How makers stay productive

A journey that started in March 2018 is now complete. I left my full-time job as CTO behind in February of that year to start working on Polkadot Tiger, my first SaaS product.

I struggled. Totally self-funded I survived the first 8 months on savings and only delivered a product that barely worked and looked terrible. Then I scraped by on contracts and small pieces of work to keep myself in warm places with wifi.

After a while I spent 3 months were spent recuperating funds and finding a part time role. I knew that Polkadot Tiger v1 wasn't up to scratch so I cancelled our launch and dedicated the the rest of my time to starting again with v2.

This led to a couple of months of depression towards the end of 2019 that the MakerLog community really helped me through. At the time I thought it was just burnout but I was really questioning my own ability to deliver and whether I'd blown all my savings on a pipe-dream. Those of you who see this and remember me from that time, I'd like to extend my sincere gratitude as I was "lost" in South-East Asia and the advice given really helped me to become grounded again so that I could rebuild.

Since March 2020 I've been rebuilding v2 of Polkadot Tiger, brought onboard a design partner and our small team has finally launched a fully working and now live SEO AB Testing product.

I couldn't be happier to say that we did it. Whether the product is a success or not… it exists and this in itself is a huge success!

Yesterday, 2020 threw its last challenge at me when my part-time startup client told me they have no funds and I immediately have to find new work.

On to 2021 and the challenges it will bring! :)

I wanted to share this for anyone who may be going through a tough time right now. Either with their product or just doubts in their abilities or decisions. Keep on going and follow your gut!

It will lead you to where you want to be as long as you stay honest to yourself and put in the effort required to get there!