We recently had the chance to connect with Watson Lewis-Rodriguez and have shared our conversation below.
Hi Watson, thank you for taking the time to reflect back on your journey with us. I think our readers are in for a real treat. There is so much we can all learn from each other and so thank you again for opening up with us. Let’s get into it: Are you walking a path—or wandering?
Nowadays, I’m fortunate in walking a path. I’m now at a point with my work and interests to be able to pursue a long walk with clarity and direction, without feeling like I need a mobile map of my mind to give me guidance.
Can you briefly introduce yourself and share what makes you or your brand unique?
Hello! My name is Watson, I’m the founder of Arthur Labs, a rapid prototyping service provider with focus on Web3 physical marketplaces and all sorts of good stuff. As a solo founder, I handle the work entirely independently, with connections to other contractors and developers.
Although Arthur Labs is split between contract work for digital development of a clients business and concept, we follow a series of paths to guide entrepreneurs to Web3 through our systems and tools. Our work is straightforward, if we can build a suite of tools to help our clients and audience interested in using Arthur Labs ecosystem, we build it. Our tools range from a series of marketing automation, SEO, marketplace curation (commerce, or service related platforms), and general automation and hosting services. Our long term mission is to build an entire ecosystem available for small businesses and entrepreneurs to build a strong digital presence, with automated tools and business specific widgets to help small groups of people.
Our platform is progressing to have a sister cooperative 501c3, where we issue our tools for minimal costs to other charities and missions related to our brand.
Amazing, so let’s take a moment to go back in time. What did you believe about yourself as a child that you no longer believe?
That I can pursue and do everything at once. It’s simply not the case. I wish I could tell my younger self the opportunity to doing everything solo will come to bite back in the end, it’s just not worth pursuing a full organization structure and blockchain entirely independently. One thing worth mentioning which I am grateful to my younger self is that although there is higher risk going solo, there is a sense of appreciation for focusing on building systems and digital factories to replicate digital services seamlessly, as seen as an example for https://demo.arthurlabs.net/ where I designed a factory approach to building Web3 commerce marketplaces, where anyone can buy/sell based on different categories of marketplaces.
What did suffering teach you that success never could?
Although contradicting to my last message, I found that finding a cofounder or business partner shouldn’t be taken lightly, there needs to be a proper approach to finding a suitable partner, it’s much more worth the loss of time by going alone and building your own tools before finding the right teammate. I built a series of businesses with cofounders and it led to long nights and constant complication. Through that suffering of going alone and succeeding on my own afterwards with different projects, it’s given me time to appreciate the abilities I have myself and find a partner that compliments rather than hinders my abilities.
Alright, so if you are open to it, let’s explore some philosophical questions that touch on your values and worldview. What’s a cultural value you protect at all costs?
No kings.
Okay, so before we go, let’s tackle one more area. If you knew you had 10 years left, what would you stop doing immediately?
Meaningless work. I feel compelled with 10 years left of my life to try and be a part of change towards current societal issues, and focus less on what others think of me and more about what can make the largest impact in the little time given left.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://arthurlabs.net/
- Instagram: https://instagram.com/watsonlr
- Linkedin: https://linkedin.com/in/watsonlr
- Other: https://demo.arthurlabs.net/
