Internet money is lonely (Here’s the fix)

Do not index

I run a $1M/month portfolio of businesses across 5 products with multiple co-founders.

Including, Rob on SuperX.so. Eugene on Outrank.so.

Until this month, I'd never met any of them in real life.

Imagine this, builders from across the globe building online, trusting each other, and building 7 figure businesses.

I finally met them in Vietnam!

Here's everything about the trip, who I met, what I learnt, and how I feel 👇🏼

What actually happened in Vietnam

This entire experience was hosted by Hacker Residency. 20 builders in a big villa in Da Nang, Vietnam.

> Eugene flew in from Europe. > Rob from the UK. > Bhanu from India (I acquired feather.so from him!).

We've been building together for 18 months. This was the first time we were in the same room.

Rob and I built SuperX to $150k revenue over Slack and Loom videos. Eugene and I grew Outrank to $300k MRR over Zoom calls. Bhanu built Feather and I acquired it for $250,000 without ever shaking his hand.

The business model obviously works.

So why was Vietnam needed?

Because I felt something there I haven't felt in years. And I didn't even know I was missing it.

Here’s the whole group, you can just see how fun it was 🤣 (spot me):

The thing nobody talks about

Internet money is lonely.

You're building something real. Making revenue. Serving customers.

And you're doing it from your bedroom. Alone. Every single day.

Most people at the residency said the same thing. They're successful. They're shipping. They're profitable.

And they're lonely as hell at home.

I didn't realize how much I was running on fumes until I felt what full energy looked like.

When you're a solo founder building at home, not seeing people, it's incredibly hard to stay consistent.

You can push through it. I've done it for years. But there's a cost you don't see until you step out of it.

What changed when I got there

Not the business fundamentals. Those already worked.

What changed was speed and energy.

1 - Decisions that took 3 days over Slack took 3 minutes at breakfast.

Rob and I sat down with coffee and planned the next 3 months of SuperX roadmap.

2 - Random collisions created things that wouldn't exist otherwise.

Eugene and I got to talking about SEO after dinner, and that conversation led to the next BIG idea for Outrank (stay tuned 👀)

Those conversations don't happen on scheduled Zoom calls (especially with the no calls policy).

3 - Social pressure to ship is real.

When everyone around you is building, you build. The energy is contagious.

I shipped an entire podcast studio product in one weekend. At home, I'm busy with maintenance and support. In Vietnam, surrounded by people hacking, I did the same naturally. (You can check it out here)

What you can do about this

You don't need a month in Vietnam. You just need to break the isolation cycle.

3 simple ideas:

1 - Meet your co-founders in person at least once per year.

Block a week. Work from the same space. Just be in the same room.

2 - Join a hacker house or residency.

Find one. Commit to going once per year minimum.

3 - Find local builders and meet regularly.

Weekly coworking. Monthly meetups. Anything that gets you in the same room with people building similar things.

I'm doing this at least once a year now. Because the energy you get from being around other builders isn't a nice to have. It's fuel.

I went to Vietnam to meet my co-founders and work on products.

That happened. But the bigger thing was how it felt.

I didn't want to leave.

And maybe that’s a sign it was the right place to be.

Where are you based out of?

I want to understand where most of my readers are, and maybe I will use this to plan a small meetup next time I’m in town 👀

Reply to this email and let me know 👇🏼

I read every email and often write back.

Tweet of the week

This is the entire essence of making money online.

Heads I win big. Tails I don’t lose much.

That's it for this week.

Until next week,

Keep building

Tibo 💻

P.S. I really wish more people would get out and try this. It made me so happy to meet those people. Not just for business. For the reminder that we're all in this together.