Buffet, 7 Million and 2 Years Later

The date was September 5th, 2023. I remember telling three of our clients at the time that I wanted to try out a new model. It was like Netflix: you pay a fixed fee each month, and we deliver unlimited designs. The only safeguard I could think of to protect us from getting overwhelmed was to limit the number of concurrent requests.

The three clients thought about it and quickly said yes. One week later, we launched Buffet to the public. I’m still eternally grateful—some of them are still subscribing today. We embarked on a journey that turned out to be profoundly impactful for both us and our clients.

Now, two years later, after plenty of trials and errors and with the support of more than ten subscribing clients, Buffet has officially generated over 7 million in revenue on top of our other fixed-scope projects. We have a lot to share.

Let me be clear: running a design agency is not an easy job, nor is it a highly profitable one. But I’m fortunate to say that I get to push pixels and code for a living, sitting in front of a computer where my time is at my own disposal rather than someone else’s. I don’t have to work late hours or answer phone calls from a boss at night. For that, I’m thankful, thankful to be running a somewhat successful business that also allows for a balanced life. That said, it comes with challenges. Let’s start with the pros.

We never imagined we’d one day sign a million-dollar contract with any single client, not in this economy and not at our scale. With Buffet, we’ve set records for what a single client is willing to pay, and then kept breaking them. In the traditional model, clients assign a task, we come up with a number, we deliver the work, and they get their design. They might say thanks (though often they don’t), and then they churn. If we were lucky, or if the work dazzled them, they might return after a year or two. But there were never any guarantees.

With Buffet, they stay with us. That brings me to the second point.

We’ve all had opportunities to work with amazing clients in the past, but sometimes the timeline or budget just didn’t allow us to do the work we really wanted. We knew we had more to give, more to explore, more to express, and the clients often felt the same. But the resources just weren’t there. With Buffet, that limit disappears. Within reasonable bounds, we’re free to try different directions and explore more deeply. With projects like OneKey, where we manage every aspect of their marketing website, we can revamp and refine every detail as if it were our own. That leads to better results and stronger outcomes.

I’d say being able to do deep work is the most valuable thing. We’ve pushed the boundaries of what our studio can do, and of what a designer can do.

Of course, this model comes with its own catches. One of the biggest is that we often get overwhelmed, either by the amount of work we’ve promised under contract, or by the constant switching of contexts. Designers might spend the morning on static product design and then fire up Blender in the afternoon for a 3D video proposal. That kind of switching is exhausting and brings more challenges than ever.

But we’ve pulled through so far. After two years of running Buffet, we’ve grown both as a team and as individuals. We’ve learned how to balance time across projects, how to pick up new skills and tools, and how to meet new and unexpected design challenges from our clients. For that, we’re grateful.

So that’s the story of Buffet so far. We hope it inspires you to step out of your comfort zone and try something that may or may not work. If you’re interested in working with us, we have a seat for you.