Bradley Bernard

My 2023 year in review

Tags: Career Entrepreneur

Life happens all at once...

Not every year do you step away from your cushy software job and pursue your passions, but this year was that one for me! I'll showcase a deep dive into my productivity, business metrics, and social media engagement for the year. Not only that, but I'm now engaged to my favorite person ever :)

I met lots of fun and engaging folks in person (hey Laracon), on Twitter, and over virtual meetups and Slack/Discord communities. This year had lots of ups and downs, but I grew a lot and I'm extremely lucky & thankful to have these experiences and opportunities at this stage in my life 🙌

Life & career milestones

I wasn't kidding, here's a list of things that happened to me:

  1. 👋 I quit my software engineering job at Facebook after 2 years
  2. 👉 I started a software company by myself: VuxByte
  3. 🎉 I launched my first web app SplitMyExpenses
  4. 💍 I got engaged one week after quitting my job (...somehow she said yes!)
  5. 🍎 I released my first iOS app: Chatty Butler
  6. 🎸 I attended my second Laracon US
  7. 🔈 I'm building in public on Twitter: @bradleybernard
  8. ... + a whole lot more smaller milestones, aha's, and ups & downs :)

I hope my next few years aren't as busy but you never know. If there is anything I've learned, it's that things don't go according to your plans and that's totally okay!

This list is way too long to talk about everything in detail, so let's pull some cool charts & stats for the business & my products, my productivity, and my socials!

VuxByte wrapped: 2023 edition

Company stats

I also joined MicroConf Connect and Small Bets to network and learn from other SaaS founders and like minded individuals!

My productivity and output

Looking at my output directly from GitHub: @bradleybernard (using GithubWrapped.io)

  • 2,090 commits
  • 253 active days
  • 27 day longest streak
  • 10 days longest gap (end of the year)

And a whole lot more breakdowns per month, per day of the week, and time of the day. I guess I ship the most code on Monday!

SplitMyExpenses

I created an Admin dashboard so I can see stats per day. As of today (December 31st 2023, 4:07 PM PST), the product has:

  • 792 users registered
  • 271 groups
  • 6,426 expenses created

Trends are looking like:

  • 30 to 50 users signing up, per day
  • 9 to 20 groups created, per day

Currently at: 1,458 commits, with quite a few commits pending deployment soon!

Chatty Butler

I also have an Admin dashboard for Chatty Butler, so I can see stats per day. As of today (December 31st 2023, 4:12 PM PST), the product has:

  • 318 users registered
  • 5,749 messages
  • 990 chats

Trends are looking like:

  • 1 to 6 users signing up, per day
  • 30 to 100 messages sent, per day
  • 1 to 15 chats created, per day

Currently at: 353 commits on backend and 437 commits on the iOS app!

Socials (LinkedIn & Twitter/X)

LinkedIn

I've started posting more on LinkedIn! It's a bit awkward, since previously all my posts were about me changing jobs, but now, more than ever, I need to lean on my network to help spread my work, my products, and get the word out there about what I'm doing! I definitely post WAY more on Twitter, but I'm learning to use LinkedIn more as a build in public surface.

Stats:

  • 4 posts
  • 30,686 post views

Twitter / X

I've gone full steam ahead on my Twitter and been tweeting about my daily challenges, learnings, and opportunities (#buildinpublic).

@bradleybernard on Twitter
Before (June 1st 2023): 376 followers
After (Dec 31st 2023): 878 followers

I've learned the Twitter / X algorithm is extremely hard to understand is quite unpredictable. When I started tweeting right after being verified (yes I pay the $8 a month...), I got quite a lot of impressions on my tweets.

Now? Well not so much, usually between 50 - 300 views per tweet, unless the algorithm boosts it. I usually write about technical content or WIP screenshots of UI I'm working on. It might not be what the algorithm likes, but it's fun to share what I'm working on and sometimes others do chime in!

Learning from Twitter: 80/20 rule applies here -- I spend lots of time writing a Tweet thread: 0 likes. I spend 5 seconds writing a stupid tweet that I was frustrated about: 10k views. You never know!

Examples:

Recap & looking forward

2023 was an incredible year. I had high ambitions starting my own company and I tried my hardest to get there. I painfully realized that building a business by yourself is a long and hard road, and requires lots of luck. However, I'm committed to pushing forward into 2024 with high hopes, energy, and tenacity.

Looking back on my work, I'm very proud to have shipped 3 major "products" in only six months. Super pumped to see what 2024 has in store for me, my career, and my business.

SplitMyExpenses is undergoing a transformative period, where lots of folks are signing up and I have lots of plans to make it better and better. Hoping to look back on this one and see how far it's come :)

And... thank you! :)

If we've interacted on the internet, or someone shared this article for you to read, I appreciate you! I hope you enjoyed the deep dive into my productivity, business metrics, and output for myself and my business. If you enjoyed this, please share it on your socials and tag me!

Onwards and upwards to 2024 🚀 let's do this!