Highlights

• TinyPilot generated $3,800 in revenue with zero marketing.
• I went from zero to a complete, custom manufactured product in 26 days.
• I’m still struggling to manage my inventory.

Goal grades

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

Sell 60 TinyPilot kits and power connectors

• Result: Sold 29 kits and power connectors.
• Grade: C+

The limiting factor here was manufacturing the power connectors. I wasn’t able to produce enough to keep up with demand. I sold everything I manufactured, but I couldn’t make them quickly enough.

Highlights

• I paused TinyPilot sales to address a design problem.
• I’m manufacturing a custom USB power connector for TinyPilot.
• Revenue across all my projects was among my strongest ever, at $3.6k total.

Goal grades

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

Sell 30 TinyPilot kits

• Result: Sold 16 TinyPilot kits
• Grade: C

I was on track to beat my goal, but then a wrench got caught in the gears, and I had to pause sales.

This book was thoroughly underwhelming. Dozens of people have recommended it to me in the past couple of years, and I don’t understand the hype. It has some insightful ideas, but they’re buried under questionable advice and poor writing.

A few years ago, I learned a handy technique for resolving disputes with uncooperative businesses. It’s simple to understand and easy to implement. You don’t need lawyers or a prominent social media presence. All it requires is for you to behave like an organized professional. This technique recently resolved a problem so effectively that I had to share the story.

The conversation began with a merchant telling me in no uncertain terms that they refused to pay the money they owed me:

Highlights

• This is my highest revenue month ever, at $9.8k across all of my projects.
• Tiny Pilot had the biggest first month of anything I’ve ever launched, at 52 sales and $8.7k in revenue.
• The sudden surge in customers also made it one of my highest-stress months since going full-time to work for myself.

Goal grades

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