Sometimes, plans change.
In January, we had a plan. It involved traveling, building SpaceTime, and talking to fellow travelers. Our product centered on location and we felt being around travelers and digital nomads would be a good way to surround ourselves with potential customers.
Needless to say, that hasn’t happened.
It’s March 24, we’re in quarantine, and we’re changing our plan.
This last week, I discovered a series of fitness challenges on YouTube that have inspired me to consistent fitness. The general structure requires the YouTuber to commit to a simple workout, do it for 30 consecutive days, and record their process throughout the journey. 30 Murphs in 30 days. 100 Burpees for 30 days.
Personally, I’ve done 360 burpees in the last 5 days, as I prepare for my own “100 burpees in 30 days” challenge (a challenge that will NOT be documented on YouTube 😂).
But I bring this up, because these videos reminded us of a similar challenge, undertaken by Pieter Levels in March of 2014: 12 Startups in 12 months. It was the challenge that led to GoFuckingDoIt, and then NomadList, and also RemoteOk.
Nick and I have decided that this is going to be our new plan - to build 12 “Startups” in 2020.
To date, we’ve shipped Raminders and SpaceTime (and will be slowly improving those apps over time), which means we have 10 more to go in 2020!
Metrics
Raminders
DAUs: 9
Tasks Created/Day: 27
Tasked Completed/Day: 44
Tasks Viewed/Day: 26
In future newsletters, we’re going to drop the metrics section as this is the most tedious section to prepare. We will include metrics if anything is notable, but otherwise will be omitted.
Highlights/Lowlights
To be honest, we’ve been half-assing the highlights/lowlights section of this newsletter for weeks. We’re going to replace these sections with a more fact-based “Change Log” from the week - a simple recap of what we worked on. I’m already behind on the newsletter this week, so will leave it at that for this week 😂
Miscellaneous
🔭 Nick spent a couple days exploring AR tech. Built a prototype of a hologram app, but it confirmed his suspicion that AR is still a couple hardware iterations away from having its moment. Likely need glasses/headset to get the right experience.
🐑 Some inspiration for what might be an impending Recession (although who knows, with trillions of stimulus possibly getting injected into the system…)
🎥 In addition to Zoom, we’ve seen a lot of buzz on Twitter for a few online conference type startups. Just another expression of how offline gatherings are finding their way online - all accelerated by the coronavirus. Here’s a few:
🕸 Browser extensions that introduce a social layer on top of the web have intrigued us for a bit. Here are a few we’ve found over the last few months:
Netflix party https://www.netflixparty.com/ (watch Netflix in sync and chat)
Relay Chat https://relaychat.app/ (chat with all other concurrent visitors to a website)
Hypothesis https://web.hypothes.is/ (global, shared “kindle highlights” for the web)
🎢 While the trend is definitely down, the stock market has been a wild ride:
🧠 I’ve been learning about SEO. This course by ahrefs.com is free right now and it’s a wealth of knowledge: https://ahrefs.com/academy/blogging-for-business/lesson-1-1
📚 We haven’t met yet (soon though!), but if you’re interested in our Kindle sample based book club, check out this form! https://forms.gle/ixDXp3KWG6ex93vs6
Happy Tuesday!