Little Might

About

Small but mighty.

I started Little Might in 2013 because I believe you don't need a big name, a big team, or anyone's permission to do remarkable things. You just need to stay curious and keep showing up.

This is where I document what that looks like from the inside — the wins, the disasters, and whatever I'm obsessed with next.

DTC products sold

$55M+

Started with

$500

Documenting since

2013

Cathryn Lavery

What you'll find here

The good, the bad, and the interesting.

The good

$55M+ in DTC products from a first business started with less than $500. Won the Shopify Build-a-Business competition. Made the Inc 500. Built a world-class network from zero — mostly by sharing what I was learning online.


The bad

Got embezzled. Had a business partnership go sideways in the worst way. Sold my company to private equity and had to buy it back. I write about all of it — the lessons are in the wreckage, not the highlight reel.


The interesting

I tend to show up early. eBay store at 13. First Shopify store in 2012. Kickstarter in 2013. Crypto in 2016. DeFi in 2020. Right now I'm deep in AI — building things as an engineer who can't code from scratch but ships anyway. The curiosity is the constant.

In pictures

Cathryn Lavery portrait
Cathryn speaking at an event
Cathryn working on product design
Behind the scenes at BestSelf Co
Cathryn in her workspace
Product photography for BestSelf

Timeline

A brief history.

From architecture school to e-commerce, the abridged version.

2024
Bought BestSelf back from private equity. Started going deep on AI. Read the story →
2022
BestSelf was acquired. BestSelf →
2020
Bought out my business partner and became 100% owner. Read the story →
2019
Placed #318 on the Inc 500.
2018
Left NYC after 7 years and moved to Austin, TX.
2017
Grew revenue 3.7x and won the Shopify Build a BIGGER Business competition in partnership with Tony Robbins.
2016
Launched BestSelf.co on Shopify. Grew from 0 to $2M in sales in 9 months. Won the Shopify Build-a-Business competition. Read about it →
2015
Launched Self Journal on Kickstarter and raised $322,696 in 34 days.
2013
Quit architecture. Started Little Might. Launched first Kickstarter.
2012
Launched first Shopify store on the side of my day job.
2011
Moved to NYC with $500 and no network. Started an architecture career.

The name

Why "Little Might."

I was shy. Reserved. Definitely not going to put my own name on a blog. So I gave myself a superhero name instead — something small that might surprise you.

That was 2013. I moved to the US in 2011 with $500 and no network. Turns out, just sharing what you're curious about and documenting what you're building is how you find your people, build a world-class network, and end up in rooms you never expected to be in.

Right now

What I'm focused on.

AI engineering

I can't write code from scratch, but I'm building products anyway. AI agents, automations, and tools that actually work. Learning as I go and writing about it here.


BestSelf Co

Built it, sold it, and bought it back from private equity. Still running it. We make productivity and self-improvement tools for people who actually use them.


This site

First-person writing on business, money, building things, and whatever I'm thinking about. A few places to start: