People with gut issues need a consistent way to identify, track, and avoid what triggers their symptoms. Elimination diets are terrible, tracking everything is cumbersome, and finding the right medical professional can be a challenge.

People with gut issues are frequently left to struggle through this alone. Symptoms can be severe and debilitating, leaving little energy for anything else. And your guts are ever changing - what’s worked in the past may not consistently work in the future.

Solution

An app where users can log symptoms, food, and other relevant inputs. Where they can identify trends, experiment, and conclusively determine what triggers which symptoms. The interface would be lightweight and easy-to-use, and trends / possible triggers would be identified automatically.

Target users

People with gut issues.

Open questions

• Does this already exist? The “IBS Tracker” market is crowded, with many existing apps. I’ve been trying one, Bowelle, but there are too many to reasonably test.

• Is this a problem that warrants software? The pain level is high, but after a few customer interviews, its not clear yet what parts could or should be solved by software.

• Business model? Assuming software is warranted, is this something people would actually pay for? B2C isn’t ideal, but a subscription fee, however small, would make sense. Especially with privacy and data-ownership in mind.

Background

Content warning: Talking about poop

I’ve been dealing with “gut stuff” over the last 4 years. TL;DR: After painstaking experimentation, I’ve figured out that dairy, caffeine, fatty/oily foods, spicy foods, and alcohol are all problematic.

I’ve seen many medical professionals, most of whom have looked at me through one narrow area of specialization. My acupuncturist was the only one who made me feel seen, because she looked at my situation holistically.

Gut problems, poop, and food sensitivities aren’t usually publicly discussed. But many people I’ve spoken with have reported similar issues in their 30s and/or since the pandemic. There seems to be a trend here.

I’m personally very motivated - I need to solve this problem for myself, and if software can help, why not make a project out of it?

Reasons why this might fail

• Using the wrong words to describe the problem: This is a me problem. I’m an expert in my own body and what I feel and experience, but I am very bad at communicating these things to other people. I suspect I’m not alone in this.

• Trying to be everything for everyone: The common thread here is gut issues caused by food sensitivities. So far what I’ve learned is that symptoms can vary dramatically from person to person. This will make designing user experiences, software, and even a business model, all hard until the focus becomes more narrow.

• Technical barriers: Depending on the requirements, it could take significant effort to build a proof of concept to validate problem/solution fit. Competing in a crowded market would require many table-stakes features. There are other possible smaller, simplier solutions that could add value quickly, all of which still need to be validated.

Reasons why this might succeed

• 📈 Trends: The number of people with gut issues seems be growing rapidly.

• 💥 Painful problem: When people are dealing with severe symptoms, they are very motivated to find a solution.

• 🤓 I’m a user: This is something I need to solve for myself.

Next steps

• Customer interviews: I’m interested in talking to more folks with gut issues, in hopes that I can narrow in on what exactly to build, and for whom.

• Mocking up a proof-of-concept: I’ve been playing around with what pages, functionality, and interactions would feel most helpful as a user, and will continue this exploration.

Asks

Have you been dealing with gut issues? If so, I’d love to hear from you!

• I’m especially curious to hear about your symptoms & triggers, how you figured them out, and what software or people have helped you throughout the process.

• Please email me if you’re interested in chatting or sharing your experience!

As always, I’d love to hear what you think.

Shout-out to Corey Brodsky for suggesting “Gut Reactions”.

• Found a new job! I'll be joining Credly in June. I'll be a Senior Software Engineer, in an IC role, working on their talent matching platform. Credly and I have a longstanding (positive) history, and I'm thrilled to be joining the team. I know this sounds like a departure from the entrepreneurial pursuits I’ve shared in recent months, but it feels like the right move for me now. The team is stellar, the work will be interesting, and all signs point to it being a great place to work. I’m pumped.

• Settling into our apartment: We did it - we sold the house and moved into an apartment! We’re in the same neighborhood and very close to friends. And we love the new place. As someone who has trouble with transitions, the last two months have been really stressful, but we got through it and things are looking up. I’m looking forward to settling into a consistent weekly routine again.

• Starting a podcast? I've been talking about starting a podcast recently, and have even recorded a few episodes, but I'm honestly not sure if it'll come to fruition. It’s called Hiring Nerds and it would be focused on hiring and careers in tech. The tricky part is that the three of us - two buddies and me - are all busy. It's hard to prioritize and make time to record episodes when other things are more pressing. So, it's a nice experimental idea that may or may not come to life. TBD.

• A word on privilege: As a white cis man in tech, I’m very privileged. This past winter was really hard for me. The last three years, really. But they’ve been hard for everyone, in different ways. Every individual has their own stuff, and I’ve shared (some of) mine throughout this series. But I haven’t wanted for anything. My livelihood hasn’t really been in jeopardy. For many others, it has - we’ve all got friends who’ve been laid off or are struggling to find jobs. Opportunities like a great new job don’t just appear for everyone, but it did for me. And for that I am grateful.

To those who’ve been following along - thank you for all your support, ideas, and encouragement. I really appreciate you. ❤️

With that, this is the last installment in the “What’s Next for Matt” series. I’ll continue to use this Substack to explore other experiments, past and present, in the future.

As always, I’d love to hear what you think.

Matt

Updates

• Selling our house: My wife and I are selling our house and going back to renting! Having bought a house during the pandemic, we know now that we are firmly renters, not homeowners. This is relevant because house stress has been living rent-free in my head for the last 2.5 years. I've been wanting to reclaim that brain space for a while, and it's finally happening! We close and move into an apartment in early May, and will be SO relieved when this is over.

• Seattle trip: My mom was in the hospital (she’s OK), and I just spent a week back home. It was really nice to be there to support her and visit with family I haven’t seen in a while. As a bonus, the timing worked out so I was gone while our house was being shown.

• Minnebar: I am pumped for Minnebar in a few weeks. It’s legitimately one of my favorite days of the entire year. I’m leading a session with a friend on Making Big Changes, and am really excited about many of the other sessions. I expect to bump into many friends and tech acquaintances, and know many opportunities will come of it.

• Short Notice / Unscheduled: I’ve been talking about this for a while. The process works for me as an individual, but I don’t know if software is necessary to support it. The business model is still unclear, and I don’t have anybody to work on this with, so I’m going to table it for now.

• Still looking for what’s next: I’m still on the hunt, so to speak. With so much going on recently, I haven’t been able to devote much time or energy to this search. I feel like I’m coming up for air though, which is good. My next role could still go in a number of different directions and I need to narrow my focus. I think approaching it from a different angle may be helpful. The common thread, regardless of the role or company stage, is that I’m looking to join a really great team. Got ideas, leads, or people/teams that might be a good fit for me? Let me know!

That’s it for today. As always, I’d love to hear what you think.

Matt

A meeting gets canceled and you have unexpected availability.

Solution

A waitlist people can use to facilitate last minute calls. When they have unexpected availability, they’ll choose someone from the list and, if the timing works out, jump on a call.

It’s like Calendly, without the scheduling. The main difference being the requesting person must be open to a last minute, unplanned call.

This wouldn’t necessarily work for everyone. It works in situations where one side has limited availability, as an alternative to scheduling far in advance.

Target users/customers

Busy professionals

Open questions

• Business model. How would it make money? B2C isn't ideal, and a B2B model isn’t clear yet.

• User experience. How to ensure its a great experience for the requester? This is absolutely critical to get right. Honoring preferences around timing, notifications, and mediums are all important. Power dynamics are also a consideration.

Background

This has morphed and evolved since I first wrote it down, nearly 6 months ago. Every time I share it with someone, new ideas and use cases pop up.

Recently, I realized the guts of this - last minute, unplanned connections - could actually solve a number of problems. For example, feeling disconnencted from your coworkers or professional community.

With many possible use cases, it’s been challenging to come up with a good name. Short Notice, Unscheduled, Last Minute, Impromptu, and Waitlist are all possibilities.

The irony, as Jeff Dolan pointed out, is that a solution to this problem used to exist - you would simply pick up the phone and call someone. But our collective relationship with phone calls has changed since then.

In a world where everything is scheduled, organic collisions - like bumping into a friend at the grocery store - always feel like a delight to me. This might be a way to consistently reproduce them.

Next steps

A friend and I have been talking about working on this together. Next steps include validation, digging further into business models, and evaluating go-to market strategies.

I’m not sure that this is the idea, but I am jazzed about the prospect of working with someone I’ve known for years and respect so deeply. We each get more excited the more we talk about it, which is a very good sign.

What do you think?

1. Sustainable business model

2. Founding team alignment

3. Painful problem

4. Clear vision

5. Funding as a means to an end

6. Forward thinking approach to work

In writing this, I realized it applies to far more than my current situation.

You could use this to assess businesses you might want to start, work for, invest in, or who knows what else.

1. Sustainable business model

Taking inspiration from Jason Cohen’s talk on Designing the Ideal Bootstrapped Business, I believe B2B SaaS is the most viable and sustainable business model out there.

With past ventures, I’ve made the mistake of not having a clear business model from the start, or long-term sustainability in mind. I won’t make those mistakes again.

I have yet to actually start a B2B SaaS company, which is why it’s the next frontier in my entrepreneurial journey.

Further, selling products > selling time. Time doesn’t scale.

2. Founding team alignment

The founding team needs to be on the same page in terms of values, expectations, and what success looks like.

I haven’t gotten this right yet. With OMG Transit, the team was misaligned because we started at a hackathon. This wasn’t a problem as a solo founder, but I was lonely as a team of one.

Entrepreneurship is a roller coaster, and the team needs to be committed to supporting each other during the highs AND lows.

3. Painful problem

It’s got to hurt enough that people are willing to pay for a solution. “Nice to have” problems won’t go far.

People were eager to use OMG Transit because we solved a real problem, but it wasn’t something they wanted to pay for. Invisible Network nailed this, though.

With any new venture, you’ve got to hit people were it hurts.

4. Clear vision

There’s got to be a simple, well articulated vision, and narrow focus to start.

This will allow for rapid progress, short feedback loops, and quick iteration, which are all critical while you’re validating the idea.

Looking back, I’ve found success this way. I did goof things up with Invisible Network, in that the initial focus was too broad (which was later corrected).

Keep it simple, stupid.

5. Funding as a means to an end

My personal preference is to bootstrap whenever possible.

There are many factors that go into funding decisions. Health insurance, technical help, and risk aversion are all reasons to pursue it. There are businesses that warrant investment, but that’s not typically the case with software.

In my experience, fundraising is a means to an end. All the time and energy that goes into it could otherwise be spent building your product and business. And after raising, you’ll have investors whose interests may not always align with yours.

6. Forward thinking approach to work

This feels like table stakes for any new business starting today, but its worth articulating: people need the time and space to do their best work.

This includes a remote-first culture and communicating asynchronously, along with the flexibility and autonomy people need to get their work done on their own terms. Plus four day workweeks.

This may seem like a long or unrealistic list, but I’d rather define a target and flex on one or two things, than not know what I’m looking for at all.

What do you think? What do you agree or disagree with? What’s missing? How does my ideal venture differ from yours?

Updates

• Whirlwind catch up: In the last update, I was aggressively pursuing new business ideas. It took a while (including a trip to the UK) for me to realize I was putting too much pressure on myself. I slowed down a bit, found a coding project, started interviewing, and took it easy over the holidays.

• Invisible Network has shut down and there are only a few remaining things to tidy up. I know sunsetting it was the right decision — it was a long time coming — but having that space freed up in my brain has left me unsettled. Figuring out what's next will surely help with that.

• Found a project & finished it: I converted Invisible Network's front-end from client-side React => NextJS/Typescript, which was both a fun project and great learning experience. As a bonus, the new version is hosted for free on Vercel. With that done, I’m now ready for another new coding project.

• Job searching, feeling demoralized: Of the four companies I started interview cycles with over the holidays, only one is still in contention (and it’s my top choice!). I’ve had four interviews with them but won’t hear back for another week. Of the others, the five hour technical interview with SeatGeek was probably the worst experience - I felt both exhausted AND dumb by the end of it. Other opportunities have materialized, but none are worth mentioning yet.

• Winter blues, feeling isolated and alone: I know this happens every winter, but that doesn't make it any easier to navigate. Job searching has definitely made it worse. Weirdly, so has the demise of Twitter (where I’ve found community in the past). I’ve got a playbook to combat this, and am doing all the things (exercise, leaving the house, friendship, etc), but it’s still hard. Knowing others are feeling the same way is weirdly reassuring. Going skiing & to the beach in January definitely helped, and another upcoming trip should help, too. Minnesota winters, man.

• Thinking about starting something new again: I’ve come full circle since the first update, and am exploring new venture ideas again. This is partly driven by 1) not wanting to start another round of interviews, 2) being more clear on exactly what I want (to be part of a team, and to bring new ideas to life), and 3) the response after I shared that I’m looking for a Founding Engineer role. A number of people have reached out about working together, and I’m currently following up on those leads. As a bonus, all the ensuing coffees, lunches, and calls are helping me feel more connected to the community!

• Ideas and questions that are top of mind:

  • Community for reluctantly remote tech workers

  • What “exhaust” naturally comes as a result of being a person in the world?

That’s it for today. As always, I’d love to hear what you think. Feel free to respond either in the comments or via email.

If you’d like to continue receiving these updates via email, please subscribe!

Matt

Updates

• I'm in discovery mode. For what exactly, I'm not sure. I'm rolling off a contract gig in mid-October and plan to shut down Invisible Network (in its current form) at the end of the year. I'll have a clean slate to run hard at the next thing after that, which is why I'm starting to explore now. I'm currently coming up with ideas, customer groups to interview about pain points, people & potential co-founders to work with, etc. I'm open to starting a new venture, a fun side project, partnering up with the right people on an existing idea, contracting as an IC dev (I'm very picky), or something else. Most important is that I'm *excited* about whatever the next thing is.

• What must be true of my next thing: If it's a business venture, it needs to 1) hit people where it hurts, 2) have a sustainable model, and 3) have a team that I'm a part of. If it's a side project, it 1) needs to be FUN, 2) is not expected to make money, 3) is built with tech I'm excited about working with, and 4) solves a problem (ideally that I have myself).

• I'm focusing first on problems I have personally, and customer groups that I'm a part of (e.g. engineering leaders, busy people, bicyclists). This approach has served me well in the past, but I recognize that I'm privileged for many reasons. In that regard, I'm open to problems I don't personally have, even if it means I don't understand the use case or user persona that deeply. I'd love to be doing mission-driven work.

• Idea validation: I've got a running list of ideas going. No slam dunks yet, but the most notable ones are below:

  • Automated Invisible Network v2. Open questions: business model & sustainability.

  • Waitlist app (AKA Short notice) for impromptu calls when a meeting gets canceled or you have unexpected availability.

  • Work accomplishment log, used by and tied to individual workers throughout their career. The model that individuals use & pay for a service, where they own the data and how it's used (read: that's not ad-supported), is really interesting to me. If this model is viable, it could be applied to other areas & use cases.

  • Focus view for reading job descriptions. I know curation is the next frontier after aggregation, and believe tools that allow people to more quickly get the information they need will be important both now and in the future. This could be a simple browser extension.

  • Which roles to hire: Think StrengthsFinder, but you answer questions about your organization and it spits out roles you may need to hire (e.g. CTO, Dir of Eng, etc.)

  • Good bike parking: A map to help find good bike parking, based on user-submitted data. This would purely be a fun project.

• Areas I'd like to continue exploring include:

  • Business processes that are run out of spreadsheets

  • Systematizing squishy people & process stuff

  • Browser extensions

  • Ways to stay connected in a post-covid remote world

  • AI

  • Notion

I know I'm still in the early stages, but I'm jazzed to be in discovery mode again.

I'd love to hear what you think - if anything jumps out at you, or you've got ideas, questions, concerns, etc.

Matt