My First Post

A couple months ago, I quit my job as an engineer at a startup with the intention of “building my own thing”. Conventional wisdom says this is probably a bad idea. However, as you now know, I made the jump anyway.

There were a number of reasons for this but it really came down to two big ones:

1. I wanted as much time & space as possible to explore new opportunities, and I found this difficult to do with a full-time job.
2. As someone who’s been working & saving for the last 13 years but is still a couple years away from having major financial responsibilities (read: children, and if rates ever come down, home ownership) it felt like the right time.

After a couple months’ rest and handling various odds & ends, I’m ready to figure out what “building my own thing” actually means for me. At the moment, I find myself knowing I’d like to start my own "thing" but having no idea what said "thing" should be. To help figure that out, I’m building out a series of prototypes at a regular cadence and seeing where that takes me.

Why this approach?

1. Because I’m yet to find my niche, I need to explore lots of different ideas to see what sticks.
2. Successful ventures are built through connections with people, and people take you a lot more seriously when you can show them tangible and thoughtful work. I hope these prototypes (and this blog) will serve that purpose.
3. This exercise feels like a great way to train the "move fast and iterate" muscle, which seems like a useful skill to build.
4. I fully realize the odds aren’t in my favor and there’s a solid chance I’ll need to go back to regular ol’ employment at the end of this adventure. If/when that happens, I hope this body of work will convince you to hire me :)

As I make my way through this adventure, I’ll share my work here along with any other fun and interesting nuggets I come across. I would love to have you along for the ride, so please do subscribe below if you feel so inclined!

Alright, without further ado, here’s my first prototype - a travel planning app! Please do check it out and let me know what you think.

P.S: If you have ideas for other things to build or just want to chat, I would love to hear from you! Please reach out to me at prashanthselvam@gmail.com. I’m also doing some freelance work on the side, so if you’d be interested in that, you know where to find me!