Stepping down as a COO

jamstack, burnout, stepping down as a COO, and peruvian coffee

Hi Friend,

Long time no see, huh? It’s David here, writing this email from Cusco, Peru (🇵🇪), sipping on a Peruvian double espresso. Damn. The weather here is much colder than I thought. Anyways, let’s jump into this month’s Business of IT.

What is happening in my businesses?

A lot. First, I decided to pursue my 2 dreams of building my own products and helping developers to become entrepreneurs. So I stepped down from my COO role at my agency and started a 6-month long transition to become a full-time indie developer and content creator.

To achieve this here’s my plan for the next 6 months:

#1: Rebuilding my website

And I choose to build it with Ghost.

My current website is based on Nextjs, and I’m pretty much OK with it, but I want to edit it faster and I need a complete rethinking of the architecture to focus on my new goals.

I’m building it in public, so tutorials are coming to Youtube in the coming weeks. From planning to deployment.

#2: Hand over my COO tasks and do a freelance project

This process going to take care of my income for the rest of the year.

I’m building a React Native app for a client, this makes up about 80% of my income. The rest comes from running the agency, where I’m currently dealing with the handover, day-to-day tasks, and 3 clients.

(Also, if you’re looking for a half-time contractor role as a PM, or full-stack JS engineer, message me, because ScreamingBox needs you!)

#3: Conference speaking and workshops

I’ll conduct 2 workshops in Germany this year.

June 14 in Berlin at WeAreDevelopers World Congress, a 2 hours long overview of a Jamstack app.

At the end of September in Hamburg at Web Developers Conference, a full-day workshop on building a SaaS app from 0.

I’ll have some discounted and some free tickets for both conferences in the coming weeks, so stay tuned.

#4: Creating a huge amount of content

These are going to be products and courses.

I want to build products because in the past years, 80% of my time I did business tasks, so I feel like I forgot a lot and want to get back into development to build better products.

And creating courses, ebooks, tutorials, and podcasts to help more developers become entrepreneurs.

Let me know in a reply what you want to see from me.

3 New Stuff from Me

Chat with Dan Spratling About Jamstack, Overworking, and Burnout

A couple of weeks ago, I had an interesting discussion with Dan Spratling, owner of Skyward JAMStack agency. Oh, and we recorded it.

How to Keep Developing Your Skills as a Developer and an Entrepreneur at The Same Time

Atomic essay in 300 words about how to learn multiple different skill sets at the same time.

Build Your Own Subscription-based Course Platform

Stripe, Next.JS, Supabase, GraphCMS. I’ve conducted this workshop late last year. 500 people watched it and averaged a 4.9/5 rating.

1 Tweet of the Month

David Perell @david_perell

If you want to start a business, writing online is the best way to start. Here are 10 reasons why: 1. Writing online makes marketing easier. The people who read your writing now will become your customers in the future. An audience will speed up your path to profitability.

5 Tools from the Internetz

Prisma Data Platform - Free cloud database directly from the Prisma Team. The real, OG Prisma team.

Linear - Like Jira, but actually works. Project management tools for the people who want to work and not complain.

Mine - Do you remember that social platform you signed up for, like 10 years ago? I guess not. Get your personal data back from them.

Tamagui - The freshmen of hybrid React + React Native UI libraries. SSR, themes, shorthands, hooks, and pretty sick looks. *mic drop*

Supabase - Edge functions, real-time multiplayer handling, GraphQL API for Postgres, and so many under-the-hood improvements. Hands down the best open source PaaS (platform as a service) solution.

Away from keyboard

I now spent 6 months on the road as a digital nomad in the Americas and heading back to Europe next week. I’ve seen the real-life Los Santos and Vice City. Childhood dreams came true.

Here are 5 must-see things from the US, Mexico, and Peru:

• Cusco, Peru

• Walt Disney World, FL (Star Wars Rise of the Resistance ride ftw!)

• Isla Mujeres, Mexico

• Kennedy Space Center, FL (real Apollo spaceship)

• Huacachina Oasis, Peru

Stay tuned for a series of longer articles on my new blog this summer.

Highlights of the last month

Thank you so much for reading my email! I’d be glad to hear from you if you have any questions, feedback, or comments.

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Until next time,

David