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George Spanos

Moby IT - Second Year Review

/ 5 min read

The 3rd of February, 2025 marks my second year as a software company founder.

As per last year, I will lay down what I learned this year and what essentially changed me.

Company status

I’m still the only one generating income via outsourcing myself as a programmer and team lead. Considering what most people might call a “company owner” or a business person, I’m still running a one-man show, so I don’t consider myself that deep into the entrepreneurial space.

However, I do consider Moby IT as an investment and I intend to leverage it to produce value. For that, I’m making use of my 9-5 job essentially, in order to fund my next career steps, whatever they are.

Measuring finances, I think that I’ll have what I call a “good budget for bootstrapping a product” in about 1-2 years.

Know thyself

Γνῶθι σεαυτόν, wiki link

This year was really defining for me and Moby. I understood deeper what it means to be an entrepreneur and, as an extension, what it means to run a business.

Running a business means that you mostly spend your time positioning your services/products to the market. You need to invest almost all your time and energy into showing up, meeting new people, and trying to find whether your value proposition actually holds value.

A recent quote that I heard from Konstantinos Livieratos was:

“(If you are a founder and are wondering) If it’s either software, or marketing time, it’s always marketing time”.

I started grasping this at the end of my 1st year, but it’s clear to me now that this is not for me. While I enjoy meeting people and networking, having to prove myself and fight for a market share is something that I ultimately do not enjoy.

So what now?

I’ve understood that the company is merely an interface for what I really want to do with my career. And this goes beyond career. This essentially translates to “what I want to do to make a living”.

It still is very much the case that I want to create things and expose them to the public. As I’ve mentioned before, I understand that those things are not software services anymore. It’s a field that is very tiring to me, and while I still find consulting to be of great value, I really don’t think that scaling this business model will bring me to a happy place.

I’ve been coming back to my artistic side for quite some time now. I believe it’s time to connect with that aspect of me again.

Ambition

I really want to do something creative. Software is creating but I find myself gravitating towards more artistic areas. I like the exploratory feelings that come with spending time drawing, sketching, playing music, etc. I want to explore where this path takes me. Now, this does not mean that this has to be a part of Moby. We all need hobbies, and it’s not always a good idea to convert your hobbies into your day job.

Nevertheless, what I still dream about is working with my friends in a creative environment where everyone expresses themselves and creates something that other people enjoy. This was always the goal for me, and Moby would be my vehicle to that. I’m still not sure how exactly I’m going to achieve this, but I’m perfectly fine spending money and time on that framework.

I’ve picked up drawing. I’ve started playing music again. I’ve started studying game design. I’m trying to create and release my first game on Steam in 2025. I’m collaborating with professional artists and musicians for my game. I think funding my “hobbies” through Moby is a great way to spend money. And who knows - I might become a successful indie dev, or I might come here next year and write about the struggles of getting a game on Steam and why it might not be for me.

But it does not really matter. Movement is all that matters.

Resources

I really like this kind of “share-a-bunch-of-books” list, so I’ll keep it this year as well.

  • Homo Ludens - Johan Huizinga - A foundational text that explores how play is a primary condition for the generation of culture, examining the play-element across various aspects of society including law, war, poetry, philosophy, and art
  • Designing Games - Tynan Sylvester - A comprehensive analysis of game design that focuses on how games create emotions and experiences, drawing from psychology and systems design to explain why certain design decisions work while others fail
  • Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs - Harold Abelson, Gerald Jay Sussman, Julie Sussman - A groundbreaking computer science textbook that teaches fundamental principles of programming, abstraction, and computational thinking using Scheme language, focusing on how to build and analyze programs rather than just writing code.
  • Steal Like an Artist - Austin Kleon - A manifesto for creativity in the digital age that argues nothing is original and encourages artists to embrace influence, providing practical strategies for finding one’s voice through collecting, combining, and transforming the work of others
  • Level Up! The Guide to Great Video Game Design - Scott Rogers - A practical handbook for aspiring game designers that covers everything from basic principles to advanced concepts, including character design, story development, gameplay mechanics, and user interface, all presented with industry insights and real-world examples

Till the next one,

George Spanos,

Moby IT