2023 journey + what I learnt + 2024 goals

Sorry for the long hiatus, we will be returning to regular schedule for 2024

2023 in a nutshell

Acquired Sourcely for $4k and grew it to $150k+ valuation in 5 months

Launched/ acquired a couple other micro startups: yomu, student ai tools, galaxy loot, This is Bizness, Pocket Fund

Started building my personal brand in public from scratch and got to interact with some really cool people

Got a VC internship in sf despite having a 2.4 GPA.

Living in sf changed a lot for me. I met interesting people and gained some much needed perspective.

So I’m not going back to college next semester.

Some rando convinced me to take a break to go all in on my ideas at this school he cooked up in sf @ https://buildspace.so/sf1

Let’s see how it goes :)

Long version:

2023 has been interesting

I broke my ankle in the first week

I was in crutches for 3 months and couldn’t do anything

I was going through some personal stuff and was kinda sad too

I badly needed something to do sitting in my room the whole day

Then I came across @acquiredotcom and idk what to say but I fell in love instantly

I just got to look at cool businesses and I can also buy some of them?

For as little as $5,000?

Very soon the favourite part of my day became looking at businesses on acquire

I started posting on X in February

Somehow I just fell in love with looking at these businesses and knew it was what I wanted to do for the rest of my life 🤷‍♂️ (or would lead to it)

I tanked my GPA and college classes to go all in. I had no idea what I was doing

I got an internship at a biotech startup based out of Hawaii that summer

Living in Hawaii for the summer was pretty fire

Our office was a bio lab on the beach and hours were 7 am - 2 pm

All I really did in the summer was look at businesses and be in nature. Goated combo fr. I got to swim with turtles every week and saw lava IRL.

I truly fell in love with what I was doing

I bought one of those fun little businesses I was posting about @sourcely in about the middle of the summer

As a student AI tool it made sense in a lot of different ways

Long story short

I somehow convinced @elman (done his phd in ai) to acquire the business with me and be technical co founder

After the summer I did a work study program with my college in sf where I did an internship during the week and classes over the weekend

We grew Sourcely from $500 MRR to $4.5k MRR in 5 months

Things I learnt:

1. Power of building in public- there’s really nothing like it. I can’t begin to describe the benefits, from idols messaging me to random people on the internet becoming business partners.

Just put yourself out there please.

It’s not about the 100s or 1000s of views but those few chance meetings that can lead to a lot of luck in your life.

2. Fuck hustle culture, be a builder.

Hustle culture is such bs. I’m lazy af.

I do concentrated work on things I love really well

And do everything with other people and not be greedy so that I can do a lot of different things

3. Fuck society and conventional thinking

Uncommon markets and the less traveled paths usually have more delta and opportunity associated with them

It’s hard for most people to recognise this but just doing things differently helps you separate yourself from the conventional path

Doing things differently is a life hack.

I default to doing things my own way- this has served me very well

Society has well defined measures for success and happiness.

You need to find your own measures in order to truly realise them

That can be freedom, money, fame, family. Don’t let society tell you what will make you happy, go figure it out yourself.

4. Having a preference for uncertainty

I like not knowing what I’m doing or where I’ll be in a year. I like to think of it as having a preference for uncertainty. It has helped me make a lot of decisions like taking gap semesters or buying a business.

I just go where I have no idea what will happen

5. Most greatly overestimate what you can do in a year and underestimate what can be done in a decade.

Think in decades, execute in weeks.

6. Don’t wait to chase your dreams

Please.

7. Everything is a business and you can make money doing anything.

8. Most important: ANYONE can do what I’m doing. I’m not special or smarter in any way. Find what you love, sacrifice everything to do it every week. Build on weekly wins and keep iterating.

DMs are open if you need any advice :) I really just want to help people

Mistakes I made:

This has been an amazing but pretty difficult year. I’ve had to do a shit ton of work, make sacrifices in different areas of my life and deal with difficult conversations and pressure like nothing I’ve experienced before.

I enjoyed every second of it and the growth in just a year has been awesome to experience. I made a lot of mistakes along the way, I just had to take them in my stride and figure out how to keep moving.

I like making mistakes and failing quickly

Took on too many projects at once

Fucked with establishment. This was unnecessary honestly. If I’m being real I could’ve easily passed my classes, I just really didn’t give a fuck.

It made my life harder than it needed to be.

Didn’t appreciate my friends enough. I have awesome friends. They help me a lot. I want to help them more

Couple of wrong partnerships and deals that led to nothing but wasted time.

I want to spend more time at home and traveling.

I keep contemplating the point of college. Probably gonna drop out tbh

A year ago I never could’ve imagined I’d be here and have the opportunities I have available to me

The difference just a year can make is crazy

A lot of things have changed, especially my mindset, view of the world and quite simply what I thought I could do

I’m so thankful to everyone that loves and supports me every day. I really ain’t shit without them

Honestly I’m barely getting started

2024 goals

Turn $100k into $1 million through acquisitions

Travel 3 months of the year, maybe do Asia solo?

Spend more time with family and friends. Nothing else really matters

Life is about experiences

Genuinely help as many people as I can.

I’m pretty happy if I can be a genuine value add to everyone that I interact with.

Fuck around to find out

Time to cook 👨‍🍳