25 Subs and Quiet Progress
Week 14 (2025. 09. 29. - 2025. 10. 05.)
Join the First 100
I’m challenging myself to reach 100 subscribers by the end of November 2025. If you want to be remembered as the foundation of this journey, join us.
This week wasn’t about big headlines. No “new launch“, no massive breakthrough. But quietly, a lot has moved forward.
Hey, it’s Zoli. I’m 17, building a tech business from scratch. I document the process so you can learn from my wins and mistakes.
The Week 5 Plans
I wanted Week 51 to feel like a setup before the halfway point of Season 2: tightening systems and closing loops. Here’s what I aimed for:
Substack: keep posting and engaging to turn it into muscle memory.
Coding: quit vibe-coding and build my first app mostly on my own.
Growth: finish The 4-Hour Workweek and the copywriting course I’m doing.
Business: wrap up market research with real data.
What Really Happened
As usual, it didn’t go exactly as planned. But the things that moved, moved big.
We hit 25 subscribers on Substack, a full week earlier than expected. That’s 25 people who decided to join the journey. To me, this is just insane, and the 100-sub challenge suddenly feels possible.
I finally finished The 4-Hour Workweek2 after 2 months of slow but steady reading. This book isn’t just about the basics: it rewired how I think about work and lifestyle. On the other hand, I didn’t finish the copywriting course as planned.
Market research was truly brutal. I barely got a few responses. I’m probably shutting it down soon: at the moment, it seems too difficult (without the reach and technology) compared to the potential gain. Feels bad to do so, but for Season 2, this was just a side quest.
My #1 Achievement
I didn’t mention coding yet, and for a good reason: it was the gem of this week.
For the first time, I could build complex logic without copying from tutorials and asking AI for help at every line of code. I didn’t just finish backend: I understood it, from line to line.
I’ll be honest, I still ask AI to explain new concepts and help with debugging. But now it’s far from vibe-coding: I write the code myself, and only use AI as a tool to refine my work.
This proved something powerful to me:
Persistent practice builds up to real, solid knowledge.
Next Week: The Halfway Point
Week 6 will be a big deal: halfway through Season 2.
The goal isn’t perfection, but making sure everything still points in the right direction, and that I’ll be able to achieve my goals by the end of November. Here’s the plan:
Substack: keep posting consistently, test the new schedule.
Coding: finish app #1 (frontend and deployment).
Growth: wrap up the copywriting course and practice what I learned.
Business: one last push for market research. If it flops again? Shut it down + pivot.
There are some more secondary tasks as I have in mind, but there’s one more primary one: reflection. So far, I have been able to exceed my expectations in some areas, but there are aspects I completely missed. Reflection will help me find out: what’s next?
Closing Thoughts
This week wasn’t loud, but it mattered a lot.
Will I be able to reach the halfway point strong?
See you next week,
Zoli
Week 5 of Season 2 and Week 14 of the complete journey.
You can expect a deep dive soon about the top things I learned.
Continue the great work my friend!!