Wish Tender

Dashel's path to founding Wish Tender was unconventional. After studying fashion design in college and suffering physical injury from the demands of tailoring work—hallucinating from sleep deprivation and ending up in the hospital—she abandoned fashion. She later married and lived in a van with her spouse, during which time she decided to learn to code. Taking on the "365 days of code" challenge while traveling, she completed it without missing a single day, eventually extending it further. Though she initially aimed to become a lucid dreaming tech entrepreneur, she recognized this was too speculative. Instead, she looked for a more validated, profitable first business—her "PayPal before SpaceX" moment.

A friend approached Dashel with an idea: they wanted a wish list tool for their website and offered 50% of the profits if she built it. This sparked her validation instinct. She surveyed hundreds of people via Twitter (with friends' help), asking whether they'd use such a product, and got enthusiastic responses—particularly from adult content creators. When she mentioned existing wedding registries required addresses and personal info, adult creators said they needed anonymity. This was the insight. Dashel spent a full year building Wish Tender, initially thinking it would take six weeks. The product is a two-sided marketplace: creators set up gift wishlists, fans buy gifts (essentially sending money), creators stay anonymous. Wish Tender takes 10% (higher than wedding registries at 2%, because of the privacy and chargeback protection provided).

After launch, growth was slow for 2-3 months—exactly when Dashel almost quit. Other founders told her she'd failed, that she didn't validate properly, that she should pivot. But she'd committed to giving it six months. Around month 5-6, traction began. Her acquisition strategy was simple: Twitter DMs. She and her spouse sent 60-100 DMs daily to people they thought would want the product—adult creators with OnlyFans in their bio. They later used a mass DM tool. The DMs weren't highly personalized, but they were targeted to the right audience, so they didn't feel spammy. Early customers became evangelists because Dashel treated every user like a VIP, hopping on video calls to solve problems. This care built deep loyalty.

Word-of-mouth became the dominant growth engine—built into the product itself, since creators naturally share their wishlists. Dashel also copied the marketing approach Jim Shark uses: tweeting from the user's perspective, not the company's. So instead of "Check out Wish Tender," tweets read like "Just got $500 in gifts from my fans and didn't have to give them my address." These felt authentic and shareable. The team (Dashel and her spouse, who became director of operations and effectively co-founder) never spent real money on marketing. Dashel also learned to talk to customers well by reading Michelle Hansen's "Talking to Humans," overcoming her initial nervousness during interviews. The biggest mistake others gave her—to launch fast, build for yourself, follow every piece of advice—she rejected. Instead, she stuck with one idea for a year, built for others' needs, and took advice with skepticism.

By the time of this interview, Wish Tender was doing $26,000-$36,000 in monthly profit (with "profit" used because their business model makes traditional revenue calculations confusing: creators can be seen as generating $700k or $50 in revenue depending on how you count it; Stripe balance is the clearest metric). This represents explosive growth from single-digit thousands just months prior. The team is two people: Dashel and her spouse. Next, she wants to automate or sell Wish Tender to step back, so she can pursue her true passion: building technology for the lucid dreaming community. She's also advising other founders to take wisdom from experienced people but not treat it as gospel—most successful founders are figuring it out as they go.