Back • 01/01/2024
My Year 2023 - How I Changed the Lives of Thousands of Developers
Written by Melvyn Malherbe on 01/01/2024
My first year as an independent exceeded all my expectations. In 1 year, I went from:
- 2,136 YouTube subscribers to 11,200
- 9,000 Twitter followers to 15,600
- 100 members in my courses to 1,000 members
- 0 to 9,000 LinkedIn followers
- 1,000 to 10,000 people in my newsletter
In this article, I will recount my year 2023 and explain the adventures I experienced.
January 2023 - Life Change
The beginning of the year was complicated:
- I quit my job
- I started as an independent
The judgment and opinions of others were at their peak.
Everyone thought I was crazy and that it was totally illogical to do this.
Especially when I quit my job, I had this phrase in mind:
I quit my job and leave for the other side of the world as soon as possible
Because my goal was to leave Switzerland quickly and live abroad.
But it's easier said than done, and I had to wait a few months before I could leave.
February - Creating My Platform
After getting my emotions in check, I started 2 projects:
- Codeline: my online training platform
- NextReact: my course on the React ecosystem
I worked like crazy on these two projects, which was quite complicated because I had to:
- Create the website
- Publish my course on a site that was under development
But I was motivated and worked like crazy.
So I was entirely at home, working from home and making progress on my projects.
I also offered a pre-launch of my NextReact course only for former members of my courses to get initial feedback and used February to improve the content.
March - Launch of NextReact and Departure
On March 6, I launched my NextReact course.
For 2 weeks, I ran a promotion and made my famous video tweet!
I got 168 interested people who provided their email:
And hundreds more in the following days.
At the same time, I sent emails to promote the course, and the result exceeded all my expectations:
178 members in 2 weeks
In comparison, with BeginReact, I had 110.
I broke the NextReact record and started the year with 178 new people who would discover my course on my Codeline platform.
What's interesting is that many BeginReact members took NextReact...
About 80 in total, or 50% of BeginReact members.
Which is very positive because it means people liked my course and want to continue with me.
Then on March 29, 2023, I left for Thailand with my girlfriend without a return ticket.
The adventure begins!
April - Arrival in Thailand
I arrived in Thailand at my father's place, whom I hadn't seen in 8 years.
Everything went well, but I didn't leave in "vacation" mode, no no no, from the first day I continued to work.
I had prepared everything to be 100% operational when I left, and I didn't want to stop.
In April, I focused on creating BeginReact V2, which mainly involved leaving Podia for my platform, Codeline.
Since my platform offers many other features like integrated playgrounds, quizzes, etc., I also had to reimagine and create dozens of additional courses.
That was my main focus, and on the side, I also took the opportunity to see my family on my father's side.
On April 18, the trip to my father's place ended, and we went to Koh Samui, an island in Thailand.
When we arrived there, we thought:
No need to book a hotel, we'll find one once we're there.
And that's what we did, we walked around with our big bags and took the first hotel we found.
It wasn't too bad, about 37€ per night, and we started by booking 2 nights.
Objectives?
- Find a quality scooter
- Find long-term accommodation
Because I wanted to stay in Koh Samui for 6 months, no joke.
Scooter
At first, in our hotel, we rented a small scooter for 200 bahts per day (5€).
But on the side, I looked on Facebook for better prices and offers.
I found ads for scooters at a pretty good price: 70€ per month.
So I went to see the guy and decided to rent this scooter for the first month.
Accommodation
Now, this was a hassle.
We thought we could easily find accommodations, but we only found bad ones.
The Airbnbs were bad, the photos were misleading, nothing was right.
Then one day, we asked a sort of hotel with a very good price-quality ratio if we could stay for 6 days because we wanted to leave our hotel.
He said it was impossible, BUT he gave us a tip we wouldn't forget:
Instead of searching on Facebook, ride around on a scooter and look for "For Rent" signs.
That's what we did!
And it worked well because we found 5 places with very good prices, including the Sazana!
The Sazana is a former hotel, now converted into a "Guest house bungalow" offered at 20,000 bahts per month (500€).
We took it for a week to make sure it suited us.
And we loved it! We decided to stay for 1 month.
Spoiler: we stayed there for 6 months.
May - BeginReact V2
On May 4, I launched BeginReact V2, after modifying many things, I launched the course.
Once again, for a V2, I was pleasantly surprised to have 72 members in 2 weeks.
It was a very good start to the month, knowing that I now offered the "BeginReact + NextReact Bundle" which worked very well.
- 28 members took the bundle
- 44 members took only BeginReact
Then there was also my birthday!
We started the day with a good breakfast by the sea, we left, and then: BAM, flat tire.
I moved the scooter 1 km myself to get it repaired, and then we went for a Thai massage to relax from the day.
Finally, we went to a great restaurant and had a nice meal.
This month, I also tested Facebook ADS, but they flopped, so I stopped.
It was also the time when I prepared the plan for BeginJavaScript, which would be my next big project...
June - BeginJavaScript
In June, I decided to do a pre-launch of BeginJavaScript to see if there was interest from my community.
I aimed to have 100 members in 1 week...
But I only got 74.
It's okay, it's enough, and with these members, I will be able to create an amazing course.
Lifestyle-wise, we were now in the same Bungalow and had settled into our routines.
In Koh Samui, I didn't meet many people, it's true that it's very touristy, and there aren't many French people.
So I stayed alone with my girlfriend, which allowed me to focus 200%.
The days were generally:
- Wake up at 7 am
- Walk until 7:20 am with the owner's dog
- Breakfast
- Deep work until 1 or 2 pm
- Thai restaurant
Then in the afternoon, I either read in a café by the sea or worked.
This month, I focused 100% on creating BeginJavaScript and achieved an incredible feat with a lot of content created in 1 month.
By the end of July, I had completed 60% of the course, and I was super happy.
Especially since I was also preparing the "marketing" with the presentation page and dozens of YouTube videos!
Chat2Code
It was also the month when, one day a week, I dedicated myself to "ReactGPT".
One day I woke up and with ChatGPT, I thought, "Wow, I would love to be able to create React components directly with a prompt!"
Without hesitation, I started creating "ReactGPT," which is now https://chat2code.dev!
It only took me 2-3 days to create the prototype, and I did my first launch on ProductHunt.
On June 6, I launched on ProductHunt, I finished 19th, but I got a lot of traffic and... a few paying customers!
In June, I made 217 euros thanks to Chat2Code:
When I saw this result, I thought: I need to do more!
And I immediately started developing my second app: "Quizly," which was eventually renamed "QuizUp."
I started creating it in June.
July - QuizUp and Full Moon Party
In August, I continued working on BeginJavaScript and started creating QuizUp.
In fact, in my training platform "Codeline," I added a component that allows creating quizzes corrected by AI.
I thought: "Wow," great, a real use of AI with which we can create textual quizzes, which is much better than multiple-choice quizzes.
I thought I could create a SaaS, and without hesitation, I did.
But I made a lot of mistakes.
I thought I would make a "notion-like editor" that allows creating quizzes "like school tests" easily shareable, configurable, etc...
Moreover, I didn't clearly define my client avatar and who I wanted to sell my service to.
So many red flags, but I still worked a lot on the project.
Also, for the past 2 weeks, there was Thomas, a guy on Twitter who showed in photos his super villa in Koh Tao.
I sent him a message, and we decided to meet after the full moon party.
To go on a little adventure, my girlfriend and I decided to spend 3 days in Koh Phangan, an island near Koh Samui, to explore the island and then attend the full moon party.
I'm not the party type, but let's say it's exceptional.
So we found ourselves in Koh Phangan, and again the same idea:
We didn't book a hotel, except for the first night
Fortunately, because we ended up in a bamboo place with a terrible bed, in which I sank so deeply that I ended up with a sore back!
Anyway, the next day we went to the west side of the island and decided to "knock" on hotel doors to find accommodation.
Problem: we were riding a "click" scooter (small scooter) and had our big bags.
So it was super exhausting, annoying, and tiring.
All the hotels were full because of the full moon party, something we hadn't anticipated...
Until we found a not-too-bad, not-too-expensive hotel.
But of course, even there, I made a mistake.
We were supposed to stay for 3 nights, but I paid for 4 nights in the heat of the moment, convinced that I was leaving in 4 days.
Aside from that, we had a great 2 days and discovered Koh Phangan, which is a really cool island.
Coworking
When I left for Thailand, I had a vision:
I will spend my life in coworking spaces and meet lots of people, it will be super cool
In Koh Samui, coworking spaces could be counted on one hand (actually not even because there was only one and not in my area).
But in Koh Phangan, near our hotel alone, there were 4 coworking spaces.
So I decided to work one morning in one of them.
And there, I realized it wasn't for me at all.
Seriously, the noise, the people moving, the movements, etc...
Wow, annoying.
I didn't feel free at all.
I like to be able to shout, go to the bathroom, make noise, and there I felt obliged not to do so.
And besides, I met almost no one!
There were only freelancers who didn't do dev, design, or things that interested me.
Result: the coworking dream collapsed.
Full Moon Party
It was time to join Thomas and his friend at the full moon party.
I'm not much of a party person, but I had fun drawing all sorts of things on my body:
Drinking 2-3 beers and smoking the legal cannabis sold everywhere in Thailand.
It was quite funny, even though someone cut my bag to try to steal from me!
But they didn't succeed, so we both must have been frustrated.
Koh Tao?
After that, we were supposed to spend 5 days in Thomas's villa with his 4 friends in Koh Tao.
After losing 50% of the price of the last night at the hotel, we went to get a ferry ticket, and there: problem
Since it was the full moon party, there were a lot of people, and we couldn't get a ferry ticket.
Result?
We returned to Koh Samui to spend 1 night at our place because we were so frustrated that we didn't want to stay in Koh Phangan.
Then we went back to Koh Tao 1 day later, and this time we booked the ticket online, in advance.
We arrived in Koh Tao, and there: WOW
We had an amazing 5 days, I met a lot of people with the other Thomas who was very funny and Tom who was also very fun.
We enjoyed, talked, ate, it was great moments.
August - QuizUp and Podcast
In August, the routine resumed, alone with my girlfriend on the other side of the world in full focus mode.
This month, I decided to create a podcast, "Code et cash," which was brainstormed during my trip to Koh Tao.
I made great progress on BeginJavaScript on the course side and on QuizUp.
For QuizUp, I finished the application, created quizzes that I shared with my community, and launched it on August 18.
Result?
Huge flop.
Even though I was 7th on ProductHunt, my application just didn't find its audience and didn't interest my audience.
That means I would have to do a lot of marketing work with cold marketing, which would be really annoying for me.
I decided to abandon the project.
What I regretted was that I spent too much time on useless and annoying features, having multiple subscriptions, and other stupidities instead of just publishing the application quickly; I would have realized much sooner that I didn't have the right audience for the product.
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Code et Cash
For the Podcast, I define the format and the guests and set it up on all platforms.
I send dozens of messages to several people to find guests and start scheduling appointments.
There are already 5 episodes that you can find here!
Community Discord
I also decided to open a community Discord for all the people who follow me and want a place to chat.
By the way, I'm struggling to animate this Discord, it takes a lot of time and I already have a lot to do, so don't hesitate to make some noise on my Discord!
BeginJavaScript
I finished all of BeginJavaScript this month and I'm taking care of the marketing!
September - BeginJavaScript Launch
Here we go, I launch BeginJavaScript on September 5th just before leaving Thailand.
The launch lasts 2 weeks and offers a price of 100 euros instead of 300 euros, I wanted the training to be as accessible as possible...
And there, in just 2 weeks...
I get 290 members!!
To summarize:
- Launch of BeginReact: 110 members
- Launch of NextReact: 178 members
- Launch of BeginJavaScript: 290 members
Wow... explosion and it's just crazy.
If we count the 77 "pre-registered" people, that makes 367 people.
Needless to say, it's a huge success and the feedback is amazing.
Lots of kindness and enjoyment...
Just that for me, September was a very complicated month.
Departure to Bangkok
It's the big departure, we leave our bungalows at Sazana but especially our adopted cat "Jiji" who followed us for 6 months.
We decided to spend 6 days in Bangkok to enjoy this great city (not)!
We took 4 nights in a hotel that was way too expensive for what it was, as well as 2 nights at an acquaintance's place that I had "met" in Koh Samui.
In summary, it wasn't horrible, but we really didn't like Bangkok.
Once again, I realize that big cities where you can't walk, where the traffic is terrible and that smell bad, are not for me.
6 days later, we take the plane to go to Bali.
On the plane, a crew member made a song for us to welcome us to Bali, it was super cool!
We arrive here and once again, we had booked a hotel for 3-4 days, but after that, we had to find accommodation...
The nightmare of finding accommodation in Bali
When I arrive in Bali, I have a lot of work:
- I have to finish the launch of BeginJavaScript with a live and emails.
- I have to find accommodation.
Both mixed together, it's not great.
We were looking for cheap accommodation, but the truth is... it doesn't exist.
With covid, prices have skyrocketed!
We were in "Villa dream" mode "oh yes, villas are cheap here", but not at all...
It's easily 1500 euros for a "decent" villa, even 2500 euros for a "good" villa.
The thing is, we didn't know, we visited dozens of villas at 1000 euros, they were all ugly, but there was one we liked.
We were in full stress because we had to find something if we didn't want to stay in the crappy hotel we had found.
Also, I was tired of scrolling on Facebook to find something.
Result: we take this villa.
I pay for 1 month, about 1200 euros in a villa and there, after paying: huge stomach ache like you made a big mistake.
There were many problems:
- The villa is located in a place where you have no view: you just have a window on a small pool.
- The pool is dirty.
- There is a mosque nearby that makes noise.
- There are 2 construction sites nearby that make noise.
- The wifi is bad.
- The location is bad, we realize it when we start walking around.
I should mention that we had asked about the noise and the wifi and we were told it was fine.
With all that, I tell myself it's not possible, I'm not going to stay here.
I decide to contact the owner and tell him that I will leave tomorrow and that I am willing to leave him 20% (for the night spent).
No no no my friend...
I will summarize this story, but basically, the person I was talking to was an employee of the owner and he tells him:
If they leave today, you refund them 50%, if they are not happy, call the police.
Well...
You know you've been had.
And it's my fault, I should have learned not to make decisions under stress.
But hey, we had found a sort of guest house with an English developer that we had visited the same day.
We decide to go to his place, I warn him and we move with our big bags.
When we arrive... I was in shock and stressed and ask him:
Can we pay just one day to see if everything is ok with the noise, etc...
Because that's the new advice I got, always test a day that you pay full price to see if everything is ok.
And there, he looks at me and says:
No but... I'm sorry, but I can't take you, you'll find better elsewhere.
Despair
Our last hope fell through...
We find ourselves without accommodation, with our bags, in the middle of Bali when we still don't know anything about the place.
We go to eat in a restaurant and I tell myself that I will make a post on Facebook.
In Thailand and Bali, everything happens on Facebook, so why not make a great post...
I write a first draft in French and ask ChatGPT to translate and improve it to have a well-written post that makes you want to read it...
I post and there: BAM
- 145 likes
- 250 comments
It was like being on Twitter, because I had dozens of people insulting me, telling me I was an idiot who should fend for himself...
Because in the post, I said that I was kind of homeless and I didn't explain all the problems with the Villa.
But I also got 50 private messages with proposals, including this one:
And you can guess if I'm showing it to you... it's the Villa we chose!
The owner and his girlfriend are super nice and we spent 2 months in Bali at their place!
I order a desk and settle in as if it were my home (well, it is in a way).
That month, I recorded a few podcasts with AlexSoYes and Guillaume Duhan.
BulkCorrector
To publish BeginJavaScript, I created an incredible prompt that allows me to have automatic corrections of my courses, it understands the code and the markdown.
The problem is that my courses are very long and I have to make corrections little by little manually.
In a few hours, I create a mini-application that allows me to do this automatically.
I use it to correct more than 120 written lessons...
Then, after the launch of BeginJavaScript, I decide to "SaaSify" my application by publishing it with a pricing of 29 euros in lifetime to have a few more features!
I prepare the marketing and do everything necessary in 7 hours flat...
And I publish it on ProductHunt!
Once again, I was 7th, but this time, in 2 weeks, I made 140 euros in revenue!
A very good start and I am super happy.
These are my first euros on the internet thanks to applications with clients from all over the world!
Believe in yourselves, friends...
October - Meetings and NextReact V2
In October, I focus on creating NextReact V2.
It's the addition of the "YouCode" project to master NextJS 13 as well as a lot of content for the training.
I also created Chat2CodeV2 which was a redesign of the application with a pricing update.
Before, I had made a subscription that gave you access to GPT4 and other features.
I replaced that with a token system that allows me to manage costs much better and avoid selling yet another subscription to my members.
Meetings
I also took the opportunity to meet a lot of people by attending various events.
I could start with Mike Codeur met at an event "Entrepreneurs in Bali".
But I also met a lot of Indie Hackers during a paintball... including Marc Lou whom I saw again later and whom I "interviewed" in my podcast for 3 hours:
But he's not the only one!
Another incredible Frenchman is Nico, who is a former marketer turned developer and who does an amazing job.
He has brought me a lot on the marketing side, I find it crazy to be able to share with people like that.
After seeing Nico... it's the kind of thing that boosts you and I decide to change everything:
- My pages to access my free courses
- My presentation pages
I change everything!
And that was one of the big focuses of this month.
November - NextReact V2 Launch and Thailand
After 2 months in Bali, having a visa on arrival, it was time to leave the country to renew my visa and get a longer one.
Once again, I plan the launch of a training the same week I leave a country 😢
It's on November 7th that I launch NextReact V2 and I do a 2-week launch.
I made a huge update and I raise the prices of the training, but I offer the possibility for 1 week to take it at the old price.
107 people take advantage of the promotion, which is once again a great result.
Meetings
Before leaving Bali, I had the chance to make a few more interesting meetings for me.
Again, limiting beliefs that I could have are broken... people I only saw on YouTube or Instagram are... in front of me, accessible and super nice.
The first one is Ulysse Lubin, the greatest explorer of LinkedIn that I meet in a great "coworking café", as I call them.
We got along a bit, which allowed me to see him again with his friends and among his friends, there is... Shubam Sharma!
He is a very very cool person, funny and I was super happy to meet him.
He is also much more in my field because he was a developer before becoming a no-coder!
That was for the famous people, but I met a lot of people in e-commerce, marketing, dropshipping and everything you want.
Always interesting to realize that:
- Behind the people of interest, there are real humans.
- They are often not as we think.
But there you go, in the middle of the launch and meetings, I leave Bali and return to Thailand to my father's place... it was a complicated trip and I take the opportunity to go to the Apple Store to buy a new headset!
If I buy it in Bangkok, it's because it's cheaper and you don't pay taxes on products when they cost more than 200 euros.
Well... you pay the taxes but they refund them when you leave the country.
Anyway, I return to my father's place and take the opportunity to rest a bit, it's not the best place to work.
It wasn't the best stay in Thailand, a few not-so-cool arguments, normal when you have a family on the other side of the world that you haven't seen for 8 years.
When arriving in Thailand we start the process for our visas, which will eventually allow us to stay 6 months in Bali.
Once they are finished, we take our return tickets to Bali.
Return to Bali for 6 months
Well, this time, the trips every two months are over because we settle for 6 months in Bali and staying a long time involves finding a lot of things:
- We want to find a villa (again).
- We want to have quality helmets.
Because here, the traffic is a bit dangerous and complicated, so it would be nice to be able to move around on a scooter without being afraid of dying.
And once again... villas are a hassle.
Even though this time, I was ready to put more budget since I knew the prices, I can't find anything and I end up returning to the same villa where I have my room.
I know, it's funny, but I'm really someone who likes habits and... simplicity!
I want to find a more private and nice place in January, maybe with other people, we'll see.
LinkedLeads
I also had a problem: I made a post to get a free NextReact course and I had hundreds of friend requests.
For each of them, I had to:
- accept each new friend request
- click the button to send them a message (and wait for LinkedIn to react)
- send the message
In short, it's hell and I create a script in 2 hours that does everything automatically for me...
And during this month, I create a Chrome extension that does it, I use ExtensionPay to charge 50 euros to have an unlimited number of friends you can accept... and there you go! New application created.
Gym
I also decide to change even more.
Content creation and training are a success this year, but I had promised to take care of my body... food-wise, it's ok, but in terms of sports, I'm still a bit skinny.
I decide to take a 160 euro subscription to a Bali version gym with:
- Sauna
- Ice Bath
- Hot Bath
- Pool
- Clean gym
It's quite an investment and on top of that, I take a coach (a Frenchman I met in Bali, as it happens!)
The goal is that in 2024 I will be "athletic", I'm not looking to be super muscular, but just in better shape and for that, you have to go 100%.
Also, I make a small Black Friday offer for my training.
December - NextAI
For a while now, I've been thinking that AI is an interesting training topic... I don't know how to do it yet, but I want to create something on this subject.
I don't want to do like everyone else, promise productivity and wealth...
I want to create something that updates developers and gives an overall view of what they need to know for AI.
And there, it's the beginning of long months of reflection.
I make about 5 pages, I change everything and I always change my mind.
It's a very interesting moment because I talk a lot to the members of my training to find out precisely what could help them in their daily lives.
I go from a training to code with AI, to a course that allows you to be productive and finally to a training that will allow you to master AI and know how to create applications with it.
And there, my course meets its audience, it's just crazy.
I "pitch" to several people and several enthusiasts buy the course directly.
I decide to do a "pre-registration", which is basically the concept of offering a course at a reduced price while it is not finished.
I waste a lot of time deciding whether to do it or not and basically, I offer my course to 100 members maximum.
And there, it's a disaster...
In just 4 days, 100 members took the course and I am super happy.
So it's the beginning of the creation of NextAI 🎸
Christmas on the other side of the world
I was asked what it was like to celebrate Christmas in Bali, well... it's not glorious.
Unfortunately, I was a bit sick and couldn't enjoy the good meal, I celebrated Christmas alone with my girlfriend. It was nice, but clearly, I missed my family a bit.
Here, for Christmas, all the restaurants have special menus, there are Christmas trees everywhere and Christmas decorations.
In short... Asia for Europe, as I like to say!
Coach
I have taken it to the next level in sports by training every day and having taken a coach to stay motivated.
You should know that I always follow a rule in my life:
When I do something, I do it fully
It may sound cliché, but I am always a madman in my ideas, which scares my family.
It's also a good way to add new habits to my life.
New Year
Obviously, for New Year's Eve, there are lots of parties in Bali and we decide to join some French people at the beach.
As you can see in the email, me and parties are not friends.
Nor alcohol for that matter, but this day I decide to enjoy and have fun with the people who were there!
We watch the "fireworks" (which is actually proposed by all the locals and others who buy fireworks and set them off) by the sea.
It was cool, I got home at 5 in the morning, needless to say, it won't happen twice.
Conclusion and retrospective
This year has been proof that I made the right choice and that I am clearly in the right place, at the right time.
I want to continue in the same way in 2025 with goals like:
- 25,000 followers on Twitter
- 100,000 YouTube subscribers (we'll do it)
- 40,000 LinkedIn followers
It seems doable to me.
2024 will be a monstrous year and we'll see you next year for the 2024 review.