ISSUE 001 / UPDATED OCTOBER 6, 2026
ONE YEAR · FIVE SMALL BETS · PUBLIC BOOKS
My goal is to make $100K in side profit in 2027—not revenue, and not money from my day job. I’m keeping the costs, misses and decisions right here.
SEARCH THE RECORD
Journal entries, weekly reports, project ledgers and the WFH idea library are indexed here.
Start typing to search the public record.
DATED BUILD LOG
POTD Sports is the first build, not the identity of this site. It gets the most ink now because it is where the work is. Entries stay dated so a later win cannot clean up an earlier mess.
EV CAR DATA
The first public version is live with EPA fueleconomy.gov data pulled October 4, 2026: 244 model families and 753 trims across model years 2025–2027, including 91 BEVs, 51 PHEVs and 102 HEVs.
Its 388 indexed URLs include 24 rankings, 56 comparisons, 11 guides, a 35-term EV glossary, a Find-your-EV quiz and a 50-state incentives finder. I own EVCarData.com, but the custom domain is not pointed yet.
Visit the live project ↗
POTD SPORTS
The forward-tested ranking model is now the one publishing picks. The stricter in-house engine moved back to research because it did not have enough coverage to deserve the job yet.
The uncomfortable part: I wanted the public signal to be fully mine. It wasn’t ready. Calling the weaker model “official” would have protected the narrative and damaged the product.
MODEL V1
The in-house strict engine was working, but only 14 S/A/B wallets cleared its filters. The next version needs coverage closer to 500+ wallets, built through daily accumulation, before I can trust it as the live signal.
Failure, plainly: working code is not the same as a working product. The bottleneck was data depth, not another feature.
FIRST LOSS
The pick came from the earlier in-house regime. The model changed after it, but the loss did not disappear into a new spreadsheet. The point of publishing the ledger is to remove that option.
No spin: one loss proves very little. Hiding it would prove something worse.
WHO I AM
I’m building these projects around family life and a regular job, not from a founder retreat or a blank calendar.
I spent more than 12 years on the agency side, learning how audiences behave, how offers get positioned and how attention turns into measurable growth.
That work taught me to test the message, read the signal and think about distribution before launch day. Now I’m applying those lessons to products of my own—within the very real limits of a day job, dad duty, time and budget.
THE REALITY OF THE BUILD
This journal is partly an experiment in choosing. Every project has to fit around being a dad and holding a regular WFH job, without an unlimited runway to hide bad decisions.
Time
I cannot treat every idea like a company on day one. The first version has to be narrow enough to ship, put in front of people and learn from before it earns more hours.
OPERATING RULE — SHIP A TEST BEFORE EXPANDING THE SCOPEBudget
Tools, domains, data and promotion all count. I will publish the costs I know, mark the ones I have not closed and avoid pouring money into an idea just to make it feel serious.
OPERATING RULE — SHOW THE BILL, THEN DECIDE WHAT EARNS ANOTHER MONTHTHE RULES
This only works if the reporting standard survives bad months.
Revenue without costs is not a receipt. Going forward, each weekly close will show revenue, operating spend and what is actually left.
When a number is not closed yet, it says so. “Unknown” does not become “$0” because zero looks cleaner.
Projects that stall or fail stay on the shelf with the last numbers and a postmortem. A graveyard is more useful than a portfolio that only remembers survivors.
I will share decisions and outcomes—not every proprietary input while a model is still easy to clone.
PROJECT SHELF
No fake pipeline of “coming soon” logos. A project appears when the work is real—even when the details are not public yet. If it dies, its row changes status; it does not vanish.
01 / ACTIVE
A public sports-picks test built around a complete ledger of wins, losses and pass days. Free through the Q4 evidence phase.
View project ledger →02 / STEALTH
I’ll document the market thesis, build decisions and progress while keeping the brand, product details and URL private until launch.
View strategy ledger →03 / LIVE
A live research and comparison site covering 244 EV, PHEV and hybrid model families across model years 2025–2027, with 385 pages now published.
View project ledger →04 / PUBLIC EXPERIMENT
Progress, traffic, usage, sponsors and sponsorship revenue will be documented in public as the project develops.
View project ledger →05 / STEALTH
A creative agency built around food-focused user-generated content. I’ll share the positioning, workflow and lessons while keeping the brand and client-facing URL private until launch.
View strategy ledger →DEAD SHELF
That will change. Killed projects will keep their dates, final costs and the reason they stopped.
WEEK IN REVIEW
The early cadence is weekly: what shipped, what it cost, what earned money, what people used and what changes next. Missing measurements stay visible instead of quietly becoming zero.
W01SEP 29–OCT 05, 2026
FOUNDATION WEEK
This week was about defining the public challenge and the reporting system around it—not pretending the businesses already have complete books.
Make $100K in side profit in 2027, excluding income from the day job.
Not reported.
Not reported.
Not reported.
Not reported.
Use one journal with project-specific views; report weekly.
A public goal needs a repeatable reporting format, not just a headline.
Start closing project-level numbers and publish the next dated review.
PROJECT LEDGERS
These are the dedicated project pages inside the journal. Public experiments show the work; stealth projects publish strategy and decisions while the brand and URL stay private.
01 / PRIORITY
PUBLIC TEST
A sports-picks product earning its case through a complete public record. The Q4 2026 evidence phase remains free.
02 / STEALTH
STRATEGY ONLY
The category and operating strategy are public. The product details, brand and URL stay private until the project is ready.
03 / LIVE
PUBLIC EXPERIMENT
Live on Vercel with EPA fueleconomy.gov data pulled October 4, 2026. The current build covers 244 model families and 753 trims across model years 2025–2027.
04 / BUILDING
PUBLIC EXPERIMENT
A public content and data experiment. The ledger will track what ships, whether people use it and whether sponsorship becomes real.
05 / EARLY BUILD
STRATEGY ONLY
A food-focused creative agency concept. Positioning, workflow and lessons are public; the brand, URL and client details remain private until launch.
REPORTING METHOD
Every project will be measured the same way so I cannot move the goalposts after the result. The point is not to post every private detail; it is to publish enough evidence that a reader can follow the decision.
Name the customer, the job, the offer and the single signal that would earn a second version.
Record cash in, operating spend, hours, traffic and meaningful actions—not screenshots stripped of context.
Continue, change, pause or kill. The decision sits beside the numbers and remains in the archive.
THE PROJECT LEDGER
Not every metric applies to every business. “Not applicable,” “not measured” and “not closed” are different answers, and I’ll label them that way.
RECEIPT TEMPLATES
A fixed format makes missing data obvious and keeps the story from outrunning the books. Unknown values stay marked “not reported.”
PER-PROJECT LEDGER ENTRY
Each project update uses these fields. Itemized costs means the actual line items—domain, hosting, data, ads, contractors and anything else paid during the period.
BLANK WEEKLY COPY
WFH BUSINESS IDEA LIBRARY
This is my working shortlist, filtered for low overhead, asynchronous delivery and a narrow first version. These are opinions, not promises. Each idea still has to earn demand before it earns a bigger build.
SERVICE / SELL BEFORE BUILDING
A fixed-scope teardown of a landing page, funnel or ad account. The offer is narrow, the output is repeatable and the buyer knows exactly what arrives.
SERVICE / RECURRING
Pick one repetitive workflow for one type of local business—lead follow-up, quote reminders or review requests—and sell the outcome, not “AI transformation.”
SERVICE / CREATOR SUPPLY
Coordinate creators for a narrow brand category, package the briefs and deliver finished assets. The edge is understanding what a brand manager can approve and reuse.
MEDIA / OWNED AUDIENCE
A useful recurring briefing for a specific professional or enthusiast. The archive earns search traffic; the email keeps distribution from depending on an algorithm.
CONTENT / SEARCH
Organize a messy public dataset around a decision people already make. A useful filter, calculator or comparison page can be more defensible than another opinion article.
SOFTWARE / NARROW TOOL
One painful task, one clear user and one output worth paying to avoid doing manually. Build the workflow before the platform.
COMMERCE / DIGITAL
Sell the spreadsheet, brief, calculator or operating document that removes a recurring task. The product needs a specific before-and-after, not a prettier blank page.
CONTENT / AFFILIATE
Document tools you genuinely use, show the tradeoffs and update the recommendation when the facts change. Trust is the product; the affiliate link is secondary.
EDUCATION / EXPERTISE
Teach a narrow result live before recording anything. Questions from paying attendees become the syllabus; the recording only becomes a product after the workshop works.
How I’m using this list: choose one customer and one proof event, ship the cheapest test that can produce it, then log the result. I am not running all nine at once.
WORKING TOOLKIT
The actual stack behind these projects, including what each tool does, where I chose the budget option and—once the books close—what it costs.
HARDWARE
The desk machine I use to run the work without buying a larger setup than the projects currently need.
IN USE
COST TO BE ADDED
VOICE INPUT
My dictation tool and the budget-conscious alternative I chose over Wispr Flow.
IN USE
COST TO BE ADDED
HOSTING
Where the current web projects are staged and deployed while they are being tested.
IN USE
COST NOT CLOSED
SOURCE CONTROL
Where code, version history and the handoffs behind the builds are kept.
IN USE
COST NOT CLOSED
INFRASTRUCTURE
Private networking for reaching the machines and services used behind the projects.
IN USE
COST NOT CLOSED
WORKFLOW
A lightweight place for project notifications and operational handoffs.
IN USE
COST NOT CLOSED
AI / ORCHESTRATION
The coordinator for code, builds, automations and the handoffs that keep projects moving.
ACTIVE AGENT
COST NOT CLOSED
AI / IMPLEMENTATION
The implementation agent used for focused coding work.
ACTIVE AGENT
COST NOT CLOSED
AI / REVIEW
The review layer for checking code and catching issues before changes ship.
ACTIVE AGENT
COST NOT CLOSED
AI / RESEARCH
The connected-life and research agent for gathering context, exploring ideas and turning findings into useful next steps.
ACTIVE AGENT
COST NOT CLOSED
PROJECT-SPECIFIC
Each build will name the sources and measurement tools it actually relies on when those details are public and verified.
VARIES BY BUILD
NOT YET CLOSED
This is the current verified stack, not a generic software roundup. Future affiliate links will sit beside tools already used in the work, with the relationship disclosed. A commission will never turn an untested tool into a recommendation.
PUBLIC EXPERIMENTS
EV Car Data and Food Tier List each get their own running record. Updates will date the work, publish traffic and usage, and show sponsors and sponsorship revenue when those numbers exist. A missing number stays marked “not reported.”
EXPERIMENT 01 / LIVE
The first public version is live. The current build has 385 pages and 388 URLs, including rankings, comparisons, guides, a glossary, quiz and incentives finder.
EXPERIMENT 02 / BUILDING
The baseline starts when the first public version ships. From there, every update records what changed and whether people used it.
FIELD RESEARCH
I reviewed durable build-in-public sites before shaping this journal. Their numbers are founder-reported unless noted; the useful lesson is the reporting structure, not the flex.
Levels
Keep every project, including the failures, and put costs beside revenue. Leave behind the stream of short social fragments that buries the actual build story.
VIEW PROJECT ARCHIVE ↗Marc Lou
Show per-project revenue rows all the way down to zero. Add the missing layer here: the decision and story behind each number.
VIEW OPEN METRICS ↗Sahil Lavingia
One candid failure post with a real P&L can be worth more than a year of victory updates. The tradeoff is cadence: an archive without new work stops feeling alive.
VIEW ESSAY ARCHIVE ↗Justin Jackson
Separate current, inactive and old projects; pair a durable site archive with a regular newsletter rhythm. Keep the voice plain enough to sound like a person.
VIEW PROJECT INDEX ↗Arvid Kahl
Use a repeatable weekly publishing habit, but do not confuse transparency with publishing the parts that make an easy-to-clone product defensible.
VIEW WEEKLY ARCHIVE ↗FEED VS. RECORD
SOCIAL / SHORT
Fast updates from the current build. POTD Sports is on YouTube at @potdsports.
BOREDWFH.COM / LONG
Dated entries, weekly closes, tool costs, postmortems and the shelf of everything that survived or did not.