First Blog

Welcome Traveler

Hi there, I'm Daniel. Welcome to my hub for sharing my journey into startups. If you're here, perhaps you're a solopreneur or startup adventurer yourself, or maybe you're debating on whether or not you want to embark on a similar journey. In any case, welcome!

Why Start This Blog?

I'm starting this blog because I realized that I am now over two years (!) into my startup journey with my micro saas Electron app, Displagent, and I have never published my wins, losses, and other such learnings anywhere on the internet other than sporadic - and often ignored - tweets.

These two years of excruciating hard work, emotional turmoil, and countless victores are full of so much useful information and hands-on experience I've gained from the "school of hard knocks" as some put it, and I feel like it would be such a waste not to share it somewhere.

I would love to share this information, as well as my thoughts and experiences, with others in the solopreneur world for a few different reasons.

Back to the Future

This blog will act as a sort of time capsule for me. I want to be able to look back at these blog posts later on in the future and reflect on, with appreciation and maybe a renewed sense of self-love, the incalculable obstacles I faced with my software products and businesses and how, each and every time, I somehow, some way found a path to success through them.

That is one of the best definitions of bootstrapping a business: if not by superior skills or a lucky draw, you win by war of attrition. Sheer grit. Stubborn determination.

You don't lose until you die.

Your burn rate is your sanity and your ability to maintain it throughout the journey.

I have that entrepreneurial spirit within me, and I want to memorialize it in writing so that I can remind myself of how many problems I've worked through.

Theraputic

I think I indirectly drove this point home with the section above, but I think that writing blogs about my journey will help me as a solopreneur by providing me a sort of theraputic, creative outlet.

I am not joking when I say that I pretend to have mock interviews with myself in car rides all of the time, pretending that people want to know my opinions on bootstrapping vs. VC funding, open source sustainability, C#, and many other such topics.

I'm also an extremely extroverted person and love meeting with and socializing with people. Conversation is one of my deepest vehicles for experiencing human connection, so it's strangely ironic that I'm a soloprenuer given how outgoing and socialable I am.

I wish dearly that I could share my journey with more people, but where I'm at, almost no one is interested in startups, solopreneruship, or software development. I will admit: I am certainly jealous of Silicon Valley when it comes to that aspect.

But considering that I'm not at a place to just up and move to San Francisco, considering that I'm a bootstrapped solopreneur who is not interested in networking with investors anyways, and considering that I have the internet at my disposal, I don't see why I shouldn't socialize with people here.

And I find that when I have these mock conversations with myself or pretend to share my journey with others, I feel oddly relieved, as if I've expelled a concentration of energy and dipped my hand into a well I didn't know existed.

Build In Public

I will admit that I am back and forth with the #buildinpublic community at times, but all in all - I think I really love it deep down. Sometimes the same 'ole mega-follower Twitter accounts burn me out from participating in the community, but for the most part, #buildinpublic offers a plethora of really lovely people trying to network with each other and learn from each other.

The G.O.A.T. in my opinion is Rob Walling from MicroConf, followed by others like Pieter Levels and Arvid Khal.

Rob's lifelong work with the MicroConf community has fundamentally changed my life forever: he and other MicroConf speakers from the MicroConf YouTube channel were literally my introduction into the world of startups. I knew nothing about Silicon Valley, and after being exposed to MicroConf and bootstrapping, I decided that I wasn't really missing out on much in the Silicon Valley world anyways.

I still go back and rewatch some of Pieter's old YouTube videos and reread his old blogs about setting up CRON jobs with PHP, and I often think to myself, "I am so glad this guy shared his journey with us. What an inspiration he has been in my life."

Maybe someone will find this blog in the future and think the same thing. If I can help someone along their own startup journey through my reflections and experiences here, then that would please me greatly.

Join My Journey

I have a plethora of thoughts and experiences to share with you soon, so keep in touch, follow me on Twitter, bookmark this blog - whatever you feel inclined to do. I hope some of this helps you on your journey, too.

Upwards and onwards.