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My 2016 Wrap Up - 9 Startups & 2,190+ Hours of Hustling. What's your 2017 Goal?

almost 3 years ago from , Freelance UX Designer. Founder @UIGarage @Bukketapp

2016 has been an incredible year. You can read all about here: http://www.mizko.net/2016-wrap-up

I dived back into full-time freelancing and grew my [remote] product design team to 4 (including myself). I was lucky to have worked with some of Australia's startup success stories, a Y Combinator startup, Working with a serial entrepreneur from NYC who recently exited his startup in 2014 to being invited to attend the AdobeMAX as an exclusive Insider!

On top of that, I launched my private design newsletter (www.mizko.net/newsletter) to sharing short videos on twitter about design + freelancing (https://twitter.com/mizko/status/806671305730768897).. I've decided I will continue this throughout 2017.

To sum it all up - I learnt a lot in 2016.

I'd love to know: 1. What are some of your most proudest moments in 2016? 2. What would you like to achieve in 2017?

If you have any questions regarding freelancing, managing a remote product team, social branding (www.twitter.com/mizko) etc. Please shoot away! I'd love to see where I can help you guys all out.

Happy designing!

5 comments

  • Samuel ZellerSamuel Zeller, almost 3 years ago (edited almost 3 years ago )

    Went from full time designer (retail design, graphic design) to full time freelance photographer in a year, landed clients like UBS and Adobe, made my first solo exhibition in Geneva (+ 3 other group exhibition, Geneva, Vienna and Maastricht). Been published in various books and magazines (Gestalten, Architecture digest, Monocle). Became a Fujifilm ambassador, started giving workshops. Grew a newsletter to 9500 subscribers (http://news.samuelzeller.ch/) and made a few successful side projets like Fujifeed (www.fujifeed.com 19.5k followers on Instagram) and Visit Geneva (www.visitgva.com). Best moment: waking up at 3,571 m at the Jungfraujoch sphinx observatory, looking at the sunrise. No tourists can do that since the place is only open for scientists during the night/morning but I was shooting images up there. Proudest moment: talking about my work in front of 200 students of EPFL/HEC/HEL/UNIL and how I marketed myself. 2017 goals: I'm working on editing my first book, with a London publisher. New clients, more traveling.

    5 points
    • Michael WongMichael Wong, almost 3 years ago

      Hey Samuel,

      Thanks is incredible! Love the passion and I'm so happy to see that you've made the jump. You're killing it! I just subscribed to your newsletter and took a peak at your side projects. Very impressed.

      What do you find most effective for growing your newsletter? Giveaways? Downloads? Would love to know.

      Also what are your thoughts on Revue over Mailchimp?

      Thanks!

      0 points
      • Samuel ZellerSamuel Zeller, almost 3 years ago

        Hi Michael, definitely giveaways! For example my Lightroom presets. People have to register to my newsletter to download them.

        Revue vs Mailchimp... Well easy, I would have to pay 95$ per month with Mailchimp, now I just pay 25$. Also they have the best support team ever! Asked to add a feature, it was there a few days after. If you use the code GIFTFROMSAMUEL you can get 3 full months free (their 1500 subscribers plan)

        You should try it :)

        0 points
  • Noam Almosnino, almost 3 years ago (edited almost 3 years ago )

    Congrats on an incredible year Michael!

    2016 in retrospect was jam packed. I travelled more so than other years (Israel, Japan, Korea and Iceland twice) And I plan to stay on that trend in 2017.

    I was a speaker Webvisions Chicago, which was so much fun. I learned the Flux programming pattern—which opened the door for me to express myself more so than ever before. If you're looking for a way to keep your code sane, this is it.

    And wrapping up, last month I quit my job at Adobe to start my own indie software company (stay tuned for an announcement in early 2017 ;)

    Finally I got engaged two weeks ago. Cheers and here's to an even better and more exciting 2017!

    1 point
    • Michael WongMichael Wong, almost 3 years ago

      Those are some neat achievements but the engagement definitely tops the list mate! Congratulations!

      Oh, it's funny how yourself, @Samuel Zeller (above) and myself have all worked with Adobe. What a small world!

      Oh that's awesome, we should definitely stay in touch! In 2017 I'm hoping to set up a few partnerships with indie dev teams - I'll reach out on Twitter.

      1 point