Instead of an Intro: 2022 in review
TLDR; 🧑💼 1 new job; 🛂 U.S. Citizenship; 🚀 3 side projects; 📚 3 books; 🍷 alcohol free; 🏃♂️1 half marathon; ✈️ 5 countries traveled;
Intro
Welcome to the first issue of "The SaaS Engineer" newsletter! As the name suggests, this newsletter will focus on topics related to software engineering, startups, and technology. In this first issue, I'll be doing a review of the year 2022 and highlighting some of the interesting developments in the industry and personal life of the author, Artem Vysotsky.
Before we dive in, I want to take a moment to thank you for joining me on this journey. If you enjoy this first issue, please consider subscribing to stay updated on future issues. And if there are any particular topics you'd like to see covered, please don't hesitate to let me know in the comments.
Macro
It's safe to say that this has been very challenging for our family and close friends, with the war in Ukraine, the economic crisis in the US, and the following layoffs in the tech industry.
The war. My home country Belarus found itself amidst geopolitical conflict. My close relatives had to leave the country, and find new jobs. My father’s business was affected by it too. Hundreds of my Ukrainian friends are either fighting the Russian army or having to leave the country. The office of my former employer has been bombed.
The economic crisis. The stock market is tanking, with S&P500 being down 20% YOY. Meta’s (my employer) stock is 60% down.
The layoffs. Tens of thousands of people lost their jobs in the tech industry alone (with Meta letting go 11 thousand in November), this includes some of my very close friends.
The AI innovation. Despite these challenges, I have never been more excited about technological advancements than I am now. The progress in Generative AI and tools like GPT-3, ChatGPT, Stable Diffusion, and Midjounrey are truly exciting. It gives hope for betterment, for something to look forward to.
Career
Meta. This year has been a rollercoaster. In August after burning through my savings, I joined Meta as a software engineer on the Data Infrastructure team after a 1.5-year stint of trying to launch my own business. But before that, this is what happened.
Searching for a co-founder. I met with over 50 founders through the Y Combinator co-founder matching program, an experience that I think would be worth writing a standalone article about. This led to nowhere, but I would still recommend this program to anyone who is looking for a partner.
Mentorship. I've been actively mentoring other engineers through the PlatoHQ platform, conducting 60 sessions with 16 mentees. I'm proud to say that I believe I've helped two of these mentees get promoted or land new roles.
Side projects. I've been busy launching side projects with two friends, who will remain unknown for now. I learned a great deal about ML while doing it.
PushSQL (now dead), a tool that syncs business tools and databases to Google Sheets, is one of these projects. While we applied to Y Combinator for PushSQL and were unfortunately rejected.
WritingMate.ai, a GPT-3 based writing assistant, has been growing quite well with over 500 users in just three weeks and a 40% retention rate in the first week. I'm excited to see where it goes.
Finally, I also launched Perfectessay.ai, a website that helps you write school essays with AI.
Personal life
In my personal life, there were several major milestones this year.
U.S. citizenship. My wife Olga and I became US citizens, which has already made a big difference in terms of our ability to travel. With our Belarusian passports, we previously had to get visas for almost every country in the world.
Travel. COVID restrictions were finally lifted this year. I visited the Netherlands, Germany, Portugal, and Lithuania, and reunited with a lot of my dear friends. Portugal has become a hub for startups and software engineers from Eastern Europe who have fled the war in Ukraine, Russia, and Belarus. This is a really great place to be now.
I also spent a week in Santa Teresa, Costa Rica - a hidden gem, my favorite surfing village. I’m looking forward to more travel this year.
Giving up alcohol. A major personal achievement for me was giving up alcohol completely after reading the book "Atomic Habits." This has given me a newfound source of energy and motivation, which I used to set a goal of running a half marathon and exceeding my expectations.
Therapy. After failing to find the right therapist in 2021, I finally found “the one” by recommendation. The sessions already had a meaningful impact on my life and relationships.
Books
"The Atomic Habit" by James Clear helped me to quit drinking alcohol
"Trillion Dollar Coach"- highly recommended for anyone interested in mentorship
"Secrets of Sand Hill Road" - a must-have for anyone looking to fundraise for the first time
"A Random Walk Down Wall Street" helped me to calm down and stop playing in the financial markets.
Goals
For the last two years I had only one goal: start my own business that will make me financially independent. This didn’t go well. The challenge with such a goal is that it measures the output (which is not under my control), not the input.
So for this year, I deliberately will set a small, achievable goal that measures the input.
- Writing - write at least 8 newsletter articles.
That concludes my review of 2022. I hope you found it interesting and that you'll consider subscribing to stay updated on future issues of "The SaaS Engineer" newsletter. If you have any feedback or suggestions for future topics, please don't hesitate to reach out.
Best regards, Artem Vysotsky "The SaaS Engineer"