My journey of running gobrrr.me officially started in September 2021, at block height 698517, I started to build this shop after spending a lot of time in my two rabbit holes which are bitcoin and 3D-printing. It's not obvious at first glance but the two overlap quite a bit.
I had some experience in building onlineshops and this was my chance to build something entirely different. Most fiat online stores are loaded with trackers and cookies to get every little bit of information out of their customers. It is, quite frankly, disgusting for a person like me who's old enough to have had the pleasure to experience the old "open" Internet as it was back when I got to know it. My regular job in marketing forced me to work with Facebook a lot, I knew all the ins and outs of their tracking systems and let me tell you, it's not pretty. The general consensus among the people I worked with was, if you want a successful online store, you need all the tracking you can get. Not just Facebook, all of them.
Well, they were wrong. It is possible to run an online shop in a privacy preserving fashion, without third-party cookies, tracking, automated newsletters and plugins from middlemen.
Is it more work? Absolutely. But the extra mile is worth it to me, and here's the kicker, it seems to be worth it from the customer's POV as well, because I received insane amounts of positive feedback in the last 2.5 years from so many people. And not only that, many offered their support, pointed out flaws or just helped me get things working without wanting anything in return. By now, it would be far too many to list here, and I can never repay them for their time and patience with me, so here's just a general BIG THANK YOU. You know who you are.
The real news is here, because I have a confession to make. With the start of this year, I have been slowly transitioning to going brrr full time. I admit I was very hesitant to make this information public because I didn't want to jinx it, but, here it is. This little side project has grown so much, that it is my life now, and I am insanely grateful for that. Even more for all the lovely people I have encountered along the way, some of them have become my friends and I would never want to be without them again.
Am I making less than I did before? Yes, and by a wide margin. But I'm also MUCH happier because I can finally do what I love, 3D-print stuff, design cool things, build nodes and play with awesome bitcoin tech. You can be sure that everything I make, was made with <3 and I am now 100% sure that all of my previous experiences led me to where I am right now. There's still so much to do and discover.
Am I afraid of the risks sometimes? Hell yes, but im infinitely more pumped about the possibilities and can't wait to see what the future holds.
Big thanks to all customers, partners and friends for your never ending support. I deeply appreciate it!
Thank you for reading! As part of my nostr first approach. I will post this on twitter at a later date. You heard it here first. :D