Hunger in the eyes of a 24-year-old: the diary of my entrepreneurial journey

[BlackLands]

UPDATE 24/09/2023:

• My YT channel is growing, slow, but is growing. I'm testing different topics and communicatin style to check what's the viewers's reponse.
• I'm working on developing the MVP of a service to solve one issue that I encountered everytime I take notes from a Kindle.
• Never give up.

 

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[BlackLands]

UPDATE 01/10/2023:

• I continue to publish a video every week, but I have yet to receive any appointment bookings. I have reduced the price and revised the copy of my offer, but I am still uncertain whether the lack of bookings is due to these two factors or because my YouTube channel has not gained significant visibility, resulting in fewer people seeing my offer.
• Honestly, I am going through a challenging period where I feel low on energy. I'm not sure if I am experiencing burnout or because it seems like everything I do is not yielding any results. Never give up by the way.

 

[BlackLands]

UPDATE 08/10/2023:

• Still making a video a week and all of them are slowly growing over time. I'm having partnership with other channels to. I want to become the point of reference in Italy for one specific software.
• At my current job I'm currently waiting to work on a new project in MLOPS that will enable me to learn valuable skills for the future (how to develop an llm model and put it in production for example).
• I've receival 3 proposals from 3 different startup from my friends that I've meet thanks to university and my past work experiencea. Off course I need to evaluate them based on the CENTS framework but some of them seem to be quite good. Honestly I'd like to work in a startup just for the experience and the vibes, I'm bit tired of the corporate zombie world.

 

[BlackLands]

UPDATE 15/10/2023:

• Still making 1 video a week. My YouTube channel is slowly growing and I've also did an interview with another YouTube channel bigger than mine that is allowing me to gain subscribers. Slow growth but costant.
• I'll spend the next week thinking about one business ideas that will solve one problem that I encountered during my job search. I need time.
• I've published a script to automatize a task for a specific userbase of a note-taking software. Let's see if I receive any feedback and if I can start iterate on it.

 

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[BlackLands]

UPDATE 22/10/2023:

• After some iterations I think to have found the right topic to talk about in order to growth my YouTube channel. My last video is going crazy in terms of views and watch time and I'm receiving a lot of connections on LinkedIn. My number of subscribers is growing a lot too.
• I'm building an MVP that will allow people to automatically fetch new jobs and send to the HR a self-application email based on the keywords in the job description in order to increase the chance to be noticed.

 

[sunlong]

Hello everyone, I will use this thread as a diary of my entrepreneurial journey. This is the main information about me:

• I am 24 years old and born in southern Italy, a place where the highest ambition for a young person is to work in an office for life or enlist in the armed forces.
• I have a bachelor's degree in computer science, a master's degree in Data Science and several experiences abroad. I studied in Stockholm and worked in a big tech in Luxembourg, plus I ran a startup podcast where I got to interview several experts in the field of artificial intelligence and improved my ability to ask the right questions. Since January I am moving to Spain to work full-time as a Data Scientist.
• I have a small YouTube channel where I talk about speeding up learning and I run a small podcast where I interview experts in different fields. Although it does not have much of a following partly because I never invested too much time in it, it has given me the opportunity to meet millionaires and investors and more generally to expand my network.

Why I want to become an entrepreneur:

• I have always been a creative person and the idea of creating something of my own doesn't let me sleep at night. Also, when I get messages from people thanking me after watching one of my YouTube videos, I realized that giving value is what I enjoy most.
• My mother died when I was 18, I want to start a foundation in her name and financially help as many boys and girls as possible to continue their schooling.
• I want to be free and no longer have the need to work. If one day I want to read Russian literature all day, I want to be able to do that.
• My escape number is about 8 million euros, this amount will allow me to live the life of my dreams without having the need to work. I aim to reach this figure in 10 years. It's not possible to earn this amount of money being and employee.

For 2023 my goals are:

• Develop a SaaS platform and have at least one paying customer.
• 25,000€ euros in the bank of liquidity.

What am I doing as of today?

• In October I graduated from college and so now I have time to focus on my entrepreneurial career. I started thinking seriously about it 2 weeks ago.
• I created a landing page for a SaaS service that I want to develop. I have created a small team of freelancers who are creating me the video introducing the platform and the background voice explaining what problem I am going to solve.
• The landing page is ready, now I have to test the market response and improve the presentation based on feedback. My target audience is mainly students so I am going to talk to my brother's friends and the mayor of my country in such a way as to publicize my idea in schools. In addition to that, the video inside the landing page will be publicized on social and we will see how many people will enter their email inside the form.
• I have not developed anything yet, if the response is positive will develop a prototype using no-code platforms.

I will update this thread every Sunday.
I don't know whether I will eventually succeed or not, I just tell you that I have seen the people I loved die and I in the first place risked my life. I don't give a damn about doing what needs to be done, I have no mental limitations.

I am always open to feedback, so feel free to comment.
I wish you a good life and a death with no regrets.

Hello friend, can you share your website link?

 

[BlackLands]

UPDATE 29/10/2023:

• YouTube is going very good! The channel is growing, I'm understanding better my target audience and I'm receive a lot of messages from people. I'm not earning any money for now but I've the feeling that I'm building a community. Aside from that, my podcast (hosted on my YouTube channel) is helping me creating connection with other entrepreneurs and like-minded people.
• I'm doing interviews with some startups and I'm investing time in doing the home assignment so I didn't have a lot of time to work on my MVP.
• MVP: the main features are there, I need to deploy the code and set a schedule to run it automatically.
• At work I'm working on an AI project that will help me in acquiring usefull skills for my entrepreneural journey (already know this for sure since I did an analysis of the skills requested from the companies for the role I want) and, in the worst case scenario, for y "classic" carrer.

PLUS: Next week I'm gonna visit Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration and exterminations camps in order to think more about life, death, gratitude and growth more on the personal side.

 

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[BlackLands]

UPDATE 05/11/2023:

• I spent the weekend in Kraków.
• I'm publishing a video a week in my YouTube channel and the last ones are not doing well. I'm trying to understand why.
• In this period I'm going to multiple events where I meet a lot of entrepreneurs. I'll interview one of them in my podcast.
• Next week I'm planning to stark working on developing the user interface of my MVP. Then the plan is that regardless of the result, I'll use its codebase to build a template to speed up the development of my next SaaS project.

 

[BlackLands]

UPDATE 12/11/2023:
A lot to do at my full-time job but some good news:

• At my full-time job, I'm working on a Machine Learning model to predict user churn. I discuss this idea with entrepreneurs I meet weekly at a meetup, and it seems promising. It's perfect to apply what I'm learning at work outside of it. This way, I'm acquiring new skills and developing something that can be sold.
• Remember my YouTube channel? It's gaining traction, and I've started doing live sessions where I show people how I build my MVP. This not only motivates me to keep working on my project but also increases engagement among users, helping me create more content for my channel and growth my community mostly made by software developers and data scientists.

 

[BlackLands]

UPDATE 19/11/2023:

• I've met a lot of entrepreneurs in the past week and I'm discussing few business opportunities with them. Of of this guys is a direct contact with a CEO of a 1 billion evaluated company.
• This weekend I'm in Milan to evaluate a job offer from a startup.

 

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[BlackLands]

UPDATE 26/11/2023:

• Last week, I worked from Milan while visiting friends with a startup in media, specializing in managing social media for other companies. The startup focuses on Data Science and has Instagram/LinkedIn pages with over 100K followers. The experience was positive, surrounded by talented individuals, and I made valuable connections.
• Unfortunately, I couldn't continue with live sessions last week, but I plan to resume today.
• This week, I have a meeting with entrepreneurs in Barcelona, hoping to explore potential opportunities.

 

[BlackLands]

UPDATE 03/12/2023:

• Working on a new project at work. I'm learning how to put in production an Ai model.
• I'm doing live sessions on YouTube where I'm building an MVP for a SaaS in public. I'm leaning Django and React. I'm proceeding very slow because the project is big, but step by step I'm learning the required skills to build my own MVP in the future.

 

[BlackLands]

UPDATE 10/12/2023:

• Preparing an interview for a new job position that will allow me to learn AI related things and will increase by a lot my current salary.
• Making YouTube videos for my channel and doing at least 1 live (Build In Public) in which I'm building an MVP of a platform. This will allow me to learn the required skills needed to develop an MVP by myself.
• Talked with the major of a business school here in Barcelona about the common issues in the EduTech field. I'm gathering data.
• Joining meetup with other entrepreneurs in the city and making connections.

 

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[Spenny]

What's your goals for the next three months?

 

[BlackLands]

What's your goals for the next three months?

Finish the project I'm working on and land a new job as Machine Learning Engineer.

 

[BlackLands]

UPDATE 17/12/2023:

• Doing interview for new jobs in the AI field.
• Continuing posting videos on my YT channel.
• Today I'll invest sometimes thinking what I want to reach next year!
• Receive a proposal to tech Python in a Business School.

 

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[Spenny]

UPDATE 17/12/2023:

• Doing interview for new jobs in the AI field.
• Continuing posting videos on my YT channel.
• Today I'll invest sometimes thinking what I want to reach next year!
• Receive a proposal to tech Python in a Business School.

Have you considered displaying your goals for next week and discussing them?

And is this a goal thread or a diary? Because it reads like a diary right now.

 

[BlackLands]

Have you considered displaying your goals for next week and discussing them?

And is this a goal thread or a diary? Because it reads like a diary right now.

Hi thanks for the response. Can you be more precise please?

 

[Spenny]

Hi thanks for the response. Can you be more precise please?

I see it is named a diary - but it's really hard to engage with a statement of what you have done. Perhaps you're just doing this writing for yourself, but I'm sure you'd want people to follow along & suggest things.

 

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[fx.lukasx]

I see it is named a diary - but it's really hard to engage with a statement of what you have done. Perhaps you're just doing this writing for yourself, but I'm sure you'd want people to follow along & suggest things.

Yeah I agree, the thread is pretty vague, no clear data (I’d expect youtube subscriber amount or views at least, if he doesn’t want to share the name)

And I still have no idea what you’re actually building. You only said MVP.

You didn’t mention any business idea you’re working on, besides the learning app and it was still pretty vague.

So I’m readin this like: “ok, this guy has like 2 jobs and a yt channel about something… cool”

 

[BlackLands]

@fx.lukasx @Spenny Hey, thanks both for your answers! You're right, I'm using this more like a diary, and maybe I'm not leveraging this forum to its fullest potential.

Could you tell me about some good threads I can use as examples? What would you like to know more about in my journey? Do you suggest changing the title? Should I start a new thread?

Thanks for the help!

 

[fx.lukasx]

I see it is named a diary - but it's really hard to engage with a statement of what you have done. Perhaps you're just doing this writing for yourself, but I'm sure you'd want people to follow along & suggest things.

I really enjoyed reading this one:

EXECUTION - [PROGRESS THREAD] (24 y/o) Sick and cognitively impaired for 2 years... Doing the work anyway

Have you ever thought you were really good at a particular aspect of your business, and hesitant to hire out because of it? "No one can do this as good as me..." Then, you hire the right person and realize that you were terrible at the job? I've had this happen many times. I think it's a...

www.thefastlaneforum.com

 

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[BlackLands]

I really enjoyed reading this one:

EXECUTION - [PROGRESS THREAD] (24 y/o) Sick and cognitively impaired for 2 years... Doing the work anyway

Have you ever thought you were really good at a particular aspect of your business, and hesitant to hire out because of it? "No one can do this as good as me..." Then, you hire the right person and realize that you were terrible at the job? I've had this happen many times. I think it's a...

www.thefastlaneforum.com

Thanks! I'll update the first post I wrote in this thead with what I've achieved and what'are my future plan. Then each week I'll write about what I did the previous week and what are my goals in the following months.

 

[fx.lukasx]

Thanks! I'll update the first post I wrote in this thead with what I've achieved and what'are my future plan. Then each week I'll write about what I did the previous week and what are my goals in the following months.

Excited for it bro!
We’re in the same age bracket pretty much so, I’m competing in a healthy way bro

 

[Spenny]

Hey, thanks both for your answers! You're right, I'm using this more like a diary, and maybe I'm not leveraging this forum to its fullest potential.

Could you tell me about some good threads I can use as examples? What would you like to know more about in my journey? Do you suggest changing the title? Should I start a new thread?

Thanks for the help!

I've got a couple here. The last one is mine, but I've gotten engagement constantly.

GOLD! - EXECUTION - Starting and Scaling an Exterior Cleaning Business at 21

Week 3 Last week’s goals: Create new Flyers with up to date pricing Start new gym membership Cancel all unused subscriptions Set up call answering service Book in roof cleaning jobs Find a place in my community to clean for social media Implement inspection cam into day to day jobs Change...

www.thefastlaneforum.com

EXECUTION - Building a Manufacturing Conglomerate Progress Thread

TL;DR: Started a manufacturing company. None of my competition has been able to service the largest retailer in the field. I know I can. I have a meeting with them on Wednesday to demo my products (they reached out to me, VP product management & commercial sales saw my Insta ad) and potentially...

www.thefastlaneforum.com

EXECUTION - xShepherdx's Progress Thread: Building A Fastlane Business

Thank you, I will absolutely look into that. In my case the problem was that I changed the title on the top of the page that says "home" and WP automatically changed it to an underlying page then. I made a workaround and said a few words that I dare not repeat here. P.S. and thank you for the...

www.thefastlaneforum.com

https://www.thefastlaneforum.com/community/threads/building-a-physical-products-business-utilising-e-commerce-social-media.106168/post-1100212

 

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[BlackLands]

I've got a couple here. The last one is mine, but I've gotten engagement constantly.

GOLD! - EXECUTION - Starting and Scaling an Exterior Cleaning Business at 21

Week 3 Last week’s goals: Create new Flyers with up to date pricing Start new gym membership Cancel all unused subscriptions Set up call answering service Book in roof cleaning jobs Find a place in my community to clean for social media Implement inspection cam into day to day jobs Change...

www.thefastlaneforum.com

EXECUTION - Building a Manufacturing Conglomerate Progress Thread

TL;DR: Started a manufacturing company. None of my competition has been able to service the largest retailer in the field. I know I can. I have a meeting with them on Wednesday to demo my products (they reached out to me, VP product management & commercial sales saw my Insta ad) and potentially...

www.thefastlaneforum.com

EXECUTION - xShepherdx's Progress Thread: Building A Fastlane Business

Thank you, I will absolutely look into that. In my case the problem was that I changed the title on the top of the page that says "home" and WP automatically changed it to an underlying page then. I made a workaround and said a few words that I dare not repeat here. P.S. and thank you for the...

www.thefastlaneforum.com

https://www.thefastlaneforum.com/community/threads/building-a-physical-products-business-utilising-e-commerce-social-media.106168/post-1100212

Hey thanks for sharing these threads I'll use as starting points.

Do you think that would it better to create another thread or I can keep writing in this thread?

 

[Spenny]

Hey thanks for sharing these threads I'll use as starting points.

Do you think that would it better to create another thread or I can keep writing in this thread?

No, keep writing it here. You want people to see the evolution & be able to follow along on the journey.

 

[BlackLands]

No, keep writing it here. You want people to see the evolution & be able to follow along on the journey.

Hey thanks a lot! Next Sunday I'll write a new post that contains all the results I've obtained so far and what I'm planning to do the in the next weeks/months.

 

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[Zontora]

UPDATE 12/11/2023:
A lot to do at my full-time job but some good news:

• At my full-time job, I'm working on a Machine Learning model to predict user churn. I discuss this idea with entrepreneurs I meet weekly at a meetup, and it seems promising. It's perfect to apply what I'm learning at work outside of it. This way, I'm acquiring new skills and developing something that can be sold.
• Remember my YouTube channel? It's gaining traction, and I've started doing live sessions where I show people how I build my MVP. This not only motivates me to keep working on my project but also increases engagement among users, helping me create more content for my channel and growth my community mostly made by software developers and data scientists.

How did you find this meetup?

 

[BlackLands]

How did you find this meetup?

Google, Meetup and Eventsbrite