Firstly, I’d like to thank each of you for giving me a slice of your attention and trust this year.

I finally restarted this newsletter in Sep 2022 after many many false starts over the years and this is the first time I am able to stick to long-form writing and build a streak.

Context: This edition is the 17th consecutive weekly edition since my new start.

I wouldn’t be writing this if I wasn’t getting such joy and positive feedback from you.

My secret? I stopped worrying about writing this as a ‘writer’ and decided to embrace the identify of a teacher. I want to teach what I know from my personal experience and help readers like you make excellent progress. That did the trick for me and keeps me going each week.

Without further ado, here are my fav 3 picks across each category:

Top 3 podcast episodes:

• Alexis Ohanian Sr. on The Build In Public Podcast

• How To Build A Million Dollar Content Business (feat. Justin Welsh)

• Life After One Of India's Biggest Startup Exits (feat. Phanindra Sama)

Top 3 guest appearances:

(where I appeared on other people’s podcasts/shows)

• Building in Public with Karthik "KP" Puvvada | Founders Found Here 005 (by Jake Hurwitz)

• Every founder makes this mistake - The Road to 1000 Users (App Development) E21 (by Jon Melo)

• Building in Public and Power of Twitter Ft. KP (by Roohi Kazi)

Top 3 essays:

• How Ankur Nagpal is building Ocho in public

• Here are 8 unique ways to build in public

• Lessons from hunting 51 products on Product Hunt

Top 3 tweets:

Just this one alone was my favorite. Reminds me to be grateful!

KP @thisiskp_

Not annual but I did a decade review: 2012: 24 yr old $12k/yr income Rode public bus 0 network Visa stress No fam in the US 2022: 34 yr old $250k income Audi Q5 50k people who trust me Green card Wife & son ❤️ Great things happen gradually. Patience is key 🔑

5:19 PM ∙ Dec 24, 2022

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KP @thisiskp_

Content platforms are the new cities TikTok is the new NYC, breeding ground for a variety of talents (musical, comedy etc) YouTube is the new Hollywood Twitter is the new Bay Area, the breeding ground for tech (happened in my case at least) The ground is shifting

8:21 PM ∙ Mar 1, 2022

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KP @thisiskp_

Tip for ambitious people: Don’t attach your happiness to AFTER meeting your goals. Find little ways to keep yourself happy, curious and grateful along the journey. The final prize is never guaranteed. But peace along the way can be.

4:57 PM ∙ Jun 25, 2022

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Top 3 threads:

• 15 community event ideas to help you BUILD A WORLD-CLASS COMMUNITY

• 9 battle-tested tactics that can help you in your marketing journey

• This thread on no-code automation tools like Zapier

Highlights and Memories:

• Winning ‘Community Member Of The Year’ award from Product Hunt

  • It taught me to NOT focus on rewards and just be heads-down busy helping people and the community at large. I never expected any awards for my PH contributions so this was a pleasant surprise.

  

  Product Hunt 😸 @ProductHunt

  Congrats to the Best Community Member award winner @thisiskp_! KP hunted 15 products with the Product Hunt community #GoldenKittyAwards2021 😻

  

  7:55 PM ∙ Jan 27, 2022

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• Losing my job at On Deck

  • It taught me to never take anything for granted and be resilient for bumps in the road. In hindsight, my departure was a stunning shock to me because I was a model employee and gave all in .. but I am proud of how I bounced back. And grateful for all my friends and relationships I’ve built there.

• Finding another amazing role at Day One

  • It taught me how finding the right fit isn’t that easy and you should keep looking. I think I spoke to 40+ founders before this perfect opportunity manifested itself. I loved working with Andrew, Rahul, Jake and team. Although this was a brief chapter in my career, it was fun and memorable.

• Starting my Youtube channel

  • It taught me to be bold enough to put myself out there. For years, I didn’t publish videos of my podcast content.. out of fear and perhaps laziness. I decided I want to be more present 'in the arena’ so I changed my mind. Youtube is a long-term commitment and there are no shortcuts to building an audience. Just like Twitter.

• Created “The Founder Hotline”, an Internet show

  • It taught me how to create marketing campaigns and build buzz through adding tremendous value in the market. Here’s the back story.

  • I pitched Mark Cuban, Brene Brown and Alexis Ohanian to be guests.

  • Interviewing Gary Vee as a guest was so much fun too!

• Hiring an EA

  • I was reluctant and fearful of hiring an executive assistant and getting help with my thousands of weekly tasks. Until a few months ago when I finally gave it a shot. My whole productivity quadrupled — thanks to my EA Waela who’s also one of my biggest cheerleaders and supporters who keeps my spirits and my inboxes/calendars in order.

• Hiring a productivity coach

  • I also reluctantly hired a coach to keep me accountable across all my creator projects and output. Thanks to my coach, Bassima who’s been outstanding, I feel 10x better and more at peace. She helped me work through a lot of my limiting beliefs I had like “I suck at long form writing” versus “I am not strong enough yet, and that’s OK because I am learning and growing”.

Output:

I’m so proud of my creative output for 2022!

I did the following while navigating being at fast-moving startups and also being a new dad:

• Tweets: 5,500 tweets. 50 million impressions.

• Podcast episodes: 29 episodes

• Essays: 17

Transformations:

Below are a list of the top personal transformations I believe I’ve had from Jan 1 to today:

• I am way more secure and confident about my path and who I am as a founder

• I am way more fearless in trying new projects/businesses and nuking them without shame/guilt if they don’t work out

• I am way more fearless and bold in picking my clients who I work with and rejecting those who don’t match my energy

• I am way more patient with my imperfections and struggles

• I am way more abundant-minded about finances and wealth creation

• I am way more curious and inquisitive to learn and master skills like sales and content creation

• I am way more confident that I am inherently a much better leader than many of my heroes who I saw up close and … that meant I should stop fawning over them and focus more on building my own legacy over decades

So friends, that’s it. This was a recap of the top lessons and memories from 2022. Thank you for reading this and supporting my journey.

Hit reply and let me know if you have any questions/comments.

Wishing you a happy and abundant 2023!