I'll try to briefly recap the last day of my thirties. I woke up a bit groggy, which is not at all unusual because my wife hops out of bed at 5:30 am every morning to work "East Coast hours" because her boss, the CEO, lives and works in Connecticut. She lets Blue Boy out… Continue reading So this is 40
Tag: Lifestyle
A summary of our first home projects
This is a prequel to the longer post about our last and final remodel. Look, our house wasn't that bad. Friends and family would come to visit and more or less say the same things: "Your place has such nice energy!" "Everything feels so calm..." "There are good vibes in this house." This, of course,… Continue reading A summary of our first home projects
The lives people live
I met an old friend for lunch in Malibu. He had a decent exit from his marketplace startup and had become a leadership coach. When we compared notes, we discovered that we both felt an undercurrent of inadequacy. I've written about this before. We each had friends become far richer and more famous and influential than… Continue reading The lives people live
Ode to the wheelbarrow
The wheelbarrow cleverly combines two ancient technologies, the wheel and the lever, into a very useful device. Elegant and efficient, it's a beauty to behold. I mean really, look at this thing. The leverage you get comes from the long handles. Keeping the load near the fulcrum allows you to lift the load off the… Continue reading Ode to the wheelbarrow
Lifestyle over money
I reconnected with a few college friends recently who I rarely see. They were overachievers — 3.95 GPAs at UC Berkeley (which is quite literally insane, especially in the poli sci and math departments they graduated from) — and went on to get great jobs and MBAs from Stanford and Harvard. They both have plenty of money, lots of… Continue reading Lifestyle over money
Building out my little empire
It’s been over a year since I left the comfort and security of a VC-backed paycheck. I haven’t missed it. It’s been a year of growth and development. I’ve struggled, I’ve succeeded, and in some aspects I’ve failed. But the ball has continued to move forward. For most of the past 18 months I haven’t… Continue reading Building out my little empire
From good to great
An excerpt from The Parallel Entrepreneur If you can get your business up to $10,000 in monthly recurring revenue (MRR), then that’s really good. Most entrepreneurs never get there. It’s good but not great. Jonathan Siegel gave me advice that I’ll never forget. I use this bit of wisdom to fire up my drive. He… Continue reading From good to great
Why SaaS is a solo founder’s dream come true
The dream is 100 customers paying you $100 per month. That’s the software-as-a-service (SaaS) solopreneur’s mecca. A hundred customers paying $100 per month adds up to $120,000 per year of revenue. Since we’re building software, you’ll have about 85% gross margins, so your gross profit is at least $100,000. Your operating expenses are business-related assets… Continue reading Why SaaS is a solo founder’s dream come true
Being good at computer programming
I’m not a “good” programmer but I am “good at” programming. What’s the difference? Let me explain. Good programmers write beautiful, optimized code. They write good tests and enjoy doing it. They know Javascript and Ruby and can quickly pick up other languages too. They don’t need to spend time Googling error messages because their… Continue reading Being good at computer programming
My favorite question to ask
These days I don’t have a lot of structure between 9am and 4pm. I don’t go into an office anymore. I don’t report to anyone. I’m running a nice little business now with no partners and no investors. At any given point in that 9–4 window I can pretty much do whatever I want because… Continue reading My favorite question to ask