Fabien Snauwaert 🇫🇷🇺🇸 🇪🇸🇭🇺🇷🇺
@fabiensnauwaert
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1,730
Following
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452
Statuses
2,719
building gliglish, a way to learn languages by speaking with an ai try it! 👉 entrepreneur: from making €550K to broke to growing like crazy
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩🟨 €8K/mo.
Joined March 2010
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Pinned Tweet
gliglish is now over a year old!
🚦 Traffic: 2.4M page views over the last 30 days. grows +20% every two weeks
💸 MRR is €3186
💣 Costs are insane: had to throttle massive traffic (even though servers can handle it) because the site is getting too much traffic from low-income…
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Is it me or are there a LOT of Dutch people on the indie hackers scene?
@levelsio
,
@dannypostmaa
,
@rikschennink
,
@Erwin_AI
, the
@SimpleAnalytic
guys,
@marckohlbrugge
Funny thing is it was the same when playing video games
(I'm not Dutch, nor Flemish, nor do I play one on TV)
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@helloitsolly
he's direct. there's more issues in the world with victim mentality and looking for excuses than with being direct.
also anyone can work a so-so job and save up. people looking for excuses will find them.
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@dannypostmaa
@kyrylosilin
veggies are basically made from poop, yet i’d rather avoid the latter 😁
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@Stefan3334
@EvaVlaar
@DVanLangenhove
what’s crazy ironic is that it’s done in the name of protecting democracy
way too many people in Western Europe will say yes to anything to avoid “getting in trouble” or being labeled a “racist”/“fascist”. super weak.
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🥊
@stripe
vs.
@PaddleHQ
for VAT 🤑
• Stripe: 3.4% + S$0.50 + 0.50% for tax calculation + 2% for currency conversion
∑ = 5.9% + S$0.50
• Paddle: 5% + 50¢ + up to 1.5% for currency conversion
∑ = 6.5% + 50¢
(taking Singapore prices)
i'm only saving roughly 0.6% by handling…
i've spent the day doing VAT, ask me anything 😂
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finally made it on x 😊
Amazing free app by
@fabiensnauwaert
to practice speaking any language you can think of
You talk back in the mic and the 100% AI teacher corrects you on your talking
It's like language immersion but AI-powered
I'm using it now for my Portuguese!
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finally passed 4K€ MRR with gliglish! (€4,043 over the last 30 days)
took months of hard work.
the profit margin is still abysmal because of freemium.
but progress is progress! 💪
got more exciting news coming soon that i can't share right now
new goal set: 8K€ MRR.
cc:…
stats for gliglish as of December 1st, 2023:
🌎 Traffic:
2.1M pageviews
💵 MRR:
EUR 3,644 with 189 paying subscribers
🚩 Expenses:
USD 11,400.44 (90% of it in API costs)
#buildinpublic
cc:
@_buildspace
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👀 quick demo of the 👾 toy I built: an AI to practice SPEAKING foreign languages :)
cc:
@_buildspace
@nightsandweekends
#ai
#artificialintelligence
#learnlanguages
#learnenglish
#gliglish
#buildinpublic
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MRR is now at €7,876 out of €8K goal 🎯
(🔺 from €4,043 two weeks ago)
now that escalated quickly!
…or did it? 🧐
the increase comes from a B2B contract i signed: it guarantees a minimum of USD 39K over 10 months, with an estimate of 111K/year and room for more. cannot…
finally passed 4K€ MRR with gliglish! (€4,043 over the last 30 days)
took months of hard work.
the profit margin is still abysmal because of freemium.
but progress is progress! 💪
got more exciting news coming soon that i can't share right now
new goal set: 8K€ MRR.
cc:…
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@ZoneInterdite
Le fossé entre les plus et les moins éduqués va se creuser.
À part la technologie (déploiement de l'IA pour mettre un prof personnalisé dans la poche de chaque élève), je vois pas ce qui peut sauver la situation.
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That escalated quickly…
It's nice to hit 1M visitors in 30 days. But it's still a vanity metric.
Revenue is at a humble €2757/mo (includes people who paid for a year) and, after server and API costs, profit is at €1536 before taxes.
I got free credits for some of the APIs.…
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@levelsio
it’s gonna depend on your genes and location
Australia and New Zealand have the highest rates of skin cancer. White people in sunny places.
even then, Bushmen in the Kalahari still avoid the sun at peak hours
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@tdinh_me
Good job! I launched a "ChatGPT for speaking/learning languages" yesterday, after FOUR months of work, and no one cared.
So I don't know if the magic sauce is iterating faster or having more followers.
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i knew teachers used my product in the classroom, but it's insanely cool to find a video of it!
here: a whole classroom using gliglish in 🇮🇩 Indonesia 😍
all the students are on their phone, but talking to gliglish!
(this is at UIN Satu, in East Java)
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@jordibruin
would rather put my money on a Miyoo Mini Plus to play hundreds of classics
i mean the goal is to get an 90s-games vibe, right? JPRG and the like
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stats for gliglish as of December 1st, 2023:
🌎 Traffic:
2.1M pageviews
💵 MRR:
EUR 3,644 with 189 paying subscribers
🚩 Expenses:
USD 11,400.44 (90% of it in API costs)
#buildinpublic
cc:
@_buildspace
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Language education is weird: we spend 10 years learning from text… and then wonder why we're shy to speak!
Let's make it better 🤗
For the next 6 weeks, I'll keep working on turning my dream of learning from SPEAKING into a reality.
cc:
@_nightsweekends
@_buildspace
…
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exciting week!
1. 🏗️ built in public like never before
2. 🏛️ gliglish got mentioned by Pieter Levels
3. 🚀 peak of traffic comparable to being on French TV
4. 📈 +50% followers on 𝕏 (from 856 to 1,283)
5. 🤩 got followed and pm'd by people i look up to!
1 caused 2 which caused…
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gliglish, my ai teacher to learn languages by speaking them, in numbers 👇
- 114,324 users (up from 10K in september)
- 1.5M conversations
- 1 dev
#buildinpublic
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340 days of traffic to
Currently working on 🌎 globally distributing the app so as to:
📈 support regular spikes in traffic
⚡️ optimize response times for everyone
(chart by
@SimpleAnalytic
)
(cc:
#buildinpublic
)
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spending 1 month in Russia with family, then 2 months in Penang
going to:
- improve my (intermediate) Russian
- learn basic Malay – learned my 1st word just now!
i'll use gliglish for both
🎯 GOAL: to be able to learn a language from scratch and from speaking
working on a new…
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Over the last two weeks:
✅ Added $383 in MRR
🆘 Spent $6,595 in API costs
The huuuge costs are (still) because of massive traffic from India and Iran, but also Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nepal.
I'd have to improve my conversion rate 168x in India JUST TO BREAK EVEN.
I'm an…
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@JohnONolan
That line about not charging reads like "We're happy to have you as a free customer, if it results in lost revenue to our competitor."
Selling at a loss (predatory pricing / "undercutting") is illegal… but seems not to apply to the VC and online worlds.
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@levelsio
thank you for all the love on this! after a year of crazy work it's a delight!
adding 🇹🇭 Thai as we speak
let me know what else you all want to see!
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@dannypostmaa
i have a friend whose co-founder CTO got hooked on cocaine after funding. killed the business. true story.
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took longer than expected, but finally hit 150+ paying customers on gliglish 😊
sept 16 turned into sep 24 (today) because it took ages to set up a promotion
i'm currently at 107 users out of a 150 goal with hours to go ⏳
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🇮🇩 Indonesian and 🇲🇾 Malay are now 🟢 LIVE on gliglish
did ya know they're both variations of the same language and largely mutually intelligible?
anyone spending time in, say, Bali and Penang? you'll be able to learn the local lingo! 😎
(got plans to go to Penang for the ☃️…
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🏟️ Rome wasn't built in a day… and neither was this feature! 😄 but progress is progress:
[x] dynamic corrections implemented
[x] works across multiple languages
[x] cleaner ui
need to cache the results then it can ship! 🚢
#buildinpublic
🎯 goal for the day: add a new feature to ✅ correct people on gliglish
the 👩🏫 virtual teacher can already correct you, but this will do so more systematically and will work in 🎭 roleplay mode as well
lots of people requested it :)
#buildinginpublic
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kept growing my ai teacher to learn languages by speaking
in 6 weeks:
- watched real users use it (fascinating);
- got 4.5K signups;
- featured on French media.
check out the full demo in the video below
cc:
@_nightsweekends
@_buildspace
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time to 10× !
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Kuala Lumpur feels like i stepped into an irl Blade Runner
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time to say goodbye to 2023! it's been odd:
📈 my project went from a flat line in its first 6 months to 6.5M page views in the last 6 months
◼️ my abusive mother, who suffered from psychological issues her whole life (paranoia), died
🏦 got contacted by big companies, VCs and…
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in 2023, for many months, i didn’t know how i was going to pay for rent
now MRR is at 8K€
last week, started listening to
@naval
’s How to Get Rich megasode for the 10th time
will keep listening until i’ve internalized and executed everything in it
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i look at the whole
#buildinpublic
movement as a kind of support group.
building is rare and great but can feel lonely
seeing other people 🚢 ship is inspiring and contagious
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Saw an inspiring tweet about 3 simple things:
If:
1. the product saves the user money
2. the product saves the user time
3. the product makes the user look good
Then the purchase is a no-brainer!
What are those 3 things in your product?
#buildinpublic
👇
I'll start
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3 more situations to roleplay in gliglish:
[x] Cognitive Behavioral Therapy session
[x] Dietitian Consultation
[x] In a taxi
i've been into self-help for years.
@levelsio
talking about cbt got me to add it.
open to feedback, and more coming tomorrow!
You can now practice asking for a ✂️ haircut in one of the 20+ foreign languages supported by Gliglish!
Phheww! That was a close shave 😅
More real-life situations coming super soon.
#buildinpublic
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Didn't make the final 32 in buildspace's s4. I'm disappointed. I'll keep working on Gliglish regardless, but that $25k prize would've made a difference. The recognition would've been its own reward, too!
But that's the name of the game! Learned heaps from nights & weekends ☺️.…
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@helloitsolly
the victim mentality is in assuming that 18 yos can't improve their circumstances
a bias for action and self-help is empowering. empathy?
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indie hackers, what tools make you faster?
looking to spend $$$ on anything that will increase my shipping speed 🚢
#buildinginpublic
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i'm so fucking influenceable:
- age 16, after watching Fight Club, i started one (a fight club) with some friends
- in high school, a guy in my class kicked our ass in Quake 3, 1 vs. 6! i ended up playing video games full-time for 3 years
- after reading a bio about Leonardo…
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You can now practice asking for a ✂️ haircut in one of the 20+ foreign languages supported by Gliglish!
Phheww! That was a close shave 😅
More real-life situations coming super soon.
#buildinpublic
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@levelsio
Budapest
because it’s safe, the right size for a city, beautiful, walkable…
i enjoy cities but part of me would want to live in the middle of nowhere surrounded by inspiring nature
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crazy: 2 million page views in 30 days!
thank goodness i finally scaled up the servers
next up: how to make a living out of it
#buildinpublic
cc:
@_buildspace
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removed "broke af" from my profile ☺️
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⚡️ how i increased my coding speed (aiming for 10x)
1️⃣ reduce small common tasks into even smaller ones:
- open files fast: use cmd-P in VScode, cmd-space with
@alfredapp
- open common websites fast: add your dev and production sites to Alfred's "Web Search"
- create bash…
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I launched for the first time on Product Hunt, after four months of hard work. Here's what it's been like.
#buildinpublic
#failinpublic
#ChatGPT
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Entrepreneur Held Hostage! 🔫
🏝️ 4 days ago, i left for a vacation
🤦♂️ but had to work there the first 2.5 days (end of a promotion, went from broke to 6K€)
🌊 took this morning off, for real. went for a swim.
🔥 then got a business proposal i could not (nor wanted to!)…
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i've learned 5 languages to fluency. learned to code, design, write, and play music. conclusion?
the only way to learn anything is to learn by doing.
languages are no different:
❌ practice fake stuff, get fake results
✅ practice real-life situations and you'll get real-life…
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Design for coders and builders 🎨🏗️
Surprisingly, the design of Gliglish has earned me the most compliments. On Sunday, about half the people I talked to commented on how nice it looks.
(I’m more of a coder, so this was great to hear ☺️.)
But if I don't totally suck at design…
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Learn languages from speaking to an AI teacher!
A personal teacher in your pocket to practice speaking foreign languages on topics you enjoy. Become fluent – without the stress!
cc:
@_buildspace
#buildinpublic
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@levelsio
told my allergologist i feel better when i don't eat gluten. her response? "everybody feels better when they stop eating gluten"
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some brutal honesty on how i’m doing as a builder
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another 7 paid subscribers… and i'll be at 150 paying users on gliglish after months of hard work
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took a little over a month to hit 200+ paying customers (currently at 201)
this is a super modest figure
work ahead… 💪
took longer than expected, but finally hit 150+ paying customers on gliglish 😊
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users of gliglish have recorded 23M voice messages and generated 20M unique responses from gliglish 😱🤯🤩
😁
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@levelsio
turns out all that was needed to get a perfect accent was to learn from TV/series, as opposed to textbooks 😛
the level of cultural influence the US has is just insane
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another 3 NEW situations to roleplay in gliglish:
[x] On a date
[x] Supermarket checkout
[x] At the post office
i'll let you guess which one was the most requested 😁
the last 22 hours have been crazy, but more stuff coming soon!
#buildinpublic
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why is LinkedIn so cringespirational? 🤔
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I’ve collected useless skills over the years:
singing, playing the guitar, drumming, conversing in five languages, and writing with both hands.
But the only skills that paid the bills?
Coding, marketing, and design.
If starting over, I’d focus on working out, building, and…
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@peer_rich
To be fair, I think the question is WHEN do you need "clean code, or frameworks, or best practises" – and to which extent.
"Premature optimization is the source of all evil" applies just as well to bootstrappers as big business.
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the best coworking i’ve seen in Budapest makes most of its money from renting out apartments
the best coworking in Penang is huge and makes money out of hosting conferences
are coworkings best thought of as side businesses?
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Had my first meeting with an investor — a top 5 VC fund.
Naively thought they’d offer me millions. Turns out I need a minimum of $100K in ARR.
It’s fun to be a n00b at something 😅
#buildinpublic
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@_buildspace
irl is over 🥲. A few thoughts for those who were there – or for those looking to join next time!
🔆 It makes me so optimistic about the future! Super inspiring to see people from all around the world building helpful projects.
🎗️ Meeting people who want to see you…
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@Erwin_AI
ChatGPT is doing to thinking what Google did to memory ("The Google effect").
But do you want to be a "superior programmer" or a faster one?
I'm saving ton of time with ChatGPT, except when I run into a problem that exceeds its context size (then we run around in circles.)
To…
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🎢 will soon post 1 year of traffic peaks (or lack thereof!) comparing:
- Product Hunt
- Reddit
- Hacker News
- 1st viral TikTok video
- Viral video on Instagram
- Impact of French TV
- Impact of French radio
- Getting viral in India and more places
-
@levelsio
tweet
exciting week!
1. 🏗️ built in public like never before
2. 🏛️ gliglish got mentioned by Pieter Levels
3. 🚀 peak of traffic comparable to being on French TV
4. 📈 +50% followers on 𝕏 (from 856 to 1,283)
5. 🤩 got followed and pm'd by people i look up to!
1 caused 2 which caused…
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i still often think like a poor person:
took me a month to buy an iPad as a 2nd screen
…even tho studies claim 25% productivity gains when using 2 screens!
imagine reaching your goal this year in 9.6 months instead of 12 ✨
but poor people keep focus on costs/risk and don’t…
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🎂 it's been 1 year since i released gliglish!
stats for the last 30 days:
🌎 traffic:
1.3M pageviews (📉 -42%)
📷 MRR:
EUR 3,809 (📈 +4%)
with 212 paying subscribers (📈 +12%)
🧐 how can it be?
traffic from India, Iran, Pakistan is down massively after i throttled it some…
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just had my 1st conversation in Indonesian
always super exciting to say our first words in a language we don't speak! 😃
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adding a feature that lets you hide the transcript on gliglish
users requested it to be able to 👂 focus on listening without getting distracted by the text 👀
as a bonus: reveal single words by hovering them 🖱️
hoping to 🚢 ship it by the end of the day!
#buildinginpublic
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@george__mack
An obvious idea I wish I'd realized earlier:
There is such a thing as premature growth.
Getting a few sales on your product doesn't mean you should try to scale it like crazy.
Better keep improving it so that it gets more people to stick around.
ex: better to have a 50%…
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@abzalassembekov
@taxually
if you're business is outside the EU, there's the OSS (one stop shop) shop for doing it yourself. you basically sign up to a EU country's tax portal then, every quarter, file your VAT and pay by bank transfer.
i'd probably go with Estonia as they're the most progressive country…
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@dannypostmaa
i think it's usually just jealousy, which is oddly something of a taboo emotion
but recognizing you're jealous and being honest about it (instead of bs-ing yourself like most people) can be the chance to make yourself better
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@dannypostmaa
Been waiting for a product like this. I'd like to be able to create a model who does not exist and use it throughout one of my products. Think of it as an avatar to illustrate a product.
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@levelsio
How often do you clean up your code? Or do you feel it’s clean enough from the start?
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updated headline and sub-headline on gliglish
🎯 goal was to make the value and nature of the product clearer
👴 old: left
✨ new: right
should split test it, but this'll have to wait.
#buildinpublic
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My favorite Charlie Munger quotes:
💸 "I wanted to get rich so I could be independent."
🚀 "I didn't get to where I am by going after mediocre opportunities."
🧠 "I am a biography nut myself. And I think when you're trying to teach the great concepts that work, it helps to tie…
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🎯 goal for the day: add a new feature to ✅ correct people on gliglish
the 👩🏫 virtual teacher can already correct you, but this will do so more systematically and will work in 🎭 roleplay mode as well
lots of people requested it :)
#buildinginpublic
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Didn't post much lately: got my first business customer and our shared project is going live next week!
#buildinpublic
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Long overdue: you can now speak Chinese on Gliglish! 🥳🎉
Practice your Chinese with a choice of:
🇨🇳 Chinese from China, for Simplified Chinese
🇹🇼 Chinese from Taiwan, for Traditional Chinese
Pinyin transcriptions coming soon to the Suggestions and the rest of the app!
Lots…
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did my first podcast interview this morning. i'm psyched!
getting to talk about what you LOVE with people who love the same stuff –all while growing your audience!– is just fantastic 😍
it's a 2-hour episode.
got another one planned soon.
life's great 😎
#buildinpublic
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focusing too much on $$$ makes me think short-term and neglect the product.
still, need to get paid because landlords and supermarkets do not accept Likes as a form of payment 😂 (sadly!)
so for demo day of
@_nightsweekends
i picked a goal that focuses on users, while still…
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@ThierryBreton
this could be a trailer…
> By the people who brought you… cookie laws and GDPR…
> this winter…
> get ready for the newest, hilarious comedy from the EU:
> Stifling Innovation, Volume 3: The AI Edition!
well, it's funny until you realize the EU will lag behind and ambitious…
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Too many things on my todo list. How to prioritize?
Back to basics: WHY do i build gliglish?
#buildinpublic
cc:
@_buildspace
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had a meeting with an investor who was surprised i’m French, he said:
“but French people are so laaaazy”
i laughed because i mostly agree
most ambitious people leave or already left the country
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After 14 hours of hard work things seem to be finally back to normal on .
There are 500 people on the site right now and the site is working just fine. I'll be closely monitoring performance.
---
I'll try to post booooring details tomorrow for the…
Maintenance in progress.
Expecting Gliglish to be back around 7pm UTC.
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