The struggles, failures, and financial realities of bootstrapping an indie software business in 2020.

Highlights

• TinyPilot revenue grew 20% to $12k.
• I released a new high-end model of TinyPilot.
• I launched my first ever paid course.

Goal grades

At the start of each month, I declare what I’d like to accomplish. Here’s how I did against those goals:

Release a high-end version of TinyPilot that arrives pre-assembled in a custom case

• Result: Released TinyPilot Voyager
• Grade: A

I released it! It had a muted reception at first, but now sales seem to be picking up.

When people talk about code reviews, they focus on the reviewer. But the developer who writes the code is just as important to the review as the person who reads it. There’s scarcely any guidance on preparing your code for review, so authors often screw up this process out of sheer ignorance.

This article describes best practices for participating in a code review when you’re the author. In fact, by the end of this post, you’re going to be so good at sending out your code for review that your reviewer will literally fall in love with you.

Who’s got two thumbs and shipped her first of 12 startups in 12 months on schedule? That’s right, this girl. In its first week, the Blogging for Devs Community reached $5K in revenue through a combination of lifetime deals, subscriptions, and my first ever Bitcoin transaction (thanks, Nico!). A profitable first week isn’t what makes this a success in my book. I’m thrilled at all the cool members who decided to join.

The idea of social capital has interested me for a long time, but when I finally sat down to read this book, it was painfully dry. It offers an eye-opening investigation into the many ways that civic engagement has declined in the US, but it was a real slog to get through.