In the first half of this 2010s decade, I built two startups. During this, I shipped almost a dozen web and mobile apps. They were mostly consumer internet products, with the exception of a couple which were enterprise. All in the hope of creating a product loved by 1 million or more monthly active users. However, nothing seemed to ever stick, and despite lots and lots of trying, I failed to hit that milestone.
In 2017, I decided to take a sabbatical in England to study and reflect on my previous years. Frankly, I didn’t have strong intentions of graduating with any sort of degree — I just wanted to take a break, make new friends and learn in a low-stress environment. But, time flew by fast. Next thing I knew it was already 2019, and I had been awarded a degree. 👨🏽🎓
I decided to spend the following month in France 🇫🇷 looking for inspiration on what to do next. Due to my prior failed attempts at entrepreneurship, I felt inclined to do something I could be easily successful at, so I decided instead to get a job. I spent months looking for the right role in the right company doing things I wanted to do, but nothing that felt like a “perfect fit” came up.
I took that as a sign from the universe reminding me about my big unfulfilled dream. The title of a song from Hans Zimmer’s score for the movie The Dark Knight Rises 🦇 is “Fear Will Find You”. Another song on the same album is called “Why Do We Fall”. I kept listening to these songs over and over again, and realized I was running away from my dreams.
I want to build a product loved by millions of people — this has been my dream since I was a young teenager. Owing to the endless stream of motivation from public personalities like Gary Vaynerchuk, blog posts and book chapters about failure, and sports legends emphasizing the importance of failure, I’ve decided to embrace my fears and follow my dreams once again.
And so, I introduce you to Blankslate Labs. We’re on a mission to bring a modern social maps experience to your smartphones. You can read more about my new company and the motivation behind it here: Blankslate’s mission.
Quoting Thomas Wayne (Batman’s father) from the Batman movies, we fall so that we can learn to pick ourselves up. I might fail again — 9 out of 10 startups fail. But it won’t stop me from trying. As the 2010s near an end and the 2020s are about to rise, I’m turning the page over to begin a fresh, new chapter of my life. 📖
Old dreams, new attempts. ✨🚀