The Power of a Single Keyhole
How do you compete with large teams? By embracing your constraints. This is the story of Carrd, a one-page website builder created and run by a single person. It’s a case study in how a relentless focus on a single problem, elegant simplicity, and community-led growth can create a massively successful and profitable solo venture.
The End of the Page
By 2015, the internet was a place of sprawling ambition. The giants of the web, Squarespace and Wix, were in an arms race to offer more—more pages, more features, more complexity. They sold the dream of a digital kingdom, a multi-page testament to your business, your brand, your ego. But in Nashville, Tennessee, a designer and developer known only as AJ was feeling the opposite impulse. For a decade, he had been building website templates. It was good, honest work. He’d mastered responsive design just as it was becoming essential, giving away his first creations for free and building a loyal following who loved his clean, elegant work. That following eventually allowed him to sell premium themes, earning a six-figure income from one-time payments of $19. But after ten years of crafting shells for other people’s ambitions, he found himself staring at a wall. The work had become a gilded cage. He was, in his own words, bored. He needed a new challenge, something to test the skills he’d been honing in the quiet margins of the web.
A Deliberate Emptiness
AJ knew he couldn't out-build the giants. He was one person, not a venture-backed army of engineers. To compete on their terms would be creative suicide. So he looked for a different way in. He wasn't trying to solve a grand problem or chase a billion-dollar market. He was simply looking for a challenge that fit him. The idea that took hold was not about adding more, but about taking almost everything away. A site builder for a single page. This wasn't just a niche; it was a keyhole. A deliberate constraint that flew in the face of prevailing wisdom. While others offered endless canvases, AJ decided to offer a single, elegant surface. It was a perfect fit for his skills and, more importantly, for his limitations. It was a project he could conceivably build, launch, and run by himself. The plan was simple: a few weeks of planning, a few months of development on a rough prototype, and then a private alpha for a handful of friends. He wasn’t thinking about a business, not really. He was thinking about a portfolio piece, a side project to showcase his skills.