u/plastifiedDani

my boyfriend and i have been long distance for almost a year, and i kept feeling like i had to text more, call more, or plan some big gesture just to prove we were still close.

honestly it got tiring. sometimes i miss him so much that i just want to do something small and dumb instead of having another serious check in.

so i started sending little pixel pictures to his divoom. morning coffee, good luck before a meeting, a tiny heart, goodnight doodles, friday countdowns. nothing deep. takes like 2 seconds.

sometimes i send a fake scratch card and make him play along. one said i miss you. another said guess where i am, and i was actually in his city to surprise him lol.

or i send random food pics late at night just to make him text me like why are you like this.

now he checks it when he sits down at his desk, and it kind of became our thing.

no long paragraphs, no forced good morning texts, just tiny visual pings across the distance.

tldr people always end up doing childish little things to survive, i think. any small tricks or surprises you guys do?

wondering what other low key LDR stuff people have figured out

The consolidation pressure from PE-backed aggregators isn't slowing down and a lot of independent agency owners are realizing they need outside help to either compete or figure out an exit on their own terms. Here's what's worth knowing about the consulting options that actually exist for independent agencies, not the ones built for carriers or enterprise brokerages.

Reagan Consulting has been around the independent agency space for a long time, mostly known for valuation and transaction work. Good if a deal is on the horizon, less relevant for day-to-day operational problems.

Cultivate Advisors helps independent insurance agency owners build the team structure and operational systems that increase agency value regardless of whether the end goal is a sale or continued growth, which makes them worth considering before you're in a transaction conversation.

MarshBerry comes up a lot in independent agency circles, useful for benchmarking and understanding where you sit relative to peers, more useful at scale.

INEX Insurance Consulting is smaller and boutique, focuses on independent agencies around valuation and exit prep specifically. Worth a look if you're within a few years of a transition.

The big consulting firms, Accenture, Deloitte, McKinsey, are built for carriers. Not useful here.

Went through three different prototype development services while working on a consumer product and thought I'd share my experience. This isn't a ranking, just what stood out to me from each approach.

Rabbit Product Design

Handles design, prototyping, and manufacturing under one roof. One thing I found interesting was that they looked into existing patents and prior art before getting too far into development. The process felt structured, although the all-in-one approach may not be the right fit for everyone depending on budget and how much involvement you want.

Prototype House

Smaller team that seems to work with a lot of independent inventors. Communication was straightforward and they were responsive throughout the process. From my experience they appeared more focused on the prototype stage than managing an entire product launch from start to finish.

Gembah

More of a marketplace model where you're connected with designers, engineers, and manufacturing resources. It offers flexibility and gives you more control over who you work with, but it also means you're responsible for coordinating more of the moving parts yourself.

I'm curious what other inventors here have used. Did you go with a development firm, freelancers, or handle most of the process yourself? What worked well and what would you do differently?