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Author: Manoj Ranaweera

My community strengthSkilledUp Life: https://skilledup.life (42,500+ skilled volunteers for tech startups)– Volunteers: 42,750+– Tech Companies: 200+– Linkedin Company Page Followers: 52,000+– Unique visitors: 47,000+Deal Lite: https://deallite.uk + https://lnkd.in/efmz5xBP + https://uktechnews.info + https://uktechexits.news (intelligence for Tech startups, investors and suppliers)– Deal Lite Weekly Deal News: 1,200+– Deal Lite Company Page Followers: 10,000+– Unique visitors: 78,000+ and 27,000+Techcelerate: https://lnkd.in/eKeefU7 (know how of building tech startups)– Community: 30+– Newsletter: 1,800+– Unique visitors: 10,000+Next event on the 20th in Manchester https://lnkd.in/edycNsDqhashtag#traffic hashtag#intelligence hashtag#community hashtag#skilleduplife hashtag#deallite hashtag#techcelerate hashtag#techstartups hashtag#investment hashtag#funding hashtag#manchestertech hashtag#techmcr

What do I do?

I do three things – https://techcelerate.ventures – community of tech founders. We are about building companies for customers and not investors – https://deallite.uk – intelligence on UK’s venture backed tech companies and investors who back them – https://skilledup.life – 41,000+ skilled volunteers to build tech companies, especially supporting bootstrapped tech companies.

Evolving of Daily Reporting Culture

A few years back, we introduced daily reporting culture at SkilledUp Life. This is how it works: Everyone submits an update of what they worked on every day on a dedicated Slack Channel including full-timers and me in addition to our volunteers. Our HR Performance Sub Team copies the updates to a Spreadsheet manually, which then totals the number of dates volunteered. From this, they reach out to none performing team members. Rules are: No updates for 3 consecutive days – warning sent No updates for 5 consecutive days – terminated. Latest addition (from today onwards): Each of the team…

Stuff we don’t realise we have.

It has only taken about 15 years to realise I can use QuickTime Player to record videos and I don’t need Loom, Bubbles or Vidyard.Only a few years back I started to use Notes and realised I didn’t need any fancy SaaS applications for note-taking.Freeform has killed my need for flowcharting SaaS apps.I started using Mail last year when Google Mail became no longer free for business. It’s search functionality is poor but it does the job.Sadly I can’t use the Contacts due to the contacts multiplication issue corrupting my contacts about 10 years ago. Wonder whether I should take…

Keeping the new year momentum

It’s no secret that 2023 has been a disappointing year for me. So far this year, at least for SkilledUp Life, we have decent momentum. Day 1 – disappointing. Failed to process salaries due to the failure of Flutterwave. Day 2 – A new customer signed up. I met them first on Linkedin in November. Flutterwave started to work magically but still got bugs. Day 3 – As promised, one of our customers upgraded to the Advanced Plan. We now have 3 customers on this plan and need a total of 40 to prove that we have reached the Problem/Solution…

Learning AI through #100DaysOfAI Challenge – Day 1 & 2

I discovered a course thanks to Chamara and decided to take it in given that the ask is for 30 minutes per day. Day 2 which I completed today instead of on the 2nd Jan is all about using ChatGPT to improve your existing work, in this case, an email was used as an example. Prompts: Rewrite the following email in a casual tone of voice: Rewrite the following email using less than 300 words: I’m writing an email. Add a new section to it with concise next steps: Once your sample email is added, it will execute your request.…

The art of building a tech startup

Building a tech startup and perhaps any business is all about having a vision, being able to articulate it, assembling a team and executing it. It helps execution if the know-how is there to start with. You know what needs to be done, how to do it and when to do it. You may not need to be a specialist in each area but you need to have the ability to find individuals who can be. You would need constant supervision to ensure the team does not divert from the path and this is where the knowledge and experiences come…

Removing unused image files from WordPress

As we are getting closer to breaching the file limit (300,000) on the current hosting subscription, I need to find a way to remove thousands of unused images and other file formats our users have uploaded. This is what ChatGPT says To find unused image files from WordPress folders, you can follow these steps: Backup your WordPress website: Before making any changes to your website’s files, it’s always a good practice to create a backup to avoid any potential data loss. Access your WordPress installation files: Use an FTP client or a file manager provided by your hosting provider to…

First 100 km ride in 2023

I’m still recovering from an unexpected 100 km ride yesterday. When I do not ride longer distances, I start to doubt myself. I went out yesterday hoping to improve from the previously longest ride in 2023, which was 55 km. My hope was for a 70 km ride, as I assumed I was unfit. If I plan to ride a long way, I normally go deep south with a pit stop at Holmes Chapel Costa. Yesterday’s ride was without a pit stop, i.e. no coffee and bacon butty. My wife and kids bought me an Apple Watch a few years…

A quick reintroduction to me

A quick introduction whilst I am here. I have been building tech companies and support businesses since 2004 with my fair share of failures. My 17 efforts are listed https://manojranaweera.me/who-is-manoj-ranaweera When I turned 50 about 5 years ago, I promised myself that I will build 5 businesses over the next 20 years. Here’s where I am today Community (know how): https://techcelerate.ventures – I speak about Techcelerate Way often these days. Building tech companies in a sustainable manner without chasing investors from the beginning. Get traction before investment. Intelligence (UK only though): https://deallite.uk and it’s assets – dedicated to tracking the UK’s tech investment landscape. Both…