I apologize for taking so long to send out this email. On May 29th, 2024, Ashton Jones resigned as CTO of Mass Address. Ashton had agreed to serve as CTO while our application was being built.
After we finished the app months ago, I told him that the future of the company now rested on my shoulders and that I could now pursue funding since we have an MVP.
Once Ashton completed the application, he told me he was stepping away from the company because he felt overwhelmed by work and the amount of time he had spent building the app. He was mentally exhausted.
I completely understood. Ashton built the Mass Address application in his spare time while working on a contract to develop a POS application for a major restaurant chain. The downside of that contract was that he was handling the jobs of multiple people. He should have had an entire team helping him, but it sounds like he was responsible for the entire development.
For months, I gave Ashton space. As the weeks rolled by, I realized deep down that Ashton was probably going to leave the company. It turns out that while Ashton was on leave, he discovered that he doesn’t enjoy programming or the tech industry. After a lot of soul-searching, he decided to leave the tech industry altogether.
I got the phone call on May 29th—a call I knew was coming. It was sad to hear him say the words, but I was relieved to hear he found peace in his decision. You have to love what you do, or life becomes a prison sentence.
Ashton took the vision I had 8 years ago and made it a reality—8 years of research and development. To see a platform that can actually deliver private identification is remarkable.
Funding
After I told Ashton I would now be able to seek funding, I was presented with a major problem. We still had no utility. We had no APIs, no connections to the industry, or anything that provided immediate value.
You can tell people all day long that you built an amazing product—something that has never been done before. But if they don’t see how it can improve their life or save them money, you’ve wasted your time and resources.
For months, I struggled with this problem. I had no co-founder to call upon. I had years of market research and examples to share with the American people. For what?
What good would it do if I shared examples of the dozens of problems that Mass Address could solve? A person could create their singularity but would not be able to update their online identification.
Thus, I didn’t post any marketing content. I never pitched to any investors.
As it stands, Mass Address could be sold as it is to the United States Postal Service. It is a viable product in protecting identification the same way the Department of Defense protects classified information.
Ash, thank you for believing in me. I hope it will pay off for the both of us one day.
I wish I could share more, but I am really tired. I just got back from the Department of Florida American Legion Convention.
I continue working on Mass Address in my spare time. It is my life’s work.