006: Making Any City Your Workspace

Hey friends,

So, next week's I'll be dropping into a cosy town just a stone's throw (well, a two-hour ride) from Paris. Might seem a bit left field, it kinda is, but I really wanted to experience a European summer, and France? Well, it's not a place I've 'nomaded' before (also I found an awesome Airbnb deal).

I won't pretend that country-hopping every few months is all sunshine and rainbows—it's got its ups and downs too. But here’s the thing: after bopping around 25+ countries over 7 years, the rhythm starts to feel familiar. There's a kind of pattern, you know? A handful of basics that just... stay the same, no matter where you end up.

For those of you daydreaming about typing away on a beach in Bali or sipping coffee at a Copenhagen cafe, here are a few golden nuggets I've picked up on the way:

1. Accommodation: Most of the effort really goes into finding a place to stay. Airbnb and Facebook groups are the go-to. What do I look for? Internet, a kitchen, a central location and if I hit the jackpot, a space where I can work without distractions.

2. Transport: Depending on location, this might mean hopping on public transport, renting a motorbike in Asia, or simply stretching your legs and walking. Try to be close to supermarkets, workspaces & places to have fun.

3. Workspace: Here are my 3 go-to places. First, home - that's why I'm picky about where I stay. Then there are coworking spaces, popping up in almost every city now. Lastly, cafes. I've found that in Asia, there's a buzzing 'work-from-cafe' culture more so than in Europe. For example in Thailand it's not unusual to find students studying in 24hr cafes into the wee hours.

4. Mobile Internet: Grab a tourist SIM. Trust me, it's a lifesaver when the WiFi decides to go on its own little vacation.

5. Food: In Asia, I eat out most meals – it's quick, delicious, and often easier on the wallet than cooking. Europe? I lean more towards cooking, (especially since I have a current love affair with airfryers).

There you have it - those are the essentials. Sure, there are other things to consider: gyms, entertainment spots, language barriers, and whatnot. But as you settle in, you'll figure those out.

✈️

Here are a few things that I've found interested this week.

1.  Building on top of Indie Softwares

Love supporting small indie software but sometimes they can be a pain. Built @metalabsglobal around Frills to be the backbone of design requests but they changed their plans so it doesn't fit us but luckily I found edworkingapp y'day

Looks great so far + lesson learned

1/ Smaller companies can change their terms more often. Didn't think they would remove their free plan. Nothing against people changing plans to find better profitability. But it just priced us out.

2/ Do a vibe check on the founders. Had a call with with Ivan from Edworking today. Lovely guy - super helpful and passionate about what he’s building. Happy to trust their team to build and grow this product & happy to be getting in now.

3/ Time wasted?. Spent a lot of time figuring out automations for Frills. Super happy that I got to learn how to use Pipedream + get more comfortable w/ automations. But now these workflows are useless.

4/ Always look for the positives. Y’day I was gutted about the Frill changes. I only realised they made changes when I was trying to set up a new account. Since this is the backbone of our design request functionality it went straight to priority red alert need to fix mode.

But I’m so happy that I found this new solution - in fact it looks far better than what we could offer before. Within 24hours I’ve chatted to the founder and signed up. Super excited to start demoing this to clients!

That's the roundup for this week. Thanks for reading have a great week ahead and I'll catch you next week.

Matt

xx