Working for yourself is amazing, but also addicting. You blink, and years have passed. This weekend I took a day to reset on Katahdin (Cathedral → Knife Edge → Helon Taylor) with @traveling_olive. First time in a long while I went an hour without thinking about work!

Just hit 4M search impressions this year! 🔥 Want to know the secret to how I did it? ... I didn't! Last year I brought on @jonkuipers to lead growth & marketing for @projection_lab. And he's been crushing it. I'm focused on building. He's focused on growth. No hacks or secrets. We're just staying focused on our strengths, and trusting each other with theirs. Hiring the wrong person can kill your business. But hiring the RIGHT person? That's how you keep coding and 10x TTM search impressions at the same time. #buildinpublic

Huge update!!! I just quit my job and I am going all-in on projectionlab.com! 🥳🔥 2.5 years ago, I never would have dreamed this was possible. From my first internet dollar to $200k+ ARR, there has been no hockey stick growth chart, no AI hype involved, and no singular catalyst. Just a quarter decade of hard work and persistence, bootstrapping as a solo dev on nights and weekends and gradually building up to this point. The jump to full-time is earlier than my own financial modeling in @projection_lab showed a stellar chance of success for... so for the worrier in me, this is a chilling step out over the abyss 😳 But I have realized that even in the worst case, I would much rather fail pursuing a dream than let a promising business die on the vine and always wonder what might have been! And I am extremely grateful for all of you whose encouragement has helped me build up the confidence to take this leap, e.g. @madfientist, @Shpigford, @hutchins, @mrmoneymustache, @arvidkahl, @dr, @MrNick_Buzz, @agazdecki, @dvassallo, @levelsio, @seanfgates, @markluck, @ptmoney, @WalletHacks, to name a few. Looking back, it took me: → 14 months to reach 500 customers → 7 months to reach 1,000 → 5 months to reach 1,500 → 2 months to reach 2,000 → 2 months to reach 2,500 Recently, my W2 was gracious enough to accommodate a part-time arrangement for a while. But it is abundantly clear that what PL really needs is my full and uninterrupted focus. So with the past 2.5 years of risk mitigation, a year's expenses set aside per @dannypostma's suggestion, and current earnings level around 2.5x my personal annual spend... it is officially time to put the rest of my skin in the game! I would never have gotten here without all the support and inspiration from my new friends in the financial independence community, the PL user base, and the @IndieHackers / #buildinpublic scene 🥹 So thanks again to everyone, and here's to an exciting year ahead!

Big Update!! I just dropped to part-time at my day job after hitting $200k ARR with my side project 🔥 projectionlab.com has now graduated to the main project! 😎 The whole first year, I put in 4+ hours every night after work, and all day & night on most weekends and holidays. For the equivalent of below minimum wage. Bootstrapping took me: → 14 months to reach 500 customers → 7 months to reach 1,000 → 5 months to reach 1,500 → 2 months to reach 2,000 While corporate engineering can be rewarding in its own way, for me it has never offered anything close to the thrill and fulfillment of bringing a personal vision to life and sharing it with the world. PL has always been a passion project for me, and without the obsession to relentlessly show up every day and make tangible progress, I never would have reached this point. Nor would I have gotten here without all the support and encouragement from my new friends in the #indiehackers community, the PL user base, and the financial independence scene! 🥹 I really appreciate everyone who nudged me to finally put some skin in the game, e.g. @dannypostma, @agazdecki, @dr, @MrNick_Buzz, @dvassallo, @seanfgates, @ptmoney, @WalletHacks to name just a few. This change will be a big improvement, but there is a part of me that wonders if maintaining a part-time W2 at this stage could still be too conservative. Who would play it differently and go all-in straight away? @levelsio or @arvidkahl, would you guys steer me in a different direction here?

My side project just hit $200k ARR! 🥹 Does that mean it should not be a side project anymore? Even though I'm shocked and elated it could ever get this far, there is an insecure voice in my head that still reminds me it could all go to zero overnight 😬 It took over 2 years of obsession and consistency to bootstrap projectionlab.com as a solo dev on nights and weekends from $0 to $16,7142 MRR. → 9 months to get to $1,000 → 4 months to get to $2,000 → 7 months to get to $5,000 → 6 months to get to $10,000 → 2 months to get to $16,7142 But evidently that little voice just never goes away! At first it tells you things like "no one would buy this", or "you don't have enough skill." Then it tells you "this won't actually scale" and "you'll never get real traction." At each stage, there are fun new things to fuel the paranoia! 😅 But zooming out, I wonder if it is beginning to look silly that PL is just a side project. I know folks like @thejustinwelsh and @dvassallo advocate side projects as a de-risking tactic (to a point). But is this the milestone where they and the other solopreneur legends who have inspired me would say "Okay, now you're just being a chicken! 🐔" If you have any sage advice to spare @levelsio, @dannypostma, @arvidkahl, @tibo_maker, @dr, @yongfook, @damonchen, @tdinh_me, @alexwestco, and @MrNick_Buzz, I would love to hear where you weigh in 🙏 So what does everyone think? At what point is it time to throw caution to the wind?