Update: EskomSePush

Back in January,?Dan?and I decided that I'll be going full-time on?EskomSePush?for six months. We set some simple, yet ambitious goals:

1. Break-even in the first year
2. Grow a product that is not loadshedding related

The first goal is looking extremely positive because of amount of loadshedding this year. Here is how 2022's loadshedding compares with previous years:

What we did to improve revenue:

• Launch In-App Purchase to remove ads (Great for learning, but not so much for $)
• Improved Ads (biggest win for $)
• Introduced a Business API targeted at large enterprises, currently Banks and Mobile Network Operators. Some use cases include letting remote workers know about load shedding, tracking load shedding at network points, and reducing customer call volume.
• The EskomSePush Socks collaboration with SoxFootwear was super.
• Homepage takeover ad campaigns.
• Luck? New record for Daily Active Users: 2.4 Million

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But working on loadshedding is no fun, so I’ve become a bit obsessed with the second goal; Figuring out how to leverage our user base of +4M active installs to build a community, and grow the app into something much bigger than loadshedding.?

Right now this community is called AskMyStreet: A?platform for real-time hyperlocal information. In simple terms - Questions and Answers?for people nearby, open the app to know what's going on nearby.

We've learned with EskomSePush that information is power. We all want to know what's going on around us. Information gives us peace of mind, providing a sense of assurance in a chaotic world. With AskMyStreet, we hope to expand on our mission of getting useful information to people.

Loadshedding definitely helps with "pushing" adoption of AskMyStreet. Messages per sender and Active Senders, our two most important metrics, have been steadily growing. Our target is to get 1000 Senders a day without loadshedding. It will be interesting to see if network effects are strong enough to keep it going...

Oh, and I'm happy to share that Dan and I agreed that I’m staying on this for another six months. ????