The Project No. 9
Story

That startup became Servvy, a service-industry social media, job search and venue SaaS. I came up with the idea in 2006 when I had returned from Bucharest, Romania and headed back to college after a couple of years off. In order to find a bartending job (what I’d done previously in college), I relied on Craigslist and thought there had to be a better option. 

I wrote the initial business plan for Servvy (called Mixologist Match at that time - oof, I was young!) while sitting in the Barnes & Noble cafe, combing through multiple books to create it myself (but never buying - I was a broke college student, after all). It took many weekends and late-night hours just to shelve it when my first partner took a new job and became too busy and I became fascinated with Anthropology, thinking I would go on to grad school and pursue academia instead. (See me presenting research)

While I studied furiously for 18-21 credit semesters (typical is 12-15) and spent hours in the lab on forensic research, AND worked part time at a law firm, I got the itch for something new. What would I go after next? 

I decided to move to NYC after I graduated, saving my money for a year after graduation while working as the office manager at a real estate firm. In August of 2010, I moved to New York, with two bags and an internship with a small fashion designer waiting for me - “a 28-year old intern,” I’d tell people wryly.

NYC teaches you to be scrappy, especially when you don’t have a lot of money. This is where I realized what “a scrapper” (hustler, hacker, pick your terminology) I actually was. To make ends meet, I started a bartending party service…and by that, I mean I gave myself a snappy name: The Blonde Bartender, a cringe-inducing title with a simple website to match  - but I quickly booked my first gig and pieced together a skeleton crew: a fabulously flamboyant intern I knew and a performance artist and singer with a dazzling personality (and looks to match) I met at a fashion show afterparty. We kicked ass and I was quickly rehired for more but I stopped once I had some more stable bartending work.

I pieced together money to pay rent bartending at a jazz bar, a huge nightclub, and then gaining full-time employment at a consulting firm where I was emotionally and mentally abused daily. I had panic attacks and developed a habit of drinking 3-4 beers every night when I got home (if I wasn’t out drinking with friends) but I found ways to enjoy the city on a budget while living in multiple short-term rentals. I hopped around from UWS to Williamsburg and Gramercy to an East Village walkup that permanently smelled like stale cat pee. It was in that apartment that I revived the SaaS business plan after a web developer friend from Bucharest visited NYC and wanted in on the idea. Project No. 9 soon became Servvy.com and not long after that, it became defunct. We had found a competitor a few months in that we felt we couldn’t compete with on such tight time and budget constraints, so we simply folded.

It was 2012 and I felt defeated, but I continued on with my career, moving into marketing and advertising at the suggestion of a friend who I volunteered with at an animal shelter. It was at that agency I discovered what I really loved to do (that I could actually monetize): marketing. I quickly realized there were a lot of small businesses that needed marketing help but couldn’t afford an agency or to hire a full-time person. So I started consulting for them on the side. In case you’re wondering, most full-time low or mid-level jobs in NYC (where rent is TOO DAMN HIGH - or typically 40-50% of your income) won’t be enough if you ever want to have any fun, which is why many young people in the city either have help from parents or a side hustle.

One day, after growing tired of psyching myself up each morning to go into the office, I decided I could go it alone while writing a book I assumed would be a best seller, of course, and turned in my two weeks. 

I did not make it on my own: the book never got picked up and my little consulting projects didn’t pay the bills.

So I took a job at one of the shittiest dive bars in NYC; and not a cool, hipster shitty bar, but an oddball spot in an unfortunate location, where I didn’t make nearly the money I’d made as a nightclub bartender back in my first year in the city. (Photo is not of the shitty bar, fyi) It was also there that I met someone who would introduce me to my first big client. 

It wasn’t that they were a big client with lots of money, it was that they wanted someone to completely lead their marketing and business development vs. the one-off projects I had been taking. I pitched them at a table in the Ace Hotel one late morning and they accepted. Together we launched KAS Spirits, a delicious liquor that came from an old family recipe. And they became more than my client, they became like my family.

I rebranded their look immediately (thankfully, I’d gotten better at that since my Mixologist Match/Blonde Bartender days) and we were named a Top Spirit by Wine Enthusiast Magazine in our first year. We received press in the NY Times, Eater (National), Vanity Fair, and more. I hustled my ass off going bar to bar, bottle shop to bottle shop across 3 boroughs, running tastings, pushing sales, hiring brand ambassadors, and creating recipes, not just because it was my job, but because I really believed in the product and the people behind it.

After a couple of years, I felt the pull to LA. Again, I packed two bags and moved across the country to see what the future held for me. Turns out, it was What the Future…(a startup VC).

Since then, I’ve helped launch a 3D printing ice pop company as the Director of Business Development under WTFVC, headed up marketing for Hemingway Rum, and been Director of Strategy (and later CEO) of an LA-based marketing firm that worked with Fortune 500 companies like Lenovo, Microsoft, Uniqlo, and Western Union.

I also continued to consult under the name Project No. 9 because I realized I’ve always been working on new projects, whether thrift-flipping/upcycling before those were terms back in 2007 under the name Refurb Clothing or writing a blog called Sh*t Girls Deal With and drafting up two TV pilots. 

In 2019, I created Cloud Skincare with a flagship product called KUSHON, the first quick-dry foot pain solution using CBD nanotechnology specifically designed for high-heel wearers, or as I said, “for women on the go.” Within the first year, I had placements in Saks Fifth Avenue in NYC, Dillard’s, Free People, Urban Outfitters and was working on partnerships with Schutz Shoes, W Hotels, some Scottsdale and Vegas clubs, and more. I was a one-woman, self-funded army, bulldozing my way wherever I wanted to go. Just barely over one year after I came up with the idea for Cloud, developing the initial recipe in my kitchen, the pandemic began. The stores closed, my events were canceled and women were no longer “on the go.” Six months later, Cloud ceased to exist.

While I believe Cloud would have continued to thrive had the pandemic not happened, I can’t hold on to that notion of “woulda, coulda, shoulda” or the pain of feeling like I had no control. I did have some control, and I could have fought harder or reignited the flame later but I was tired. I’d burnt myself out running the agency and running Cloud simultaneously, even driving Lyft for extra money to fund it all myself, keeping business cards in the cupholders as I drove across Los Angeles. The pandemic not only knocked down the momentum of Cloud , it shed light on my relationship, and with an amicable and loving breakup, I moved out of our shared home, driving across the country with my dog, Sweet Baby Jane, and only what I could pack up in my SUV.

It’s now been 4 years since the pandemic started and I’m reignited, this time for helping others do what I’ve done, while avoiding the pitfalls (and being prepared for the unexpected!). I’ve had a wonderful full-time job as head of marketing for a technology company for the past 2 and half years before moving into a consulting role, allowing me to pursue Project No. 9 once again (though it might be Project No. 20 now!).

I spent a lot of time thinking about what I loved. If I could spend all day doing something, what would it be? I had become a mentor to startups for a local group while at my full-time job as a way to tap into the entrepreneurial passion I missed, and I realized that mentoring was my favorite - simply hopping on a video call and guiding new founders with advice on both starting a business and marketing or growing their business. I loved helping founders vet their ideas, position their brand, and grow via marketing and sales efforts in a cost-efficient (aka “scrappy”) way.

I also realized there is only one me. I want to help everyone and it’s hard for me to say no, even when I’m working all weekend! So I developed coursework to streamline and codify the processes and methods I use myself when building plans for startups, so that founders like you can “learn to fish” and create amazing businesses for yourself!

Project No. 9 is for the dreamers who have great ideas but aren’t sure where to start. Maybe you are more risk averse and need to feel secure by validating your idea. We got you. Maybe you just need someone there to guide you, coach you, and give you proven processes to start your dream business. 

We sincerely want to help and we hope that through these courses and programs, community, and group calls, we can help you achieve the life you’ve always wanted as a successful business owner!

Faye Postma