The next huge step for Notebook.ai: working full time on it!
Where we’ve come from
I’m Andrew, and those that know me know I relentlessly spend all of my time pursuing my passions in both writing and coding. Nearly two years ago, I released one of my side projects called Notebook.ai to the world: something I had originally built just to help myself write better that I thought might also be useful to other writers. I describe it as a “smart notebook” that helps detail and organize the chaos of thoughts associated with creating a fictional world, turning scattered ideas and fragments into pages full of fleshed-out ideas.
Within just 24 hours, Notebook.ai had over 2,000 writers using it. By the end of the month, that number was up to 5,000 and people from all over the world were creating fantastical worlds and filling them with character, location, and item pages. I knew I had tapped into something new: I built Notebook.ai because I couldn’t find any existing products that did what it does, and word of mouth that something new existed spread pretty quickly.
Shortly after, I released a slew of “Premium” pages that not only enabled more advanced users to build upon their worlds in new ways (adding creatures, religions, languages, flora, and more to their worlds), but also solidified a bit of income for the site to ensure it would always be around for everyone (because, unfortunately, running a heavily-used site costs money — and as the number of users goes up, so does that cost). Since then, we’ve added more and more premium pages to account for even more unique worlds — and more are still coming (more news on that very soon!).
What most people may not know about me is that this passion is what has consumed my nights and weekends for years now; I’ve worked separate, full-time jobs to pay my personal bills instead of relying on a salary from Notebook.ai subscriptions. Mostly because that’s what I felt was best for the site (to ensure it always had enough to pay for its own expenses), but also because, well, it just didn’t make enough for a person to live off of.
The downside to this, of course, is that I only had nights and weekends to work on Notebook.ai. Some days I worked until 7 or 8pm and then worked on Notebook.ai until I fell asleep. Some days I was so drained from work I just went to sleep instead of spending any time on Notebook.ai. Some days I just needed to relax after work and didn’t get anything else done; we all have those days.
In other words, Notebook.ai hasn’t gotten nearly as much love and attention (and features!) as I would love to give it.
Until now, that is.
What’s happening now?
I’m extremely excited (and happy!) to announce that Notebook.ai has grown enough as a product to hire its first full-time software developer. If you were impressed by any updates from my nights and weekends over the past year, just wait until you see what I can crank out in a real work-week. :)
I am leaving my current full-time job and will start working on Notebook.ai full time on September 1st, and I can’t wait to get started on oft-requested feature requests!
It’s always been a dream of mine to build up and run my own business, and it makes me so happy to see years of hard work is finally paying off — Notebook.ai is my baby and I have huge ambitions for its future, and I’m incredibly lucky to get the chance to spend more of my time working hard to realize that future. I want to give a gigantic thank you to everyone who helped Notebook.ai grow, whether it be from beta testing, or subscribing to Premium, or helping out with the Patreon, or providing feedback as we grew, or just being patient as I worked nights and weekends.
If you have suggestions, I’d love to hear them! There is a Suggestions thread on the forums that I read every single comment to, and I also love to get suggestions and feedback directly via email at andrew@indentlabs.com or over on Twitter at @indentlabs.
I’m super, super excited and can’t wait to see just how amazing we can make Notebook.ai! :)
— Andrew
