Chris Fischer

Wolf of Williamsburg / The endeavors

Apply

Co-founder and Chief Digital Officer, New York / 2020–present

Apply started as a small sticker side business while I was still working full time at Aaptiv. I co-founded it and led all digital and DTC efforts from zero to profitability, including the e-commerce experience and the royalty and payment systems behind B2B growth.

A small but mighty design team developed products now sold at the Met, MoMA, and the Broad.

From the archive

  1. The Long Way HereI build technology companies, work with startups, run and ride bikes, fix old houses, and start more side projects than I need.
  2. Apply Took DUMBOThe Apply team was together in DUMBO while several people were visiting New York.
  3. Mom Gets the DaySanta Monica moved Apply cofounder work to 7 a.m. Pacific and pushed a Wahoo standup aside for Gisi's birthday.
  4. Good Feels All AroundI signed the TRX offer, asked for a May 10 start, then sent a six-part getting-started list three minutes later.
  5. The Product Test Was a WorkoutApply was launching, I was moving apartments, and my TRX homework involved live classes, sore muscles, and a lot of product notes.
  6. 1,153 Beta FormsApply Stickers opened a six-day beta signup, collected more than a thousand mailing addresses, and turned my inbox into a Typeform notification machine.
  7. A Lot of HoursApply was busy, the Poughkeepsie house had a leak and ancient wiring, and I still said yes to helping Rapchat and Cutback Coach. COVID had left a lot of hours in the day.
  8. Tempted (Joking)A wholesale coordinator job at the Poughkeepsie Farm Project landed in my inbox while I was building Apply. The joke was that I might want it. I sort of did.
  9. I Picked a Bad MorningElection stress sent me out for a Thursday bike ride. A few hours later I was in the ER, apologizing in advance for concussion typos.
  10. All Hands on StickersApply launched into an ecommerce order spike, a broken payment method, finished financing, and a bubble-mailer shipment waiting on customs.
  11. We Are OfficialApply launched its 2020 voting-sticker campaign, then the founders stayed close to the support inbox and the first shipping questions.
  12. First, Fix the DuctsTwo weeks before Apply's launch, I turned an old house's HVAC work into three phases so one expensive problem did not stop everything else.

10 more in the archive.