Hi friends,
Greetings from The Hague!
On the Agenda
Dear Kitty
My 2023 Goals
Amsterdam Review
1. Dear Kitty
Anne Frank called her diary Kitty. Anna Karenina called her sister-in-law Kitty. The name Kitty is presumably short for Katerina short for Ekaterina.
Anne Frank was 13 when she went into hiding from the Nazis in Amsterdam. During which she wrote a diary. “Paper has more patience than people.” “Memories mean more to me than dresses.” “No one has ever become poor by giving.” “Whoever is happy will make others happy.” Wise words from a young girl. Anne died 2 years later at a concentration camp. Unfortunately, I wasn’t allowed to enter her house as you have to book 6 weeks in advance.
For two nights I slept early. Terrible choice for a night owl. From 11p to 3a I lay awake in bed. Total bedtime: 12 hours. I woke up with a swollen left eye and blurry vision. A headache ensued and I’m worried my contacts no longer fit. My mind became filled with negative thoughts and all I could do was take a nap. Zero work was done that day. And I paid €9 for plain scrambled eggs. Definitely one of my worst days of the year.
I had the fortune of watching “Mind Your Language” — a 1970s British sitcom about a Mr. Brown teaching English to foreign students. Comedy gold.
Lastly, I saw Schindler’s List. One of the best movies I’ve ever seen. Probably better than Amélie. Why isn’t it a part of the university curriculum?
I enjoy living in perpetual motion. From one space to the next. Physically; Digitally. At times I yearn for a stable place, but then I discover it’s an illusion— and I’m quite happy to move on.
My style of traveling I call: “Airdropping in”. I do zero research about a place before I visit (which makes travel easy). I like learning from the place by the place in the place.
2. My 2023 Goals
Earlier this week I set 6 goals for myself in 2023.
I’d like to share my progress for each of my goals. Then I will grade my performance on a scale of A to F — because I believe in being accountable to myself.
Goal 1: One Year of Travel
Add my flight to/from Istanbul and I’m up to 82.7k miles and 8 days on an airplane. My last day of travel will be August 31st, 2023. Let’s bet. Do you think I’ll hit 100k miles?
I recently hit 1M views on Google Maps:
Previously, I considered doing a second season of “One Year of Travel”. Starting Jan 1 and ending on Dec 31, 2024. I’d spend a month in India, Brazil, Peru, Germany, Switzerland, Scandinavia, Singapore, Taiwan, South Korea, Dubai, Russia, and Canada.
I wanted to challenge 10 people to do the same. To quit their jobs to embark on one year of travel. Sort of like the ASMR challenge. We could even start a support group or community.
I’m no longer sure I want to pursue this path. First, I’m broke. Second, I’m not sure I want to do another year of travel. I feel I can live very happily in the A-B Tier cities I’ve visited. Lastly, I’m secretly hoping my other projects will take off so I can spend more time on them.
(+) What I’m Doing Well
Exploring a lot
Reviewing places
(-) What I Could Be Doing Better
Producing more content
Building my audience
Grade: B+
Goal 2: Build a Billion-Dollar Business
Last month I flew to Madrid to get the buy-in of my co-founders. Success. One month later, things have severely stalled. That’s my fault. I’ve been so focused on traveling that I’ve neglected the business. At a startup: “if you do nothing, nothing gets done.”
Memory is fragile. Too long outside the ecosystem and you forget what you’re building or why you’re building it. Every time you work you have to reload the context into your memory.
Newton says: Things in motion tend to stay in motion. Things at rest tend to stay at rest. When nothing is happening, it’s hard to get started. Once things are moving, I suspect things will get easier. I’m reminded of the quote: “Startups don't die when they run out of cash, they die when the founders run out of energy.”
Stasis kills startups. My priority became injecting life into the company. Like jumpstarting a car. Anything to keep us energized and in the game.
So I decided to schedule a call with my friend (an investor) for some advice. Good call. Here’s what he told us.
He advised us not to raise money until we have at least an MVP otherwise we will halve our valuation. I actually agree with him. O.K. we technically have an MVP but it’s somewhat outdated. After watching Shark Tank & seeing the outrageous percentages investors take, I’m convinced that the best decision for the company is to delay fundraising & get an engineer ASAP.
Let’s zoom out. Why am I (building a technology startup) in the first place? There are plenty of reasons not to do this.
First, I don’t have to. Gidon has made it clear that he’s only in it because of me. At any point if I say it’s over- then it’s over.
Second, it’s a terrible financial decision. If I wanted to make money, this is not how I would do it.
Third, we’ve made 0 progress in the last three months. Why am I continuing?
My answer is simple. I trust my intuition. My intuition tells me it’ll be fun. My intuition tells me that I can be a great business operator even though I have no achievements to show for it. Back in February, I had a little taste, and that was enough for me. I loved the thrill of it, and now I want more.
The priority is to find a technical co-founder. I made a profile on CoFoundersLab and wrote a job post on HackerNews.
Both Gidon and I look for passion. I look for passion around building technology. Are you coding in your spare time? Gidon looks for sacrifice. What are you willing to give up? Are you so passionate that you’re willing to work for free?
I’ve had 3 recruiting calls with developers this week. One was a 25-year-old scrappy kid from Bangalore, India. He wakes up at 5:30am, goes to the gym for 2 hours, and then codes from 8am to 10pm every day. He bounced between several companies and taught himself coding. I really like him.
Gidon offered him 1% equity and 0 pay for 6 months. The guy countered with 5% equity and $6k/mo salary. Gidon says “skip him”. I say “give him another chance.” Gidon says 3% equity, max. I’d be willing to give up 5% at this stage. And if push came to shove, I’d offer a conditional minimum $3k/mo salary after the first round of funding. I really believe he can be our guy. I hope it works out 🤞.
The second guy is smarter than the first guy. Around 30 years old in Singapore. He was an employee of Lyft when they had 200 employees and saw them scale to 1,000. Our first conversation was wide-ranging but I left the call feeling drained. My own wellbeing has to be a priority. If I’m having 500 calls with him over the next 5 years, then it has to be sustainable. This guy is an outstanding writer, not-so-great speaker, won tons of awards, yet I’m not confident he can get the job done.
The third guy is around 30-35 years old from Georgia, USA with 10+ years of experience as a software engineer. He’s frustrated at his current job because he feels powerless over the tools they use. Specifically, his team insists on Kafka (which requires specialists) whereas he advocates a simpler approach. Within 1 minute of our call, it became clear that this was a curiosity conversation, not a recruiting call. He was not our guy. While I was happy I got another chance to pitch the company, I was upset because it didn’t move the needle one bit.
I’ve received 5 more applications for Junior developers or interns. If Peers was a welfare state, then we’ll take them all. But it’s a capitalist business, so we only take what we need.
I receive a lot of emails like this. Ugh so boring! From really smart people too, like Ivy League students. This email tells me nothing about them. Even ChatGPT shows more personality. Please be specific and clear. A personal touch is welcome.
Recruiting is hard. I once tried to pull the Elon Musk card by demanding: “please provide evidence of exceptional ability” but I have yet to receive a satisfactory response. I’m looking for a partner, not an employee. Somebody who I enjoy working with. Somebody who is smarter than me. Somebody who will take the company to the next level.
Lastly, I’m encouraged by the direction the industry is heading in. Tech companies have begun to prioritize creator-fan relationships. YouTube recently launched Superfans, loyalty badges, and exclusive memberships. Twitter is transitioning from an advertising model to a subscription (Pay to View) revenue model.
(+) What I’m Doing Well
Maintaining conviction
(-) What I Could Be Doing Better
Taking action
Grade (at my peak): A-
Grade (last 3 months): D
3. Humans of the World
I met Francis while sitting in his Uber car on the way to the Cape Town airport. We had a lively conversation. I remember being so impressed by his positive spirit. Here was an ordinary Zimbabwean guy driving Uber to make ends meet. He aspired to start an auto-repair shop, with the possibility of importing Japanese cars to sell on the local market.
I remember thinking: “Wow, he’s in a totally different reality than I am.” On the airplane, I interviewed another woman. She was a Clinical Research Associate at Perexel (late 20s, early 30s)— who recently got engaged to her husband on the 42nd floor of a tower in Dubai. She told me: “I have my whole life planned out. My calendar is scheduled for the next 5 months. My career is set for the next 5 years.” So I asked her: “So you must be feeling pretty secure then?”, to which she laughed “No, I’m feeling more anxious than ever!” 😂
Fascinating. Why not feature these people? Everybody’s life is boring to them but interesting to somebody else. Let’s call it “Humans of the World”. So I did some research and discovered similar projects such as Humans of New York, Humans of Bombay, and Humans of Amsterdam.
I spent some time this week rewriting the official mission statement. Here is the old version:
Mission: To shine a light on the human experience for what it is. To spotlight individual uniqueness. To make the world a kinder place through storytelling, relatability, and truth.
And here is the new version:
Mission: To showcase the best of humanity, one person at a time.
We are wired to like our next-door neighbors more than strangers who we do not know. Our natural capacity to form groups can be weaponized through media & propaganda to create an "Us vs Them mentality" (eg. Left vs Right in USA)— resulting in racism, discrimination, and war.
Humans of the World is an alternative media project aimed to counteract the negative news bias. Our mission is to showcase the best of humanity, from all different ages, appearances, backgrounds, cultures, finances, ethnicities, geographies, psychologies, and religions. Because at the end of the day— we are all human beings.
My goal is to turn Humans of the World into a project bigger than myself. I started by purchasing a domain name (humanreal.org). Next I tried to set up a nonprofit but wasn’t able to finish it in one sitting. I had to register for an EIN but they were only open M-F Eastern Standard Time. I also had a hard time finding the right form to submit. Will try again later…
My vision is to create a global, decentralized group of passionate individuals, who are able to spotlight people from all over the world. I call this the “Ambassador Program”. I want to launch on social media as that’s where brands are currently being built. I am optimistic because a group of kids in Mumbai started the same and now they’ve grown to 2.5M+ followers on Instagram.
To Do:
Set up Nonprofit
Website
Apply for Grants
Form a Board of Directors
Launch Ambassador Program
If this mission speaks to you, then please reach out— I’d love your help 🙏. There’s a lot of work to be done!
(+) What I’m Doing Well
Forming the mission
(-) What I Could Be Doing Better
Taking action
Grade: D
Goal 4: Launch a Paid Newsletter
One of my dreams is to make a living by writing online. So I brainstormed topics I liked. I came up with: infrastructure, logistics, transportation, and technology.
Then I came up with a list of newsletter titles. “Modern Marvels”, “How Things Are Made”, “State of the X”, “Uncovering Processes”, “From Z to A”. Lastly I brainstormed topics I was excited about:
Tokyo Metro System
Farm to Table
Strait of Hormuz
How Chanel Handbags Are Made & Distributed
Gojek: Riders in Green
Last Mile Delivery
Building an Application
Autonomous Taxi Fleet
Best Sushi in the World & How It’s Made
My angle is contemporary analysis. Rather than predicting the future or analyzing the past— I would focus on the current state of affairs. I call it “From Z to A”, a play on logistics' goal of efficient movement from point A to point B. And it’s the opposite of Amazon’s slogan “from a to z”, (representing its wide selection of goods). Every week I’d choose a new topic in (infrastructure, transportation, technology) and write an essay on it.
I decided my first topic would be the Tokyo Metro system. So I watched several videos from B1M, Life Where I’m From, and RMTransit. I also read a few blogs for inspiration, such as Uncharted Territories,
Quickly I exhausted the pool of publically available information. I tried to research the raw materials Tokyo Metro Co. uses to build its trains & where it’s supplied from. But that wasn’t easy….
I found myself reading PDFs of JR East’s 10-year business plan (so boring 😴), so I decided to pivot.
Instead of contemporary analysis, I’ll do feature spotlights. Every week I’ll feature a person, product, or organization. People can pay for me to write about them. A sponsorship + subscription newsletter is probably more scalable anyways.
Grade: N/A
Goal 5: Work for the United Nations
To live the lifestyle I want to live, I need a source of income ASAP. The easiest path is to get a job. If there is any company I would work for, it would be the United Nations.
I love peace. I’ve long had an interest in political affairs and international relations. When I was a teenager, my favorite TV channel was CNN. Based on my extensive travel experience, I thought I would be well qualified. Plus I thought it’d help me with my “Humans of the World” project.
So I did some research. First, I found out that UN internships are unpaid. Second, I looked at roles such as “Information Management Officer” and “Logistics Officer” and I fell asleep halfway through reading the job description.
Here’s my reasoning. If I fall asleep while reading the job description, then I’ll definitely be snoring when I’m on the job. Therefore I’m abandoning my pursuits to work for the United Nations.
Grade: F
Goal 6: Gidon Ro’s Personal Brand
Lastly, I’m building my friend’s personal brand. Originally our goal was to sell a TikTok course, but I believe there is more potential than that. Lately, we started to branch out into broader topics, such as mindset, relationships, and college advice.
In total, we posted ~300 videos on TikTok, YouTube, Instagram, and Facebook. Progress has been slow but steady. We’ve accumulated 15k YouTube views. All organic.
I’ve also decided to set up a Spotify Podcasts and Podbeans account. I extract the audio from the long-form video & upload it as a podcast.
Every day Gidon sends me 3 short-form videos and 2 long-form videos. I edit them and upload them to his socials. We turn 18 minutes of Gidon’s time into 40 pieces of content.
Shorts: 3 Videos x 4 Platforms (TikTok, IG, FB, YouTube) = 12 pieces of content.
Long-Form: 2 Videos x 2 Platforms (YouTube, FB) = 4 pieces of content.
Podcast: 2 Videos x 8 Platforms (Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Amazon Music, Podbean, iHeartRadio, PlayerFM, Stitcher) = 16 pieces of content.
Blog: 2 Topics x 4 Platforms (Medium, LinkedIn Newsletter, Substack, FB) = 8 pieces of content.
All of this takes under 3 hours.
Systematize, then Outsource. Once we systematize the process, then we can outsource it. Yesterday we got a designer + video editor to take over what I’ve been doing. Great decision. Our first video is of a higher quality & performed better than the previous ones.
Awareness is the most important thing when starting from scratch. So I suggested to Gidon to get him on a podcast. He was game. So I sent 5 messages to people hosting Founder’s podcasts. 3 of them responded. 1 said yes.
Hopefully he will be on the podcast soon. Why am I turning Gidon into a public figure? Selflessly, to thank him for what he’s done for me. Selfishly, to learn so I can do it too. Working with G is always a pleasure because he’s not insecure about himself.
(+) What I’m Doing Well
Being consistent
(-) What I Could Be Doing Better
Increasing quality of content
Grade: A-
Other Endeavors
Twitch Influencer Marketing (Time Spent: 2 hours). I know enough about influencer marketing to be able to do it. So I explored the opportunities on Twitch, the #1 live-streaming platform. The popularity of Twitch streamers follows a steep power curve. Unfortunately, the market seems saturated as most of the top streamers belong to an esports team. And I’m not sure that brands are spending on the platform. The demographic is <25 which has the least spending power. I DM’d a few Twitch streamers - one with 7k followers and he only makes $20/mo. Seems dry. 🌵
Learning Japanese (Time Spent: 20 hours). I downloaded the Genki textbook on my iPad and taught myself Japanese, starting with Hiragana and basic expressions. The reason is because I want to return to Japan someday. However, I’ve decided to pause learning Japanese to focus on other priorities.
3. Amsterdam Review
Amsterdam is known for its red light district 🏮, where prostitutes advertise their services through little tiny windows with red curtains.
Amsterdam is one of the most beautiful cities (at day & night). Take a look at this photo of the canal after sunset.
Amsterdam nightlife is surreal. I felt like I was in a 90s movie. The vibes were so pure I couldn’t believe it was real. It felt like the San Junipero dance scene.
Dutch food is nothing to brag about. Mostly fries (friet), pancakes (poffertjes), fried fish (kibbeling), and caramel crackers (stroopwafel).
Basic Fit is a local gym chain I use in Europe. A day pass costs €10, and a 3-day package is €25.
Lastly, here’s a cool house I found by the canal.
⭐️ City Rating: A-
I rank cities by my personal willingness to live there. For a city to be A- or above, I must be willing to settle there for at least a few months.
Have a great weekend!
Leo A
Anne Frank, just wow. "Mind Your Language" - looking it up. "Air-dropping in" is totally cool. And good call on passing up the UN job by giving it a somnambulance score.
“Paper has more patience than people.”
Wow. I love that. Happy to hear you're doing well on your adventure!!