Goals Met: ~75%

Song Of The Month (listen while reading!): New Tricks - Petite League - Indie Rock - https://open.spotify.com/track/08Szg1jr9UJgkDk7cWwfeM?si=ipA0GVyMTj2S_ba6_DgPmQ&context=spotify%3Aplaylist%3A1RHZ5A4j2YVGWgypSYL7de

Unfortunately I missed February’s retrospective. Just completely slipped my mind.

How did I do with last month’s goals?

  • ExpatPhone:

    • Learn more about US sms numbers and providers, so I can fix service. Or just implement Europe.

      • Result: A

        I did a lot of research on expatpho.net. I finally released it, I spent ~ €100 on marketing.

        Results?

        • I got 1-2 signups from the mailing list
        • I got 0 signups from my new marketing.

        I am going to chalk this one up to a failure, but atleast a quick one.

        I immediately found that I was not selling phone numbers that worked well for what I wanted. The phone industry is crazy regulated.

        I still think the product has potential, but the numbers I’m selling are just not made to receive 2FA. This makes me not believe in the product I’m selling. So I don’t want to continue with it. I also know it’ll be a customer service nightmare.

        I considered pivoting to a B2B offering, doing 2FA for teams. I would be fine to do it but I don’t trust my numbers to work.

        I have some new ideas anyway.

  • Personal

    • Sort out my gym situation, I’m not working out enough

      • Result: B

      I bought some home weights and have found some nice body exercises to do. I haven’t been doing them enough, but I plan to. I may never go back to the gym.

    • Decide if I’ll join Formly and move that process forward

      • Result: B

      Started working with a new startup called, Formly.ai. They build a software to help companies get medically certified by filling out the forms and leading them through the process.

      This is one of the first opportunities that’s actually naturally come through my startup network. I went to a meetup and was chatting with the head of our incubator, and he mentioned his brother raised some money. I reached out to offer my freelance services, and he said that’s cool but wouldn’t need them yet. Then immediately hit me back 2 weeks later to ask if I wanted in!

      I had just ironed out a contract with MyGroove, and was making good money so I said I can work for them 1 day a week freelance and we can see how it goes from there.

      They want me to join fulltime and think I’m too expensive as a pure freelancer.

      It’d be pretty cool to be the first employee in this startup as I think it’s a good problem they are solving. I like what I’d be doing more so than at MyGroove, but the pay would definitely be worse and I’d probably have to work more. The upside being, that I’d be back in the startup community, meeting people and helping run the team.

      It’s a tough decision that I jump on both sides of constantly.

    • Book Japan holiday

      • Result: B

      Flights booked, but nothing else planned.

    • Finish all taxes

      • Result: A

      Taxes completed but SkinTheory not shut down.

What else got done last month?

  • Played our last show with CORP. for a while. Our drummer has gone home to Ireland to take a break from Berlin. Its been quite nice to have this break honestly. I’ve had more time to myself instead of practice and preparations all the time. I’ve also unquestioningly been more interested in working on my own music. This shows me that I have a passion for music no matter what, its not something I can go long without doing something with.
  • I went to London with laura and worked from there. London is really cool, but I think I still prefer Berlin more to live. New York also still attracts me more. It was interesting to see all the money in London. The second I was in our hotel, I heard VCs talking and there was lots of suits, which I don’t really see in Berlin. London was quite expensive generally as well. I really enjoyed that I could work in the day from the British Library, like a free coworking space. It’s really nice to see the libraries allowing that and there was all walks of life there working and studying, although mostly students.
  • I did a recording session with my mate Connall, which was nice but not productive. I think that I should’ve had a better plan like, “We are just recording guitar”. But of course I forgot my acoustic guitar. I also need to make sure I’m going to a studio because I need help with something. Otherwise I like recording at home more where I can experiment and be a shit musician in silence.
  • I’ve started using some new tech:
    • Arc Browser - V nice UI experiment and great if you have multiple Chrome profiles
    • Copilot - Kind of mind blowing. It will be the next 5 years of tech, these GPT helpers.
  • Got back into COD: Warzone a bit, very fun tbh and nice to play with my brother again.
  • Got to spend some time alone as well, which is always refreshing.
  • I made a nice effort to phone a few old friends again, which makes me happy to keep up with them

Lessons Learned?

  • Working 1 day a week at a company is not good for building, fine for advising but not continuous building. Batching work is much better for features.
  • Network and going to events is key to opportunities.
  • You can work for free in the British Library in London. It’s also no the city for me.
  • If I record with someone I need a specific reason and goal. Otherwise it’s better at home.
  • Getting people to sign up for a mailing list does not mean they’ll buy the product, its better to have a price on the mailing list as well
  • You can build a mailing list with ads
  • Dealing with phones sucks
  • GPT is really neat as tool to help with work
  • There are so many good body workouts

What are my goals for next month?

“You can’t connect the dots going forward, only back” - Make sure these goals trend the dots towards my goal, being in front of the right people, focusing time where it matters, etc.

  • Decide on Formly
  • Book rest of Japan
  • Finish Chlorine song
  • Workout 1 time per weekday
  • Get contacts
  • Go To A Tech Meetup

What are my 2023 (year) goals?

  1. 🟡 Kill SkinTheory or get it off my mind completely.
  2. 🟡 Build 3 startup projects, and get faster and more publicity with each. Get atleast 1 to €100 MRR.
  3. 🟢 Support myself with a cool job or through freelancing.
  4. 🟡 Keep myself networked in the startup/engineering scene.
  5. 🔴 Get to the next level with CORP. Get on a label or manager that supports bigger bands or gets more publicity.

What are my lifetime goals?

  1. Run my own business that allows me to: support myself, be relaxed, be innovative, love my work, travel.
  2. Backpack for 6 months through Asia.
  3. Have 100,000 fans of my music.
  4. Be relaxed and be excited to wake up to my life every day.

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