Starting her career as an interior designer, Sarah Daniele never expected to eventually become a tech CEO. But knowing the frustrations—and opportunities—of the industry firsthand led her to launch Mydoma, developing a slew of technologies to help designers with their work. From tools for project management to billing, mood boards, and more, Mydoma leaves designers free to focus more on the creative side of their work and less on the day-to-day processes that never seem to stop.
We spoke with Sarah about her path to launching the company, the different tools it offers, and some of the new things on the horizon. See what she had to say below, and check out the Mydoma site to learn more about it. And for a special video presentation about the company, watch our recent Master Class with Mydoma’s Dixie Willard for even more details about what the brand is doing for designers and what’s coming next.
For those who don’t already know, what is Mydoma’s mission? How does it work to help designers?
Mydoma has gone through so many changes over the years, but at our core, we have always been about one thing—giving designers the tools and the knowledge they need to run a successful business. We are invested in a designer’s success, both on and off Mydoma, and so in addition to our platform that helps designers win more projects, wow their customers, and help manage those projects, we also regularly create templates, webinars, and other content to help them reach that business that they dreamed of when they first got started.
As a designer yourself, what prompted you to launch the business? What problems were you hoping to solve?
As any designer knows, there is a lot that goes into managing and completing a project, from things like contracts, invoices, and PO’s to client meetings, presentations, and product info. It can be a lot to manage, and, really, Mydoma started off just as a way for me to have all those things, and everything else related to my projects, all in one place. But eventually, it was while working with other designers that my husband and co-founder Thomas Martineau and I realized that we had something special. What we had built could help other designers with their businesses, just as it has for me, and so we turned it into what Mydoma is today.
We want to give designers the ability to manage the chaos anywhere and ultimately do less managing and admin work and more of what they love about the business—like designing!
We want to give designers the ability to manage the chaos anywhere and ultimately do less managing and admin work and more of what they love about the business—like designing!
Sarah Daniele
Tell us a bit about the Mydoma Designers Community. How does that function, and what types of things do designers discuss with each other?
So while you can find the Mydoma community in everything we do—from events and meetups at events like High Point Market, to initiatives with industry partners—our main hub is currently our Facebook group, Mydoma Studio Designers. We’re in there sharing links to our helpful content like webinars and new templates, but the really beautiful thing about it is that the community itself is constantly present in the group, asking questions and helping each other out. Whether it’s asking about how they should charge, a client issue they’re trying to resolve, or connections to vendors, contractors, or virtual assistants, I think there’s something really amazing about the spirit of community over competition that we see on the daily in there. We are working on something bigger though, and are excited to share more info about it real soon!
What kind of designers are members? Can anyone join, and how are people vetted?
All kinds! We have people from across the spectrum of this industry, and all design professionals are welcomed there, whether you’re currently on Mydoma or not. We have a set of questions we ask when you request to join the group, but really we’re just looking to see that you’re either in the industry currently or are a student or newcomer that’s getting up and running.
The Mydoma platform does a lot for designers, from project management to interacting with clients to developing packages and accounting. What are some of the most important features? Where can people learn more about them?
We like to say that we’re an end-to-end solution, meaning, we can stand by designers through every step of the process for their projects—everything from intake, all the way to closing out the project and getting paid. All our features, and more info about them can be found at our website, but I do have a few favorites that I get really excited about!
The one that generally gets a lot of buzz from our designers is our Product Clipper. It’s a really powerful extension for your web browser that lets you literally click on any product photo or information, and pull it into Mydoma to put it into your projects, purchase orders, proposals, and more. It’s such a time-saver, and removes so much tedious work from product sourcing.
The other big one for me is our Client Portal. I think having a seamless, easy way for clients to access project information and work with you is such a key thing for today. Things like tap-to-pay and ride-sharing apps like Uber and Lyft have shaped what clients have come to expect, and giving them a professional experience that they can access wherever they may be can really set designers apart from their competition.
The moodboards that designers can create are a particularly interesting element, given so many people are moving away from sites like Pinterest for this kind of work. Tell us a bit more about that feature.
Ah yeah! This is the fun part, right? We give a lot of control to designers over how that moodboard looks and presents, and with things like our product clipper and product library in Mydoma, it’s really easy to pull in products for them. You can then share them privately with your team, or your clients, and you can design multiple mood boards for a project and export them as needed.
How does a designer sign up for Mydoma? How do the packages work, and how can they use it with their team members?
Really easy! Just head on over to mydomastudio.com and click on “start free trial.” We have a no-obligation, no-credit-card-needed 15-day trial that you can check out to make sure it fits your business. Once you’re ready to commit, we have three different subscriptions: Solo, Team, and Agency. Solo is, like the name suggests, for solo designers, Team is for a team of 2-8, and Agency is for teams of 8+. All of these subscriptions come with some form of training, and our legendary customer support.
As for working with a team, Mydoma helps make things more efficient working with your team or contractors with one place to manage it all. You can set up accounts for everyone and fully customize what they can see and work on. There’s also custom chat groups you can create for the project, so all the communication stays in one place.
Your 19 Hours Virtual Design Conference is the biggest Mydoma event on the calendar. Can you tell us about some of the things that came out of your most recent event?
Yeah, 19 Hours is our biggest virtual design event of the year. Putting together that amount of content, speakers and production takes great coordination, but it’s always so rewarding to see how much value designers get out of it. Believe me, there were so many amazing things that came out of this year’s event! We really stacked the deck on speakers this year, but there was one session that I really took to heart. I loved Colette Ellis’ session on Mastering Mindfulness. Her strategies were incredibly insightful and gave designers the knowledge to take action to improve.
We just released our biggest update yet, Mydoma Next, and it’s only the beginning of what’s to come! We’re releasing new major features regularly.
Sarah Daniele
What other events and webinars that Mydoma hosts? How do designers participate?
We’re regularly putting on new webinars and events each month, and usually on things that they didn’t necessarily teach in design school. If you want to be kept in the loop, head over to our Events page and sign up for updates on what’s coming up next.
What are some of the tools and functionalities that you’d like to roll out in the future?
We just released our biggest update yet, Mydoma Next, and it’s only the beginning of what’s to come! We’re releasing new major features regularly. The first major feature on the short-term roadmap is a mobile app. Designers will have all their project information on demand in their hand. They can chat with customers, create invoices, time track, and more. The second feature is visualization tools. While it’s a bit too early to share the specifics, great things are coming soon!
Lead image: Design by Katie-Rose and Rob Decoeli of The Wild Decoelis