Personal Update Nov 2024
The last few months I've been head-down in the world of ClimateTech as part of cohort 7 of the Carbon13 venture builder. It's been an amazing opportunity to come face-to-face with other entrepreneurial optimists tackling the climate emergence.
What is Carbon13?
The program is one of those ones where you don't need an idea or a partner at the outset. The first in-person block of phase 1 was hosted in Cambridge where we awkwardly said hello to each other and did some speed networking.
The last 3 weeks there were 2 additional in-person blocks in London. By now after the 10 week program, we've all come to know each other better and quite a few of us have managed to team up for Phase 2 which starts in December.
Part of the intensity of this program is the number of in-person, virtual and offline work needed to clash people together & find a problem space to work on. Of course, as the name suggests, each business should have a "carbon case" where we are able to show 10MTCO2e reduction per year within 5 years - no easy feat.
I've decided to go with my gut and follow along the path of supply chains. Enticed by the inherent complexity of these things and a little by the curiosity of learning about an area that underlines so much of our modern world.
While the direction is not clear on what product will result, I've chosen the path and for the next 3 months will try to build a business case for investment based on customer discovery, mvp building and research.
Side Projects
Due to efforts towards the Carbon13 program, I've had less time to work deeply on side projects. During October I was working to get the initial bones of Rely.fyi up and running. This month, I've slowly been pulling together the email delivery part of the project. I'm hoping to get some time next week to dive in and push into production.
Then will be marketing. I've been investigating building funnels for a couple of projects. Both learning about them and then finding the tools to implement them has been a journey of discovery for sure. What seems easy on paper or in the voice of a podcast host doesn't translate as easily to the real world.
Work-life Balance
Work-life balance has taken a bit of a dive. Due to some of the in-person blocks and a little bit of illness, I've had to skip my usual morning gym sessions a couple of times and it's really thrown me into a tailspin.
This week, I set my alarm a bit earlier so I can get the gym out the way before any webinars. As Carbon13 work starts to ease up I'm hoping to have more time to spend building.
I've also taken on the challenge this year of writing a biographical book of short stories about my Gran. My friend has a small project where he interviews people and then helps write short stories into a book. I've had some fun using tools like AWS PartyRock and Anthropic Console to create the stories that will mark her 80th birthday.
X Distribution
Part of my mission since starting along the indie journey is building distribution. I've managed to pass the 500 followers mark on X. I've downsized the number of posts per day and have been taking more of a YOLO approach, still trying to post at least once a day. This has had the effect one would expect of slower follower growth and less engagement. Getting to the 1000 mark is my next goal.
Other Projects
RunnersForHire - Managed GitHub runners platform has 0 users and minimal interaction on the site. I've been working to deploy ARM support and integrate billing mechanisms.
FindDevOpsJobs - I've noticed that there is already a devopsjobs site that has a similar name which is probably what's giving me lower than expected performance on SEO. Traffic is still low. I'm going to try rebrand to attach soon.
MakeOps - For the consulting business I've eased up on marketing efforts but still have it online to capture more SEO. I'm continuing to add content.
Next Steps
Over Dec, Jan I'll be doing some nomad traveling and working. I'm super excited as I've never done this before. I'll still be working on Carbon13 and the other small projects. I'm also looking to cap off the year with 2 more projects.
Some ideas I've had are as follows.
Project 1 - Directory Business
I'd like to create a directory for a niche of some kind. This may be in relation to Carbon13 potentially. This will be a simple CMS with a great frontend. As FindDevOpsJobs this will require some SEO, some scraping and a nice user interface.
Project 2 - Chrome Extension
I've got a friend who's looking to build a chrome extension, I've been interested in doing this recently as a good way to integrate into existing workflows for a B2B sales play. I'm also eager to learn the process to satisfy a few other ideas that are brewing.
Project 3 - Deploy a Python Event Handler Function
One piece of content that's doing well is an article on how to deploy a python lambda function easily. I've thought about making this process easier and so will potentially build something out for this. It will be quite a challenging project as it will involve code provided by others but I think with AWS it's possible to do fairly simply.
Project 3 - Some AI tool
I know, I'm a bit late to the party but one thing that I've become quite annoyed by is the almost 20 AI bots that seem to jump into virtual calls I've been a part of. Then you look at the interfaces and UX of these tools and you can see they've been built to pull you in and lock you into their ecosystem.
I think there could be a better way to do transcriptions as a service. It's something I could explore off the back of some of the cloud components that I built out a few months ago.
Next Steps
Over December I'll be taking time off but with my savings starting to take strain I'll need to hit the ground running in 2025 if this entrepreneurship thing is going to work out.
One thing I'm pleased with is that the direction for Carbon13 seems set and I'm enjoying the process. Each day I'm getting more and more energy to build and contribute to something bigger.
Despite the multiple directions I'm being pulled I'm hoping that the diversity of applications will put me in a good place to react to demands of building a tech business.