I'm leaving my $350K job to make $1K online. Week 1 of 7

“Welcome to Google!”

I still remember the Gmail notification bubble.

I did it. I was 23 years old, and I made it.

A week later, I opened the offer email: $226,260. I felt the butterflies again. I was going to move out of my parents’ house to go live in NYC.

Money. Prestige. Comfort. The big city.

I did it.

May 2024

I had the girlfriend. The job. The apartment. Two cats. A $7,000 projector + speaker setup. Newest iPhone. Apple Watch. MacBook. Most of all, I had made my parents proud.

A good life.

Every day, I repeated the same mantra: “I have a good life. Everything anyone could ever want.”

But in the dull, quiet hours behind my work monitors, and in the Google cafeteria with endless food, something inside me — a deep, black mass — was always there.

I tried to bury it. “I have a good life. Everything anyone could ever want.”

… Who is “anyone”?

Right before my girlfriend moved in, I broke up with her—not because I didn’t love her, but because I couldn’t face myself. That deep black mass erupted. I was a broken man who took broken actions which were born from broken thoughts.

Jan 2025

The rest of 2024 was a desperate attempt to fix myself.

Therapy. Journaling. Half-marathon training. A 10-day silent meditation retreat. Dr. K videos. Body recomposition.

From the outside, I looked like a high-performance hustler. On the inside, I was frantic—racing to prove I wasn’t broken. That I could fix whatever was wrong with me.

But what was wrong with me?

During the meditation retreat, I was no one. My job at Google didn’t matter. I just was. My ego-and fear-dissolved.

After more therapy and introspection I realized:

Fear got me into Google. Fear kept me there. Fear steered me.

I had a good life. But I wasn’t driving. As I came to terms with this, I started to fantasize about escape.

Then a week came where I spiraled. I didn’t care about waking up anymore. I imagined buying a gun.

That very moment I realized I had nothing left to lose. I’m going to steer my own ship - consequences be damned.

I filed for leave. If it wasn’t approved, I would quit right then. It got approved.

One month later, here we are.

I started this challenge for me.

For accountability. For the beginning of a personal brand.

But now I see it can be something bigger. Something that actually helps people.

Maybe it gives you permission to question whether the life you built is actually yours. Maybe it helps you reach your next milestone. Maybe it just scratches an itch of curiosity.

Either way, I’m all in. Each Monday, I’ll share what I’m building, learning, and thinking—so you can take the same leap, with more clarity than I had.

Week 1 Summary - The Foundation

Total revenue: $0. Main lever pulled: Content. Largest outcome: “Quitting Google” reel → 400k+ views → 9,000+ IG followers. Key Content:

YouTube: Why I’m Leaving Google

Instagram: Daily Challenge Videos

Week 1 wasn’t about building a product or making money. It was about making noise, gathering signal, and figuring out where to build the engine.

I started this challenge thinking I’d be grinding out a SaaS project. What actually unfolded:

I found -and am finding- my voice, my audience, and my leverage. At first, I felt silly - I’m an engineer, not a content creator…

That shift from building SwipeIQ to building an audience wasn’t what I planned. Content became the longest lever - so now I’m pulling it full force.

Fun Fact: I’m in the red after spending $100+ on subscriptions like Supabase Pro, Vercel Pro, and Meta Verified. I think it will be well worth it over time, though.

Key Moments this Week

Launched the 50 Days to $1K Challenge (daily video updates)

Posted a viral reel about quitting Google (400k+ views → 9K+ followers)

I made SwipeIQ.io completely free (40 users + 800+ visitors)

Launched this email list

Filmed my first YouTube video

Lessons Learned

1. Build in Public. Crosspost Everything.

I posted 10+ tweets per day for a month on X. I have 75 followers. I reposted a single Instagram post to Threads. Got 3,000+ followers.

Same with short-form.

TikTok: Few-thousand views
YouTube Shorts: 100 views
Instagram Reels: 500K+ views

Moral: Don’t assume you know where your audience lives. I thought it was X. It was instagram. Ship everywhere. Signal will find you.

2. Pivot & Adapt

In my Day 2 video I said I’d focus on swipeiq.io for the next 5 days. Day 3, SwipeIQ gained over 20 users. That’s 18 more than I gained after a week of reddit promo and cold DM’s So I pivoted my focus into audience-building.

If I had continued building swipeiq, I would not have captured emails, I would not have leverage, and I would not have set myself up for distribution for future SaaS.

3. Build Authentically

Don’t chase fast money. Build trust.

I almost tried shilling SwipeIQ too early. I’m so glad I didn’t.

Would’ve destroyed any semblance of personal brand. I would’ve been playing a short-term game in a race to the bottom. Most of all, I would’ve compromised my own integrity.

“Play long-term games with long-term people”

Naval

I’m giving away as much free value as I can. Newsletter. YouTube. Instagram. All free. All signal. When I sell something in the future, I want it to feel like support—not manipulation.

What I Would’ve Done Differently

1. Launched the email list on Day 1

I launched the swipeiq.io waitlist landing page before I actually built the logic. I failed to do this on my IG with the email list and likely missed a lot of people who really resonated—and wanted to stay connected, get deeper insights, or follow more closely.

2. Just ship it

I spent so long worrying about protecting swipeiq from bots and spam, tweaking the UI to get it just right. When I launched? Crickets.

Same with content. I was waiting to be “ready” for video content. I was “warming up” with tweets for weeks. I filmed on a random Sunday. I sucked. But it went viral. Product market fit.

Perfect conditions don’t exist. Starting is the perfect condition.

3. Stop Resisting What I Already Knew

I spent the first few days of this challenge thinking I was an engineer who happened to be documenting. 3 days in, I still kept trying to force the SaaS thing.

But I was ignoring the obvious:

All my traction, all my signal, all the emotional resonance… came from the story I was telling. From me.

Still, I resisted. I didn’t want to be “just another content creator.” I wanted to stay pure. Be the serious SaaS builder. The software engineer. That identity felt safer. More legitimate. More respectable.

But… I’ve always wanted to transmit my worldview. That’s why I looked up to people like Naval, Chris Williamson, Alex Hormozi.

So why was I trying to pretend I didn’t want to try content?

Because I thought SaaS was my medium. Because I didn’t think I had earned it yet. Didn’t think I was “ready”. Didn’t think I had the right to speak with conviction.

If you’re reading this, ask yourself:

What part of your life have you been resisting even though you know it deep down?

What are you clinging onto because it feels “safe” or “valid”?

What signals are you ignoring - because it doesn’t match your plan?

If you’re stuck, maybe it’s not because you don’t know what to do, but because you’re afraid to admit it.

This coming week, I’m not resisting anymore. I’m owning my desire to speak my truth.

I hope you will too.

Tools I Used this Week

I’m putting fire emojis for how useful I find them, 3 being the most useful.

ChatGPT 🔥🔥🔥 My personal 10x tool - both for coding, ideation, and strategy. I make it highly personalized to me through its memory function and use it hourly.

For example, my GPT is “aware” of my ongoing 50 Days to $1K Challenge, and I’ll feed it data such as SwipeIQ.io user counts by day, instagram analytics/statistics, etc.

How I used it this week: ChatGPT was honestly my consultant, coach, and magic mirror. Believe it or not, I started this mailing list because it suggested it!

Cursor IDE 🔥🔥🔥

Made shipping SwipeIQ in under 4 weeks possible. I’m a believer in shipping fast. This helps you do exactly that.

The biggest time-saver for me is having it ideate your design. If you’re not a designer and are constrained on time, just prompt it with the theme and style you envision for your site/app and iterate.

How I used it this week: I converted SwipeIQ from its paid model to free in just 3 hours using Cursor. If you’re an engineer and know how to prompt it, it saves you from manually writing entire code blocks with just one sentence.

CapCut 🔥🔥

A godsend software for short-form videos. Auto captions, trending music = hours of time saved.

How I used it this week: Edited every daily video as well as SwipeIQ promo video with it.

Tally.so 🔥 - Clean form builder. I used it for SwipeIQ feedback and initial email capture.

Beehiiv 🔥 - What you’re reading this on. First time using it - so far so good.

Coming Next Week

Newsletter edition #2 - Building the Engine to $1K

YouTube video - How I built SwipeIQ in 4 weeks

Daily 50 Days to $1K Shorts

Preparing for marathon + wisdom teeth removal 💀

Maybe… revenue?

This is the first edition of the newsletter. If you’re reading this you’re an OG and I want to help you in any way I can.

Let me know what you want to see/hear more of. I read every reply here. This newsletter will evolve with your feedback.

Thanks for being here. I’m building the life I wish I had the courage to start years ago—and I’m glad you’re along for the ride.

— Jim

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