Crawling // January '25

Kicking off this newsletter amidst a bout of burnout

Hey y’all! Neel here.

As most of you might know already, I’ve been laying the groundwork for for my coffee shop for the past few months.

I’m currently in Phase 1 of the grand plan, which, in a nutshell, is building a brand whose core tenet is physical spaces that invite serendipity and inspire creativity. Anecdote, the coffee shop, is the birth of this brand.

Let me be first to acknowledge that “inviting serendipity and inspiring creativity” borders on corporate speak and mass-marketed TJ Maxx-embroidery-grade lingo.

I understand. But the north star of this brand is intentionally abstract and vague.

The most beautiful and textured porcelain pot was once but clay.

In much the same way, the purpose of this brand is is currently flat. Over the years, it will be molded, twisted, and reshaped until it converges on what it was truly meant to be, in full vivid detail.

As such, I am not currently focused on the larger brand; I’m focused on Anecdote.

And last week, it occurred to me that I am not focused enough.

Thus this newsletter - a monthly, detailed account of my activities related to Anecdote, in the hopes of

• informing stakeholders in this business (you, dear reader) of what I’ve been up to, and collecting feedback from them

• reminding myself of my goals and ensuring my alignment with them

And, just like everything in life, the content and purpose of this newsletter may change.

Enjoy!

---

January in Chicago sucks. It’s my least favorite month.

It feels like a big post-holidays hangover. It’s cold, windy, dull, and gray. The life has been sucked out of everything around you.

The streets are deserted, the trees are barren, and people are fatigued. Even the sun is uncharacteristically shy.

Or maybe the world is the same, and that’s just how I feel inside.

---

For whatever reason, January hasn’t been my month. I feel like this dragster

started off on the front foot, but quickly disintegrated.

Maybe it’s because I’ve entered the new year with this mindset, or because I’m living at home in the suburbs, far from youth and life. Or maybe it’s because I’ve been getting a lot of feedback (implicit and explicit), and I’m starting to catch on to the fact that I’m deep in the moat of low status.

Who knows?

But I’m a glass half-full kinda guy - in the face of strong headwinds, I have moved forward, even if just an inch. And I want to recognize that.

What I’ve Been Up To

Planning pop-ups

• I’ve locked in my FIRST POP-UP!! Taking place in NYC at the end of March. Exact details will be announced soon :)

• The operational advice I’ve been getting from people much more knowledgable than myself in the realm of coffee is: keep your menu simple, and operate in familiar territory.

• Fortunately for me, the location I’m hosting at already has an espresso machine, several grinders, and a kitchenette, so upfront costs are low.

• Next 2 weeks - figure out numbers (?), staffing, menu, equipment - basically all of the essentials that I’d need to have figured out regardless of the exact format of the event.

NYC Pop-Up

1. If you’re wondering why I’m starting in New York, you’re not alone. Here’s why:

   1. Long-term benefits > costs

      1. Social and physical real estate already acquired

      2. Basic equipment already in place

      3. Will get to meet really interesting people. It’s all about the people.

   2. I’ll get valuable experience

   3. It’ll be fun

Consolidating what I spend my time on

• The main reason I’m starting a newsletter is because I feel like the days are slipping by and I’m not working on my coffee shop enough. This is because a) there is a lack of accountability and b) I’m spreading myself too thin.

• Context: I live in the suburbs of Chicago with my parents; and currently work 3 jobs + my business. Realized that I’m spreading myself too thin, because of which I’m not able to tap into my creativity and full potential of ideas for the coffee shop.

  • Spreading myself too thin might be a reason for burnout and not being able to do particularly good work in any area.

• I’ve been working as a software engineer at Resolv for just about a year - tomorrow is my last day.

• Quitting my job as a barista at the coffee shop I’m currently working at because marginal benefit > maginal cost (sorry, I have to prove to myself that all of those economics classes in college were not taken in vain); commuting from the suburbs for 2 out of the 4 days I’m not working at my other job is more of a burden on me than the additional skills I would learn during those 2 days.

• How should I think about developing my knowledge structure? From my vantage point, I feel like I’m falling behind all of my peers because I don’t feel like I’ve developed competence in any particular field/area. But the other side of this argument is: I’m developing all of the general skills you need as a business owner. A founder can’t afford to specialize - he needs to have his toes dipped in several different areas in order for the business to thrive. If anything, he needs to specialize in starting a business, which itself is an activity that meets at the delta of several different streams.

• New schedule: Mon - Wed: marketing job, Thu - Sun: Coffee shop. I am also going to squeeze in time for writing in my week somehow, because I enjoy it, want to get better at it, and it will directly benefit me for both my day job as well as my coffee shop. Plus, even if it doesn’t directly benefit me, I feel like I should have time for at least one hobby outside of my job and business. And going to the gym isn’t exactly a hobby.

Career Risk

Starting a coffee shop is an asymmetric bet, but I can’t help but think about whether I am taking a career risk as it relates to being a software developer.

Thoughts on Chicago

I’ll be moving out soon, not sure where. Chicago seems to be the most likely option

• I get to play my own game in Chicago, whereas in other cities the games are already laid out, and success is pre-defined

• At the end of the day, maybe it doesn’t matter which city I end up choosing. Maybe there is no right and wrong, maybe I just need to make a decision and the universe will orient itself around it.

  

• I have no idea what I should even be basing this decision on. Should I move where my friends are? Will I be able to figure out the coffee shop part of it? Or should I move to a city that is ripe for a brick & mortar business? And will I find a friend group there? What about the culture? Does the broader culture of a city really, tangibly affect your life, or can you carve your own little life separate from and uninfluenced by the larger story? Should I be looking at economic forecasts?

• Chicago seems like a safe bet. I might be capping my downside (I know that at I at least have a few close friends in the city whom I love spending time with and am inspired by - but am I also limiting my upside?)

What is my moat?

• I have applied for a fellowship. They love my energy and enthusiasm for my idea, and they even like the concept. However, they’re not entirely convinced of my moat (sustainable competitive advantage). And that’s fair, because neither do I. I know I have a moat somewhere within the thousands of ideas, thoughts, and concepts in my Notion workspace, I just need to find it.

What’s Next

• Finalize pop-up details in the next 2 weeks. Most importantly - equipment, staffing, event programming, dates, promotional material.

• Conduct experiments with filter-based coffee drinks. Try out James Hoffman’s iced coffee recipe and try to scale it.

• Sign up for the Circular Fashion Expo in May.

• Figure out whether I want to take the bet on Chicago and lock in a commercial space out of which I can host pop-ups for Anecdote.

• Write a one-pager about Anecdote - this won’t be perfect and will likely change over time with new information, but it’s important to have some sense of what my moat will be. Even if it’s too early for the fellowship people to see the value in this venture, it will nudge me in the right direction. Plus, I can ask for feedback from them and realize what I missed. This is my first time trying to convince someone to invest in me, so I will inevitably miss things and make mistakes. It’s important that I show myself some grace.

• Question to ponder: as long as I’m covering my fixed costs (rent + student loans), is it worth worrying about ways to make more money, or should I use that brainpower on the coffee shop? Intuitively, I feel like the latter makes more sense. Worrying about making more money feels like a distraction - lucrative right now, but much less valuable in the long run. Instead, if I build the best possible coffee shop I can, and put every ounce of my creative energy into making something people want to be a part of, the financial part will figure itself out in the long run.