Summer '22 Reflections

An aesthetically pleasing picture of a street in Porto, Portugal.

I’m not really sure how to begin my first ever blog post. Should I start off with “hey guys” or “hey, my name is Josh”? I’m still figuring out how to introduce myself.

I think blogging is an interesting form of content because it requires more attention from the consumer as opposed to a video or podcast. It also requires a certain quality from the writer.

I was dragging my feet when it came to writing because I didn't think that I was doing anything interesting enough to write about. However, I'm currently trying to romanticise the little aspects of my life and this blog is an extension of that.

I finished college on a random Wednesday in May 2022. I didn’t know how to feel about it, school was all I had known for the last 18 years and it came to an end in a semi empty exam hall. I guess I was happy that after a long 4 years (and a global pandemic), I was finished. Looking back on it, college has given me a lot of opportunities. I didn’t really come into my own until my 3rd year in college. I had a lecturer/project supervisor that really inspired me to put myself out there and come out of my comfort zone and this has benefited me academically, professionally and in my entrepreneurial endeavours.

This summer, I also worked as a developer at a startup in the sports analytics industry. Before choosing to work for this company, I had received an offer for a summer internship that would go into a graduate software engineer position. Although it was less money, I opted for the startup for these main reasons:

I knew that I would be thrown into the deep end at the start up.
More ownership over the work that I would be doing.
It was less hours per week so I had time to pursue other ventures.

I am happy with the decision that I made. The startup environment was something that I needed. Working in a relatively small team allowed for instant feedback and also gave me a glimpse into the type of environment that I would like to be in professionally. I also got to see first hand what it looks like to build a business and find customers.

During this time, I also won a scholarship to a student accelerator program called European Innovation Academy (EIA). The process of winning this scholarship involved presenting my final year project, Contributely as well as my interests to a special panel in my college. The program took place in Portugal. It was my first time there and I have to say although I was born in Ireland, a European country and have lived here all my life, being in Portugal made me feel like I had been living my whole life in Europe 1.0 (a fancy way of saying that I need to travel or perhaps relocate to a different country for a few months). Working with and coming in contact with ambitious people from different countries and disciplines really inspired my outlook on entrepreneurship and made me take certain things I was doing in my life more seriously.

One of the things that I have started taking more seriously is starting a web design/development business. In 2020, I started teaching myself the basics of design such as colour theory and layout. I wanted to combine these design skills with my web development (HTML, CSS and JavaScript, etc.) knowledge to help people build custom websites. Funnily enough, I continued to only view it as “helping people” and it limited how serious I took what I was doing and stopped me from turning it into a business. From lessons at the program in Portugal as well as conversations with other business owners, I have decided to set up my own web development/design business, which I will be speaking about more in future posts.

Another venture that I am pursuing is building software-as-a-service (SAAS) products, allowing me to combine both my tech and entrepreneurship interests to build innovative software. . I am the technical co-founder of a shopping/payments app, which I will talk about in later posts as we build the prototype and try to validate the idea with potential users. This is challenging but fun because it is really making me think about the user experience as well as how to scale an app for many users.

You may be reading this and thinking “these endeavours are great, but what about a job?” (and if you’re not thinking that, then I like you even more). Right now, I’ve decided to prioritise building the aforementioned businesses and work shorter term contract/part time software developer jobs. I recognise that as a recent college graduate, this path may be unconventional but I have recognised my interests and this is the path that I would like to embark on at the moment. I am not anti “9-5” or anti “having a boss”, but I would like to take this risk at this point in my life, with little to no serious responsibilities (things like a mortgage, spouse, children).

More importantly, I am changing my outlook on nutrition and fitness and adopting a more holistic approach. I want to read more non business, tech or finance related books. I would also like to take this time in my life to pick up a second language. I previously studied French in secondary school and I have recently started lessons to improve my comprehension and conversational French.

In the first paragraph I mentioned that I’m still figuring out how to introduce myself but I think that this blog post has given you a glimpse into who I am and what I’m currently doing. My name is Josh and I am a developer, designer and entrepreneur building innovative products and services.