No-BS advice on digital presence, web design & AI for coaches and personal brands | Founder, BrandLauncher.co & Icebreaker.Agency

- Started freelancing in 2016 (self-taught UX/UI & web development)
- Dropped out junior year to run my own agency
- Traveled to 35+ countries as a digital nomad
- Launched Icebreaker.Agency (2021) → 300+ projects across B2B, SaaS, e-commerce and tech
- Launched BrandLauncher (2025) → dedicated to personal brand websites

What I focus on:
→ UX/UI and Web Design that converts (not just looks nice)
→ Positioning that builds credibility and justifies premium pricing
→ Clear messaging for B2B software & tech audiences
→ AI & automation that saves time without feeling robotic
→ Practical insights instead of trends and buzzwords

What I share here:
No-BS breakdowns on web design, UX/UI, AI workflows, and digital growth — based on 9+ years in the field.

Icebreaker.Agency → full-service UX/UI, web design & development for B2B software & tech
BrandLauncher.co → focused exclusively on personal brand websites

Dmitry Bilchenko

We're expanding our contractor network at Icebreaker.Agency 

Looking for:
→ Webflow Developer 
→ Shopify Developer 
→ WP Elementor Expert 
→ Project Manager (agency experience required) 
→ Full Stack MVP Developer (Lovable stack) 
→ Logo & Brand Designer 
→ SEO Expert & Auditor

Remote. Project-based.
No amateurs - only specialists who've mastered their craft.
NO AGENCIES - looking for individuals who can work with us long-term, potentially become a part of the team.

How to apply:
DM me with:
- The ONE role you're applying for
- Your 10 best projects in that area 
- Be ready to send a Loom explaining your experience and contribution to some of the projects (upon request).

Looking forward to connecting with talented people.

Building @Icebreaker.Agency | UX/UI & Web Design | Freelancer turned founder

Most Upwork freelancers take weekends off.
That's exactly when I bid.
This weekend: 6 replies received.

The weekend bidding advantage:

→ 70-80% less competition (most freelancers offline)
→ Boost costs 50% less (fewer active bidders)
→ Your proposals stand out more
→ Clients still post jobs (problems don't wait for Monday)

Strategy:
- Be hyper-selective. Don't mass bid.
- Use boost to get top 3 placement.
- Connect costs add up-make each one count.

While your competition rests, you can land your next client.
Do you bid on weekends?

Unlocked Level 30 this weekend 🎉

I didn’t plan a birthday party. Just a normal Saturday:
training in the morning, a nap with my son around midday,
maybe a walk in the park, and tea with some birthday cake in the afternoon.

Instead, my family surprised me with a custom-produced birthday song and music video they’d been secretly working on all week.
My son was the main vocalist 🫠

Then friends showed up for a surprise party.

I feel deeply grateful.
For a family that supports me, for someone to love and be loved by, for being raised in a home full of warmth, for peace, for freedom, and for doing what I truly love.

Even for the people I don’t see often, but who still mean a lot to me.

On the business side?
Honestly, it feels like I’ve spent my 20s in tutorial mode, and I’ve finally finished it. Now I’m ready to play the real game.

Throughout my 20s, my approach was simple: learn by doing.

I said yes to almost everything. Tried it all.
Made every mistake in the book.
Often felt lost, not knowing exactly what I should be focusing on.

But as 30 approached, I found myself reflecting more than usual.
And somewhere in that process, something clicked.

An “aha” moment where years of scattered experiences suddenly aligned and started making sense.

I’m thankful to everyone who’s been part of my journey.
If there’s one thing I’ve learned: prioritizing people and relationships over material things genuinely makes life better.

A positive attitude compounds.

Have a lovely week, everyone.

New location unlocked - Andorra 🏔️
One of the reasons I love being based in Valencia is the lifestyle flexibility.

You get 20+ °C weather almost year-round, and yet the Pyrenees are just a 5-hour drive away.

Remote work isn't just about working from anywhere.
It's about designing a life where adventure and family don't have to wait until retirement.

WordPress or Webflow?
My honest take after 300+ projects.

WordPress
✅ Unlimited customization - build websites/stores/platforms
✅ You own everything: hosting, code, data 
✅ Massive ecosystem - 70k+ plugins

❌ Requires maintenance - updates, security, backups 
❌ Steeper learning curve for non-technical teams 
❌ Quality depends heavily on your developer (things break)

Webflow
✅ Beautiful out of the box - design-first platform 
✅ No maintenance headaches - they handle hosting 
✅ Easy to manage - marketing teams can edit without developers

❌ Limited functionality - no plugins, only integrations
❌ Locked into their ecosystem - you rent, not own (can export it though) 
❌ Less suitable for complex websites 

The truth?
Neither is better.

WordPress is a toolkit. 
Powerful, flexible, requires knowledge.

Webflow is a product. 
Polished, limited, ready to go.

The right choice depends on one question:
What does your business actually need?

Need a reliable marketing site with zero maintenance? 
→ Go with Webflow.

Want control over everything (and accept responsibility that comes with it?)
→ Then go with WordPress.

Some interesting numbers:

WordPress: 
→ Powers 43% of the internet 
→ Nearly 590 million websites 
→ 70k+ plugins 
→ Launched in 2003

Webflow: 
→ Powers less than 1%
→ Almost 500k websites 
→ Zero plugins: all built-in + integrations 
→ Launched in 2013

My honest feedback? (no offense - just stating the fact) 
I have never yet met a client frustrated by Webflow 🙂 

What's your preference?

I posted several job openings.
500+ applications in 4 days.
Here's what stood out (and what didn't):

❌ INSTANT REJECT:
→ "Hi, I'm interested"
→ "Can I get more information?"
→ ChatGPT-written CV with zero examples
→ Generic message, blank LinkedIn profile

✅ INSTANT ATTENTION:
→ 2-minute Loom introducing yourself
→ 5 best examples of your work
→ Specific response to what I'm hiring for
→ Personality visible in 30 seconds

Here's the reality:

As a founder, I don't have time to:
- Read 2,000-word CVs
- Explain obvious details
- Chase down your work examples
- Guess if we'd work well together

But I DO have 2 minutes to watch a Loom.

If you're applying for jobs, make it easy for me to say yes:

Your work speaks louder than your words.
Show me your best 5 projects.

Tell me why you're the right fit.
Do it in 2 minutes.

That's how you stand out in 500 applications.
To everyone who applied: I'm reviewing every serious application. 

This just takes time.

Most web developers start with coding school.
Me? I became a web developer by accident.

Started with dropshipping. Ran Shopify stores for 3 years. 
Sold them on Flippa. Buyers needed help. One thing led to another.

8 years and hundreds of projects later, clients still ask:
"Should I use Shopify or WooCommerce?"

After dozens of migrations between them, here's my take.

Shopify = Reliable, expensive
✅ All-in-one e-com platform. 
✅ Never goes down. 
✅ Updates don't break things.

But:
➖ $200-500/month all-in 
➖ Transaction fees add up
➖ Limited customization

Best for: B2C products, non-technical founders, want to sell not manage tech.

WooCommerce = Flexible, risky

✅ Complete control. 
✅ Lower costs. 
✅ Infinite customization.

But:
➖ It's open source - quality depends on who built it
➖ Plugin conflicts are common
➖ Needs ongoing maintenance or things break

Without a dev, you're gambling

Best for: Already on WordPress, technical or have a reliable dev, complex setups.

My experience after dozens of migrations:

Shopify is less stressful. More reliable. 
Worth paying for if your margins allow it.

WooCommerce gives you control.
But you're responsible when things break.

The difference:
Shopify is reliable by default. 
WooCommerce is only as good as the team that built it.

Choose based on your situation:
Non-technical + good margins → Shopify
Technical + custom needs → WooCommerce

Just remember - the platform matters less than your product.

Just walked away from a five-figure project.
After delivering initial concepts and spending hours across multiple calls, I decided to cancel the project.

Not because the client was “bad”.
But because the red flags were too loud to ignore.

Sharing this so others can spot these early:

❌ Payment defensiveness from day one
No deposit.
No escrow.
Pay only after delivery even for small entry milestones.
No willingness to accept any reasonable terms.
This alone is a major red flag.

❌ Constantly changing scope
You’re contacted for a website redesign.
Then the direction changes .
Then they realize they actually need print first.
Then it becomes something else altogether.

This isn’t iteration.
It usually means the client doesn’t know what they want yet and is using the project to figure it out - on your time.

❌ Input didn’t match expected output
No clear brief.
No wireframes.
Little to no content.
Yet expectations were high and vague.

That gap is a strong signal of internal misalignment, unpreparedness, or lack of decision-making ownership.

❌ They treat you like an employee, not a partner
Expecting you to attend internal meetings unrelated to your scope.
Assuming open availability.
Time booked without clear outcomes.

That’s not collaboration - that’s misplaced ownership.

❌ They lecture you on how to do your work
Instead of defining outcomes, they micromanage execution.
A clear sign they don’t trust your expertise.

❌ Long discussions, almost no feedback on delivered work
Hours spent on side topics and technical nuances.
Very little concrete, actionable feedback on what was actually delivered.

❌ Praise mixed with passive-aggressive uncertainty
“Looks great, but…” from the very beginning.
Often a sign of micromanagement and decision paralysis.

What I’ll do differently next time:
✅ Require payment alignment before any delivery
✅ Protect my calendar as much as my pricing
✅ Walk away faster when trust isn’t there
✅ Listen to my intuition and clarify red flags early on

Walking away early hurts less than staying too long.
Protect your time as aggressively as your rates.

Yesterday we almost lost a five-figure deal in the last 2 minutes of a 40-minute call. 
The first 38 minutes were perfect.

We were pitching a Shopify Plus migration to an Australian e-commerce brand doing ~$2M/year. They'd received 50+ applications.

We stood out because: 
→ We asked for their analytics (nobody else did) 
→ We prepared a mini audit before the call 
→ We identified specific funnel leaks and KPIs to improve

Their feedback was glowing: 
"You're the first agency to be this proactive."
The deal felt almost closed.

Then came the question: 
"Can you guys show your absolute best Shopify site?"

I gave the floor to my developer so he could explain it better.
And that's where it fell apart.

My developer (experienced, great at building) shared his screen and pulled up... a complex but visually underwhelming project. 

Then the recent low-budget site.

His connection was bad, so the pages loaded slowly and looked even worse.

It threw me off. I started scrambling to find better examples. 
Instead of confidently showing our best work from 300+ completed projects, we fumbled through random stuff.

Two minutes of awkwardness after 40 minutes of excellence.

The lesson:
Developers build. They don't sell.

Even if the client requests your developer on the call, YOU own every part of the presentation. Have your portfolio examples queued up and ready. 

Don't assume your team will answer the way you would.
Your developer is there to answer technical questions. That's it.

The last 2 minutes of a call can undo the first 40.
Always be prepared. Never assume.

Do you know which skill separates real progress from constant busyness?

Over the last couple of weeks, I read several productivity books.
Different authors. Different frameworks.

Most of them drill down to the same thing: focus.
And how inefficient multitasking really is.

We all love to-do lists.
We like the feeling of checking things off.

“Wow, I completed 10 things today. What a beast.”

But if you’re honest, most of those tasks were:
- easy
- reactive
- safe
- sometimes even unnecessary

Emails. Messages. Small fixes.

Meanwhile, the 1-2 things that actually matter?
The uncomfortable ones.
The ones that move the business forward.

They keep getting postponed.

So we jump between tasks instead.
Because it feels productive.

The reality is: progress usually comes from:
- doing fewer things
- staying with one problem longer
- protecting time to think, not just execute

Multitasking is often just a way to avoid focus.

Learning to focus is a skill.
And it’s one of the most valuable ones to build.

$750k on Upwork. Here's my honest love-hate relationship with it.
Upwork has changed my life. 
And yet I still have weeks where the ROI on connects makes me question everything.

What I love:
Intent. People on Upwork are actively looking to hire. Not browsing. Not "exploring options." They have a problem and a budget. That's rare and valuable.

It's still the #1 freelance marketplace in the world. Nothing else comes close for consistent deal flow.

What frustrates me:
It's gotten brutal for newcomers.

I spend ~$300/week on connects alone. 
And I have 8+ years of credibility backing every proposal. 

Imagine starting from zero today - same connect costs, no reviews, no portfolio on the platform.

The barrier to entry keeps rising while the algorithm keeps changing.

And the bans. 
I've seen decent freelancers lose access overnight. 
No clear reason. Extremely difficult appeal process. 
One day you're Top Rated, the next you're locked out of your income.

My approach:
Stay optimistic but plan like a pessimist.

Upwork is my main channel. But I treat it as a tool, not a foundation.

→ 80% focus on what's working (Upwork) 
→ 20% building outside of it (LinkedIn, direct client relationships)

Every client I work with, I connect with on LinkedIn. 
If this account disappeared tomorrow, I'd still have relationships and reputation.

Platforms change. Algorithms change. Policies change.
Your skills and relationships are the only things that travel with you.

How's your experience been with Upwork lately? 
Better or worse than a few years ago?

Hard skills are becoming a commodity. 
So what actually sets you apart?
Even 10 years ago, knowing how to code was enough.

Developer profession felt privileged. 
Premium rates were easier. 

Today?
The market is flooded.

Every bootcamp graduate knows React. 
Every agency offers WordPress development. 
AI writes decent code in seconds.

Technical skills get you in the room. 
But they don't win you the project.

Here's what does:
✅ Communication - explaining complex ideas simply
✅ Responsiveness - replying quickly puts you in the top
✅ Ownership - something breaks? Fix it. No excuses
✅ Teamwork - nobody wants to work with jerks
✅ Adaptability - clients pivot. AI tools emerge. Roll with it.
✅ Business intuition - understanding why, not just what
✅ Empathy - seeing problems through the client's eyes

After 300+ projects I realized that:
The best developer doesn't always win.
The best communicator does.

I've lost projects to worse developers who presented better. 
I've won projects against better developers because I listened better.

The truth most tech people ignore:
Many cultures and companies are built on trust and relationships.

Not code quality. 
Not technical excellence. 
Trust.

Freelancers earning $100+/hour?
❌ They're not 10x better at code.
✅ They're 10x better at everything around the code.

Don't rely on hard skills alone, no matter how good they are. 
Stack your skillset.

Behind every success post 
is a story they're not telling. 
Usually a messy one.

"They launched their startup at 23?" 
"They raised $2M in seed funding?" 
"They're speaking at conferences already?"

Meanwhile, you're:
- Working on your business
- Growing slowly and painfully
- No announcements, no press

Feels like you're falling behind.

The truth is that LinkedIn is success theater.

Everyone shares launches and funding. 
Nobody shares the 3 years before, the rejected pitches, the sleepless nights.

The trap is you're comparing your behind-the-scenes to their highlight reel.
That's not fair to them or you.

That 23-year-old with Series A? 
- Maybe they have rich parents. 
- Maybe they're burning cash unsustainably.
- Or maybe they're genius and killing it.

Either way it doesn't matter.

Your only comparison:
You today vs. you last year.

Ask yourself:
- Am I building something valuable?
- Am I learning and improving?
- Am I moving toward my goals 1 step at a time?
- Am I happy with the journey?

If yes: You're winning.

The reality:
Most "overnight successes" took 10 years. 
Most "young founders" are 35. 
Most "unicorn startups" will fail.

Stop comparing. Keep building.

Just received my books from Dan Koe 📚

"The Art of Focus" is one of my new favorite books on productivity, philosophy, and entrepreneurship.

If you're a fan of Tim Ferriss, Naval Ravikant, or that style of digital entrepreneur who leads with philosophy and lifestyle design over pure scale and hustle - this is a must-read.

A different flavor from the Gary Vee / Alex Hormozi approach. 
Less hype, more self-reflection.

Hidden gem. Highly recommend.

I’ve worked in tech for over 20 years. Long enough to watch trends rise, fall, and return with new names.

I’ve led product and engineering in small startups and growing SaaS teams. I’ve hired, fired, shipped, missed deadlines, hit odd goals, and learned what works. Clear thinking. Good teams. Products that solve real problems.

I don’t chase hype. AI, Web3, cloud. These are tools. Your job is to choose the right ones and build something people pay for.

I’ve sat in rooms where no one knew what the customer needed. I’ve also watched small teams ship while others argued about vision. The small teams won.

Today, I help teams build products and reach the market without blowing their budget or burning out.

If that sounds boring, good. Boring works.

Alex Mango

🚀 We start 2026 with 17 open roles at reev. 🚀 

We build software that connects energy and mobility. Our work helps customers use electricity better, reduce costs, and support the energy transition.

Open roles:
💰 Finance
- Senior Finance Manager

💼 Sales & Account Management
- Regional Sales Manager (France & South Germany)
- (Senior) Key Account Manager. Enterprise SaaS
- Customer Success Manager (Account Management and Electricity)
- Senior Enterprise Customer Success Manager

⚙️ Engineering
- Staff Engineer
- Senior Platform Engineer
- Backend Engineer. Customer and Driver Experience

👉 See all open roles on our LinkedIn Jobs page: https://lnkd.in/dMw6NVeG

Don’t just apply. Let’s talk.
Feel free to reach out if you want to learn more about what we’re building.

What makes reev special? We're scaling rapidly and building a culture where innovation meets impact. Whether you're looking for your next big challenge or starting your career journey, we have the right opportunity for you.

Alex Di Mango

CTO | I help companies grow by building the right products with the right people

They automated everything. Productivity dropped 40%.

Last year, an engineering team finally listened to their developers. Every annoying manual task, automated. Data syncs, creating tasks from epics, report generation. Three months of work, two engineers dedicated full time.

The result? They were shipping slower than before the automation.

Here's what nobody expected.

The annoying tasks were forcing conversations.

The manual data sync? That's when the backend team caught data quality issues before they hit production.

Creating tasks from epics by hand? That's when product managers actually read the epic and caught scope creep before sprint planning.

The manual report? That's when product and engineering actually talked about what the numbers meant.

They automated away the friction. And the friction was doing the work.

I see this pattern everywhere now. Teams automate communication out of the system, then wonder why things break in production.

The best teams I know ask a different question. Not "can we automate this?" but "what are we losing if we do?"

Sometimes the annoying part is the important part.

One senior engineer finally said it: "We optimized for speed and lost all our checkpoints."

They rolled back half the automation. Productivity recovered in two weeks.

Your process pain might be protecting you from something worse.

Before you automate it away, make sure you know what job it's actually doing.

The junior developer role is being quietly deleted.

Not fired.
Not replaced.
Just not hired.

One senior engineer with AI now does what a small team did before.
So entry roles disappear first.

This creates two futures.

One.
Junior hiring keeps shrinking.
Teams go all-senior.
Leadership becomes fragile. One exit hurts a lot.

Two.
AI spreads software into every industry.
More software means more builders.
Not generic juniors.
AI-native ones who ship fast inside a domain.

Same title. Different job.

If you are junior
Work with AI. Ship real work. Understand the code. Be useful fast.

If you are senior
Automate the basics. Mentor early. Warn leaders.

Cut juniors today.
Pay for it later.

If your pull request has no proof. Tests, screenshots, manual checks.
You did not finish the job. You just moved the work downstream.

AI made writing code cheap.
It did not make responsibility optional.

Today, AI can produce features fast.
What it cannot do is prove they work.

That proof is now the real bottleneck.

For solo developers, speed comes from verification, not trust.
Strong tests. Clear specs. Manual checks before release.
The ones who move fast are not reckless. They built guardrails early.

For teams, code review did not disappear.
It changed focus.

Less time on formatting and style.
More time on risk, security, and intent.
Someone still has to understand the change well enough to own it.

If a change touches auth, payments, or user data, AI is an intern.
Helpful. Fast. Never unsupervised.

One rule still holds:

If you have not seen the code do the right thing yourself, it does not work.

AI did not remove the human from the loop.
It made the human accountable.

The bottleneck moved.
From writing code to proving it works.

Proof over vibes.

AI has replaced the function of angel money.

I advise a few VCs and work closely with many pre-seed and angel founders.

A few years ago, angel rounds paid for experiments, reduced execution risk, and helped founders reach a first product.

Today, much of that work happens before the first cheque.
One founder.
One laptop.
AI doing the heavy lifting.

What once took 200k and a small team now takes focus and good judgement.

So when a founder looks “pre-seed ready” very early, that is not luck.
AI already did the work angel capital used to do.

Early capital still matters.
But its role has changed.
Less funding for exploration.
More funding for clarity, distribution, and momentum.

Leverage moved.

The SDLC was built for a slower world.

Output was expensive.
Feedback was slow.
Change was risky.

So we added process.
Stages. Gates. Roles. Metrics.

That made sense then.

Today, output is cheap.
Prototypes are instant.
Feedback is live.

Yet most teams still measure work as if nothing changed.

Story points.
Sprint velocity.
Tickets closed.

None of that tells you what matters.

Developers can ship behind feature flags.
Release to 5% of users.
Watch real behaviour.

If it breaks, flip it off.
No incident. Just data.

This pulls developers closer to customers.
Exactly what we always wanted.

Now we can measure it directly.

Time from user problem to deployed solution.
That is speed.

Changes shipped to harm caused.
That is risk.

A team shipping ten small changes a day with one rollback
is safer than a team shipping one monthly release with none.

The second team just has not found what breaks yet.

Everything else is noise.

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Alex Mango

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The Battle

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