The Proofing Room Issue #04

Why We Couldn't Explain Our Own Business (And What We Learned)

Happy Friday and Memorial Day Weekend for those in the US!

Week two of our 30-day Virtue build wrapped with some major revelations - not all of them comfortable. Sometimes the most valuable feedback comes from being forced to explain yourself to strangers.

At Seed the South this week, Alan and I probably gave our "elevator pitch" over 50 times. By day two, we realized something uncomfortable: we suck at explaining what Torta Studios actually does.

Here's what we've been saying (poorly): We're part product company (building our own products), part media company (everyone builds their own audience), part holding company (multiple products in our portfolio), and part consulting company (fractional co-founder work keeps the lights on for now).

That's...a lot. And confusing.

The truth is, we're still figuring out what Torta Studios becomes. Right now, we're a small team learning to build great products by actually building them. Virtue is our testing ground. The Proofing Room is our transparency commitment. Fractional co-founder work is our survival strategy.

But the energy of being around other founders reminded us why we're doing this - building something meaningful from nothing is hard, lonely work. Even with two co-founders, there's something irreplaceable about being around people who just get the process.

The Hard Truth About Building Apps for Undisciplined People

Speaking of building products, we had a crucial realization about Virtue this week. We were trying to do too much.

Here's the honest truth: this app isn't for disciplined people. People who already operate with high levels of discipline don't need an app - they just do the work.

We're building for undisciplined people. And undisciplined people need:

• Fewer decisions, not more choices

• Constant nudging, not philosophical frameworks

• Simple actions, not complex virtue mappings

Look at this evolution:

Our original approach led with the seven virtues, creating decision fatigue before users even started.

Our updated approach focuses on one task at a time, reducing decisions to 1-2 per task and 3-5 per screen. The virtues are still there, but they're background infrastructure, not foreground complexity.

How We Broke Down Any Habit Into 5 Core Components

We've distilled all possible habits down to 5 core components:

• Binary actions (yes/no, did/didn't)

• Counters (±1)

• Durations (timers)

• Value logging (text inputs)

• Time window tracking (stopwatches)

This framework lets us build virtually any habit while keeping the interface dead simple. Some habits use multiple components, but these five give us complete coverage.

When User Feedback Forces You to Rebuild Everything

Your feedback keeps us honest:

The Good: People love seeing our design evolution and learning from our process.

The Confusing: Many of you aren't sure what Torta Studios actually does (see above - we're working on it).

The Polarizing: D.B. Fresh. Some of you find him hilarious. Others think he breaks up the newsletter flow. A few find him weird and off-putting.

The Technical: His image broke in some emails because we hosted it poorly. Fixed now with permanent hosting.

We're keeping D.B. Fresh for now, but we hear you. If he becomes more distraction than value, we'll…reboot the matrix.

What's Next: The Road to Issue #5

Between now and Tuesday, we'll be:

1. Implementing our simplified task-focused interface

2. Building the nudging system for consistent reminders

3. Testing the 5-component habit framework with early users

4. Working on a clearer Torta Studios explanation (seriously, this is homework now)

Try the Virtue Beta for iOS

We're still actively looking for iOS testers! Reply to this email if you're interested in testing our simplified approach.

Your feedback during this phase is crucial - we're literally rebuilding the user experience based on what we've learned.

Help Us Build in Public

Finding this valuable? Forward it to someone who might appreciate the unfiltered journey of building products. Every new voice brings fresh insights that shape what we're creating.

Talk to you all on Tuesday,

— Colin, Alan & The Torta Studios Team

P.S. If you were at Seed the South and we met, thanks for the conversation! We’d love to stay in touch. Those discussions reminded us why we love building alongside other founders.