---
aliases: ["December 2025"]
Is A: Month
Created at: "2025-12-28"
Belongs to: "[[25q4]]"
Rating: "😄"
---
# December 2025

## Focus

- Close the year: hit [[25q4-reach-85k]], finalize [[25q4-financial-review]], run [[25q4-year-review-2025]]
- Complete [[25q4-laputa-v3]] — prepare for closed beta in January
- Reflect, rest, and plan [[2025]] wrap-up

## Highlights

- Newsletter crossed 85k subscribers on December 11th — [[2025-reach-85k-subscribers]] achieved, exactly one year after hitting 50k
- [[25q4-financial-review]] finalized: 2025 total revenue EUR 262k, up 69% from 2024 — [[2025-reach-22k-mrr]] hit in November with MRR at EUR 22.3k
- [[25q4-year-review-2025]] completed: every 2025 goal either hit or exceeded — [[2025-reach-85k-subscribers]], [[2025-reach-22k-mrr]], [[2025-ride-stelvio]], [[2025-ship-laputa]] (beta), [[2025-read-20-books]] (21 books)
- [[25q4-laputa-v3]] beta-ready: 12 closed beta testers lined up for January, onboarding docs written, feedback channels set up
- [[person-matteo-cellini]] locked in 8 sponsors for [[25q4-2026-sponsors]] Q1-Q2 pipeline — projected MRR EUR 24.5k
- End-of-year podcast episode recorded: honest, vulnerable, grateful — the kind of episode that's hard to record and easy to listen to
- Read 3 books in December: finished at 21 for the year

## Reflections

Crossing 85k subscribers felt different from crossing 50k last year. Last year was euphoria — "I can't believe this is happening." This year was quieter — "of course it happened, look at the system we built." That shift from surprise to expectation is both a sign of maturity and a subtle loss. I miss the wonder a little. But I'll take sustainable confidence over periodic amazement.

The financial review was the most sobering exercise of the month. EUR 262k in revenue. A real team of four people. A product in beta. A published book. A keynote at LeadDev. Two years ago, I was a solo newsletter writer hoping to make rent from sponsorships. The speed of change is disorienting when you zoom out. In the day-to-day, it feels gradual. In the annual review, it feels dramatic.

Laputa going to beta testers in January is the thing I'm most excited about heading into 2026. Building software for yourself is satisfying, but it's also a trap — you optimize for your own quirks and blind spots. Having 12 other people use it will surface assumptions I didn't know I was making. Some of those assumptions will be wrong. That's the point.

[[2025]] was the year I stopped being a content creator with a side hustle and became a founder running a media company with a software product. Both descriptions are true, but the second one is the more accurate framing now. Looking ahead: more team, more product, more depth, less heroics. And maybe Ventoux next summer. We'll see.
