Cindy's Newsletter #2 - Betting (small) on SaaS

It's not like I really needed another project, but I couldn't stop myself.

These days, I’m strongly for the “small bets” idea popularized by Daniel Vassallo. In short, for a project like a SaaS, an ebook or a social media post, it’s really hard to predict which one will be a success since there are too many variables involved. To protect against this, each “bet” or idea should be as small as possible to gauge interest before committing to more.

I was looking for something appropriate as a first “bet”, and I settled on an Etsy app. I do a bit of Etsy selling, and I want a tool that allows me to schedule an Etsy sale in advance. It’s possible to schedule coupons in Etsy, but I want to go the extra mile and update my shop announcement and banner at the same time to really promote the sale.

Given that it’s a SaaS, there is always a minimum amount of work involved, but I’ll be thinking on how I can make my stack as simple as possible so I can get a MVP out, and reuse this for future projects. 

I’m also looking to keep my costs down at the same time: if I end up with a bunch of little apps, I don’t want to have to pay 50$ a month each for hosting and tools. On the other hand, my stack should not need a lot of maintenance either since my client work takes priority.

I’ll be keeping you informed about the direction this takes! #buildinpublic

Side projects updates

To have freedom to write from anywhere in the house, I upgraded my old Asus laptop with a SSD. It’s a i3 so it’s never going to be a beast, but for 30$ it’s a nice performance update (along with the Windows reinstall).

Also, I’m gardening on a pretty large scale and have been adding up my harvest for the year. The conclusions and a few pictures are in the thread:

Cindy Potvin @CindyPtn

Done with the gardening mid-November with the first big snowfall! I was a bit late adding everything up, but I had 8kg of brussels sprout, kale and broccoli for those two weeks at a value of 120$. For the year, I have a total of 227kg of food valued at 2150$ CAD! 🌱🤑

Cindy Potvin @CindyPtn

For this year, I'm tracking the value of my garden harvest and the weight of produce grown. 🌱🤑 Since gardening is a hobby for me, I'm not tracking my time. I'm just curious about what's the progression over the season and the real yield. ⚒️

Feeling of the week

Christmas already! But I’m not ready! Have to get those Christmas cookies baked in the next few days!

Ways I can help you

• I can write blog articles for you on technical subjects around web development and mobile development. I can also write about hobby-level Arduino, 3D printing and home automation subjects.

• For my Canadian friends, it’s time to start thinking about purchasing seeds for your garden. I have a nano business selling seeds from my garden at https://sentiersperdus.net/en. Sorry, due to various phytosanitary concerns, it’s hard to ship those outside Canada.