Founder.
Writer.
Maker.
A life spent building brands, shaping memorable experiences, and focusing on work that matters.
What's in motionQuality leather goods.
Handcrafted in Colorado since 2012.
Last Exit
Goods
Colorado · Est. 2012
Useful tools, built close to the problem.
Founder Local
Lightweight internal tools for founder-led product businesses — inventory, reporting and operations built close to the work.
View project →HLDFAST
A better way to keep track of the things worth keeping: their history, ownership, value and place in your life.
View project →Gift Thought
A simple way to remember a good gift idea before the moment you need one has already passed.
View project →Each is in active development. Any public preview uses sample data; the working versions contain private and proprietary information.
Notes from the middle.
Peak Mid
A writing home for work, creativity, middle age, identity, self-renewal and the peculiar business of deciding what comes next.
Read Peak Mid on SubstackThe
through-line.
I’ve spent most of my working life thinking about how people experience the world — through stories, brands, live moments, and the things they hold onto.
I began my journey in NYC, writing and working in public relations, where I learned how much a good story can shape perception. At Clif Bar, I got to take that lesson out into the world — building experiences around the brand and the people who connected with it.
When I started Last Exit Goods in 2012, it became more literal still: build a brand that means something, design the product, make it, sell it, ship it, listen to the customer, fix what isn’t working, repeat.
The mediums have evolved, but the instinct hasn’t. Sometimes the answer is a story. Sometimes it’s an event, a product, a system, a piece of copy or a tool that makes the experience better.
I care most about the human part — whether the work feels considered, useful, and like someone gave a damn. People should feel taken care of.
That still guides the work at Last Exit, my writing at Peak Mid and the things I’m building now. I’m curious about what else it might lead to — good people, interesting problems, and the chance to think of something useful together.
Interesting problems
are interesting.
For a good problem, a customer experience that could work better, a question of product fit, a business at an inflection point, a partnership, or a note from the road.
yo@ryanmayo.com