Day 429: February Review

What went well?

🚀 Launched Browserflow’s Private Beta

I finally opened up Browserflow to people other than my friends! This has been a long time coming. (If I had known that it would’ve taken me 9 months to get Browserflow to private beta, I’m not sure that I would’ve started the project.)

The most exciting part about this is that I’m finally becoming more comfortable charging for the things that I build. Making $200 total from charging 10 people $20 each to join the beta is not exactly going to pay the bills, but it’s a start. I definitely have a lot of psychological hang ups around asking people for money, and I’m happy to work on removing that conditioning. Even the way I just described it (“asking people for money”) reveals my framing of seeing it as them doing me a favor rather than what it is, which is them paying for something that they want.

🍽 Organized a 40-person dinner

Another way that I followed my fear this month was to organize a farewell dinner where I could bring together all my friends in Taiwan. I reserved the basement of a vegan restaurant called Ooh Cha Cha, catered enough food for 40 people, and invited a bunch of homies. Despite some stressful parts, it went really well overall! Everyone had a great time, and I’m glad I went through with doing this. (Like most of my good ideas, this was spawned in the fires of fearlessness that come alive whenever I work out.)

In the past, I’ve avoided taking the lead on things and organizing experiences because there’s fear around things not working out or people not having a good time, and this is something I want to work on because bringing people together can be extremely rewarding and fun!

✈️ Safely flew back to the States

February ended with me in a metal can streaming across the ocean. Made it home, briefly hung out with my parents and my grandpa, and arrived in Las Vegas where I’m now settling in with Shiva, Natasja, Sam, Raj (and soon, Ben)! Grateful we all made it here safely.

What didn’t go well?

Perhaps because I’m in a great mood right now or my memory being shoddy or both, I’m having a difficult time thinking of things that didn’t go well. If I had to name one….

🤔 Lack of clarity around Browserflow’s direction

Now that I have a general-purpose tool that can solve problems in many domains, it’s not clear to me which niche to target in order to get Browserflow to launch. I’ve flip flopped between going B2B and going B2C, and now I’m sort of flipping again. But this doesn’t really feel like a bad thing because I know that this is all part of the process of figuring things out.

Metrics

Users & Revenue

Takeaway: I really gotta figure out a distribution strategy other than word-of-mouth so that people can find my products.

Time

Takeaway: Yay for actually working

Overall reflections

My intention for coming back to the States was to focus on Browserflow and getting it to launch. It’s time to move fast and make that happen.