In January 2026, as the Nairobi sun rose on a new year, I sat with my coffee (still black, still sugar-free) and felt something shift. Not fireworks. Not a viral moment. Just quiet, earned clarity.
2025 was the year I forced myself to build. Really build. I set a public, slightly insane goal: ship 12 products in 12 months. One every single month. No excuses, no endless planning, no waiting for “perfect.” Just code, launch, learn, repeat.
And I did it.
I shipped twelve real things into the world—tools, plugins, marketplaces, books, portfolios—each one born from late nights, solo debugging sessions, and the kind of stubborn hope that keeps you typing when doubt screams loudest. You can read the full raw recap here: 2025 Was Sugar-Free — And That’s Exactly What I Needed.
Here’s the lineup that came out of that relentless year:
- January: NenoPress – AI-powered content creation assistant
- February: Namekon – Business name generator tailored for African founders
- March: Startup List Africa – Startup discovery & ecosystem mapping tool
- April: InterviewPrep – Interview practice tool for job seekers
- May: To Somewhere Logistics – Logistics marketplace connecting truck owners and service seekers
- June: Build Anyway – A book about rebuilding from scratch
- July: Paystack WordPress Plugin – Simplified payments for WordPress sites
- August–September: Safezoner – Digital safety & privacy control tool
- October: Biztools – Platform to slash consultancy costs for businesses & founders
- November: Portfolio showcase
- (And a couple more that bridged months but still counted toward the dozen)
I didn’t hit unicorn status. Most didn’t go viral. Many sit quietly with a handful of users. But every one of them exists. Every one taught me something brutal and beautiful. 2025 stripped away the sugar-coating: the motivational quotes, the fake-it-till-you-make-it vibes, the illusion that shipping alone equals winning. It left me with truth: building is the easy part. Getting people to care, pay, and stay? That’s where the real work begins.
So for 2026, I’m not chasing volume anymore. I’m chasing value. Real, monetizable, sustainable value.
My single, focused goal this year: Commercialize one product every month.
Not build new ones from scratch (though I might tinker). But take the existing portfolio—those twelve battle-tested creations—and turn them into businesses that generate revenue, retain users, and compound over time.
A product is officially “commercialized” in my book when it hits these milestones:
- A clearly defined Ideal Customer Profile (ICP) — I know exactly who this is for and why they’d pay
- A simple, focused use case — one core problem solved exceptionally well
- A live landing page — clean, persuasive, conversion-oriented
- Pricing and payment fully enabled (Stripe, Paystack, whatever works)
- Solid onboarding content + basic training (videos, docs, quick-start guides)
- Active users already providing feedback and iterating with me
I’ll track the numbers that actually matter:
- Active users per product
- Monthly Recurring Revenue (MRR) per product
- Conversion rate from content/views → product signups
- Churn rate (and why people leave)
- Feedback loops and iteration speed
No more vanity metrics. No more “cool tech” for its own sake. Just honest signals: Are people paying? Are they staying? Are they telling others?
This isn’t about getting rich quick. It’s about proving to myself—and maybe to you—that consistent execution compounds. That the quiet grind after the loud launches is where real businesses are forged. That even in a noisy world, focused effort on distribution, clarity, and customer love can move the needle.
2025 humbled me. It showed me my limits, my blind spots, my need for better distribution and validation upfront. But it also built something unbreakable: discipline. Resilience. The muscle memory of shipping.
2026 is the year I turn that muscle into momentum.
One product at a time. One paying user at a time. One lesson compounded at a time.
If you’ve been following along, or if one of those 2025 products sparked something for you—drop a comment below. Tell me which one you’re using, what sucks about it, what you wish it did better. Your feedback might just be the push that commercializes it this month.
Here’s to 2026: less sugar, more substance. Less hype, more revenue. Less solo isolation, more real conversations.
Let’s build. Let’s sell. Let’s learn.
See you in the trenches. 💪
