We are returning to an era where hardware determines compute but on new terms. Whereas the early days were marked by packing transistors to shrink operations, the new explosion of pervasive compute is about matching processes with the right product. Just at this moment when computers are dematerializing knowledge work they are beginning to materialize or cause to exist countless more machines and smart devices that will be transforming the appearance, culture and operations of earth, the moon and beyond.

As upheaval comes to every industry, as it cyclically has in history, there are times when man must pause and inquire what work is worth pursuing now? And given the new conditions for society, what kinds of pursuits have become newly possible? Comparative advantage? Invisible opportunities? If the puck is moving as fast as many say it is then we should honestly view our early pursuits as a company or as an expert as simply bridges through to the higher sustained orbit which we sense is reachable but also necessary for survival. Orbit or obsolete.

It is not specific jobs or industries which are now setting, it is a whole broad set of civilizational assumptions which are being overturned, sifted, and re-stated all at the same time. A highly ancient and astoundingly novel environment for human life seems to be emerging where emphasis will be on the fundamental building blocks of existence, from the rural village up through to lunar landscapes.

Coupled with the need to keep living is our renewed need to keep producing and also creating novel solutions to the insatiable impulse to produce. Solutions which can extend and expand opportunities for living in old and new places. The arm became augmented by the windmill, by steam, coal and then by our system of wires. Now, as the coal empires find new footing, AI is empowering vast new possibilities for society and industry. Democratized expertise is enabling millions of minds to channel wind at the sails adding to the directs that everything is taking.

The goods and services needed for life and work in all there aspects are if anything exploding. Meanwhile the leveers to directly influence and intervene in the new great experiment, though seemingly countless, are but few in number when looked at from a physical standpoint. The opportunity for Babb and new companies like it centers on a simple level poorly understood by the public but of foremost priority to today’s engineer, the microcontroller or in common terms as it will surely be forever known, the microcomputer.

We are collectively on a quest to enter the Second Age of Mobile Business. The heroes forging ahead are an unlikely cast of collaborators and journey partners, but isn’t that always the case for big adventures? We’ve met the Carpenter but who else is uniquely positioned to pass on the skills and insights needed to get where we’re going?

Over many posts, and through hundreds of images, diagrams and videos, we’ll be introducing you to an array of characters but this initial group below forms a basic core that will see us through. In no particular order we present to you the Heroes of the Second Age:

The Street Vendor

The Small Farmer

The Carpenter

The Shopkeeper

The Skilled Labourer

The Mover

The Mechanic

The Salesman

The Inspector

As with a time portal or star gate, the place we’re trying to get to is ultimately just a step away. Our challenge, the big task of the characters above, is to acquire the right information and insights quickly enough in order to assemble the needed technology that helps us leap ahead. Looking past the valley of apps and subscriptions and other forces of time and money depletion, a new horizon is showing itself. In our tale, the special technology can only be completed and put into use when the makers and users have a clear picture of how and why it operates.

If our heroes can succeed in all of this and enter into stronger competition with their white collar colleagues, the outcome is likely to be a greatly enlarged pie not a re-divided one. Our cast of workers thus far have been bound by the tools and business models of the White Collar world that naturally created tools and models in its own image. The time has come for each side to learn from the other, for a better balance.

Is it possible that the ways of the working world offer simpler approaches to all kinds of tasks and quests? Call us crazy but this looks very likely!

When down in the heart of this Valley, its immensity and awesomeness can lull us into believing it’s all there is. Its atmosphere and conditions become the norm and it’s hard to imagine a different kind of operating environment. But just ahead lies the Plateau. A stabler environment where different tools and habits are needed for survival. The Plateau doesn’t replace the Valley, it thrives because of its life and vitality. But nonetheless the Plateau has a life of its own. It’s where Working Heroes operate and build their dreams.

I gabbed with whomever I could about the topic, listening to guys struggles to lead and learn while racing from sites to stores to gas stations in an never-ending circuit. But more than anything else, I slowly began studying me. I found myself fully living out the problems that I had set out years earlier to understand and assist with when living in Windsor and working as a landscaper.

But, of course, what I thought very early on were the main problems were just skin-level concerns. The daily, critical problems of the solo tradesman lay alot deeper, and it took me being in the arena and in the truck daily to start understanding the types of long-term solutions that are needed which have the potential for massive impact across our old and emerging economies.

Before I was thrust by life into the driver’s seat of a moving company, I was simply a would-be founder with no track record and no technical expertise in software or product design. What I did possess though was a formal and informal education in urban development, and a deep-seated passion for placemaking and the problems of local growth. I was concerned with the network of people that make building places possible and hadn’t yet appreciated the importance of individual project ownership.

Highland Park via Incremental Development Alliance

In 2015, I had discovered one convincing solution to the issues of good growth that was focused on spreading property development expertise to anyone willing. Immersion in this community of builders coupled with my growing interest in software startups led to a fixation on digital solutions to local development. I was seeing a way that I could serve these ecosystems with products that enhanced general coordination. Only issue was, I lacked any real appreciation for the science of startups, the diverse arts that founders must master, and the strong need to be very intimate with the problem you’re addressing. The more I studied startups the more this requirement was being repeated in every talk or book I came across. Looking at my situation, I didn’t see how I could go that route, and truth be told I was basically wishing the requirement away. No surprise then, my ability to conceptualize a problem clearly and develop a winning product led me to pivot in circles.

Looking back, my attempt to wear the hat of the Solo Developer and imagine their needs marked my shift from thinking about groups to planning for individuals. It was a critical stage that will bear future fruit, but up to that point I had still not lived out any particular problem. I had simply observed or imagined others in their struggles. Informative, inspiring, but insufficient for generating a powerful product let alone pursuing a true blue ocean.

In 2021, after 2 years of prototyping and playing founder, I had storyboarded and fully architected several products that wrestled with the problems of coordination but nothing I created reached a fundamental level of design. The bedrock lay further still and only direct experience would unlock the primary principles I was seeking.

One of my earliest problem statements wasn’t quite over the target yet but it does represent fundamental observations that have been carried forward into Babb’s founding phase.

People who exclusively use SMS and WhatsApp for business communications frequently lose track of key information, dates and documents - leading to missed chances for revenue, hiring & growth.

This represented the first of several unique insights that I obtained by participating in and eventually living the problem. It indicates what Clayton Christensen called the “job to be done”. Whereas my white collar colleagues were dismissing these demographics as uneducated or unwilling to adopt business tools, I was being bolstered by the talks and teachings of Christensen to recognize in the stubborness of Tradesmen a demand for simplicity and durability that would raise the bar in business, not lower it.

My next problem statement retained a group focus but started to gain some specificity for a target market and the contours of a successful solution.

Tradesmen and laborers working in teams of less than 10 struggle to expand or strike out on their own because of job scheduling, bookkeeping and payroll demands.

This problem definition was highlighting the critical importance of spawning and new team development which happens rapidly and repeateldy in the trades. The slower it occurs the slower that everything begins to move. The better we can lower the barriers to side hustling and new business registration, the quicker the economy. If any worker is potentially a business leader, then it made sense to fully zone in on the individual, figure out their common challenges, and test for preferred solutions.

Tradesmen who lead teams of 10 or less must wear every hat while always on the go. Keeping up with administration feels impossible. Record keeping suffers, leads get lost, growth stalls.

Now I was getting visceral. I had lived the problem for two years while operating a moving company that I started with just my ‘09 Ford Ranger. I was revisiting earlier pitches that I had drafted prior to my leadership of two small moving teams. Focus was now strongly on the money and relationships that made everything move. The root of the problem was framed like this:

Tracking who owes who what, why, when and where - becomes difficult the busier things get. Accounts Payable and Payroll suffer from delays and errors, hurting the personal relationships that these individuals rely on.

And based on this, I stated the solution this way:

A mobile app for managing a variety of work relationships, based on debts & cash flows.

That’s a brief overview of how I got to the point of outlining and wrestling with the problem but here is what I discovered in detail after 5 years as a mobile proprietor who organized and performed jobs while playing every other role including sales and payroll.

COMPLETE PART TWO

Among all professions, these business consumers are viewed as holdouts, as sometimes illiterate, and very often difficult to sell to. In whatever State or Province you find them, they are ‘good with what they got’. It’s widely known that out of all business owners, these guys in particular get bookkeeping and administrative help from their wives. They know their crafts and prefer to stay focused on them. They get help from family because their enterprises are family affairs. Greater than 80% of Trades teams in the United States are made up of 10 people or less, and of that the great majority are teams with less than 5. Estimated size of the Trades sector in USA is 8M. Leaders of these teams focus on job acquisition, staff management, sourcing of materials, milestones and inspections, payroll and cash flow projections.

To be certain, they have many specific habits and needs that makes them a solid niche market on their own. But the powerful insights that studying these groups yields has potential impact far beyond these sectors, spinning out across whole economies. They are not the only Mobile Proprietor but in the social imagination they are the quintessential ‘guy on the go’. Everything is managed on the job and on the move, often 6 days a week. Physical fatigue leaves little time in the evenings to play catch up on a laptop, which holds true for skilled labourers of all kinds. For many, they’d rather avoid the laptop all together and devote home time to family.

All the duties listed above get performed nowadays using the mobile phone under blazing suns and winter skies. Continuous texts and calls, notes, images, important dates and reminders, the flow never ends. The Lead Carpenter / Foreman is an information processing centre doing his best to practice what he loves while buried under the countless hats he must wear. One hand holds his tools, the other his mobile. Should he really be holding on to and fishing out a “phone”? What kind of digital tool should be in his other hand in this second age of mobile?