Pivot, persevere and cut loose: making decisions

I've been postponing this for a long time. Today, I finally sat down and made the hard decisions: what to eliminate, what to burn, what to pivot, and what to keep going with.

In my last Monday prep, I said this would be the week. No more postponing. So here it is.

The bigger picture hasn't changed. Everything I build still sits under Ryoka Group and OnPoint VC, and that roadmap stays where it is. What changed is pretty much everything around it.

Five months of building everything

I fell into the same trap as anyone else who gets their hands on an AI subscription and starts vibe coding like their fucking life depends on it.

Over the last five months, I experimented with a lot of builds. Three to four of those months were pure honeymoon. Everything felt possible, and every idea felt like it deserved a weekend.

Read also: My honeymoon phase with vibe coding is over

Somewhere in that period, I found my place in content creation. I also built and launched one decent SaaS app, TWO Docs, a docs editor that now has its first organic paying customers.

Stripped down, it comes to two main builds: TWO and Study Brew. One is a docs editor. The other is still in its early build phase, a note-taking app for language learners.

Study Brew is also the main reason I decided to fully commit to three English-learning channels: Study Brew, Story Brew, and Story Valley. Each one attracts its own tiny niche audience.

Read also: My entire podcast and distribution plan, now, later, and tomorrow

But between May 2026 and now, I built far more than those two. Most of it, I always considered experiments.

To be honest, I started more things than I can count. I stopped building a handful because they didn't sit right, or because I realized the space was too red ocean to begin with.

And then there are a few MVP-ish builds that surprisingly work exceptionally well, but I barely talk about them.

On top of that, I had aspirations to build a niche blog network. That also took a turn.

So I fucking finally sat down and decided what to cut loose, what to keep, and what belongs in 2027.

Cutting loose for now (kinda)

A while back, I built a directory, Harova. I know, I know. I built it four years too late. It's still something I want to build, but it should be a niche directory instead of a generic one.

It's still on my to-do list. I'm just not touching it until 2027.

What I underestimated is how much mental energy it drains. Every company gets added manually through a custom dashboard I built to feed the directory. One by one.

That adds up fucking fast when you're also building two apps and recording three podcasts.

Plus, I built it as an experiment first. I was testing my vibe coding skills and the waters, back when I was just graduating from the toddler phase.

So, the conclusion for this one: cut loose for now, rebuild it in 2027, and go hyper niche.

Probably education-focused, something like every educational app for English learners. Given the direction I'm heading, that makes a lot more sense for me.

StreetPoint Blog

The second thing I'm cutting loose is StreetPoint Blog.

I can't for the life of me find a decent angle for it, or topics I want to write about there. Most of what I like to write about already has a home: here, on my life in Taiwan blog, and on Indie Hacker Blog.

After four iterations and attempts, I don't think I have the right inspiration for it. Forcing myself to write on a new blog without being motivated is a recipe for disaster.

The odds of letting it go completely are around 80% right now. The plan is to ride out 2026 with the three blogs I have, then reassess where I can expand.

Equity

Another one I've let go for now is Equity.

Even though the extension is .tw, I always kept equity.tw because the name is so damn good. But after a gazillion tries and half-ass builds, it's time to throw in the towel. For now. I believe I'll pick it up again in 2027.

The problem with this one is how close it sits to finance, budget trackers, or whatever else that space entails.

I try to steer away from finance-related topics, let alone being in that space at all. Not because it's competitive, but because it's exhausting just thinking about it.

Even if I never build anything on it, I'll keep the domain as long as I can. The name and keyword value alone are worth it.

Liyo, the dev shelf

I had high hopes for this one. Liyo.dev was a simple idea: one shareable page for your stack, tools, books, desk setup, and the things you love. The answer to "what are you using?" without typing it out every time someone asks.

I started building it because I kept reading the same questions on Reddit. What do you use? What's your stack? Which subscriptions?

Instead of only showing your projects, you might as well show what you're using too, and point people to one page with everything a solo dev wants to show off.

I still think it's a good project. But no solo dev will pay for this, so I deliberately stopped building it.

I'm okay not making money on everything. But I'm no fucking charity either, not while my $168M challenge is still in the negative and I want to get a bit more revenue in first.

That said, I'm keeping it. Maybe a new domain or a rebrand, but the concept gets built, or rebuilt, in 2027.

The one that hurts the most to shelve (for now)

I also made a deliberate decision to shelve Aegos Intel. Or at least, I don't think I'll be building it in 2026.

My goal, and my dream, was always to build a unicorn that can match PitchBook or CB Insights. But I freakin' overestimated what I could handle on top of everything else right now.

I also feel this is a project for later. When my revenue is more stable, or when the TWO Mac app, the TWO iPad app, and Study Brew are built. Which, realistically, will take the rest of 2026, if not until the first quarter of 2027.

Read also: How do you vibe code a Mac app? Fuck I don’t know.

That's why this one stings. The others were experiments. This one was always my plan.

Still, I'm too damn stubborn, and I will pursue this SaaS build. Maybe a few hours of planning here and there, building for an hour left and right, is the right choice. But as far as I'm concerned, it's shelved for now.

What I'm keeping (and polishing)

I built Kiroka in the very early stage of my vibe coding career. For some reason, I built it, adjusted a few things, and set it and forgot it.

The weird part is that it just works. I constantly get reminders for the subscriptions I added. It does exactly what it's supposed to do.

The problem?

The branding and the domain extension, I think. It was also built as an experiment, and after months of letting it run, this shit just runs as intended. So I feel like I owe it some work.

Mostly, I'm thinking about rebranding it, making it a bit prettier, and cutting out whatever inside the app isn't needed.

The whole idea is that it shouldn't be a SaaS. It's a tracker that runs on donations only, because it would be dead-ass stupid to charge a subscription for a subscription tracker.

It stays a set-and-forget build, and I'll promote it after the rebrand.

Sorano, the public roadmap and changelog

The second one that just works is Sorano. I built it specifically for indie hackers, solo devs, and small startups: a public roadmap, a changelog, and the option for users to vote on features.

Nothing groundbreaking again. But just like Kiroka, it works.

I admit I never plugged it into a payment system. The current build didn't feel ready to charge for.

Still, I think it has a chance to find a niche audience at a fair price. Maybe a one-time payment works better here than a subscription, even though I'm not a big fan of that model.

If I focus on it for a week or two, I think I can relaunch it in early 2027.

It's boring, sustainable, and non-AI-powered, just how I like it. Plus, I use it quite a bit myself.

Read also: Should I build SaaS without AI? I honestly don't know

Funny enough, the two that survived are the two I paid the least attention to. I didn't force either of them. I built them, left them alone, and they kept working.

What's been consistent all along

My three English podcast channels are the most consistent thing I have right now. I've seen a nice build-up in listeners, engagement, and slow growth in followers.

But I don't think my motivation comes only from people listening. I genuinely enjoy recording those stories for all three channels. And it's evergreen content.

Once the note-taking app for language learners reaches MVP, those channels become its primary distribution platform.

Oddly enough, those channels and this blog have been the constant variables through all of it. And now that I'm officially live with TWO, I feel like I can safely say: this is enough.

Final note

I don't consider anything I cut loose a loss. The ones I postponed aren't going anywhere. But I need to set clear boundaries now.

The decision I'm making today is simple: nothing new gets added until one of the things I'm already doing is successful enough, or runs smoothly enough, to make room for it.

As much as it pains me to cut stuff, if you read my last 40 blog posts, you'll see how focused I've been on very few things.

Most of what I mentioned today barely made it to the surface. The directory, Equity, Liyo, Aegos. They were taking up space in my head, not on this blog. That says more about where my attention really is than any roadmap does.

So this is the list now. Two apps, three English learning channels plus Echo Room and my journal, three blogs, and two tools that keep running without me.

For the first time since May, the list in my head matches the one on paper.

I'll know by Friday whether that feels lighter.