My belated 2023 year in review

2023 feels so fast to me.

An acquisition, several product launches, etc. And above all, a chance to see the growth of my son. There’s nothing better in this world than working on something I’m called to do while being present as a dad to my family.

In this post, I’ll walk you through the glance of events in 2023. Then I’ll disclose what went wrong, what went well, and my plan to navigate 2024.

The events

• I sold Mumu for 5 figures – It was an early miracle in January. I was on vacation that day, and somebody on Acquire sent me a private message to discuss a deal. We closed the deal in 2 weeks – that’s fast, isn’t that?
• I started Snipwhale – I rushed to start a new thing again. I thought it was cool to build a podcast highlights generator. A few months later, I shut it down. I found no energy to continue.
• I started Browserhub – I remembered the pain I got a long time ago about web scraping. And that happened when I was still working on Snipwhale. I thought why not start a new one? I decided to make it a sole focus for the rest of the year.

Among those events, there are a few things I didn’t do right. It might be because I’m still new in SaaS (Mumu was a B2C product). But whatever it is, I’ll make sure to not make the same mistakes next year.

What went wrong

I did too many things at once.

That’s the root of all evil in 2023. I acted like I had a team to do this and that. I shipped new features fast, but I got stung in no time when I had to maintain all those features. I tried to do marketing everywhere. I wrote a blog post, made add-ons, and the list of channels goes on.

The reality is I’m a solo bootstrapped founder. I should be aware of what I should and shouldn’t do. The sad thing is I didn’t have the clarity on that. But the good news is now I do. And it’s something I should experience myself before learning the lesson. It’s a hard-earned one.

Now let’s get to the most embarrassing one.

I deleted all my newsletter subscribers.

I’m thinking about this countless times and I can’t find a reason why I did that. The closest one is I wanted a fresh start. I started a new product and questioned whether I should write a newsletter. Turns out, that brought more harm.

The impact was real when I wanted to make new things. There were fewer people I could talk to, fewer ideas, and less validation after all. The entrepreneurship journey is already lonely. And excluding people from my circle is a fine recipe for disasters.

Despite that though, there are things that went well.

What went well

I had a good time with my family.

I’m a dad of 2-year-old boy and a husband. And family is the foundation of what I’m doing. I indeed have a purpose, but I can’t deny a tight connection between me and my family – a bigger purpose. If there’s a conflict around us, it’ll affect my productivity too. I’m grateful to finish 2023 with a good relationship with them. It was not without conflict, but we resolved it well.

So how did I spend time with my family?

We were having a lot of conversations. And that’s not a fluff talking. We talked a lot when we traveled, when I played swing with my boy, and when we went out for dinner. I couldn’t get enough of it, and I always strengthened when I had good conversations with them.

I found my competitive advantages.

The trap of execution is trying to do everything. I did it, as I said above. But the more I did it, the more I knew what I’m good at and what I’m not – what I should delegate (AI?) and what I should ship by myself. I wish I didn’t spend so much time to discover this, but it’s one wisdom that’s gained by experience.

Now let’s think in a bigger picture.

It’s more beneficial to stay away from venture-backed companies as a bootstrapper. They want to crush the entire market, but we only want to capture a part of it. And we already knew the advice to niche down, but how to do it anyway? Start small! Do 3 things – no! Do 2 things – still too big! Then do 1 thing well. Our world is full of mediocrity, but you don’t have to.

Alright, it’s enough to look back at this point. 2024 has waited already.

The 2024 plan

I don’t buy an argument that says don’t plan. I plan, but I won’t overthink it as it has to happen.

Here’s a simple list of what I plan to do in 2024:

• I want to do less – I find joy when I finish a few tasks well. I should be more mindful when choosing the top priorities to work on. And here’s the kicker: I should define the boundaries. What not to do is as important as what to do.
• I want to get to ramen profitability – I started a few businesses in 2023 and that’s still far from the numbers I want. I’ll be more serious about making something thrive in 2024. But how? I’ll focus on my competitive advantages. The tech I know best – JS, React, Ruby, Rails, etc. Also content and SEO for marketing.
• I want to keep spending quality time with my family – As my boy grows, I need to teach him everything I know. Travel more also comes to mind. But one thing is for sure, I’ll not trade this sweet relationship with anything in this world. I’ll cherish every moment.

2024 will not be easy, but we’ll get stronger as we go.