nicole

software engineer 🇨🇦 | building @layerre ☁️ and for fun: 💕

[nicole @NicStrel]

Hey, I'm Nicole 👋

I'm a backend engineer by day and an indie dev by night.

I'm currently working on @layerre as my first indie software project 🚀!

I'll be sharing my journey as I go along. If you have tips, suggestions, or feedback, I’d love to hear them :)

[nicole @NicStrel]

working on something new 👀

[nicole @NicStrel]

@layerre is officially a Zapier partner!!

90 days of waiting and 3 templates later... Layerre is no longer in beta and is an approved partner :)

Out of all the integration platforms, Zapier took the longest, but it was so worth the wait.

[nicole @NicStrel]

Balancing a career and a side project at the same time is genuinely hard.

It requires constant prioritisation, and I don't always get it right.

Some weeks, the job wins. Some weeks, the product wins. Rarely does everything get the attention it deserves.

Still figuring it out. Anyone else doing both? How do you draw the line?

[nicole @NicStrel]

Hit net zero this month.

Expenses are now covered by revenue! 🥳 I'm no longer bleeding money every month (though, expenses weren't a lot in the first place)

For anyone early in the journey: this milestone matters more than it sounds. It's the point where you stop wondering if you're wasting your time.

[nicole @NicStrel]

I'm removing live chat from my site.

People were using it like a support AI: "delete my account," "change this," "add that." Fine, except messages arrive while I'm asleep, and by the time I wake up, it's already a bad experience for them.

So I'm killing it. Email only from now on.

Async is underrated. It forces clearer questions, gives me time to provide a detailed answer, and sets honest expectations.

Has anyone else made this switch? Regret it?

[nicole @NicStrel]

@givros @layerre Thank you!!

[nicole @NicStrel]

my goals for may 🌻 :

- implement a new marketing idea for @layerre every week
- create an MVP a new project idea
- double my paid customers
- grow my socials by +100 followers

[nicole @NicStrel]

@hustle_fred congrats!! not many reach this type of growth

[nicole @NicStrel]

interesting!

Most of my new users are coming from Reddit. I made Reddit comments 6 months ago and stopped, but I guess that's working very well, huh

I'll be doubling down on Reddit this week then 💪

[nicole @NicStrel]

+80 users last month. Almost 2x growth. And I have no idea where they came from.

Reddit? AI referrals? Google? No clue.

This is the part they don't tell you: growth feels great until you realise you can't reproduce it because you didn't track anything properly.

I'm starting to look at analytics tools. Datafast is first on my list. What else should I try? Specifically looking for something that can break down traffic sources and is easy to set up!

[nicole @NicStrel]

@e_stradella thanks I'll look into it. Currently, I don't have any onboarding

[nicole @NicStrel]

+80 users last month. Almost 2x growth. And I have no idea where they came from.

Reddit? AI referrals? Google? No clue.

This is the part they don't tell you: growth feels great until you realise you can't reproduce it because you didn't track anything properly.

I'm starting to look at analytics tools. Datafast is first on my list. What else should I try? Specifically looking for something that can break down traffic sources and is easy to set up!

[nicole @NicStrel]

@hustle_fred Thank you!

[nicole @NicStrel]

@Sathibuilds true!

[nicole @NicStrel]

@hustle_fred yeahh I'm late 🙃 I need to get that going asap

[nicole @NicStrel]

@_annakulina I didn’t know you had heart surgery, feel better!!

[nicole @NicStrel]

april was a crazy month…

I was sick not once but TWICE, gone for at least 2.5 weeks, and on a work trip for 10 days

I put 0 work into @layerre - no marketing, only a few maintenance fixes here and there

I checked Stripe, ready to see the damage.

+2 subscribers.

I was feeling the “give up” feeling all month, to be honest. Now, I'm fired up again🔥

Don't quit during the ugly months. The work you already did is still compounding!

[nicole @NicStrel]

@SoraiaDev happy birthday!!

[nicole @NicStrel]

been off X for a week after getting properly sick, the kind where you just lie in bed and can't do anything.

my birthday happened in the middle of it and I got a 3D printer as a gift, so I had something to look forward to at least.

first thing I printed once I had enough energy was benchy, and I think it came out decent!

[nicole @NicStrel]

@_annakulina congrats!! Thats insane!

[nicole @NicStrel]

my goals for april 🌸:

- market @layerre 1hr every day
- launch an MVP for my new idea (coming soon!!)
- get paid customer #2 for @layerre
- grow my socials by +100 followers