How SmartStack Came to Be: 7 Years of Building a Tech Membership

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There's a part of me that almost doesn't want to tell you this story. Not because it's embarrassing—though there's plenty of that—but because I'm afraid you'll see all the pivots and think I didn't know what I was doing. The truth is more complicated. I knew exactly what I was doing, and I was also completely lost. Both things were true at the same time.

Seven years ago, I started selling WordPress Maintenance Plans for $125 a month. This was 2019, and I had figured out something simple: small business owners needed help keeping their WordPress sites running, and they'd happily pay for it. That business worked. It paid my bills. It taught me the rhythm of recurring revenue, and it showed me there was real demand for hands-on tech support.

But as I worked with more clients, I noticed something. They didn't just need WordPress help. They needed to understand their entire tech ecosystem. They were juggling email, Zapier, Google Workspace, payment processors, and a dozen other tools. They were smart, capable people trying to build real businesses from their homes—and they felt completely alone in figuring this out.

That observation cracked something open in me.

In 2020, I pivoted. I launched a Tribe membership at $47 a month, thinking I could serve more people with more varied tech questions. But the thing about pivoting is that you quickly discover what you didn't know. I was trying to be everything to everyone, and I wasn't being great at anything.

The real turning point came in April 2021. I created something I called the DIY Mompreneur Mastermind, and I priced it at $5 a month. I remember being nervous about that price point—it felt too low, like I was underselling myself. But something about it felt right. It was accessible. It was inviting. It was what I actually wanted to build, not what I thought I should build.

What I didn't realize at the time is that I was looking at my future through the rearview mirror.

The Naming Carousel

The next two years were... a lot. I raised prices to $9.90, then $37, then $45, then $47, then $75. I renamed the community approximately a million times. Super Mompreneur in Training. Mompreneur Academy. Mompreneur Mastermind. Mighty Mompreneur Mastermind. Each name felt right for about six months, and then the feedback would roll in.

The "Mastermind" label? Too exclusive-sounding. Too expensive-sounding. It made people feel like they had to be a certain level of expert to belong. That wasn't the community at all.

The "Mompreneur" label? People without kids felt left out. People who didn't identify with the mom label felt invisible. It was limiting what I'd created.

Every rebrand taught me something. Every price change taught me something. Some of these lessons were about money—turns out, $75 a month was a psychological barrier that kept good people out. But more importantly, they were about identity. What was I actually building, and who was I building it for?

By February 2023, we settled into M³ Mighty Mompreneurs at $9 a month. It was better, but I still knew it wasn't it.

The Tech Stack Breakthrough

In September 2024, we rebranded again. This time to "Your Tech Angel" at $9 a month. The pivot here was significant: we stopped positioning this as a community for moms and started positioning it as a community for business owners who didn't have a tech person on staff. We expanded beyond WordPress to the entire stack. Email, funnels, automations, social platforms, analytics, everything.

Something about that felt closer to the truth of what I was teaching. But the "Angel" branding didn't stick. It felt a little too cutesy, a little too passive. It wasn't quite honest.

The Hive

In 2025, everything clarified. We adopted the hive metaphor—bees, cells, collaborative work, structured but alive. We called it the Confident Hive, and we structured membership into tiers: Starter Cell, Builder Cell, Flow Cell, and Queen Cell. Each cell represents a level of support and community depth, but they're all part of the same organism. They all belong.

That feels true.

I won't lie and say this journey was all learning and growth. There were moments of real frustration. Moments when I questioned whether I was overthinking this. Moments when I felt like I'd built something not-quite-right seven different times. There was also the exhaustion of chronic illness—the reason we built this as an async-first, health-respecting membership in the first place. I couldn't deliver what my clients deserved if I was burning out. So we built for sustainability. For people who need flexibility. For people like me.

And then came April 2026.

SmartStack Hive

Choose The Plan For You & Your Business

Your go-to productivity hive for mastering the tech, systems, and automations that keep your business buzzing without overwhelm. In SmartStack Hive, we stack the smartest tools, workflows, and strategies so you can work less, flow more, and scale confidently.

✨ Buzz into SmartStack Hive today — stack smart, soar higher!

Become a Member

Finally

SmartStack Starter Cell is launching on April 20, and I'm launching it at $5 a month. That same price I tried to launch at five years ago, before I talked myself out of it. Before I convinced myself it had to be bigger, bolder, more expensive, more official.

But something fundamental shifted. I'm not launching at $5 because I'm uncertain anymore. I'm launching at $5 because I finally understand what I'm building. It's the version I always wanted. It's accessible. It's practical. It's built on everything I've learned from seven years of running toward and away from ideas, pricing points, and names.

This community is for the business owner who's doing it themselves. Who gets overwhelmed by tech but refuses to stay overwhelmed. Who learns fast, asks good questions, and shows up for the people around them. Who doesn't need to be called a "mastermind" because they're already acting like one.

For the founding members who join by April 20, that $5 price locks in for life. It's not a teaser. It's a promise. Because I've learned that sometimes the best business decisions aren't about maximizing revenue—they're about showing people they belong.

You're Invited

If you've ever felt lost in the tech side of your business, or felt like everyone else had a tech person and you were doing it alone, this community is for you. We're learning together. We're building together. We're in this hive together.

The founding member rate—$5 a month, locked for life—is available when we launch on April 20, 2026. Join the waitlist today: https://fav.techie.mom/waitlist

After seven years, I finally know what I'm building. I can't wait to build it with you.