So, it happened. Magic Pages just hit the $1,000 MRR milestone! Or, for those of you who haven't been indoctrinated by the Twitter hustle culture: $1,000 in Monthly Recurring Revenue. Naturally, I should be popping champagne and plastering this achievement all over social media. But instead
"Wow, you're getting rid of your last Apple device?" – that's what my wife asked me the other day, when I told her about my plan. Well, the word "plan" is maybe a bit much. It's more like a recurring theme
I have worked in start-ups in Berlin for nearly 6 years. One sentence I heard too many times was "Move fast and break things". Ughhh. I have really grown to hate that sentiment. It was Facebook's company motto for many, many years. And kind of like
Remember the good old days? When you wouldn't just buy an off-the-shelf MacBook, but carefully assembled your computer hardware? Waiting for all the components to arrive, to then sit on the floor and put them all into that huge desktop computer case. That magical beep when you press
Back in March and April, there were some severe outages on Magic Pages. Some led to a downtime of 2-3 hours. That was everything but good. Maybe you remember, I took some time to explore ways to avoid that in the future: Choosing your customers over profitToday I want to
A few days ago, I made a decision that will have a lasting impact on – at least – the next five years of my business. It's a decision that might not seem logical at first – something most online guides, business gurus, and "coaches" tell you to do
No, this will not be a book review. To be fair, I haven't even read (=listened to the audiobook) Douglas Adams's third book in the "trilogy of five". But, it was a very fitting title for a post where I just wanted to babble
…but can I replicate that on scale? (Spoiler: probably not – but it's been a fun experiment 😉) Lately, I have been working a lot on the Magic Pages infrastructure. The old server got too small. I needed a new one. And with that, many issues popped up. One side
Back in April, I started implementing BunnyCDN in Magic Pages. It took me over a month to jump through many different hoops and the development was quite nerve wracking. BunnyCDN is a content delivery network. The purpose is very simple: take a website – and make it faster. That wasn'
One and a half years ago, I would have never believed that I would be running a software-as-a-service (SaaS) business. In fact, I was quite annoyed with all the hype that was generated around them. "Reliable monthly income!" "Just follow this blueprint!" "Here is a
Yes. Tech is humbling. And a quick note before we start: this will be technical. The tl;dr: 🙃I spent a month figuring out a technical solution for Magic Pages and put it live for some of my customers today. Within an hour, it turned out that solution just didn&
Today I want to talk about the not-so-sexy part of running a business. The stuff that's often swept under the rug. Because it's not fun. And it actually eats up your revenue. I want to talk about the cost of scaling. About choosing your customers over
A few months ago I came across some social media posts talking about "faceless marketing". Building small brands and businesses without showing who you are. Without a connection to you as a founder. Without well…accountability. I dived a bit into that rabbit hole and well…apparently this
I am writing these lines from the balcony of a lovely little hotel, overlooking the lake of Kandy in Sri Lanka. I hear some birds, some crickets, and the bustling street beneath us. I still have the taste of the minty-fresh mocktail I had in my mouth. Life is good.
Last week, I sat down with my wife Mariia – a brilliant brand strategist. She is working on a new offer – personality unpacking for solopreneurs like myself. In its essence, I wanted her help with figuring out how I can combine my own interests and the needs in the market to
Around a year ago, my wife and I started looking for a new apartment in Berlin. We lived on 57m² (around 600 square feet), which included a small bedroom, a living room/kitchen, and a bathroom. Both of us worked from home – and fitting two workspaces into an already overcrowded
You know what's really odd? People starting software-as-a-service (SaaS) businesses because they "want to be financially independent", "do what they want", or "make money while they sleep". I call bullshit on that. That rarely happens. Reality, in most cases, is the exact
Remember BFFs from high school? Best Friends Forever? Honestly, I never really got that concept. Probably, because I had very few friends in high school – let alone BFFs. It always felt a bit odd. What makes one friend better than others? What makes you think you're going to
So, this is going to be a nerdy post. But hey, I created this blog, so I can write about things that are on my mind, right? I'll try to break down concepts as best as I can, but you're warned – this can get technical. But
I have hit a wall. Full force. The last six weeks, I have spent on implementing a new pricing structure and customer portal for my Ghost CMS hosting provider, Magic Pages. Today was supposed to be the day. First testing of the new customer portal "in the wild"
I have started many side businesses in the past. Most of them (well, all of them, really) kind of flopped. Many years ago, there was an idea to do in-person WordPress coaching for business owners. Then some drop-shipping. A sightseeing-in-a-box experience I did with my wife and our best friend.
In summer of 2017 I sat in a hip and trendy hotel in downtown Vienna. I was excited and nervous. So were all the others in our group. All trying to make conversation. All trying to impress a group of people wearing t-shirts with Apple logos on them. Apple was
An exploration into the lifetime business model of my Ghost hosting service Magic Pages. Why it was the right decision, what struggles I encountered, and why it ultimately was a show-stopper for growth.
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So, blogging, hm? That's supposedly the new cool thing in 2024 – at least according to social media. Well, the thing is, I have entertained the idea of having a more personal blog for some weeks now. And today I just went for it. Hi, I am Jannis 👋. A