The story so far
Each line is one part of my life. Tap a block to read what happened.
Companies
Architecture and construction
Finance
Photo and video
Music
Travel
Software
School
Dylan Lindeberg
I grew a tea company from $180k to $1.2M a year and sold it, sold $138.5M of custom architectural products for buildings like EDGE at Hudson Yards, and started an aerial film studio. I also play cello, shoot photos and video, and build software tools.
This is the whole record, kept up to date: what I did, how I did it, what got in the way and what I learned.
Results
- $138.5Mof custom architectural products sold, for developments up to $20B
- 6.7×revenue growth at Open Door Tea, from $180k to $1.2M a year
- SoldOpen Door Tea in 2025, returning capital to every investor and partner
- $1M+in online sales at a 60% gross margin
- $950k+in sales at UP Ceilings, a product company I cofounded
- 10,000+ SFof custom metal systems for EDGE at Hudson Yards
Everything, in detail
What it achieved
- LiveShipped on 2 October 2026.
- 1,400+Automated checks pass before each release, plus an independent review before it goes live.
What I did
- Designed it for people on a job site: one column, big text and buttons, automatic dark mode, and a Spanish option.
- Every verdict comes from arithmetic on the user's own measurements or from a stored rule with its citation and source link. If a rule isn't verified, the tool says so instead of guessing.
How
- Built in small steps: every change is tested and independently reviewed before it goes live.
- On-device speech-to-text, so measurements can be spoken without sending audio anywhere.
What got in the way
- Rules differ town by town across Connecticut and Westchester. The tool shows only rules that were checked against official sources and says "not loaded" for the rest.
What I learned
More on this soon.
What I did
- Writing and producing songs in Ableton Live. Six are in progress on this site.
What I learned
What I learned
What it achieved
- 41Places on the travel map so far: 37 countries and 4 territories.
What it achieved
- Firsthand knowledge of the upstream end of a supply chain that most operators only see on paper.
What I did
- Visited origin suppliers with a local guide and translator.
- Interviewed each key supplier on capacity, lead times and constraints.
What I learned
What it achieved
- 6.7×Annual revenue from $180k to $1.2M.
- $1M+Online sales, at a 60% gross margin.
- 7,000+Etsy sales in the first year.
- $500k+Revenue from the corporate services unit.
- SoldIn 2025, returning capital to every investor and partner. I then trained the new owners through an 8-week handover.
What I did
- Brought the business online in 2020 with a Shopify store, and rebuilt it in 2023 to a 90+ PageSpeed score.
- Opened an Etsy storefront in 2022 that became a category leader in its first year.
- Designed the Tea Tube, a new kind of packaging for loose-leaf tea.
- Started a corporate unit selling virtual services to companies in tech, healthcare, law and non-profits.
- Raised investment and built a 2,500 SF restaurant and a fulfillment center.
How
- Ran rolling demand forecasts against inventory and supplier lead times, to keep perishable stock available without waste.
- Built 5-year forecasts and annual budgets, and rolled out LEAN methods and written procedures.
- Ran the marketing myself: Google, Meta and TikTok ads, photography, video and social.
What got in the way
- Kept supply running through a move to a new facility with no disruption.
- Negotiated the sale on my own, with returns for every investor and partner.
What I learned
What it achieved
- $950k+In sales.
- Projects included an illuminated ceiling map for the EDGE security room, stretch-fabric window treatments for the High Museum of Art, and molded GFR details for 730 Fifth Avenue.
What I did
- Ran multi-year construction timelines and 6-month manufacturing schedules.
- Sourced vendors and settled conflicts between stakeholders.
- Hired two people to launch the e-commerce site and sales channels.
How
- Invested in marketing automation, which made the sales effort far more efficient.
What got in the way
- Hard negotiations both upstream with manufacturers and downstream with clients.
What I learned
What it achieved
- $138.5MOf custom architectural products sold.
- $3.85MOf revenue I generated as the salesperson, in commissions and overage.
- 10,000+ SFOf custom metal ceiling and wall systems for EDGE, the observation deck at Hudson Yards, over three years.
- Other projects: Apple Fifth Avenue and Apple Flatbush, Hudson Yards, the High Museum of Art, the Fairmont Toronto, 730 Fifth Avenue and the Ella T. Grasso auditorium.
What I did
- Owned the whole cycle: prospecting, design consulting, proposals and bids, value engineering, negotiation, delivery and on-site service.
- Led 12 to 36 month delivery cycles, through formal stage-gate reviews.
- Built the company's website and digital marketing.
How
- Detailed cross-team reviews to keep every system code-compliant and on budget.
- Just-in-time logistics for high-precision acoustical systems.
- Ads geofenced to architectural specifiers and contractors.
What I learned
What I learned
What it achieved
- Graduated cum laude.
What I learned
What I did
- Analyzed monthly vendor expense reports for the comptroller and flagged anything abnormal.
- Tracked down and resolved fixed-income yield discrepancies using Bloomberg terminals.
What I learned
Skills, and where they came from
Pick a skill to see where I learned it.
Photo and video
I've been a photographer and videographer for many years: aerial film, travel and wedding videos. Years of travel are still unposted. The best of it is being sorted for a map of the places I've been.
Music
I started with classical guitar as a child and took basic piano lessons, but it was in fourth grade that I chose cello, playing through high school with private lessons. In college, I took classical guitar and played in a church worship band. My path shifted recently when I learned piano and keyboard in 2025, followed by synthesizers. In 2026 after selling my business — and 12+ hours a day learning music — my progression led me to start composing, and my current work is being developed in Ableton. These songs are in progress.
- Track 28mid-tempo bass, 105 BPM, F minor
- Type One Funfuture rave, 128 BPM, G minor
- Talk to MeSpace bass, 103 BPM, A minor
- Raving in the RainFuture bass, 122 BPM, E minor
- Can't Recall Your FaceFuture bass, 128 BPM, E minor
- Let the Groove Save Yousoul house, 125 BPM, D minor
- Love Me Proudmelodic house, 134 BPM, E modal
- Green Tea GarageUK garage house, 174 BPM, G minor
- What a BlurMelodic house, 128 BPM, C minor
- Clarinet CallClassical crossover, 124 BPM, A minor
- I'll Find AnotherMelodic EDM, 102 BPM, E minor
Tools I've built
- Field Check2026A phone tool for pool builders: enter the measurements from a job site, and it checks them against the plan and the town and state rules, with the source for each rule.
- Song maps2026An interactive map of each song's arrangement, built from its Ableton project, with a 90-second preview that plays along.
- Project Hub2026A demo dashboard for keeping a project's work in one place, shown with sample data.
I build these with automated coding tools I set up and run myself. Every change is tested and reviewed before it goes live.
Updates
- October 2026Three more songs on Music, with videos.
- October 2026Field Check is live.