September 2024
I visited my dream city, tried to get jacked, and had a rollercoaster month in business
Alright, I’m trying something new here. Going to give these Monthly Recaps a shot. It’s a fun way for me to reminisce on the month, and keep track of progress towards any goals that I’m trying to achieve. Plus, it’ll be a cool thing to read a few years from now, as a record of how my life used to be. Let’s go.
Overview
Ah, September…. sweet, sweet, September. For many reasons, September is one of my favourite months in the year. And this year, it did not disappoint.
Here’s the TLDR;
- Ritu & I went to Europe for our 1-year anniversary and I visited the city of my urbanist dreams (it somehow surpassed my expectations?!)
- I got jacked (just kidding, but still trying). Shoutout to Sahil Bloom for the motivation, I’m entering my fitness influencer era.
- We had a scary month in the business, but then recovered strong
Okay time to dig deep.
Travel
We visited the city of my dreams! I’ve literally been obsessed with Amsterdam (mostly thanks to fellow Canadian YouTuber Not Just Bikes) but I’ve never visited. So when Ritu & I were planning our 1-year anniversary trip, I had to try and sneak that in as one of the locations.
Luckily, Ritu has also sipped the Koolaid after watching me over the last couple of years, and she said yes! We spent a week in Amsterdam, and then another week in the Swiss Alps. And it was incredible.
Amsterdam
This city is wild. Every street felt like we were in a Christmas market - the cafes, outdoor patios, the people, the old European houses, the canals and the river boats. It was beautiful.
But more than any of these things, what sang to my heart was the way the roads were laid out (lol lame I know). The urban planning is impeccable. For anyone that knows me, you know that there’s no sweeter words to my ears than “protected bicycle lanes”. In the last 3 years, I’ve really dove deep into urban planning, traffic management, city design and more. Figuring out what makes cities lively, enjoyable, fun places to live in is fascinating, and everything I’ve read or watched has pointed to Amsterdam as a model city. So naturally, I had ridiculously high expectations going in.
Honestly, I was worried that my expectations were just unrealistic, and that no city in reality could match what I “imagined” Amsterdam to be. But thank the lord that this wasn’t true. Amsterdam overdelivered. The bike system is so well designed there that “rush hour” meant relatively calm roads and crowded bike lanes. And it’s so safe that 99% of people didn’t own bike helmets. You only need a helmet if you’re constantly at risk of getting hit by a car, but in the Netherlands cars and bikes generally operated in separate, partitioned sections of the road. No risk.
The best part is that getting around in Amsterdam (and apparently most of the Netherlands) is really accessible for all age groups. So many times, we saw kids biking by themselves (going to school or to a cafe), or seniors biking around. No dependence on cars or other people for their own freedom. What this does to their sense of self and their confidence, I can only imagine. And it’s not just that.
We literally didn’t see a single person that was overweight or obese (and the few that we did see, were tourists). Beyond happiness, what is the impact on peoples healths? Their lifespans? And the downstream reduction of cost on the government and healthcare systems? Ugh I can go on and on about this.
Basically, I have to come back. Ritu & I talked about potentially spending a few months here, “digital nomadding" and working next year. Let’s see! We’ll pick our months carefully because on the flip side, the weather looks like this most of the year lol. Guess you can’t have it all!
Switzerland
We also spent a bunch of time in Switzerland, mostly in the Bernese-Oberland valley, also known as "the Swiss Alps".
The beauty is just breathtaking. It likely is the most beautiful spot I’ve ever visited. And the views are just relentless. They keep coming at you, no matter where you look. You can look down for a few seconds, look up, and still get taken aback. Endlessly.
Naturally, we also spent the evenings watching DDLJ. Had to channel our inner Raj & Simian while we were there (Though surprisingly didn’t see that many Indian tourists, a lot more Koreans because of Crash Landing on You). It’s crazy the impact that movies & shows have on entire economies of countries.
Last thing, food quality in Europe is next level. Or maybe the inverse is true - food quality in North America is trash. The freshness of the cheeses, fruits, vegetables - SO good! And don’t get me started on the milk. Ritu has trouble with milk in Canada but she was chugging cartons of milk in Switzerland. We’re actively trying to find better brands of milk in Canada, where the cows are actually happy and raised on open pastures. Open to recommendations!
Fitness
This post is already getting super long so I’ll move faster now. I’ve been trying these funky 30-day challenges over the summer. In July, I woke up at 5AM every day. In August, I didn’t drink any alcohol. And in September, I worked out every day.
I’ll write about these challenges separately at some point, but they’ve been a really fun way for me to build a habit and see what sticks in my routine. My main source of motivation this month was watching Sahil Bloom’s videos on Youtube. The dude is a machine. And his “gotta pay rent” philosophy to exercise really pushed me to do something (however small) every day.
Plus I bought creatine and protein powder while travelling, so that’s how you know I’m an influencer now.
Business
Last year, September was one of the biggest months for Swift. Despite the fact that I was out travelling for my honeymoon, we brought on more facilities than we'd ever brought on before.
So naturally, I was hoping for something similar this year. But the month started off roughly, with a bunch of our customers churning. Historically, we've never had any problems with churn (very few facilities every cancel their account), so when 7 or 8 customers all decided to leave in the 30 days between mid August and mid September, we were horrified.
Digging into the churn gave us a lot more confidence though. Most of it was because the businesses were shutting down, or the owners were pivoting to other things. Less than 10% of it was because of the product, or our shortcomings. Still not great, but not alarming.
And luckily, we bounced back (s/o to Big Sean). Since then, we've brought on a bunch of customers and ended up finishing the month pretty strong.
Startup life is wild. You hear all the time how it can be an emotional rollercoaster, but actually living it is different.
Reflections
The months are flying by this year, but September really was an incredible 30 days. We both desperately needed a vacation, and I’d been feeling stuck with my exercise routine - and both things were addressed this month. There’s only 6 weeks till we go to Chiang Mai for Ritu’s sister’s wedding, so the pace of this year is only going to get faster.
My main takeaways were to continue to look for clean & happy sources of food, keep exercising. Things I’m not happy with are:
- Creatively, I haven’t felt very fulfilled with Swift recently because I’ve just been selling nonstop. It’s really fun to see prospects react to our product, and it’s what’s needed from me for the business so I’m doing it. But designing & building is where I get the most joy, so I’m thinking if there’s other side projects that I can do outside of Swift to scratch that itch
- I really haven’t prioritized my knee rehab (patellar tendonitis, I think). Every time I start, I lose motivation (or end up dancing at a wedding lol, and that kills my progress). I really want to find a way to be consistent with the exercises, and get it upto par. Maybe I should sign up for a marathon or something ridiculous next year, to act as a forcing function? Mentally I’m delaying working on rehab until my MRI at the end of October but I know that’s just an excuse.
Anyways, lots of fun this month and more to come in 30 days!