🌪️ How I Got Started as a Solopreneur? 10 Harsh Truths You Don’t See
New edition of “The Creator Path”: unfiltered lessons from my first years of running a one-person business.
Hello everyone 👋 I’m Kate Syuma, and welcome to Growthmates.news — the newsletter where we explore growth stories to inspire your professional and personal growth. Join the community of 7,000+ Product, Design, and Growth people from companies like Amplitude, Intercom, Miro, Atlassian, Grammarly, Framer, and more.
Hello — I’m Kate Syuma. I run a one-person business from Amsterdam 👋
Two years ago, I left my 6-figure role at Miro — without a plan B. No roadmap, no investor, no team.Just me — and an inner sense that I wanted to build something on my own terms.
In today’s issue of the monthly rubric “The Creator Path 💫”, I invite you to take a few minutes and reflect on what solopreneurship really looks like behind the curtain.
Before we dive in… Meet Growthmates Partners 🚀
I curate the Growthmates Bundle to share not just ideas — but the tools I trust and use in my own work. Each one is a handpicked #1 tool for a key product area, and I’m proud to have them supporting this newsletter 🖤
Best way to support Growthmates? Explore these fantastic tools below 👇
Framer — the fastest way to design and publish stunning websites (Growthmates.club is built on it).
Mobbin — the largest UX & UI reference library for deep product inspiration.
Beacon AI — the smartest AI agent for product and design teams to identify and fix UX issues that block activation, retention, and conversion.
Now, let’s dive into today’s story 👇
How it all started — From Miro to my first clients.
When I finished my 6-year journey at Miro and started My Pathless Path, I had no idea what it would look like. What I found was not a straight path — but a rollercoaster of emotions, uncertainty, and, surprisingly, alignment.
My intention is to show this path from a more honest perspective — share the truths I discovered only after stepping into it, and offer small insights that might help you if you’re standing on the same edge.
This is not a “how to start your business in 30 days” kind of post — I’m not a startup guru, and I don’t have a playbook for everyone. I’m just a human who decided to bet on herself, learned through mistakes, and found both freedom and fragility in the same breath.
Let’s get back in time to September 2023. Here’s what happened next:
I made an announcement on my LinkedIn;
That moment brought eyeballs from companies like Intercom and Grammarly;
I said no to full-time and used the moment for soft pitches;
Manychat became my first advisory client;
The rest turned into long-term relationships;
I launched Growthmates podcast and invited people to share knowledge — building credibility and experience;
I invested time in a high-value lead magnet — Growthmates Playbook — launched it free → ~2,000 subscribers joined;
Those subscribers became warm leads — which led to clients.
That experience taught me something simple but powerful:
Relationships scale further than transactions.
The 10 harsh truths of going solo.
Everyone loves the idea of solopreneurship — flexible schedule, creative freedom, full ownership of your time.
But once you step into it, you discover a different reality one that’s raw, unpredictable, and deeply human. Here are the truths I wish I’d known from the start 👇
Uncertainty becomes your daily friend. Don’t fight it — learn to dance with it.
Loneliness hits harder than you expect. There’s no team Slack chat or Friday drinks.
You’ll crave in-person connection — most of your world will live online.
You’ll think about your work from 6 AM until midnight, simply because you care too much.
Vacations blur into workations — unplugging feels like a luxury.
You’ll wear every hat — marketing, finance, product, design. Without smart delegation, burnout comes fast.
You’ll want to quit — sometimes more than once!
You’ll make expensive mistakes — and it’ll be your pocket, not a company’s.
Anxiety in the first year is guaranteed. Even with savings. Especially without them.
Your income will swing — zero one month, five figures the next. The rollercoaster never stops.
But here’s the flip side:
Every client you land is yours. Every dollar earned is yours. Every moment of growth is yours.
And that feeling? It’s the reason you keep going.
A practical framework that kept me grounded.
When everything feels unstable, structure becomes your lifeline.
Looking back at my first few chaotic months, I built a simple 60-day framework — not a business plan, but a clarity map that helped me move forward with intention.
Weeks 1–2 → Clarity:
Choose 1–2 themes you’d happily study for years. Not what’s trending — what you can’t stop researching. That becomes your voice.Weeks 3–4 → Announce Yourself:
Go public. Post your “I’ve left / I’m building” update. Be specific about your positioning — that’s how you attract the right kind of attention.Weeks 5–6 → Connect & Build:
Reach out to 10 trusted people and ask for introductions. Then create your first free asset — a playbook, teardown, or guide. It’s not about selling — it’s about showing how you think.
That roadmap helped me turn curiosity into momentum — and eventually, into my first clients.
How I found my NICHE.
In 2023, I stepped into solopreneurship — without full clarity on my niche.
Everyone around me said:
“If you want to make money, go all in on Product Growth.”
But my background was in UX. I’ve always loved design. And following that advice meant walking away from what made me feel alive.
So instead of choosing, I combined both — and built my own intersection: PLG × UX.
Here’s what happened next:
I wrote my first article, UX + PLG: 5 principles to multiply your value, to test demand.
It resonated deeply with the design community.
Product folks didn’t reject it — they got curious.
I realised there was room for this intersection.
My experience became an advantage, not a limitation.
That clarity evolved into my positioning — and trust followed.
If you’re defining your own niche, here’s a simple roadmap 👇
1. Find your direction
List 3 things you’re genuinely curious about.
Circle the one you’d explore even if no one paid you.
Define what you’ve already lived that gives you credibility.
2. Test the waters
Start sharing about your intersection online. Maybe start with a collaboration, like I did with
(huge thanks for that article co-creation 🫶)Post small insights from your past work to build credibility.
Watch what sparks real engagement and curiosity.
3. Define your positioning
Turn your intersection into a simple, clear statement.
Example: “I help SaaS founders grow through better UX.”Make it easy for others to repeat when they introduce you.
4. Expand through action
Say yes to opportunities that stretch your curiosity.
Keep iterating — clarity comes through movement, not planning.
You don’t need to follow what the market demands.
Follow what energises you — and find the overlap with what the market needs.
That’s where long-term success — and fulfillment — live.
What my schedule and stack look like now…
Running a one-person business might look like freedom from the outside.
Inside, it’s about discipline, focus, and space for deep work.
Here’s what a typical day looks like for me:
🕙 10 AM — Reading (fuel for ideas)
📩 11 AM — Emails & comms
🧠 12–1 PM — Content creation
🥗 1–2 PM — Lunch
💬 2–3 PM — Client sessions
🎨 3–5 PM — Creative work or open Fridays for exploration
Important rule: no more than 90 minutes of calls a day. The rest is protected creative time that I use to create content, playbooks, and make my work more scalable over time.
My tool stack:
Notion — Content schedule & client agendas;
Granola — Meeting recaps & summaries;
Loom — Async collaboration (no endless Zooms);
Figma — Content assets and slide decks;
Mobbin — UX inspiration library;
Slack — Chats with my content team;
Calendly — Meetings made easy;
Framer — My growthmates.club website is hosted there;
LinkedIn — My main growth & sales channel.
And my growth engine? Still 100% organic — powered by content and community on LinkedIn.
Living aligned: not easy, but worth it!
Solopreneurship isn’t about chasing endless freedom — it’s about building a life that feels like yours.
Every decision, every project, every pause is a mirror of your values. You start choosing clients not just for the invoice, but for how working with them makes you feel.
You say no more often. You move more slowly sometimes. And that’s the beauty of it — your pace, your rhythm, your rules.
It’s not easy. There are days when uncertainty feels heavier than excitement. When you look at friends with stable jobs and wonder, “Did I make the right call?”
But then you remember — your life now is built from intention, not obligation. There’s a quiet power in waking up and knowing:
Everything on your calendar exists because you chose it.
That kind of alignment doesn’t come fast — it’s earned, shaped, and redefined every single day. And maybe that’s the whole point. You don’t go solo to escape something — you go solo to meet yourself more fully.
Because sometimes, having no plan B is exactly how you discover your real plan A.
Before you go…
Today’s post was a bit different from what I usually share — but deeply personal.
Solopreneurship shaped not just how I work, but how I live.
My mission with The Creator Path has always been simple: to help you design work that feels authentic, sustainable, and fully yours.
If you’re exploring your next step as a creator or solopreneur, here are a few ways I can support you on that journey 👇
🚨 User-centric Growth Course — filling up for January.
If these frameworks sparked new ideas — imagine working through your actual product challenge with live feedback, templates, and a dedicated community (AI will be there).
👉 Join with 150$ off → (promo “growthmates” for dear readers)
🏃♀️ Onboarding Design Sprint or PLG Advising (pre-booking for Q1 🚀)
I will work closely with your team to help you fix your product growth challenges and improve the first user experience that can drive x2 uplift on your Activation.
👉 Work with me →
Brand Partnerships 📩
Let’s tell your product story to a trusted audience of 27,000+ product, design, and growth leaders — and co-create meaningful content that inspires the wider product and design community.
👉 Book intro call to discuss partnership →
This is all for today, dear readers. If you found this helpful, please share your reaction and leave some comments 💜 It would give huge support for me to continue creating this!
If you find this newsletter valuable, share it with a friend, and consider subscribing if you haven’t already. There are some discounts available, and maybe you can expense this :)
Connect with me on LinkedIn and learn more about my work on Growthmates.club.
With best regards,
Kate Syuma