Annual reflection - 2020
2020 was a transformative year for me. In this article, I review 2020, reflect on my macro-motivations, and share my priorities for 2021.
2020 review
My three goals for 2020 were to:
Play more every week,
Start trying to have kids, and
Increase LegUp Ventures’ monthly distribution revenue to $10,000-plus.
On the personal front, I wanted to play more and I did. I snow skied regularly last winter and spring. I boated this past summer and fall. And I started playing basketball multiple times per week as part of a new quarantine-inspired workout routine. Regular exercise is fun again.
Family-wise, Sable and I wanted to be ready to start a family, and we are. We’re expecting our first child in March 2021. It’s a boy, and I can’t wait to meet him.
Professionally, I wanted to grow LegUp Ventures’ monthly recurring revenue to $10,000 and I did not. My original plan was to hit this goal by growing GroupCurrent to $5K and generating another $5K in consulting revenue. This is not what happened at all.
After launching a new venture called LegUp Health in Q1, I decided to shut down GroupCurrent in Q2 and to stop consulting. COVID-19 had something to do with this, but LegUp Health also gained traction faster than I anticipated. Later when my PeopleKeep non-compete ended in the fourth quarter, I launched LegUp Benefits, a sister solution to LegUp Health.
To begin 2021, LegUp Health and LegUp Benefits will be LegUp Ventures’ only revenue sources. Together, they bring in nearly $2,000 in monthly recurring revenue. While this is only 20 percent of my original $10,000 goal, I’m quite happy with where we are. We’ve built the product, grown to hundreds of users, and de-risked our business assumptions.
2020 was a success for me, my family, and my business. Exercise is fun again, we’re expecting a child, and I have a working business to build upon moving forward.
Macro-motivations
This time of year I find myself reflecting on the bigger questions in life. What do I want? And why do I want it? The answers to these questions usually help me prioritize what’s most important.
What do I want? I want to live a healthy life. I want to support my family. And I want to build a business that sustains itself, my family, and my life.
Why do I want it? The pursuit of these desires fulfills me and makes me feel good. (If I try to explain this further, it becomes circular. Maybe next year I’ll have a better answer to this question.)
2021 priorities
My three goals for 2021 are to:
Conquer sleep,
Adjust to fatherhood, and
Grow and automate LegUp Health and LegUp Benefits.
First, I want to conquer sleep. Consistent, quality sleep has evaded me since I was a young child. The more I learn about personal health, the more I realize that regular sleep is critical to sustaining a healthy life. It’s time to address this crippling weakness.
Second, I want to adjust to fatherhood. My first child will require many changes to my schedule, routines, and habits. I’ll need to find a new personal-family-work balance in 2021. I have no idea what to expect.
Third, I want to grow and automate LegUp Health and LegUp Benefits. This will require both software development and process automation. It will also call for increased marketing and exploration of new customer acquisition channels. It would be awesome if we could break $10,000 per month in recurring revenue in 2021.
Notes
[1] If you’d like more detail on how I reflected on 2020 and how I’m thinking about 2021, check out this 90-minute mega-episode from my podcast, Startup to Last.