<p>As has been my custom for the <a href="https://gilbitron.me/blog/2019-year-in-review/">past</a> <a href="https://gilbitron.me/blog/2020-year-in-review/">twelve</a> <a href="https://gilbitron.me/blog/2021-year-in-review">years</a>, I like to spend a bit of time at the end of the year reflecting on the year that has been, looking ahead to the year that is to come, and noting down these reflections for posterity.</p>
<h2 id="professionally">Professionally</h2>
<h3 id="lemon-squeezy">Lemon Squeezy</h3>
<p>What a year it's been for <a href="https://www.lemonsqueezy.com/">Lemon Squeezy</a>! We kicked off the year by being nominated for a Product Hunt Golden Kitty Award for "<a href="https://www.producthunt.com/stories/announcing-the-golden-kitty-awards-2021-winners">Ecommerce product of the year</a>". In the end, we fell short of winning the title, but being a finalist added to our conviction about what we're building with Lemon Squeezy.</p>
<p>Another significant change at the start of the year was switching up our product roadmap to shelve our website builder (which was 80% finished) and build out our email marketing feature instead. This one hurt because of how much time and effort we had put into the builder. Ultimately, we decided that <a href="https://www.lemonsqueezy.com/blog/lemon-drop-07">listening to our customers</a> was more important, and we launched our new email marketing feature in May.</p>
<p>In the background, another big issue we faced at the beginning of the year was running out of the seed money we'd invested in building Lemon Squeezy in 2021. With about three months of runway left, we decided it was time to get some funding and swing for the fences. After lots of conversations with VCs and investors, we managed to secure an Angel investment which would allow us to hire and give us another 24 months of runway.</p>
<p>However, this was a challenging period for us as founders because of the changes that funding brings. We had to effectively give up our dream of being a bootstrapped startup, we had to cut ties with a bunch of people who were working with us, we had to renegotiate our equity to fit an investor in, and we had to deal with months of legal talks how best to structure the company (given that we have multiple international founders). </p>
<p>We were pretty wiped out when we got through it all. But now we had some money in our back pocket, and it was time to hire! The main priority at first was bringing on some engineers to help me build the product. The scope of Lemon Squeezy is vast, and I was beginning to struggle to keep up. Thankfully, the hiring process was pretty smooth, and we ended up with two solid engineers in <a href="https://twitter.com/ercsctt">Eric</a> and <a href="https://twitter.com/mauryaratan">Ram</a>.</p>
<p>At this point, things began to ramp up. We brought on two marketing/salespeople, did a small pivot to focus on SaaS businesses, started actively selling Lemon Squeezy, and launched a new marketing website in mid-October. This launch coincided with some new <a href="https://www.lemonsqueezy.com/blog/lemon-drop-08">SaaS/API-specific features</a> which we built to help our new SaaS customers integrate with Lemon Squeezy.</p>
<p>To round off the year, one of our competitors decided to dramatically increase their pricing and not notify their customers in advance. This led to us having a fun (busy) couple of weeks trying to get hundreds of new merchants migrated to Lemon Squeezy. It's been a manic end to a busy year, but it's a good problem to have.</p>
<p>So I'm very optimistic about Lemon Squeezy in 2023. It's beginning to feel like we've got product-market-fit, as everything feels like it's starting to get away from us at the moment. But it's exhilarating to be involved in a startup like this at this stage, and I wouldn't have it any other way.</p>
<h3 id="personal-projects">Personal Projects</h3>
<p>Given how busy the year has been with Lemon Squeezy, I only had a little time for side projects again this year. But I did manage to launch <a href="https://ingradients.net/">Ingradients</a> in June and <a href="https://devmail.email/">DevMail</a> in September.</p>
<h2 id="personally">Personally</h2>
<p>We began 2022 with all of us catching COVID. This was an annoying way to start the year, but in a sense, it was ok, as none of us had bad symptoms (thankfully), and it meant that we could move on (to a certain extent) instead of constantly worrying about catching it.</p>
<p>The rest of the year turned out to be pretty good!</p>
<ul>
<li>We <a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/CZkpakBqJp5/">redecorated our living room</a></li>
<li>We celebrated Joshua <a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/CbdwjjWKELE/">turning 6</a> and Grace <a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/Cg6JrxAK-Gh/">turning 3</a></li>
<li>We got a <a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/CeWP3jSKth6/">new car</a></li>
<li>We celebrated our <a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/CgHi_vKqX7-/">12th anniversary</a></li>
<li>We had our annual family holiday <a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/CgKoXOlqOm9/">in Keswick</a></li>
<li>We celebrated a <a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/CilXS5Yquoq/">family wedding</a></li>
<li>My wee sister <a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/ClerfqarIKJ/">got baptised</a></li>
</ul>
<p>A significant personal milestone for me this year was finally getting on top of my mental health. I have been dealing with anxiety for the best part of a decade, and things were pretty bad at the start of the year. After speaking to my GP and getting some treatment, I immediately saw a difference in my mental and physical health (I suffer from IBS). This has only improved as the year has passed and is something I'm massively grateful for.</p>
<p>Another big highlight for me this year was that Joshua decided to follow Jesus! We had had discussions with him on and off for the best part of a year, but he had never reached the point of deciding for himself. Then, during our summer holiday, we bought him a bible narrative book designed for kids and were reading it one night when he asked to become a Christian. This brought our wider family and us so much joy and is truly one of the greatest blessings we could have received this year.</p>
<h2 id="looking-ahead-to-2023">Looking ahead to 2023</h2>
<p>It's nice not to have to mention "COVID" in this part of my review this year. At the moment, 2023 is still an open book for us. We have plenty to look forward to, but I'm most excited to see where Lemon Squeezy goes as we build on our current momentum. Maybe we'll reach profitability!</p>
<p>As always, it is my prayer that in 2023 I will continue to walk closely with God and that he will continue to strengthen, encourage and grow me in spiritual maturity. I am so thankful to Him for how He has sustained us this past year, and I pray that he will continue to equip us for whatever 2023 might bring.</p>
<p>Wishing you all a Happy New Year and best wishes for 2023 🎉🎆🎉</p>
