May 20, 2024
"We're expanding."
The past 3 months have been nuts.
It’s all happening very quickly.
This to me validates a hypothesis that I’ve had for almost a decade now, which is that distractions are everywhere in the modern world and we can’t help ourselves but give in to our primal desires of seeking constant validation, obsessing over status and craving the latest news.
Cheap dopamine is everywhere you go.
As close as your pocket.
One tap away.
People are sucked in and don’t know how to break free, yet.
It’s ok though.Technology gives us the most freedom we as humans have ever had.
It's now possible to:
Make international wire transfers on the go.
Call your mom in Caracas.
Shop any item in the world from wherever you are, whenever you want.
Order food to your house when you get a little hungry.
Technology is truly magical!
But because it’s such a powerful force, it can be double-edged.
Think nuclear energy — it could be used to create energy abundance or a nuclear bomb.
A knife to cut / a knife to stab. Endless possibilities / infinite distractions.
You can become numb and a vegetable if you’re not intentional with your phone, consuming endless news that never stops.
There’s always something happening to one of us 8 billion humans.
We’re many in this world.
You think you can consume it all and have opinions on each storyline, but it's impossible.
The war on the middle east.
The housing market.
Local news.
International news.
Endless news and no time for reflection.
So I realized this and had to do something about it.
It’s just too big of a problem.
I set out on the entrepreneurs journey, moved to San Francisco and got in a world-class incubator.
35 out of 20,000 ideas were accepted — mine was one of them.
Enter Blok.
People immediately started to resonate when I offered them a physical product to shield against the distracting digital world.
Next thing you know I’m getting messages like these:
Or how about this one:
Crazy right?!
Because of this proven value we’ve been providing to hundreds of people over the past months, we’ve managed to raise over a couple hundred thousand dollars so far.
This will allow us to expand our operations faster.
We’ve already deployed some of that capital strategically and here are some of the highlights:
We've hired one engineer who started full-time with Blok as of May 1st, 2024.
He was hired after a 2-month trial period.
He's led the efforts on the application side of things, ever since the MVP version was released into the App Store.
He’s also been working on feature releases, bug fixes and database architecture stuff mostly.
So far he's been crushing it and I have good faith in him as an awesome engineer. He also fits marvelously well within the team.
A second engineer will start a Summer trial period with Blok to help out our first engineer on the iOS efforts.
This second hire built a screen-time blocking app before so he’ll mostly be working with the Apple Screen Time API and expanding Blok’s feature-set over the next few months.
He’ll be receiving close guidance from me to help express the vision that I have for the Blok app.
Then there’s other contracting partners that I work directly with for everything that is non-iOS.This means product development (i.e. Blok 2.0), website redesign, social media, marketing, go-to-market strategy, and more.
Honestly the beauty of building out of Silicon Valley is that it gives you this insane exposure to the best talent in the world.
Holy fuck I’ve never experienced anything like that before.
But hey — I guess that’s why I’m building the company out of here.
Current challenges include nailing influencer marketing and driving more traffic to the site.
I am actively looking for solutions to these and have some hypothesis as to how to work these out.
I am doing my best to problem-solve with the help of all of the people around me.
On a similar note, there’s also the primal fear of competition.I track closely all of the numbers I can but try to not focus too much on it either.
I understand that this is a long-term game and what may look like similar products today will not in the near future.
Competition validates a market but I stand that one must not care about it too much as it’s the destroyer of creativity and art through fear.
Winners play the long game.Rest assured — we’ve got great talent in our team and will continue to work hard to win.
Some other notable works in progress that are estimated to be complete by the end of Summer:
Custom packaging and custom packaging design.
Blok professional renderings.
Custom interview clip edits for marketing purposes.
Custom faceless content for social media.
Website redesign optimized for a Shopify store.
Extensive progress on NFC Chip reading and research.
Reach out to a couple more warm investors.
To close this out, I wanted to thank you for believing in me and what I’m doing here with Blok and for putting your money where your mouth is.
I can solve this problem faster and capture the value that Blok creates in part thanks to you.
I will do my best to increase the value of the company throughout constant problem-solving and spontaneous community creation.
Always keep in mind that you’re part of the team and I want you involved. With an idea that you had and with your years, success and experience operating in the business world.
Or with any contact you might offer me.
Any of these things can change the trajectory of the company so let me know at any point in time — without hesitation whatsoever — how you can help.
Also, any questions you might have also send them my way — I’m happy to answer away.
I’m all in for a world of less distractions and more happiness.
Thank you for being part of this journey too.
Thanks,
Daniel Belfort
Founder & CEO, Blok.
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P.S. Here are some fun pics that I’ve taken so far in the course of Blok’s journey. Enjoy! :D.
Btw, if you got this far — thanks!
It means a lot to have you be part of the Blok journey.
Feel free to shoot me an email or give me a follow on X if you like this sorta stuff or have a clear ask for me.
daniel@belfort.com
⊙
