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_notes/Startup.md

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         - WIP

     

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       _Startup and small business operations and efficiency_

     

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       _Note: this page is undergoing major renovations. Skip to the bottom for other resources tagged with startup_

     

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       **"Startup"** is this weird phrase that means lots of different things. For me, one of the things that it means is really internalizing a couple of different concepts.

     

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       # Types of Startups

     

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       I'm going to write down some thoughts and definitions on kinds of businesses below.

     

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       ## Venture Startup

     

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       A venture startup is a business that can grow (or "scale") to a very large revenue over time. The classic number is, can your business get to $100M in annual revenue in 5 years?

     

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       The other line you'll hear a lot at the beginning of a venture startup is "do things that don't scale".

     

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       You don't know what the most valuable parts of the business will be, so you are optimizing for learning and insights from your customers rather than efficiency.

     

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       ## Bootstrapped

     

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       The term "bootstrapping" refers to not taking outside investment to get started. This usually means the person starting the company has personal savings to cover cost of living for themselves, and the ability to invest in what is needed to start a business.

     

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       There is a certain amount of antagonism and disdain from "bootstrappers" for those companies that take investment. But, at a certain point, if you know that $1 into the business can make $1.25, then taking investment can be one way to really grow the business.

     

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       There are a number of emerging forms of capital investment now available, such as IndieVC style investments or revenue financing, that can really work for "bootstrap" businesses.

     

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       This category has grown a lot larger lately, because many forms of Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) businesses can be run by a much smaller number of people -- eg a single founder, or a small 2-3 person team -- and thus don't need outside investment to grow to be quite profitable.

     

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       SaaS is called out particularly, as a "scalable" business model where you can sell recurring software subscriptions on a monthly or yearly basis, rather than constantly finding new customers.

     

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       ### Simple SaaS Example

     

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       Let's say you have a team of 3 people, and you initially want to make $80K each in annual salary, which would be $240K. We'll add a healthy buffer of operations, expenses, and overhead of $60K annually, so that's $300K in Annual Recurring Revenue (ARR)

     

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       That would mean you're aiming for $25K Monthly Recurring Revenue (MRR):

     

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       * With $100 monthly plans, you need **250** paying customers

     

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       * With $25 monthly plans, you need **1000** paying customers

     

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       ## Digital Small Business

     

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       Of course, you could start by earning half as much, cut your expenses in half, and with $100 plans you'd only need 125 paying customers, which seems achievable.

     

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       TODO

     

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       As well, growing this business to add more paying customers doesn't incur dramatically more costs, so we say it's "scalable".

     

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       ## Small Business

     

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       ## Deep Tech

     

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       The small business we usually think of is usually a physical store with only one location, in a local area.

     

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       TODO

     

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       ## Moonshot

     

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       Mostly, it also means that the business can't grow without adding more people. It uses a lot of people time, so can't grow without adding more people, and each person needs to get paid.

     

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       So, it doesn't "scale" as well as businesses that can have form of non-people-hour-based revenue, especially if it is recurring.

     

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       Consulting companies of all kinds, whether a software development shop or an accountant, are usually small businesses. They can still look to "productize" their business, to not just sell hours, but to sell value, and to optimize how they build what they sell.

     

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       A software development shop might have a flat rate prototype that they get better and building and following the same process, so over time it takes them less hours to deliver a higher quality output.

     

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       A software development shop might sell hosting, maintenance, or support hours on retainer over time, meaning steady, recurring cash flow that can be delivered in a more standard way, often with more junior staff, so it's less expensive for them to provide the service.

     

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       TODO

     

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       An accountant might sell a monthly or annual package that includes everything that you need, again using efficiency and optimization to deliver accounting and book-keeping services at scale.

     

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       Also [[Vancouver Moonshots]]

     

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       Outside of more digital or knowledge based areas, subscription boxes or memberships can work for all kinds of businesses.

     

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       # Capital Investment

     

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       * Angel vs VC

     
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       * IndieVC-style investment

     

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       * Revenue Financing

     

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       * Future of Venture

     

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       # Getting Started

     

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       All businesses, companies, and ideas get started somewhere, and over time have various setup and improvement needs.

     
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       These are a set of recommendations of tools, generally aimed at the "just getting started".

     

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       **Articles:**

     

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       * [[Canadian Incorporation as a non-resident]]

     

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       ## Web Presence

     

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       TODO: write up "spend $0 or $5K on a website"

     
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       * [[Squarespace]]

     

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       * [[Webflow]]

     

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       * [[Ghost]]

     

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       ## Company Information

     

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       * TODO: Using Discourse Forum & Discord Chat for Company and Community

     

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       * [[Mattermost]]

     

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       * [[GDrive]]

     

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       TODO: Using Discourse Forum & Discord Chat for Company and Community

     

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       * [[Discourse]]

     

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       ## Company Formation

     

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       TODO: write down a couple of different options, esp. venture startup vs. small business

     
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       * [[Clerky]]

     

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       * [[Startup Lawyers]]

     

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       * [[Small Business Lawyers]]

     

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       * [[Founder Vesting]] aka "Reverse Vesting"

     

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       * [[Reverse Vesting]]

     

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       ## Banking, Finance, and Accounting

     

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       * [[Xero]]

     

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       * [[Wave Payroll]]

     

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       * SMB / consulting finance vs. Startup finance

     

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       * Budget / Cash Flow / Use of Proceeds Worksheet template

     

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       * [[Budget Scenario Template]]

     

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       * User Model / Business Model Worksheet template

     

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       * Sprout Accounting

     

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       ### International Payments and Transfers

     

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       [TransferWise](https://transferwise.com/invite/u/borism73) will give you the best foreign exchange rates and also will give you USD, GBP, EUR bank accounts (amongst others) that you can accept money into from others.

     

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       [Plooto](https://plooto.com) can make or request payments through direct withdrawal / deposit. Useful for larger dollar amounts inside of Canada and internationally. Will connect directly into Xero for paying bills and sending invoices.

     

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       Neither of those two can support sending funds to Brazil. [Payoneer](https://www.payoneer.com/) can make personal and business accounts that can send and receive Brazilian Real (BRL).

     

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       Having a Paypal business account is generally useful, as you can then link it to your bank account and pay some recurring or one-time bills through there. Especially useful if you have a low limit on your business credit card, as is often the case with startups in Canada (e.g. I currently have $5000CAD limit shared across two founder cards).

     

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       ## Metrics

     

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       * [[Posthog]]

     

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       * [[Metabase]]

     

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       * [[Plausible Analytics]]
     

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       * [[Plausible Analytics]]

     

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       # Resources

     

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       Other notes tagged with startup:

     

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       <ul>

     

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       {% for post in site.notes %}

     

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       {% if post.tags contains "startup" %}

     

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       {% unless post.tags contains "organization" %}

     

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       <li><a href="{{ post.url }}" class="internal-link">{{ post.title }}</a></li>

     

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       {% endunless %}

     

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       {% endif %}

     

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       {% endfor %}

     

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       </ul>

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_notes/Vancouver Moonshots.md

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       ---

     

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       tags:

     

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         - Vancouver

     

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         - WIP

     

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       ---

     

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       Companies in Vancouver that will have large global impact if they work, resulting in local success and regional impact.

     

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       * General Fusion

     

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       * Sanctuary AI

     

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       * 1QBit / Quantum

_notes/Vancouver Startup Week.md

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         - Vancouver

     

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         - event

     

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         - startup

     

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       aliases:

     

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         - VSW2024

     

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       I organized the first version of this in 2014, called Startup Week Vancouver at the time.

     

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+13 -7

_posts/2024-06-10-vsw-smartyoungbc.md

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       Ian's presentation was really good. He turned his [10K word research essay](https://smartyoungbc.com) into a presentation, walked the group through it, then had some guiding questions for people to discuss in small group break out sessions.

     

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       ![](smartyoungbc-daniel.jpeg)

     

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       ![](/assets/2024/smartyoungbc-daniel.jpeg)

     

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       _Thanks [Daniel for the photo](https://x.com/Shalinsky/status/1798853716927545663), I promise there was a roomful of people in front of us :)_

     

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       "Smart" should not be taken too pedantically here either. This doesn't mean High IQ, it means [weird nerds](https://x.com/RuxandraTeslo/status/1799454547082981619), [ambitious people](https://x.com/readswithravi/status/1799179147027116520), and just generally with people who stand up and put energy into GSD[^gsd].

     

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       For those looking for "next steps", check out and support what [[Novus]] is doing. And for something that's a little broader than "tech startup" showcasing what ambitious people are building across art, tech, and science, attend and support the first [[Minimum Viable Demos]] event coming up June 30th.

     

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       For those looking for next steps, check out and support what [[Novus]] is doing.

     

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       And, as you come across people, activities, or other suggestions that highlight the concept, [tag things with #smartyoungbc](https://x.com/search?q=%23smartyoungbc).

     

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       And for something that's a little broader than "tech startup" showcasing what ambitious people are building across art, tech, and science, attend and support the first [[Minimum Viable Demos]] event coming up June 30th.

     

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       As you come across people, activities, or other suggestions that highlight the concept, [tag things with #smartyoungbc](https://x.com/search?q=%23smartyoungbc).

     

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       Stay tuned for future Smart Young BC workshops. With the presentation and small group break out, we can likely run the same format multiple times, and inspire people to take action. [Go subscribe »](https://www.smartyoungbc.com/)

     

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       I met a number of great people in and around these talks and at an after party or two. Here's a high level description of a couple of encounters:

     

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       * how to stay in Canada while building a business; [[Startup Visa]] is still not very well known (and the angel investor part of it needs work)

     

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       * a team exploring a program inspired by Google's Summer of Code, focused on onboarding more open source builders in the Province of BC

     

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       * a startup exploring international fruit importing

     

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       * someone who heard me talk about neurodiversity and mental health, and had the courage to come up and ask for more resources around this

     

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       * a connected pet hardware startup which needs local hardware/software expertise

     

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       * a [[SRED]] software platform that might be possible to open source[^oss]

     

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       * several software developers looking to connect with other technical builders[^dev]

     

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       I'm looking forward to the meetings I'm going to have with many of the people who already followed up.

     

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       I'm looking forward to the meetings I'm going to have with many of the people who already followed up. Thanks for connecting[^bmann]!

     

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       Having attempted a venture-funded deep tech software startup with [[Fission]], and being a believer in moonshots as part of the formula for long term regional and national success, I _also_ want to see us rally around big goals.

     

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       See you next year!

     

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       I'm spending some time refreshing my [[Startup]] resources and getting an update on funding and other parts of the ecosystem. I'm encouraged by a lot of the energy from [[Vancouver Startup Week]], but building an innovation ecosystem can't just happen one week per year. We have a lot of work to do.

     

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       With that in mind, think about what you, personally, are going to work on, who you can collaborate with, what you need help with, and we'll see you at next year's Vancouver Startup Week for an update. Cheers!

     

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       [^bmann]: See https://bmann.ca for every single one of my social profiles

     

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       [^remote]: I flat out tell people that they should not work for a Vancouver company. They're mostly not competitive in salary or ambition. If I have to choose between having someone stay in Vancouver -- or leaving completely for elsewhere -- I want them to stay and have an awesome well paid ambitious job where they live locally and work remote.

     

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       [^nd]: I'm almost certain that I am neurodiverse, and I think this is one of the first times I've talked about it publicly. I once joked "I'm too busy coping to get diagnosed", and definitely feel at times that aspects of my weird brain are sometimes a super power, except when it isn't. When I was young man, I never heard the term neurodiverse, and never conceived that there would be a different way to relate to the world. I'm still learning and growing around this even now.

     

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       [^nd]: I'm almost certain that I am neurodiverse, and I think this is one of the first times I've talked about it publicly. I once joked "I'm too busy coping to get diagnosed", and definitely feel at times that aspects of my weird brain are sometimes a super power, except when it isn't. When I was a young man, I never heard the term neurodiverse, and never conceived that there would be a different way to relate to the world. I'm still learning and growing around this even now.

     

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       [^sorry]: It was a low energy week for me where I did get a few things done, but just putting one foot in front of the other was about all that I managed. I can "put on a face" for public events and have energy for it in the moment, but need small group or alone time. It's good to share emotional & mental health things, actually!

     

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