Tim's Build Journal

The last few days have been quite annoying with QuizWhizzer... the server kept going down randomly which I discovered was because nginx is configured with a low default number of concurrent connections, so it was refusing requests. I'm glad I was able to find the root cause and issue a fix (increased the value to something more reasonable) so hopefully no more problems with that.
Also had some bugs to do with the drag and drop question type. It was probably a mistake to create so many question types tbh, it adds a lot of complexity. But I get some teachers want the options, very hard to balance feature requests with keeping product simple. I do think I made QuizWhizzer too complicated.

But anyway, I should not be focused on that anymore. I should stop idea hopping and become a finisher. So I think before abandoning my original AI product for specific niche which I was going to abandon because can't get enough leads, I think I will still make sure to reach out to 50 leads and see if I get any responses. That way I know I've at least done some outreach to validate. If nobody responds then it's probably not worth doing.

No updates for a while because tbh I haven't been focused at all. Though just moved so it takes a while to get into rhythm. But also the main problem is I've realised that the niche that I chose is too hard to reach, there are not enough leads really. It took me 3 days to construct a list of 50 leads and they are not even well personalised, most are generic emails. Cold email is a numbers game, I really need thousands of leads. If it's going to be very difficult to get a single client then this may not be the right approach.

I have some other ideas for saas products, but they don't really meet some of my criteria. But maybe the approach is to stop overthinking and just build them anyway, they could turn into something completely different in the end.

Today I had tennis in the morning and then I expanded the leads list as well as do more personalisation research. After that I was very tired and slept a couple of hours (did not get much sleep last night). Then I had to do laundry. So not the most productive day. Tomorrow I'm going to be packing as well as moving to a new place on sunday, but hopefully should still get enough work done.

Update for yesterday - because I realised I was being lazy I'm getting my productivity system back on track. Planning the week, 10 pomodoros per day. Also make the bed first thing in the morning, if I don't do this simple thing it leads to more laziness I think. So I did that and also tidied my room. Then as for the business work, I've started the grind of personalisation for my cold outreach. I think this is what the majority of pomodoros will be going towards. It's very hard to find the right data sometimes... really I should only be spending 5 minutes max per lead, but trying to find the info it ends up being 20-30 minutes per lead. I have outreached a few on Linkedin already because I couldn't find their emails.

Today I setup Instantly, created an inbox to send emails from which is going to take a few weeks to warm up. I've also started curating a leads list. My main concern is if this niche is too small that cold emailing won't work, so my plan is to hyper-personalise every email in order to hopefully increase response rates.

Been forgetting to write updates here. Over the weekend I recontructed the offer as I realised some flaws. I think it's good now, so next step is to start cold outreach. I'm not sure a demo is necessary, just need to qualify people and ask questions to discover if this is actually a problem that exists and if my solution/idea would be valuable.

Soon I will turn 27, which sounds crazy. I still feel like I'm 21. In light of this I made a life calendar today because it's been something I wanted to add to this site. I made it stoic themed, based on the idea that we don't know how long we will have to live (so I did not add "weeks remaining" stat and kept it uncertain). The point is not to be depressive but to showcase the limited time in order not to waste time, to instil a sense of urgency. It's too easy to put things off till tomorrow..

Gym: No (played tennis instead today, I doubt I will be going to the gym until next month when I move to a condo).

Now in Bangkok for 6 months so I can focus. Goal is to just have something starting to work. Bangkok is a great city for working, super convenient, not too expensive and lots of places to work 🔥

Actually I think I will need to create a basic demo to showcase on the calls, so will focus on this first.

Today I created the first offer I'm going to test. Made a landing page and next step is to reach out to companies in the niche and see if I can get any onboard. No charge until they get results.

Gym: yes