Founder Log #8 – Heavy Week, Holding On

- 3 minutes read - 432 words

🧠 Weekly Overview

This week was harsh.

My daughter had final exams which caused some stress. As if it’s not enough for her, she was also victim of hate which caused additional stress. On top of that, it was my birthday. I wanted to rest and spend time with my wife and kids. And I still tried to push forward on Menuvivo. Predictably, things slowed down.

The core problem this week was a broken recipe model that forced me into a tedious, painful refactor. Every change affected tests, YAML recipes, and the frontend. That sucked time and energy. I didn’t finish any goals from last week. And yet…

I published something meaningful: my Builder Manifesto. It helps me get back on track and re-focus on the long-term vision. I showed up almost every day. I got another pre-sale from a complete stranger. I grew my X.com audience from 17 to 31 followers. Not nothing.

🗓️ Daily Execution Summary

Monday – May 12

  • Finalized and published previous week’s founder log.
  • Started refactoring recipe model to match updated structure.

Tuesday – May 13

  • Manual refactor of backend model, mapping logic, and tests.
  • Too complex for AI; had to go step by step.

Wednesday – May 14

  • No work on Menuvivo. Family situation took full attention.
  • Emotionally drained.

Thursday – May 15

  • Very limited focus; collected stats, tried to resume.
  • Still stuck in backend test refactoring.

Friday – May 16

  • Published Builder Manifesto on blog + social.
  • Reflected on discipline, sleep, and productivity.
  • Didn’t touch code.

Saturday – May 17

  • Finally got rest and got back to focused work.
  • Continued backend test refactor with domain assertions.

Sunday – May 18

  • Issued invoice for 6th pre-sale (another stranger!).
  • Validated API with Postman.
  • Recipe migration stalled due to lack of ingestion pipeline.

🏆 Wins of the Week

✍️ Lessons & Reflections

  • Refactoring without a strong foundation costs everything.
  • Family always comes first. But showing up still matters.
  • Publishing something real can carry a week of stalled features.
  • Sleep and recovery are not optional. Skipping rest breaks the system.
  • Building in public (even small steps) builds trust and compounding reach.

🎯 Plan for the next week

Main Goal

  • Finish recipe ingestion pipeline and ingest 50+ recipes

Stretch Goals

  • Start working on meal planning functionality:

    • Support different schedules (e.g. 3/4 meals per day, packed lunch)
    • Per-person meal schemas
    • Manual drag/drop or add-to-plan flow