My own streetwear webshop. Every role in an e-commerce operation, held by one person.
The problem
I was 23 and wanted to know if I could sell something I designed to strangers on the internet. So I built the brand, the products and the shop, and bought the traffic myself.
The approach
A Shopify store I built and ran alone — every part of the operation: product development and sample testing, product registration and product data, brand identity and design, paid social in Meta Ads Manager (creatives, targeting, budgets), order handling, shipping and returns, customer service, and the payment stack (Stripe). Production was sourced overseas, and every sale came through ads I wrote and ran myself.
The result
1.7 million NOK in revenue over two seasons, with a best month of 316,000 NOK. Profit landed at zero. The revenue taught me I can sell; the zero taught me everything else I now do differently.
What went wrong
Production ran in China and delivery could take weeks. I went quiet when things were slow, and returns handling fell behind — some customers were angry enough to write it down publicly, and they had a point. The margin math I did after closing should have been done before launching. Most expensive lesson I own, and the reason every system I build now starts with a baseline, a measured margin and honest customer communication.
Decision log
2025
Shut the shop down
The unit economics said stop. Revenue is vanity when the margin is zero — I stopped.