Studio Letter #1 - Winter 2025

Dear reader,

Welcome to the studio! This letter is the first of hopefully many on this blog. In these letters, the three of us Lokhandwala brothers (Saalik, Kaamil, and Nabeel) update you — our supporters, customers, and friends — on all of the happenings here at LokBros Studio.

Some of these letters will be filled with celebration of achievements, others might contain lessons learned. Most will have a mix of both. In any case, I’m grateful to be writing to you today as we chart a fresh course in LokBros history.

The Start of the Studio

We semi-officially formed up as a Studio in the Summer of 2024, starting by taking website and media production gigs for small businesses. I was working at LokBros stuff full-time while Kaamil wrapped up work at his full-time job and Nabeel finished school. It wasn’t until the start of this year that we went all-hands-on-deck. LokBros Studio is our thing now, full-time.

We learned a lot from our early gigs, and strove to learn as much as possible to craft a more sustainable business. We’re still on that journey, but we’ve identified a few things.

Wondering about Websites

Initially, we thought being a website studio was the best idea for a service-based business. It seemed natural that our strengths converged there.

• I’m good at administering the necessities of a website and piping data where it needs to go.
• Kaamil has a special way with interactive frontends.
• Nabeel is a designer and handles all of our media.

Perfect combo, right?

It turns out, website building didn’t capitalize on our greatest strengths:

• I’m a product builder — from systems to operationalizing business.
• Kaamil’s a game designer who knows depths of GPU programming, not mere CSS. (check out Assimilation to see how he cooks)
• Nabeel’s a creative whose skills extend beyond corporate commercials and flat-design landing pages. (watch A Breath of Fresh Fire to see some of the craziness he’s capable of)

Our shift to community, media services, and products

Early in December, our strategy took a turn. I met a community builder in NYC who was looking for some technology to help them manage event invites and text blasts to their community members. So I began work on our first SaaS product, flockUp. Kaamil was on a perspective-shifting trip in India. Nabeel was getting a stream of media gigs.

When we regrouped, the three of us had a realization, in separate but similar ways. Serving communities, associations, organizations — any group that facilitates the meeting of people — was a noble mission. (Our manifesto has more on this.)

Helping communities with media services and digital products is our current direction, and we’re stoked about it.

Until next time,
Saalik