Winterflow3r

Thanks for the input! Can I ask you, how you monetized your keto app? Not even remotely in the same space but curious about different models for monetizing consumer tech.

https://lipcolourmatch.com - a niche search engine built with a simple Flask app + SQLite (yes, I do still suck at frontend development, but it has a niche userbase that finds it moderately useful)

Even though I feel very very fortunate to work in tech, I'm starting to feel more and more of this energy as I stare down the barrel of endless whiteboarding and leetcode style interviews :( Won't name the company, but during my last round of interviews I was asked to build a logging app, which took a considerable amount of time only to be completely ghosted. After I repeatedly asked for a follow-up, they sent me a letter filled with typos that called me a shit developer. Not saying I'm not a shit developer, but just imho there are much better ways to handle rejection than this.

This is a very long shot, but I am looking for a marketing or design focused co-founder who has experience building social platforms or social shopping apps to help launch a new "Polyvore for makeup" with a few twists based on an existing site with a growing user-base and early revenue + monetization strategy. My email is in my profile! :)

I was a late bloomer in the latter (like very late due to being overweight for most of my teens and early 20s) and I don't have any big wisdom to share except don't lowet your standards and let people treat you like crap just because you think you're getting on the train very late in the game.

I did a pros/cons analysis and figured out that it would be my best bet since I knew the language at a around a B2/C1 level and there was no other EU country that spoke English (my preferred language). However, I severely underestimated how difficult it would be to establish a social circle without very fluent Swedish and without existing connections. There is certainly an expat community that I've tried to interact with, but sadly covid has made in-person social gatherings almost non-existing (restrictions have not been very severe here but many groups like language cafes have been cancelled or moved online). Hope things get better in the spring!

Not a UK citizen and Brexit has effectively made moving back much much harder than it was before when you had automatic right of residence based on being an EU citizen.

I did and I regret it deeply. I was working remotely even pre-covid times and I decided to leave London (where housing was becoming a nightmare) to move to Sweden. I have never been this deeply lonely in my entire life. I love the nature, I love the winter, even the darkness, but socially this was a very bad move. Working remotely when you live close to a big city where you are very fluent in the language is not even close to being the same as working remotely when you live in a foreign country alone and far away from everyone.

I would recommend Ahrefs blogs. I was able to grow from close to 0 monthly visitors to close to 20k monthly in about a year just by fixing low hanging fruit. Still not much but also not nothing.

Hmmm weird - not sure how that happened but also can't edit link anymore :(

Built it and they won't come unless you get serious about marketing.

I compartmentalise. At work, I am satisfied by solving problems (with or without code) - this gives me some level of intrinsic satisfaction (internal value) even though it might not have a lot of external value (in the traditional "save the world sense"). I then use the funds I made from my day job to work on things that have external and internal value such as planting pollinator friendly gardens, cleaning my neighbourhood from trash, trying to get side projects profitable etc. At this point, I've kind of given up on finding a day job that has a lot of external value, has interesting problems and pays enough to allow for at least some savings.

I am Swedish and have made significantly more in tech than the author. So has many of my friends.

If you're comfortable with sharing, was it through a company exit or IPO?

I would try two things:

1) Where do people that have use for your app hang-out or post about the problem that your app solves? Are there any online forums or subreddits or facebook groups where your target audience is? If so, I would join these communities and when someone has a problem that your product solves, I'd help them in the comments and point to your product. Many groups are (for a good reason) hostile to adposts, so your best bet would be to spend time and engage with the community as opposed to going for direct adposts immediately.

2) Post on LinkedIn (consistently) using keywords / hashtags that target your customer base. Use infographics or tutorials of your product to showcase how it solves a problem. I know LinkedIn can be a pain, but imho it has one of the best organic reaches of any big social media platform and it's free (apart from the time it takes to write and post).

Some things I've found helpful (I run a niche search engine and curation platform):

1) Find niche subreddits where people that are your target audience hang out, observe communities, help people out, participate in the discussion, if someone has a problem that your product can solve, then help them out in the comments and see what their feedback is

2) Learn a bit of SEO - you don't need to be an expert to fix some low-hanging fruits and get your product in front of people who might be using search engines to find a solution for their problem. Downside: SEO can take a few months to a year to kick-in, so if you have a very short time-window, it might not work immediately

3) Create a landing page and a sign-up list - see how many people sign up

4) Find bloggers and community members that write about your topic, cold email them telling them about your product. Be prepared for the response rate to be pretty low, but it can work.

5) LinkedIn - ok, ok I know I might get downvoted for this, but imho LinkedIn still has some of the best organic reach of any social platform, so you might as well use it to post about your product (esp. if it is a B2B one)

FYI - for consumer tech products, willingness to use something doesn't equate to willingness to pay for something, which you have to account for when doing research.

Try and increase side project revenue so its ramen-profitable or at least hosting profitable

Go to a nice coffee shop, get a gingerbread latte and sit by a window, watch people walking by and write (or hope a cute guy comes to talk to me ;D)

I haven't left yet but I am currently considering medschool. I recently moved to a lower COL location so I would be able to afford the inevitable drop in income but thus far I've been afraid to make the jump. I also need to get my Swedish up to speed so I actually have a chance of making it in the entrance exams.

Thank you!

Would it be ok to email you to find out more?

TinyML - running ML models on devices with severely limited power supplies

Wow that's some perseverance I am soon in the fourth year of working on my project and finally starting to see some revenue but I am constantly asking myself if it's worth it.

Hey! Is there a full list of EU countries you are incorporated in? Looking through Greenhouse, I can see at least Ireland and the Netherlands but wondering if there are others. Thanks in advance!

Germans are not big into casual acquaintances, but once you're in that first circle, it's easier to get through to the second one as well.

Someone explained to me that this is the case in Sweden as well, but during covid (even though we had lighter restrictions), meeting people on any circle has been near neigh impossible.

Hej! I was a contractor in the UK before I moved to Stockholm (also severe lack of social life which is why I need to get out asap) and I'm curious, was your comp the same in the EU as an IT consultant as US employment with stock? Because the highest daily rates I was able to find in the UK were usually somewhere around 650-900 GBP per day which would still put you below US comp with RSU.

How cool that you were able to move through the acquisition! And I definitely agree that weather can be a pretty big deal. I thought UK was pretty decent weather compared to my home in the Nordics so I guess California must be a real dream. I can understand the healthcare issue too. I needed some dental surgery while in the US many years back and it was basically all paid out of pocket - was not cheap.

Thank you for the perspective! At the moment, establishing a social life has proved so difficult due to constant relocation and general difficulty of socialising in Sweden, that I'd prefer to go somewhere where at least I'd have better career opportunities in tech.

Maybe I've just been unlucky and come across the wrong people but here are some things that left me a bit disturbed tbh

- medical staff demanding to know if I'm Polish or Ukrainian in the middle of a big medical procedure where I am already in tears and in pain

- easier to get things done at banks and other admin places if you call the customer service number and speak (good) Swedish

- first thing that anyone asks in any social interaction is "Where are you from and what are you doing in Sweden?" Might not be malicious, but it's starting to grate on my nerves. Where I am really from is probably the least interesting thing about me.

And by the way, I am originally from another Nordic country and look Western European. I can only imagine what it's like for someone who looks different.

This makes total sense and was my experience with attending college in the US as well. But tbh, most social relationships get pretty hard after you graduate university because I guess people just don't have as much time for random socialising which decreases one's ability to meet someone one clicks with.

What did you invest in? (if you don't mind sharing)