Elias Rubel

NoBoringDesign (NBD)

The go-to design agency for portcos at Sequoia Capital, A16Z, Bessemer, Y Combinator, TechStars etc.

Ship campaigns, brand, and web design with an on-demand creative team for less than the cost of an in-house resource. 

Some of our prior client includes: Dropbox, Loom, Stord, Calm, Yelp, and countless other brands you know.

Matter Made

Companies like Dropbox, Hopin, G2, Calm for Business, Loom, Productboard and many others rely on Matter Made to smash their yearly growth targets through best in class Go-To-Market programs.

Our work ranges from championing high velocity digital campaigns, to driving Account Based Marketing programs, to diving deep into persona driven messaging & positioning, to launching Product Led Growth Initiatives, to full funnel conversion rate optimization.

Our clients range from post-IPO enterprises, to fast growing scale-ups backed by Sequoia Capital, True Ventures, NEA, Redpoint, and just about every other big name in the valley.

www.mattermade.co

Northbeam

Early advisor and investor. This team is absolutely crushing.

Advisor, Investor

GTMfund

Offline Ventures

Thrilled to be backing the team at Offline. Some of my favorite portfolio investments to-date include XMTP, Clubhouse, and Notion.

Endgame

Investor 

Grain

Advised on early GTM and invested in Series A

Investor

TestBox

Leading the Customer-Led Buying revolution. Hands-on product testing that gives buyers confidence, while sellers close more deals faster than ever before.

Marketing Advisor

Tribe Capital

Thrilled to be backing the team at Tribe. Some of my favorite portfolio investments to-date include Carta, Bolt, Pipe, and Front.

Dropbox

Marketing advisor to the President at Dropbox. 

Advising on revenue expansion and strategic areas for growth within Dropbox Core / GTM motions for new product initiatives in partnership with their talented Product, Marketing, and Growth teams.

Advisor

CEO of Matter Made. Helping companies like Dropbox, G2, Calm for Business, Loom, Productboard and many others drive efficient growth through best in class Paid Media & Demand Gen programs.

Investor / LP:
- A16Z
- Accel Ventures
- Tribe Capital
- GTMFund
- Offline Ventures

Angel Investor:
- Endgame
- Northbeam
- Grain
- Folk

Marketing Advisor (current & past):
- Dropbox
- Loom
- Productboard
- Grain
- TestBox
- G2

Past Life: 

- First SaaS business was acquired in late 2014. Took a motorcycle trip through all of Central America post acquisition. 

- Acquired an eCommerce company in 2016 with the goal of branching out of the traditional startup ecosystem to learn something new. Grew the 10 year old business's revenue by 498% in the first 12 months. Sold to PE in 2019.

Two fun facts: 
- I used to own a motorcycle shop in CA (my passion project in an attempt to connect hobbies with work). 
- I rowed for Team USA at the 2018 World Rowing Coastal Championships against 24 other nations and am currently ranked 15th in the world for Mi2x.

For the past two years I’ve been totally burnt out and ashamed. 

Burnt out after having my business crash from $4.2M in EBITDA down to the studs.

Burnt out after going through the incredibly painful process of going from a team of 40 to a team of 10. 

Ashamed of being a services founder in a sea of hyped up tech founders, out to find their own gold rush. 

I felt like a failure. An imposter. A nobody. 

Candidly, I had been avoiding LinkedIn like the plague because it only held up a mirror for my insecurities. 

But I put one foot in front of the other. 

I focused on what I DID have. And very very slowly, I began to come back to life. 

—— 

And so, today marks a massive shift for me personally. 

I’m no longer hiding. 

I’m no longer interested in being ashamed of my failures or my success. 

I started off my career cleaning soiled sheets off beds at a motel you could rent by the hour. 

Sitting here today, I have succeeded beyond my wildest dreams and there’s so much more building to do.

So from here on out I’m going to be HERE.

I’m going to be sharing the knowledge I’ve amassed, some through pain, some through (manufactured) luck, some through determination. 

I’m going to share how I’ve managed to balance being a father to two under three while running a brand new services startup (NoBoringDesign) AND continuing to grow my five year old performance agency (Matter Made). 

I’m going to share how I’ve managed to keep profitability in the 7 figures since 2019, while working less than 25 hours per week, prioritizing my fitness pursuits and time with my family. 

I don’t think this content will be for everyone here. It’s not meant to be.  

It’s meant for the employee who’s been dreaming of going out on their own someday.

Or for the exec who just started their first consulting firm after leaving a decades long career elsewhere. 

Or for the entrepreneur slogging it out, wondering how to make it all work.

Or for the parent curious what it would be like to balance life with starting their own thing.

Or for you, my reader, if you happen to find this interesting, whatever your situation may be. 

From today forward I’ll be building my new startup (NoBoringDesign) in the open. 

Sharing the process as I sprint to hit my baseline metric for business viability - $1M in EBITDA. 

Join along for the ride if you’d like - I’ll be here :) 

#entrepreneurship #letsdothis

Eli Rubel

$9.8M in profit since 2020. Working 25h/wk. Art school drop out. Building in the open. Join me.

How can professionals balance work and family life?

What is EBITDA and why is it important for businesses?

Today is a first for me.

I'm sharing all of our internal metrics publicly.  

Profit. Revenue. NRR. You name it, it's in the vid.

I'll be posting candid updates about the journey of building NoBoringDesign here every Monday. 

So here goes nothing. What do you think? 

Anything you'd like to see me talk about or share in next weeks update?

What are some tips for building a successful company?

What can we expect from NoBoringDesign's Monday updates?

In 2022 I screwed up and let a lot of people down

But these people weren’t on my team, or even folks I know personally

Leading up until that year we had a program at Matter Made that had us donating tens of thousands of dollars each year to charities all over the globe

Our program was simple, and inspired by Mark Benioff’s legendary approach to corporate philanthropy and responsibility.

I named it our 1/50/50 program

The goal was to turn all internal team members into active philanthropists

The program took 1% of our revenues and distributed it evenly evenly across all team members, who then picked one local charity they were passionate about in their community and one international charity doing great work on a broader scale

But when the tech market took a dump, I didn’t have the resilience as a leader to keep it up

I got selfish and went into “protect the fort” mode

And then a very human thing happened. Time moved on and I forgot all about the work we used to do

Then, last week, something changed

I was catching up with a good friend and fellow business owner Carl Nickel, and he shared with me his personal ethos on giving.

I won’t share the specifics here for the sake of privacy, but let me tell you, I was floored and inspired.

So I went back to the drawing board last night (when I should have been sleeping) and came up with a new giving program.

Building on my lessons learned the first time, and challenging myself to push harder the second time, here’s the commitment:

Starting next month, NoBoringDesign will begin donating 5% of our profits to charities in our team members local communities with the goal of reducing food insecurity for children.

It may not be a big number now, but it will grow

As employers, we “take” from our employees (their skills, dedication, time)

And while I don’t believe in much of the fluffy Coddle Culture silicon valley has gone nuts with in recent years..

I do believe we have a responsibility to give back to the communities our team members come from and invest in the future generations to come.

So leaders - let’s talk giving. What’s your ethos on giving at the corporate level? How have you approached this in the past?

And more broadly for those future leaders who are currently employed by others, have you been part of a team you felt was working to make a measurable impact in your community?

#responsibility #leadership #corporatephilanthropy

PS - in the past I haven’t shared about any of this publicly because the point is giving, not talking about giving - that said, I rarely see people having conversations here about how we as leaders can push the ball forward on this front, so I felt it was worth starting the conversation.


How can leaders approach corporate giving?

Had a blast eating way to many tacos and more BBQ than any body was meant to handle in Austin last week with a handful of awesome humans. See ya'll next year 🤙  

Peep Laja, Alexander Theuma, Robin Izsak-Tseng, Liam Martin, Will Radcliffe, Ramli John, Wes Bush, Osman Koc, Isaiah Studivent, Chalique Seabron, Kanad Bahalkar, Rytis Lauris

Thrilled to announce Jasper AI has selected Matter Made as their Paid Media agency of record ⚡️🤖

Huge thanks to Tom Newton, Timothy Young, and the rest of the talented crew over at Jasper for putting their trust in my team at Matter Made.

Let's do this thing 💃 

Every day you wake up there’s a choice to be made.

Push, coast, or hide.

Some days I make this choice consciously.

Most days I run on autopilot, and autopilot can be a dangerous place to operate from.

People rely on me, and it’s not fair to hide or coast when others need your support and enablement.

That said, sometimes in the real world (and this is the real world after all), as much as I’d love to say it’s all about push push push…

Sometimes - it’s just nice to a have a few days of hiding. Or a few weeks of coasting.

And guess what - we’re not saving lives over here - we’re playing the adult version of monopoly.

Everything is going to be fine.

You know what isn’t fine - burning yourself out because you think you always have to be pushing.

It’s not worth beating yourself up.

LIfe’s too short.

So be nice to yourself.

Embrace the days you feel like coasting so that on the days you are ready to push, you can push that much further.

——

Q for the hive brain: How do you approach setting the tone for yourself each day? 

#entrepreneurship #mindset

How important is self-care in the workplace?

What are the potential consequences of burnout?

What are some tips for maintaining a healthy work-life balance?

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