had great features, was built in a compliant way, and looked fresh and modern.

However, something was… off.

It looked too good. 
It seemed too generic. 
It was too cold, feelings-wise.

Then the realization hit: it was all about the feelings.
In verticals like fintech, healthtech, or SaaS, trust is a feeling that your product builds through every click.

When users cannot see your team, your process, your ethics, they are reading your interface.
Over the years, I’ve come to realize that design is not only about usability, its about the assurance.

1. Demonstrate safety, don’t cover it.
If your product deals with the sensitive aspects, let users see you are protecting it. Make trust visible, not hidden in a footer.

2.  Clarity is more credible than cleverness.
Everyday language feels believable vs trends and hype.
Users will trust you faster when they understand right away.

3. Consistency yields confidence.
Every inconsistency in color, layout, scheme, or logic shouts “unstable.”
In high-stakes spaces, unstable products destroy trust.

At Halo Lab — Your Digital Partner, we've realized this through real product work.
Every successful launch had one thing in common: the design felt human.
Users trust how technology treats them.
And that's the design that lasts - the design that builds trust, click by click.

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How design earns belief in high-risk products

A few months ago, one of our partners came up with a challenge.

“We’ve raised our Series A, we have product-market fit, but we’re stuck in endless design-dev loops. Can we ship an MVP that investors can demo this quarter, not next?”

We delivered it in 42 days.
Here’s what actually made it possible.

1. 10-day strategy sprint.
We used a pre-built discovery framework with templates for personas, flows, and decisions on technology stacks.
We only focused on the unknowns and skipped documenting the things that the team has already validated.
The result was a 70% faster alignment phase while maintaining context.

2. Parallel design & development.
In traditional teams, design "hands off" to devs, and that is where weeks go to die. 
We run parallel pipelines: The dev team starts building the architecture and reusable components in parallel. 
We do design QA in a sprint and not at the end.
The result: Reduced the cycle from design → dev delay from 3 weeks to 10 days.

3. Reusable design systems.

4. Senior leads keep hands-on.
Every project has a lead designer, tech lead, and PM who stay involved daily, not just at kickoff.
You speed delivery up by removing the invisible friction between discovery, design, and dev.

At Halo Lab — Your Digital Partner, we build like product teams.
That’s how we move from “idea” to “investor demo” faster without cutting corners.

If you’re a founder racing toward your next funding milestone, DM me.

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“We have an amazing product”.

“But users keep leaving before they even see the value.”

It’s not the product.
 It’s the experience.

And it happens because of:

1. A free trial signup that feels like applying for a loan.
Users quit before they even start.

2. Weak onboarding.
No quick win. No guidance. Churn in days.

3. Cluttered screens.
The features users need most get buried.

4. Hidden pricing.
 Confusion erodes trust before renewal.

5. No in-app guidance after the trial.
Users convert, but never adopt advanced features.

When you fix the UX, you fix the revenue.
 – Quick signup.
 – Clear onboarding.
 – Transparent pricing.
 – Continuous education.

That’s what turns users into loyal customers.

Founders: Which of these mistakes do you see most often in SaaS products?

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"Hiring own designers will be cheaper and faster.”

But look at the numbers.
They tell a different story.

✦ Time-to-hire is slow.
The average time to hire a UX/UI designer in the U.S. is 41 days (LinkedIn Hiring Report).
Senior designers? Often 55–60 days.
Add onboarding and culture fit, and you’re looking at 3–4 months before they’re fully effective.

Dedicated design teams?
Kickoff happens in 1–2 weeks with established workflows already in place.

✦ Total cost is higher than salary.
Average U.S. UX/UI designer salary: $85,000–$110,000/year (Glassdoor).
Add benefits, payroll taxes, equipment, software licenses, office overhead = 30–40% more.
That’s $120,000–$150,000 per designer, per year.
Now consider that most in-house teams need:
 - Product designer.
 - Brand specialist.
 - UX researcher.
 - UI designer.

That can quickly run $500K–$600K+ annually.
Dedicated teams?
You pay for deliverables, not overhead. 
With flexible scaling as needs change.

✦ Hidden risks of in-house.
Design turnover is high: UX/UI attrition sits around 20% in tech (UXPA survey).
Losing one designer mid-project stalls progress: recruiting + onboarding adds months.
Dedicated teams spread expertise across roles, reducing single points of failure.

In-house design isn’t “bad.”
But it’s slower, riskier, and more expensive to get outcomes at speed.

Dedicated teams let you:
1. Scale up or down instantly.
2. Access specialists without hiring 4+ roles.
3. Get results faster without HR bottlenecks.
4. The real cost of in-house isn’t salary.

It’s the delay, the overhead, and the risk of burnout or attrition.

Where do you see design bottlenecks most - hiring, retention, or delivery speed?

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Incredible ideas stall due to weak partnerships.

It usually takes place in stealth.

Updates slow to a crawl.
The "senior devs" you met disappear from your calls.
Modifications to the budget shift from a "must" to "small" and you are suddenly bleeding money.

By Sprint 2, you realize that you didn't just hire a team, you hired a risk.

Here are ways to identify risk before you spend months working on a project:

1. Always ask about the team that will be running your project and who will stay after kickoff.

2. Too good to be true.
A low price always gets expensive. Low bid quotes hide re-work, missed deadlines and never ending "extras" that only come to light after the process has started.

3. A good team should manipulate the project to meet your goals, your stack, your workflow, not force their workflow on you.

4. Silence between sprints.
Try to schedule meetings during, not after, the process, establish weekly meetings, and leverage transparency.

5. Be sure to clarify IP ownership up front, make sure it's in writing.

6. Wrong domain skills. Ask for proven case studies.

7. No plan after launch. Make sure to ask about supporting you in scaling, not just shipping.

That’s how you find a dev partner who builds fast and right, not cheap (and now).

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Most SaaS teams think churn is a “product problem.”

Often, it’s a UX problem.

Specifically, these 3 patterns that silently destroy retention right when you’re trying to scale.

✦ Onboarding overload.

Your onboarding experience is doing too much → users never experience the “aha”.

Signs:

Your users see 30–60% drop off between signup → first key action.
Your users either defer their actions to “do this later”.
Your users either skip or quit onboarding tours.

Solutions:

- Prefill + auto setup wherever possible.- 
- Cut straight to the core metric (1 simple path).
- Eliminate features that your retained users aren’t using.
- Hide advanced options/features until user is successful once.

Measure: TTV, D1/D7/D30 retention, activation rate to first action, cohort comparison.

✦ Spammy + Manipulative UX.

Over-notifying, misleading, or hiding data practices will kill trust quickly.

Signs:

"Spammy” complaints.
Push for opt-outs + unsubscribes increases.
Session starts decrease after notifications are initiated.

Solutions:

- Quality vs. quantity: notify only when it helps now.
- Preference center for channel, topic, and frequency.
- Clear, human-centric language about privacy (no mention of legal slime).
- Remove dark patterns (don't do pre-checked boxes or hidden exits).

Measure: Notification CTR vs disable rate, complaint rate, NPS after comms change, retention deltas.

✦ Big-Bang redesign that breaks user habits.

A complete UI redesign with no guidance = instant churn.

Signs:

Returning users can’t find basic features.
Spike in support tickets (“where did x go?”).
Power-user activity drops immediately after launch.

Solutions:

- Roll out in phases + A/B test in advance of full launch.
- Quick in-product tours that respect muscle memory.
- Temporary “Classic mode” or quick old→new map.
- Collect feedback + iterate on a weekly basis.

Measure: Task success pre/post, ticket volume, usage recapture curve, old-vs-new retention.

Before you build more features, fix these UX leaks.
They’re cheaper to solve and improve retention faster than any new roadmap item.

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