From Software Engineer to Solopreneur

Ever since I was a kid, I wanted to start a business. My mom still tells stories of 4-year-old me wanting to sell orange juice outside my gran's house! It mortified her at the time, but I didn't seem to feel the embarrassment - I just wanted to start a business.

Fast forward a couple of decades (or more 😅), and I’m an iOS engineer at a major fintech in London. But that entrepreneurial itch? It never went away. So here I am, starting my journey from software engineer to solopreneur. And I'm bringing you along for the ride!

A bit about me: I've always been into computers and programming. At age 12 I built my first computer, and throughout school I learnt how to code and fell in love with it. I (eventually) decided I wanted to work in software as a career. That, or be a professional cricketer. Spoiler alert: the cricket thing didn't pan out. But the software thing? That stuck.

Now I'm working as an iOS engineer at a major fintech unicorn in London. I started as a "junior" engineer on product teams and I’ve worked my way up to "senior" engineer and I'm on the Mobile Platform team, building tools for our other iOS engineers. It's a great gig, don't get me wrong. But...

Something happened last year that changed everything. Yolandi (my wife) and I were on holiday in Gdansk, Poland. We've travelled a lot, but as we were walking through Gdansk, it hit me just how many people there are in the world. It may be obvious to many, and conceptually I knew it. But I didn’t really get it until then.

I'd always put off starting a business because I thought my ideas weren't "big enough". But in that moment I realised there are SO many people in the world. There's plenty of money out there. I was thinking at a scale much bigger than I needed to. I didn't need a HUGE business to start - I could start something "small", and there would still be plenty of people prepared to pay for it. More than enough to support myself and my family.

That was it. The spark I needed.

So why am I telling you all this? Well, I've decided to build in public. That means I'm going to share my journey - the ups, the downs, the wins, the epic fails - as I try to build my own business (or businesses) while keeping my day job.

I've been reading books like "Feel Good Productivity" by Ali Abdaal and "Million Dollar Weekend" by Noah Kagan. They've been super inspirational and have really shaped my thinking about this whole process.

Right now, I've got an iOS app called Huck. It's for Ultimate Frisbee players to keep score and track a workout while playing frisbee. I'm also exploring some other ideas, like an app called ScoreShare for sports teams to easily share their game results. But more on those later!

So, what's the goal here? Well, in the short term, I'd love to get to £1000/month from my side projects. It's a nice round number, and it's significant enough to make a real difference. If I can hit that, I'd love to move to a 4-day work week and give more attention to my businesses.

Long term? I want to get to a point where I can become a full-time solopreneur. I know it might take a few years to build up the support, experience, and businesses to do that. But hey, gotta start somewhere, right?

Now, I'm not gonna lie - I'm a bit nervous about all this. Balancing a full-time job, side projects, and home life? That's gonna be tough. My wife works full-time too, and I don't believe she should be responsible for looking after the house, so I'll still be doing my share of cooking, cleaning, grocery shopping, etc.

I'm also worried about staying productive at my day job as I grow my own projects - I don’t believe in doing something half-heartedly so I won’t let my day job suffer as my side projects grow: that’s just not right and that’s just not who I am. And let's not even talk about all the new tech I'm going to have to learn..or want to learn and have to NOT learn... 😅

But you know what? I'm excited. Really excited. And I want to share that excitement (and all the inevitable frustrations) with you.

So, what can you expect from me? I'll be sharing my struggles, my learnings, my progress (or lack thereof). I'll try to post regularly, but let's be real - life happens. I'll do my best to keep you updated.

If you're on a similar journey, or thinking about starting one, I'd love to hear from you. What are your experiences? Your fears? Your wins? Let's chat in the comments! If you’re further ahead on this journey, what advice can you offer? I’m keen to learn!

Alright, that's it for now. Time to get building. Catch you on the flip side!