Hey hey! Chris Sev here. 1 month already down in the new year.

It’s been a busy January. My 3 side projects each have fun updates and I’ll end this month’s newsletter with a personal update.

🌴 Devtr.ee beta invites are finally going out!

I’m really excited about Devtr.ee. I think the UI and UX are coming along :chefskiss: nicely. Beta invites are finally going out 72 days after starting work on it.

Join the waitlist now and you’ll be invited within the next couple weeks. You’ll be able to claim your username and make a developer portfolio for free.

If you’re already on the waitlist, sit tight!

The first batch of beta invites went out and we’ve found bugs and flow changes to make. No app survives first contact with the users.

Definitely lights a 🔥 fire under the butt to have real users poking around your app. Launch early. Get feedback early.

Here’s a screenshot of the dashboard:

🍿 Launched Sean’s Score 2.0

Last year, I built my cousinbro (Sean) a movie reviews site on Next.js 12 and Airtable. He never really took to Airtable so he never updated the site.

For this year, I did a big upgrade:

• Switched it to Sanity.io + Next.js 13

• Added movie news

• Let users add their own reviews like Rotten Tomatoes

Tons to learn with Next.js 13 but overall, I like what the app folder is bringing. More server-side rendered and less JavaScript shipped to the client.

After the switch to Sanity, Sean has been updating the site every day! It’s a great feeling seeing a site you built for someone actually getting used.

Check out the site. Bookmark it for news. Add your own reviews.

🤖 Video Tap was featured on Fireship (1.8M subs)

Got on a 🔴 Fireship video for 15 seconds. In one week since being on that video, we’re at:

• 9k pageviews

• 572 users registered

• 2 paid users (need to work on conversion rates)

• 💥 1,264 videos turned into blog posts

• 😅 $250 in AI processing fees

👶 Personal updates!

Our baby is turning 1 next week! It really has been the most fun, most rewarding, most perspective-giving year of my life. When I usually talk about ‘Ailana turning 1, I’ll hear “hardest year of your life I bet?!” I prefer to take the positive outlook.

I’ve been building 3 projects and when I talk about launching them, nobody says “I bet your fingers hurt from coding so much!?”. It’s exhausting we take the negative approach with parenting.

Days are long but the years are short. I’m gonna take the positive perspective through every day.

With that in mind, Kapehe and I are blowing it out for bday #1. In Filipino (mine) and Hawaiian (Kap’s) cultures, it’s customary to C E L E B R A T E the 1st birthday.

We’re going to Paris for a week! My first time in Europe so I’m stoked. Big jacket ready for some 🥶 chilly.

Happy January friends. Let’s keep building into February!