About Much Obliged Co.
A small business on your side.
I’ve always been fiercely independent. I’ve never really been somebody who could see myself working a regular nine-to-five. My wife is much the same way. We started The Newton Agency, our branding and web development business, because we wanted to work for ourselves and build something of our own.
And I’ve always admired that same spirit in other people. Somebody who’s willing to take a chance on themselves, whether they’re making art, restoring furniture, selling at a farmers market, or starting a little freelance business.
In 2025, when I was 45, I had a stroke. It changed my life considerably, including the kind of work I could do. I’d been day trading, and that wasn’t something I could continue doing. During my recovery, I kept building software. I made a couple of stroke rehabilitation apps, developed tools for The Newton Agency, and kept learning as I went.
Somewhere along the way, I came across a platform that let people support creators but took a percentage of what those creators received.
And that really bothered me.
I’d been watching the way software businesses were changing for years. I remember when you could buy an app for a few dollars, and that was it. You owned it. Then everything became a subscription. And now some companies weren’t satisfied with charging you for the software. They wanted a percentage of whatever you managed to earn using it, too.
I started thinking of it as the parasite economy. Software attaching itself to somebody else’s livelihood and taking a piece of what they earn.
And the trouble is, those percentages add up. When you’re trying to make a living independently, every additional fee comes out of your margins. You either absorb it yourself or try to make up for it by charging your customers more. Either way, somebody’s paying for it.
Here’s somebody who’s spent years learning their craft, building an audience, making something people appreciate. Somebody decides their work is valuable enough to give them a little money, and the software company takes a percentage.
You didn’t paint the painting. You didn’t restore the chair. You didn’t produce the podcast. You weren’t standing at a flea market all Saturday.
So why should you get a percentage of what somebody else earned?
Because that’s become the standard way of doing business? That’s a pretty crappy reason, if you ask me.
And it got me thinking about all the different ways people make a living now.
I’d experienced a lot of it myself. When we started The Newton Agency, we had to figure out how to run a freelance business. During my stroke recovery, I’d also been reselling things on Facebook Marketplace. I knew firsthand how much easier some of those transactions could be with better tools.
Through the agency, we’d worked with plenty of other independent people and small businesses facing their own challenges.
So I started building something that might help.
A way to get paid by customers you’ve already found. Tools for freelance jobs, private sales, selling in person, keeping records, and getting support from people who appreciate your work. The kind of tools I wish we’d had when we were starting out.
That’s how Much Obliged came about.
And yes, Much Obliged is subscription software too. I realize there’s a little irony in that, given how I feel about the way software is priced these days.
But I think there’s a fair way to do it.
We charge eight dollars a month because the software needs to be maintained, supported, and continually improved. Our job is to make it useful enough that we earn our keep every month.
What we don’t do is take a percentage of your sales. Whether you make fifty dollars or fifty thousand, we’re still eight bucks a month. Standard payment-processing fees are separate, of course.
Today, Much Obliged is a family-owned American small business. It’s my wife and me. I develop the software, she helps with marketing and the decisions we make along the way, and we both show up every day trying to make it better.
There’s something else I care about.
I think American-made ought to mean something again. Not just putting a flag on a website. Actually building something here that’s useful to people who live and work here.
And we’re a software company, but a lot of the people we’re building for don’t spend their days sitting behind computers. They’re restoring furniture, making pottery, fixing houses, teaching classes, selling things at markets on Saturdays. They’re doing real work, often in their own communities. Our software might help them get paid, but we didn’t make the thing, find the customer, or do the job.
If somebody in America wants to support somebody else in America, why should a software company halfway around the world automatically get a percentage of that exchange? I’d rather see more of that money stay with the person who earned it, and have a chance to circulate through the community where they live.
I think we ought to care a little more about each other and the places we call home. And I think an American company ought to be able to build something useful without making its living by taking a piece of somebody else’s success.
And that brings me to the name.
Much Obliged is simply another way of saying thank you.
It’s our way of thanking the people who choose to support our little business. It’s a way for those people to thank their customers and supporters, and for their customers and supporters to thank them right back.
I don’t know exactly where this business will take us. But I hope it makes it a little easier for somebody to take that leap, work for themselves, and build something of their own.
And I hope we make the software so useful that eight dollars a month feels like a pretty darn good deal.
That’s what we’re working toward.
Your success is yours.