20 years of shipping, pointed at one problem: small businesses growing their revenue.

I've spent 20 years building things across technology, education, the Department of Defense, and my own companies. Launched products that are still running, hired teams, lost money, made it back, and learned most of what I actually know by getting things wrong in public and paying close attention.

Now I'm focusing that into Startup Lab 24, a startup lab in Ann Arbor, MI that experimentally validates apps for small businesses. Every product starts as an ideation and development experiment with one real business, the design partner, and once it's validated there we take it to market penetration and scalability across the whole vertical.

The lab's directionLinkedIn

Irfan Mahmood

Founder & CEO

Founder record
NAMEIRFAN MAHMOOD
ROLEFOUNDER & CEO
LABSTARTUP LAB 24
BASEAnn Arbor, MI
SINCE2024

Where I've been.

Six entries, in order. Each one left something behind that the studio still runs on.

Career span
SPAN20 YEARS OF BUILDING
DOMAINSTECHNOLOGY / EDUCATION / DEPT. OF DEFENSE / OWN COMPANIES
STUDIOFOUNDED 2024, ANN ARBOR
ENTRIES6 LOGGED
  1. 01The early years

    Building things that had to work

    I started out building systems for institutions that couldn't afford for them to fail: admissions, enrollment, student records. Reliability became a habit before it became a principle.

  2. 02Cross-border

    Shipping education products across countries

    Years building learning and operational systems used across multiple countries. Different rules, different contexts, same core question: does this actually help the person using it?

  3. 03Department of Defense

    Working where the standard was higher

    I've done work in contexts connected to the Department of Defense, where the bar for quality, accountability, and discipline was further up than anywhere I'd worked before. It sharpened how I think about specs, testing, and trust.

  4. 04Own companies

    Running the thing yourself

    Launched products that are still running today, hired teams, lost money, made it back. Half of what I know about building comes from the other half, from getting things wrong in public and paying close attention.

  5. 052024

    Startup Lab 24

    I consolidated everything into one studio in Ann Arbor, with owned software and direct decision-making. Each product starts bespoke: we embed with one real business, solve their problem in code, then strip the specifics and serve the whole vertical.

  6. 06Now

    Software small businesses pay for

    Pointing the lab at one thing: apps that grow small businesses' revenue and solve their consumer problems. Our recurring revenue comes from theirs.

Our MRR comes from our customers' MRR. When the software grows their revenue, we've earned the subscription. When it doesn't, we haven't.

That is the whole test. It is why every product starts on-site with one real business instead of a roadmap, and why we keep running the ones we ship.

The studio's five principles

A few things I've come to believe.

Four positions I hold hard enough to run a studio on. They decide what we build, what we refuse, and when we admit a product has not earned its subscription.

  1. 01On the leftovers

    I've seen firsthand what bad software costs a small business. They've been handed the leftovers for too long, and I'm not okay with that.

  2. 02On manuals

    The best systems I ever built were the ones nobody needed a manual for. If you have to explain the software, the software is wrong.

  3. 03On the only job

    I learned the hard way that a product's only real job is to make its customers money. Features are noise until that's true.

  4. 04On the studio

    I run the studio on the same constraint I ask customers to apply: if the business isn't growing, the product hasn't earned its keep.

Three products, three verticals.

Each started as bespoke software for one real business. Once it works, we make it agnostic, so every business in that vertical can use it.

If you run a small business, or want to build for them.

Experimentally validated apps that grow small businesses. Always glad to talk to small businesses, design partners, and builders who want to work on real products.

ROUTE A

You run a small business

Tell me the job that eats your hours or leaks your money. That is the conversation every one of our products started from.

Start a buildEmail me
ROUTE B

You want to build for them

Business Developers embed on-site with a design partner and own the build, guided by a US team of entrepreneurs and senior developers.

How we workLinkedIn
Studio
2179 S State St, Ann Arbor, MI 48104