The Six-Month Update

This year I'm working on transitioning from employment to being my own boss. And possibly, growing 47 Places to a profitable company that makes Ly & I money. My target is a $500 profit to start with. Cause if we can make that, we can make more!

Here's what that has looked like over the last 6 months:

January 2023

I finished off 2022 working for a dev shop. I joined them around September 2022 and hoped to convert that into a full-time role by January 2023.

The plan was to get employed and use my salary to build an emergency fund that could last me a year. Then use that money as a safety net and dive full-time into working on 47 Places.

That version of life wasn't in my books. They didn't offer me a role and I had to figure out where to go from there.

I decided to say "fuck it". And dived into working on 47 Places from the get-go. No income, no emergency fund. I gave myself a month to build an MVP and hoped to launch it on Valentine's Day. Using the "Day of Love" to create some hype around my site.

By the end of January, I had the MVP ready for launch! It was now time to get the people, so I switched hats and moved over to the role of marketer in February.

February 2023

In one of my "random shower thoughts moments" a brilliant idea came to mind. My friend Wairegi had just started a flower shop and I thought to partner up with him and do a giveaway. A valentines giveaway.

We would give away a 47 rose bouquet to 2 random people as a reward for signing up to the 47 Places mailing list. I called him and we set up the partnership.

Giveaway in hand, I now needed to let people know about it. I turned to guerrilla marketing.

Me and Lisa in the guerrilla marketing trenches

By guerrilla marketing, I mean... Walking around my school and promoting my site. I got my friend Lisa to tag along and make TikTok videos of my experience doing that. The image above is actually a link to a video that Lisa recorded for me if you'd like to check that out. (clicking on it should take you to the video) The launch and marketing process was an amazing experience but also a very, very exhausting experience. I could not catch a break.

I had mid semesters to sit the next week. Bruh. Immediately after that was over, I proceeded to crash mentally and physically. T'was brutal.

As this was happening, this random internet stranger (Ly) slid into my DMs on the clock app 😂.

a screenshot of my first conversation with Ly — A screenshot of my first conversation with Ly

After everything cooled down, I reached out to her. I loved her energy and she made a good first impression on me. But, I made it clear that I didn't want an employee. I would rather have a co-founder who helps me build this up into a company.

We both thought we were ready for it and virtually shook hands on it. She went off to learn what the hell a co-founder is and I went off to create an on-boarding process for her.

March 2023

I have no idea what was going on this month. Probably struggling with life and school. Surviving.

April 2023

From the launch, I knew that people were interested in 47 Places. I managed to get 1000+ page views and 500+ people to visit the website.

Analytics for the months of February, March & April

The next step was to figure out a way to monetize the website. But that needed me to go to places and move around. Which needs me to have some money. I had none. I needed a way to make money to fund the development of 47 Places. So I turned to technical writing. Where I get paid to write about code. I'd done it before but my experience was limited. I needed to re-learn how to pitch and position myself to be able to land clients. And boy isn't that shit T for Tuff. Ly and I met in person for the first time this month. By then I had on-boarded her and she'd learnt how to add places in the hacky way that was in place. We were still very lost on what her part in all this was and we'd struggle with this for a month or two more.

May 2023

A new semester starts for me and I'm back to juggling school and everything else. Ly and I also meet again in person. At this point, she had read up on being a co-founder. She worked on a great presentation on things we could do to move the needle forward. But then, she asked me a very difficult question. She had come on board when I wasn't looking to add anyone to my team. And that left her wondering if I wanted a co-founder. And if I did, if that co-founder was her. Her skills and the value she added. She knew she was on board, but she wasn't sure I was. And boy did that question send me spiralling. A lot was going on with my life and that question didn't make it any easier. I acknowledged that I was struggling and needed help so I signed up for therapy. This would be my second time in therapy. I avoid thinking about hard things, while at the same time getting super stressed by them. Therapy helps me slow down and stay accountable for addressing my issues.

June 2023

I worked through the pressing things that were on my plate in therapy. In the process, I came to the conclusion that, yes, Ly is the co-founder I want. So I hit her up. We had a video call where we caught up, I shared the news with her. We were both in the same place about working on 47 Places which made us super excited! We also finally got solid ground under us by determining what our roles are:

I write code and build our platform
She goes to places and documents them. Creating videos, sharing them on socials and the website and writing you emails about the places

On the technical writing side of things, I got a warm lead. This was after following up on an application that went unanswered at first.

I'm working on that article this week. (super exciting!)

July

This month the idea is to:

Survive the rest of the semester.
Build a dashboard that will help me and Ly have an easy time managing the website
Support Ly in documenting a place or two and help her send out her first email to you
Get my first technical writing paycheck. Buy a few T-shirts and jeans with it, I don't have clothes bro 💀

And that marks 6 months of 47 Places since launch. I am grateful to you for choosing to be here with us as we figure out this running a travel company thing! Ly and I are hard at work! Making sure that you get the best of the best when it comes to experiencing life through places and experiences curated by beautiful, creative humans in Kenya. (and the rest of Africa as we grow and expand). Until next time, remember, don't be boring. Leave your house. Go places. Live life.