What comes next?

For the past few days, it's been pouring, the streets flooded, and dark clouds dipped the city into a moody and depressing tone. The city center looks abandoned, with rivers of dirty water even clogging up the freshly installed drain systems. The scene could be taken out of a post-apocalyptic movie. It's a far cry from the idyllic and sunny Cyprus everyone imagined when I mentioned that I lived in Cyprus.

As I stepped out of the rental car and made my way to my apartment, a car passed by without slowing down, gifting me a solid rainwater shower. "Oh, it'll be raining all this week, but it's just this week and then summer is coming ", the lady at the bank laughed, being sure that this was good news. "Fabulous ", I thought, knowing I was leaving on Friday.

It's the first time I'm back to Cyprus this year, and also the first time back to the office since officially stepping away from The Codeero Group. In the last months, Cyprus has felt incredibly different than what I remembered, and not necessarily in the best of ways. I was wondering whether it was the typical thing of memory vs. reality or things had really changed until speaking with local friends who echoed the same experience. The stark contrast between the shiny, new, and mostly empty skyscrapers, surrounded by old abandoned-looking buildings that are falling apart or barely holding on, is ever so much more visible. It's hard to put the finger on exactly what it was, but it just feels so much more "generic "and "impersonal. "Something is definitely off, even if I cannot yet put my finger on it 100%.

This week was also the very first time returning to the offices of The Codeero Group since stepping away last week. Coming back in on the first evening, after everyone had already left and the office was empty, was a bittersweet feeling. It was wonderful to look back at the place I had spent so many years in, reminisce of the adventures and challenges renovating both the offices, as well as throw myself back to the late nights with Natalia as we were finalizing the last touches on projects about to ship. It was also difficult to see how things have moved on, how letting go really meant letting go. I met new faces who joined the team at GBCenter and saw the empty spots left behind by those who also chose to move on. It still is a surreal feeling being back, but I also know deep down that this was the right choice. 

Alas, it's time to look forward and at what's yet to come. Next week will mark the 10-week mark, the first big milestone of this blog. It may be a small thing in the grand scheme of things, but I'm really proud I've stuck with it consistently as long as I have. The big question which asks itself now is, what comes next? Well... let's take a look at what the next months will have in store from a professional/hobby standpoint:

TinyPaws App

This is the project I am most passionate about. Through the Nutrified brand, we'll be launching an app for all the pet parents (pawrents) out there. The app will allow you to share your daily moments with four-legged friends with your loved ones, document key moments and milestones in the development and growth of your fur babies as well as track vet visits and key information. You can sign up for our waiting list at www.tinypaws.app, and we'll be updating our website soon with more information. (You can hold me accountable to it, we should launch by the 1st of March). 

TinyPaws will be available on both iOS and Android (and through the web for extended family), and I hope to launch the first version of the app by the 1st of April.For those of you who are curious, we're currently exploring building the app in Flutter for cross-platform compatibility with a Node.js backend. I'll be sharing more on the development of TinyPaws as well as the marketing and growth in the coming weeks. 

recommended.by

I find myself constantly re-writing recommendation lists, be it for places to check out in Kraków/Limassol or books or TV Shows. I've always wished there was an easy way to share such recommendations with friends, and after not having found a good solution, I've decided to build it. I managed to secure the domain recommended.by (thanks Netim!), and will be using this project to test out the #buildinpublic process and community over on X (or Twitter as most of us know it). If you'd like more up-to-date behind-the-scenes, you can check it out @JulianEngel13, or get the summary and in-depth dives right here :)

Flowers 2 Charity

Flowers 2 Charity started out as an idea a few years back, which I never had the time to implement. It will be a service that one can book for weddings or other big events, which allows your guests to forgo buying flowers that will wilt quickly and instead donate to a charity of the organizer's choosing. I want to aim to be able to rent out large 4k screens or just provide the software for someone's existing screen, whereby there's a QR code to be able to buy virtual bouquets that are displayed on the screen, a leaderboard showing the top donors and the total raised for the chosen organization. This would eliminate perishable gifts (which trends show more and more people are asking not to receive at their events) and instead contribute some good to the world in 3 easy steps. I'd like to build this out as soon as possible, but realistically, this is a project I hope to get off the ground by early summer in time for the busiest event season. The website for this will launch sometime in March over at flowers2charity.org. 

Those are, of course, in addition to my new professional role over at Nutrified, handling marketing & growth. I'm excited to use the coming months to try out new things, explore, and see what will work and what will not. To be completely honest with you, I'd love to also do a little bit more stability. Towards the end of 2023, I made a commitment to do fewer flights and just stay local a little longer. That, unfortunately, didn't work out as I'd like, having done 5 flights so far between Cyprus and Poland and another 4 scheduled for the upcoming month. One thing is my recent aversion to flying, and another is the feeling of always leaving someone or something behind. Departing from Milan, it is saying goodbye to Nat and Cosmo. Going out of Cyprus, it's leaving the dogs. Returning from Poland, it's my grandma and mom, as well as close family. Every time entering the airport, there's a part of me that is already starting to miss something. I am actually writing the bulk of this post en route to Katowice (150km away from home), as this was the most convenient and optimal connection, albeit also the most exhausting in terms of travel duration. I still hope 2024 will bring a little more stability and a little less flying, though I am starting to wonder if that is even possible. 

Until next week (the 10th one!), my friends!

Love from Limassol,

Julian