New Horizons - One-Year Solo Build Runway

I didn’t plan on working in web dev. In 2013 I was looking for a road‑friendly gig so I could tour with a band or work audio on the road. I got deeper into making websites and taught myself with Codecademy/Treehouse/whatever else was around back then. I moved cities and worked my way from entry‑level to an e‑commerce agency, to a subscription startup as principal front‑end. I took a year to roam the world, then came back as an agency front‑end lead. There’s also four months of Clipper yacht racing in there somewhere. I tried a few things during those 12+ years: founded a podcast productized service (~$3k MRR) and a mini 3-products-3-months sprint while agency contracting.

Life as a web developer seemed pretty locked-in. Then everything shifted with AI. By the end of 2024 I was reviewing tons thinly-veiled full AI PRs. The direction seemed obvious: massive potential to build with AI doing more - and in my mind the owners of products are going to win out massively over the workers for those owners. My hedge: adaptability and building the product.

I was already looking to branch off and work on my own products for a year, but this locked in the decision. Through the first half of 2025 I saw massive improvements in coding tools and the gains possible. I wanted to be part of it - to get back to building from scratch, start to finish, and let my entrepreneurial self live again.

I prepped and stashed a year of runway at my current lifestyle - slow nomadic travel (1–3 months per place) - and prepared to move to Asia with my girlfriend for a year of building and exploration.

The plan was straightforward - some would even say too easy: one month per build, one month distribution push, repeat. But in reality, four months in I’ve got one product live and a second close - plus a ton of lessons learned.

I can say I’m having an awesome time.

## What I’m building

DiveJourney - my slow‑grow passion product: the global dive map for people who love the water as much as I do. Cold‑starting a community project is rough. But it’s full of learnings and growing more each day. Check it out.

RiseKit - coming soon. An AI search‑visibility + improvement platform I’ve been dogfooding to help grow DiveJourney discovery.

The other half of this is life balance: new cities, time zones, culture shifts, fitness. The aim isn’t just product success; it’s a life of exploration, growth, and creativity. I work to keep those aligned.

As of October 28, 2025, I’ve got 8 months left of runway. I’ll share the journey - build logs, field manuals, launches, and experiments - along with what actual life is like slow‑traveling around the world and trying to build something you care about to support the life you care about.

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