In 2021, I decided to launch a side project with the goal of making $1K/month in revenue.
This six-part series documents my journey going from idea to revenue, including all the wins, mistakes, and lessons learned along the way. It's an honest account of my thoughts at the time, and though my approach to building may have changed, I'm leaving it online in case it's helpful for others to learn from.
The Series
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Why I'm building a side project — The motivations behind starting DesignBake and what I hoped to learn.
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Measuring revenue to track progress — Defining success metrics and setting up systems to measure progress.
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Building an MVP — Going from idea to a working product that people can actually use.
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Acquiring customers — The grind of finding early adopters and getting to first revenue.
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Small wins at a time — Celebrating incremental progress and staying motivated.
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Learning from mistakes — Reflecting on what went wrong and what I'd do differently.
These posts were originally shared as weekly updates while building in public. They're raw, unpolished, and captured my experience shipping a side project while working full-time at Memberstack.