How did I end up here?

How did I end up here: The founder of a SaaS startup to jump start incremental development?

Well, like this; I am a director of live performance of all kinds and in all roles. I have directed and produced? hundreds of shows, led thousands of colleagues, working in dozens of venues across the country. Considering shows as products, I have thus created, promoted, sold, scaled and exited products my entire professional life.? I have created several companies and sold thousands of units, been followed and reviewed countless times. So, ‘the start-up’ is familiar to me.

A show is like building a house within a house. To build the house of the show, a director hires a diverse team of people much like those who design and build the more traditional type of house. I’ve worked with designers of all kinds; plans, materials, engineering, electricity and lights, interior design and more go into the making of a show. A director also thinks about what people need and want, how they move, and how they communicate. Rarely have I used a plumber, though, I have done shows where we had to consider where the water on stage was coming from or how much the pool weighed. When done with? the show’s creation, the director moves into the world of PR and marketing, price tolerance, deadlines and ROI. Because a show is a product.

Most important to me - notable in all my work- is the question of how this show-house relates to both the theater company-house and the community. Where does the story that the show tells intersect with the story of the community? How can this show or house integrate, inspire or challenge a community??

Because I see the world that way, every time I take a walk outside I wonder about the story of the community I see around me. The story of a community is in its buildings and streets. These tell both its past story, and point to its future. And I know from my experience of directing all those shows that where and how we tell that story, and with whom, is critical to our community’s? health and progress.

When I began to see communities around me create street after street of cookie cutter condos with empty retail that erased all that had been, I was curious why?? Three years of asking questions and creating teams led me to create this tool. The 2Ft.D tool unblocks a workflow and eliminates barriers for the entrepreneurial developer who is at some level an imaginative artist who is building to suit a unique dream. And as a lifetime artist I know how hard it is to get the power, money and agency to make something unique. You need a hand up.

So it’s not so surprising really that I would end up here.

By CEO & Founder Rebecca Holderness