Starting the 12 startups challenge
I, like many developers, seem to start a tonne of side projects but never completed them. So I’m going to attempt the 12 startups in 12 months challenge, popularized by Pieter Levels.
So what is this challenge?
The idea is to launch a new startup each month for the next 12 months. The goal is to get used to building things quickly and in a timely manner instead of getting fixated on building the perfect product that never ends up seeing the light of day. I am doing this whilst still working full time so let’s see how I go with the monthly cadence.
The startups
I’ll be updating the list below with the different startups as I go along.
#1 Beaco — A physical presence tracker for Canadian Permanent Residents
So when you become a Canadian Permanent Resident, you are required to keep track of any of your travels out-of-Canada. The idea is that you can apply for your citizenship once you have been physically present in Canada for 1,095 days (or 3 years) out of the last 5 years. I was keeping track of this in Google Keep for a bit, but it means that I had to keep calculating the number of days each time I travelled out of Canada. So I built this to help keep track of that and to send me a reminder when I finally reached those number of days.
Status — Launched
URL — https://beaco.ca
Tech Stack — SST, Expo, Gatsby
Read the debrief here
#2 Festack — A list of different music festivals in Canada (and eventually more!)
After going to a few music festivals, I realize that I quite enjoy going to the smaller festivals. Unfortunately, these festivals are a lot harder to find unless you have been invited to it, or per chance ran into their Facebook group. So I wanted to build a listing site that keeps track of these festivals.
Status — Launched
URL — https://festack.co
Read the debrief here
#3 ifoundthis — Get your lost items back!
Get a QR Code sticker or rubber stamp to place on your items. If you lose this item, the person who finds it will be able to find your contact details by scanning the code.
Status — Launched
URL — https://ifoundthis.co/
Read the debrief here
#4 egami - Generate your social share images with no effort
Automate your social share image generation by using a simple URL-api that you can adjust within seconds.
Status — Launched
URL — https://egami.io
Read the debrief here
#5 OneEPK - Helping artists create, manage and share their EPKs
For most emerging artist, creating and then maintaining their EPK is one more thing that takes them away from what they should be working on, their music. So I created a platform that makes it a bit easier for them to do so.
Status — Launched
URL — https://oneepk.com
Read the debrief here
#6 Ruru - An AI powered chatbot to help answer your pet-related questions
There is a shortage of vets and so getting an appointment is quite difficult. So I wanted to build a chatbot that could help answer some of the common questions that pet owners have while they wait for their appointment.
Status — Launched
URL — https://ruru.chat
Tech Stack — SST, React, OpenAI
Read the debrief here
#7 Coming soon…
If you want to launch your own ideas, read my process on how I have been launching these.