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TL;DR
Thank you so much to the 170 of you who signed up to receive the first edition of this newsletter last week!
I wasn’t sure how many people would be interested in this content, and the response has been great so far. I even had my first sponsor reach out to help this week. 🥳 Keep replying with feedback for me!
I packed all my belongings into a storage unit this week - phew…
CURRENTLY
Documenting my journey
My first Instagram Reel over 10k views! Pretty fun.
I’m continuing to post more content and put myself out there. It’s been awesome to get messages from others who have travelled the world, want to, or just want to see how I’m doing it. I’m thankful to be learning in public, too. Expect my videos to get better this year!
BUSINESS PULSE
Scouting out events
Quick question: where do you actually meet other people building and buying companies?
For me, 2025 was all about saying yes to events: conferences, masterminds, retreats, and meetups. I met some of my favorite founders at these things.
So I'm doing more in 2026:
Just went to an EOA Charlotte learning day (met another agency founder to collaborate with!)
Milwaukee visit in 2 weeks for a retreat
Planning to hit SMBash in April (Dallas, TX)
I’m presenting at The Charlotte ETA Group in May
I’m looking for places where people are actually building or buying businesses, not just networking. If you know somewhere I should go, let me know.
Building my 2026 calendar as we speak.
WHAT I’M LEARNING
Travel planning has never been easier
You’ve probably tried to use AI to help plan a trip / vacation by now. I have tried before and honestly been frustrated with the experience to this point. This year though, it seems like the models have gotten way better.
In 30 mins, Claude helped me put together an itinerary of cities, activities, flight and train times, and places to stay for my March trip to Spain and Portugal. It wasn’t perfect, but it was 90% of the way there. Way further along than times I’ve tried using ChatGPT in the past.
If you want to see a sneak peek of my March Spain Itinerary, here it is (and please let me know if I’m making a big mistake with any of these stops):
Madrid ➡️ Sevilla ➡️ Granada ➡️ Malaga ➡️ Tangier (Morocco) ➡️ Barcelona ➡️ Lisbon (Portugal).
This is a bit outdated at this point, but ChatGPT blew a huge lead to Claude!
One thing that’s helped me a ton this week is using a program called Wispr Flow. Its speech-to-text interpretation is probably 5x better than Siri’s, even on the free plan.
I’m not sure why I ignored my friends’ recommendations for so long. It’s ridiculously good and time-saving. Don’t make the same mistake as me 🤷♂️
Wispr Flow even wanted to sponsor this edition of my newsletter - If you click the link below, you can see how the product works.
Vibe code with your voice
Vibe code by voice. Wispr Flow lets you dictate prompts, PRDs, bug reproductions, and code review notes directly in Cursor, Warp, or your editor of choice. Speak instructions and Flow will auto-tag file names, preserve variable names and inline identifiers, and format lists and steps for immediate pasting into GitHub, Jira, or Docs. That means less retyping, fewer copy and paste errors, and faster triage. Use voice to dictate prompts and directions inside Cursor or Warp and get developer-ready text with file name recognition and variable recognition built in. For deeper context and examples, see our Vibe Coding article on wisprflow.ai. Try Wispr Flow for engineers.
WHAT I’M CONSUMING
Travel content
My Instagram algorithm has become filled with whimsical and awesome travel vlog edits, like this one. Or this one. Do these not make you want to pack up and travel as well?
Also, videos like “Hike the Tour du Mont Blanc Without Money or Planning“ - right up my alley for this busy year!
Halftime shows
Bad Bunny killed it. If only the first half of the Super Bowl could’ve been replaced by a concert.
FINANCES
Money and Investing Updates
I paid $350 for movers this weekend, and it saved me so much time and sanity. That being said, we got delayed quite a bit since the elevators were down in my apartment building… I asked my apartment for a partial refund for the inconvenience, and they gave it to me! Never know if you don’t ask. (I still paid the movers for their full hours, of course).
My rent just went from $1,900 to $80 (the cost of my new storage unit). I’m pretty sure that $80 will double as soon as Extra Space Storage can contractually do that - but I prepaid for six months to prevent that for a bit. Cheaper than I expected for the 10’ x 10’ indoor unit I got.
Charlotte has a $516 nonstop, roundtrip flight to Madrid. Convenient for me, and one of the cheapest ways to get to Europe.
What a time to be alive! International travel costs continue to go down.
DESK OF THE WEEK
📍 Cary, NC
Borrowing my dad’s desk at home this week :)
WHAT’S NEXT?
After spending this week in Cary with my parents (thanks for hosting me!) - I’m headed Washington DC, Portland, Milwaukee, and Chicago for the rest of the month!
If you’re in any of those places, I hope to see you soon.
Adventure is out there!
✌️ Matthew
Not financial advice. Just a guy sharing his journey. Thanks for being here!